When Buying Meat Do You

[Anneski]

Well I get my meat from Somerset Local Food Direct, who deal - as the name implies - with famers in Somerset. The meat I buy is raised ethically, slaughtered locally (sometimes actually on the farms) and there are no hormones or chemicals involved, slower growing 'traditional' breeds are used so there're no pigs with arthritis from being too heavy, or turkeys who can't support their own weight etc...

 

I find although it's more expensive to buy, it goes further, partly because I'm aware it's dearer and partly because without exception it tastes better!

[mandy]

I try......but don't always succeed

Eggs come from my own chickens...I bought them as I was becoming increasingly uneasy about how chickens are kept....even the so-called free range ones.

Don't eat nearly as much chicken now

Try and buy from a local butcher...who takes the mickey(in a funny way) about knowing the name of every cow/pig etc but must admit I also end up buying in the supermarket when I'm pushed for time!

[Brenda]

I buy meat 'off the shelf' I must admit. Mainly due to cost, but convenience also comes into it. If I could afford it I would shop at a farm shop for organic free range meat. As my son & daughter are both veggie, we don't eat that much meat anyway. I always buy free range eggs.

[Alison]

Blimey, I've just realised what a long post this is - sorry, but it seems I'm a bit passionate about where my food comes from!

 

What's ironic is that when I was still living in Wales a new butcher opened shop, he sourced all his meat, in fact when you went in there was a board up giving the name and number of the cow/pig that was being sold that day, the farm it came from etc all the details were there quite prominently - he closed down less than a year later because a) he couldn't afford to keep selling only organic produce because the vast majority of people simply couldn't afford it and b) he had so many people complaining that they found it "creepy and upsetting" to see the details of the animals up on the walls so they wouldn't shop there - hardly good for a butchers business really.

I've been buying my meat here for the last 20 years. It was only whilst looking on the internet to post some kind of link here that I realised they'd been voted "food heroes" - they certainly haven't put their prices up, nor has anything about the place changed (not even a sticker in the window that I've noticed - I'll look more closely when I next go there). The thought of this old boy and his middle-aged sons ever having a website of their own is utterly laughable!

 

The shop is essentially the front room of their house, absolutely tiny, and they have a small yard, paddock and slaughterhouse at the back of the premises. The meat isn't organic but the animals butchered there all come from a handful of farms within no more than a 6 mile radius. The proprietors believe that it's cruel to make animals travel further than that. They don't buy at auctions but directly from the farmers, most of whom I know personally, so I know from first hand experience that the animals have been raised in a welfare-friendly and ethical environment. I also know that these farmers do essentially use organic methods, i.e. no routine antibiotics, chemical fertilizers on the pastures where the animals graze etc. but haven't the time or money to jump through the hoops it would take to acquire their official organic stripes.

 

I do know what the complainants Snow is referring to mean though; I too am a little squeamish about the name/number thing being displayed on the board. Mr Pears also goes into great detail about the weight and age of the animal etc. and if it happened to have taken a prize at an agricultural show, there's a rosette (and sometimes a photo of the winner in the ring) proudly pinned to the blackboard too! I never look too closely in case it's one of the animals I've petted in the fields around my house It's not a shop for the faint-hearted but fortunately folks hereabouts are quite practical so the business continues to prosper.

 

I ask them lots of questions and they'll happily show any customer how to bone and roll a leg of lamb, for example (they'll also expertly sharpen your own knives free of charge if you take them to the shop). I sometimes ask questions about the killing process. One, the answer to which will ensure that I never buy meat from a supermarket, involved large-scale slaughter. The shop is closed on Mondays as that is "killing day". They dispatch 2 cows (or "beast"), 12 sheep and 6 pigs a week on Mondays. The answer that they gave me was: "there are no mistakes made here". Mistakes like not stunning the animals properly before slaughter, as is frequently the case in what is essentially a production line with dozens of men with no committment to animal welfare and hundreds of animals every day to be "processed" when time is of paramount importance. Animals that end up in large abbatoirs also have to travel long distances, often in uncomfortable conditions.

 

http://uktv.co.uk/food/localfoodhero/outlet/oid/2853

 

It's a peculiar concept, a paradox I suppose, that these men do genuinely care about the animals, the way they live and the way that they die. It's very evident from everything that they say and do that they are kind people who respect the animals and their dignity.

 

The difference in the meat is incredible on every level. When I go to friends' homes and help them in the kitchen, I find myself almost retching at the feel of the raw meat they've bought from the supermarket when I'm cutting it up. It's all wet and flabby and smells horrible. It's seldom even the right colour. This butcher not only hangs the meat properly (and can tell you everything you ever - or never! - wanted to know about how bacteria and enzymes and things break down the fibres) but will hang/mature it to your taste once he knows you. Properly hung meat is firm and dry and a pleasure to prepare for cooking. The supermarkets need a quick turnaround and even the "finest-taste-the-difference blah blah days matured" stuff comes nowhere near. In the final analysis, it's still packaged in sweaty polythene and polystyrene anyway.

 

Preparation aside, the difference in taste and texture is also very marked. The butcher puts some of this down to the hanging and maturation but also to the fact that no animal there ever dies in fear or pain. He believes that adrenalin and various other hormones that I can't remember, have a deleterious affect on the meat. Thus no animal is allowed anywhere near the slaughterhouse while another is being killed. A far cry from that intensive production line with terrified farm animals witnessing the death of the one before him. The terror that they must experience is too awful for me to contemplate.

 

Exceeded my amount of quotes, but it looks like you've found a good place too Wickychoo! Sol likes not only the bone incentives of going to the butcher with me but the fact that there is no health and safety nonsense and that dogs are allowed in the shop. I hasten to add that this place is spotless, always thoroughly scrubbed down and hygenic, if you regard dogs being allowed around food prep as hygenic - which everyone who shops there does.

 

I'm a lot less confident about origins of our milk and cheese though.

 

Again, as with "good" butchers, cheese and milk of sound provenance can be found if you scout around.

 

 

This hilariously quaint dairy is in the next village to me. It's the cottage to the left of the picture - and referred to locally as "the cheese factory"! Just visible by the phone box is a white post (there's another one opposite) and these were the original village gates. Cars passing through the village have to wait during the summer while the staff in their white wellies and overalls finish their game of cricket here which they play during their lunch breaks.

 

All the local dairy farmers enter "the cleanest milk competition" and Websters then contract to buy the entire supply from the winning farm for the ensuing year for their cheese production. They will sell directly to the public, but the smallest amount you can buy is a quarter truckle, about 3.5kgs and you have to collect it yourself. Whilst it might seem a lot A) cheese freezes well and can be cut up into manageable portions beforehand and B) if you've got friends who want to buy in with you................

 

Bought this way, their extra mature organic Blue Stilton works out at a third of the price that ordinary non-vintage, non-organic bland cr@p does in the supermarket.

 

I was astonished to find that they've progressed so far into the 21st century to actually have a website. It's not exactly sophisticated but here it is all the same if anyone is interested.

 

http://www.webstersdairy.freeserve.co.uk/

 

If anyone wants to buy produce from either of the foregoing places, there are acres and acres of fields and woodland for roaming around freely with dogs within seconds of either of them, so it might be worth a journey to stock up your freezer if you live within a 30 mile radius.

 

should all animals lovers be "veggie" or even vegan or is it proper that you inisted on "reared properly" only to then slaughter them for food?

 

Well as a veggie I'm going to say yes of course. In my mind you don't eat things you love

 

I struggle constantly with this. How can I reconcile regarding myself as an animal lover yet eat them?

 

But I do think that the minimum an animal lover ought to do is to make an effort to make sure any animals they eat have had a good a life as possible before death.

 

In fairness, despite my frequent crises of conscience, I do make this effort and go one step further in using a butcher who even ensures that the animals have as reasonable a death as possible too.

 

This is another good free-range place down the road from which prides itself (and quite justly so) on it's ethos of animal welfare and good slaughter practices. Very pricey though so I don't eat bison or venison very often! I've known the bloke all my life and the prices were always reasonable until he married. His wife is definitely the "business brains".

 

http://www.bisons.org/

 

Hi Bren! Hope you, Les, Rudy & Caleb are OK. I get my eggs from a friend who has a few free range hens and the eggs are nearly all enormous double-yolkers! If you're going on the WL walk on Sunday, PM me and I'll bring you some

 

Last thing now, I promise. Game. Guaranteed free-range and in my opinion, incredibly healthy and delicious. I absolutely thrive on it and the variety is tremendous - partridge, pheasant, pigeon, duck, hare, rabbit, muntjac, woodcock. If you don't shoot or have friends who do, ask around and find someone who does - they'll be delighted to sell you what they've shot. Just as an example, you can usually buy pigeons or rabbits at 10p each (not dressed out) and as they're being shot as vermin anyway and would otherwise be discarded, it seems much more sensible to buy and eat them. No living thing deserves to be consigned to a rubbish skip, even when dead . If anyone wants game recipes, you know where to come and in autumn and winter, those casseroles and roasts are the most wonderful comfort food imaginable.

 

Edited to add that I think game is low in cholesterol and "Atkins" approved

Edited August 6, 2007 by Alison

[mooandboo]

I've been veggie for years but it's only since recently turning vegan that I truly enjoy my food. Sadly organic doesn't necessarily mean good animal welfare in every case - especially where chickens are concerned & organic milk still has welfare issues attached but I won't go on

[Brenda]

Hi Bren! Hope you, Les, Rudy & Caleb are OK. I get my eggs from a friend who has a few free range hens and the eggs are nearly all enormous double-yolkers! If you're going on the WL walk on Sunday, PM me and I'll bring you some

 

Hi Alison,

 

Great post!!!

 

We are fine, thank-you. Unfortunately, we wont be on the walk on Sunday as we are all going on our hols on Saturday to Little Dumpledale Farm in Wales! However, definitley interested in the eggs, so perhaps you could bring me some on the next WL walk if you don't mind?? Thanks so much for the offer!

 

I also constantly battle with my conscience about eating meat and was veggie for quite a while. So understand what you are saying.

[~Canis-Equus~]

I try to buy locally produced, or organic, or at the VERY least, british and do so most of the time.

 

I do agree that these things can work out (especially if bought from a supermarket), expensive, but take the view that until more people buy them and there is more of a demand for them, prices cannot drop.

 

Ii think we do have a responsiblity to do this, if we continue to accept cheap meat imported from other countries, not only are we saying effectively 'yes its fine to raise this meat with welfare standards below those of the UK', but also, we are saying 'i dont mind if the UK loses its beef/dairy/poultry/lamb industry'.

 

And i DO mind, very much so.

[Jazz]

I buy of the shelf. I love the cooked chickens in sainsburys, £3.50 nice and hot. Ive watched the ch4 River cottage, it hasnt changed my mind.

I am an animal lover, but to me, once its dead and on a plate, it doesnt matter how it lived. If organic was closer to the cheaper prices id buy it, but its price that counts. There are so many vegetarians now, but there are still battery chickens, and always will be im afraid

[mooandboo]

I am an animal lover, but to me, once its dead and on a plate, it doesnt matter how it lived.

Can I ask why it doesn't matter, especially as you're an animal lover?

[ReikiAnge]

I am an animal lover, but to me, once its dead and on a plate, it doesnt matter how it lived.

 

That's very honest of you! Do you feel the same way about the dogs bred and killed for food in other countries? To me (as a veggie) the most important part is how the animal lives.

[staffymad]

I actually do a monthly shop at my local butcher who has part in the farm shop. I know all produce is local and you can actually go and visit his farm if one wanted to. Although I first thought buying all fresh and freezing it in will be more expensive, it actually works out same or less as the meat is healthier and tastier (sorry to vegans and vegetarians) and is not filled up with water, i.e. chicken breast and as a result you use less meat.

 

I also buy all veggies and fruits fresh that way and eggs and it is actually cheaper as I can buy portions I need (most packs are too much for 2 people).

 

Cindy

[Rileyroo]

I'm very fussy about where my meat comes from - I now boycot a local butcher because I asked for a 'happy duck', and he sold me a gressingham which, later investigation, showed are de-beaked, reared without water etc.

 

I now get a monthly 'meat box' from the Well Hung Meat Company - who rear and slaughter their own stuff so good lives before they die and no long travel distances for the animals etc.

 

I am very thrifty with meat - a chicken will make at least 4 meals (roast, cold leftovers, remains in risotto, stock for soup) and prefer to eat good quality meat less often than eat supermarket cheap meat daily.

[cheryl33]

I like the sound of this Well Hung Meat Company

[Rileyroo]

I like the sound of this Well Hung Meat Company

 

Waaaah So did I, that's why I use them. [snigger]

[Happylittlegreensquirrel]

I am an animal lover, but to me, once its dead and on a plate, it doesnt matter how it lived.

 

to you or the animal ?

 

There are so many vegetarians now, but there are still battery chickens, and always will be im afraid

 

whilst people are prepared to buy them yes there will be , however I do think the tide is turning and more people do take the animals life and death into consideration when buying meat

 

Sam