Why did we buy a cow?

These days, our family is all about saving money. There was a season of largess we enjoyed, when disposable income was included in our vocabulary. For someone who cares just a little more about the cost of a food product than the quality, of what interest would buying a grass-fed cow have over buying some hamburger meat at the discount grocery store?

Fate has a way of surprising us, sometimes for good and sometimes for not-so-good. The spice this time had a nice flavor when we received a call from a friend who informed us of someone who was trying to sell one of their cows. I am not in the business of raising beef, but apparently many who do expect to bring their raised livestock to an auction and make a profit. Raising cattle is not cheap; to break even and then to even bring in some extra money can be a challenge. In this case, the available cow was a runt. The ranchers were possibly not sure it would be worth the cost to move this cow and prepare it for auction. Perhaps they thought they could do better by finding a buyer privately. This is where we come in. It appears that the sellers made more than they would have if this heifer went to auction and we actually saved money on buying beef because we purchased it privately and in bulk, even considering the fact that we are not used to buying “organic”, grass-fed beef.

My aim with this blog is to document this wonderful opportunity to buy beef harvested from a grass-fed cow who lived happily with her mother and siblings, free range and fancy-free. I want to glean from my wife’s talent of crunching numbers and analysis exactly how much we have saved buying half a cow. I look forward to including recipes for the cuts of meat we have. I want to share my growing appreciation for where our beef comes from (for instance, there are only 2 tri-tip per cow! I wonder how many people order a tri-tip in a single day at a typical steak-house...).

By no means am I anti-meat. I believe that as many of Earth’s resources, there are many who enjoy benefitting from meat. I am also concerned, as many of you may feel, that many of us get into our daily routines, go shopping, make meals and perhaps do not think about where our food comes from. Do my kids think that hamburger grows on a bush? Do they squirm or even scream out in horror when they learn for the first time that hamburger comes from a slaughtered cow? Buying half a cow will give our family something to talk about and even gain a greater respect for food, especially meat, that we eat.