Jana (and All),

There can be more to a grass-fed beef than what you might care to buy.  I
don't wish to raise any alarm here, but you may want to inquire whether your
supplier uses hormone implants to speed growth.  A shorter pasture time to
market weight means $$.  I know of a local person where I live who
advertises his grass-fed beef at the local health food stores (and possibly
regionally since he's also involved in reproductive/AI procedures) who uses
implants.  How do I know this?  My husband is his vet.

--And it's not at all uncommon for cattle to wear insecticide eartags which
are systemically activated poisons.  The alternatives are dust rubs or dips.
But by far eartags are the most widely used nowdays.  However, not all areas
of the country are as plagued by pests as some others are, and you can still
find cattle that have never had pesticides used on them, particularly among
small, home-farm producers as opposed to large operations.

Also, to everyone who is interested in getting grass fed beef:  In many
cases, perhaps most, you can cut out the middle man entirely and go straight
to the source.  Many, many urban areas are not very far removed from rural
areas where local landowners still run a few head or small herds of cattle.
(Even large cities such as Dallas and Ft. Worth  have surrounding areas
within 20-30 miles where pasture-fed beef can be easily found.) Take a
Sunday drive and scope it out for yourself,  turn into a driveway, strike up
a conversation and strike a deal for a yearling.  Just be sure to ask the
farmer/rancher to haul the beef to the processing plant for you unless you
own a horse or cattle trailer or a very large back seat.  <g>  If you don't
have room for a whole beef in your freezer, go in halves with someone.  If
you don't have a freezer, well.........

For those who have never eaten grass fed beef, the taste (and texture) is
veddy, veddy different.  You may not at first recognize the morsel in your
mouth as beef.  My very subjective opinion is that different grasses produce
different flavors.  Maybe the difference results from whether the beef is
fed on "improved" pasture, which is essentially a monoculture environment,
or on "native" pasture, which is diversely grassy/weedy. (And over-wintered
cattle are almost always fed hay from improved pastures, and sometimes with
silage added, which is fermented--though it's the dairy farmers in my area
who tend to use silage, but Holstein cows get butchered for beef, too.)  I
can't say I prefer one flavor of grass-fed beef to the other.

I do wonder, though, how the composition of the fat/muscle is affected by
monocultured--that is, "improved"--pasture.  Might there not also be a
compromised result to us beefeaters as a consequence?  Just wondering.  Gee,
it seems like I've spent an awful lot of time in the last few weeks thinking
about nothing but food.  <g>

Theola

---------------snip-----------------------
> From:    Jana Eagle <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: finding grass fed beef
>
> I just wanted to report that I found a supplier of grass-fed beef who
> lives near me.  I've never tried grass feed meat before, I didn't know
> where to look.