Buying meat - looking for suggestions

[peanutter]

we're trying out Aussie Farmers Direct - first delivery of meat, eggs, milk, bread is due tomorrow, first fruit & veg is due next week. Will let you know how it goes!!

let me know how Greenvale goes - I'm very interersted in making use of local produce, where we can afford it, as I've been reading so much about human trafficking being involved in the food and produce industries

I know that I can't assume all local food is free from slavery, but it sounds like it's a lot rarer ...

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Do you have land you can grow your own?

If you find somewhere let me know, wouldn't mind even going in with someone for meat... i COULD 'grow' our own but i couldn't eat what would essentially become a pet, that and we'd have to pay for fencing and food
Hmmm if you want to pay for fencing and food i'll lend you an acre

[Astrid]

Glad to know Greenvale looks good so far, hopefully their meat is great.

We are breeding our own goats and if we can lease some extra land in a year or so we could put on a couple of head of cattle.

[Miss.September]

So next weekend we can finally go and get our meat from Greenvale meats...except

We went to our local farmer's market this morning, didn't even know it was there and it's awesome. We bought free range pork, grass fed beef and lamb. They have everything we've been looking for right there! So fingers crossed it all tastes fantastic. If all is well, then we're going to save up our money and buy a months worth of meat at a time each farmer's market.

[Astrid]

Sounds great PacRakMG! We are going to upgrade our fridge/freezer so we can start buying bulk meat like that.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Oh sounds good PRMG, i'm thinking about looking around. the local butchers here isn't too bad on price but they are the only butcher outside of coles & woolies.
I'd be interested on finding out some prices if you do some more shopping at the market, ask for a bulk discount and get a hoard of BB'ers there

[Miss.September]

Sounds great Astrid, I think it's the way to go.

ZF - Prices were pretty comparable. We got a rolled boneless pork roast, just over 1kg and it was $22. We got some diced gravy beef for a stew, $9.99 per kilo. DH wanted some lamb's necks that he's put in the slow cooker. They were $4.00 each (and tastes DIVINE I might add).

They had goat, pheasant, duck, venison, quail, fish and shellfish too, plus lots of dried herbs and fresh herb and vegie seedlings too, plus all the fruit and veg. A 4kg bag of oranges was $3. Lots of breads, cakes, licorice etc,, and fresh flowers. I took a couple of pics to blog, so hopefully it'll refresh my memory too.The sales people were really lovely. It's on the first Saturday of every month - there's an animal farm there too ($3) between 8 and 1. I'm going to go and suss out the Hurstbridge Farmer's Market in the morning too, see what's on offer there.

[Mother Goose]

PRMG - where was the market you went to?

I went to the Hurstbridge one about 2 months ago and was disappointed. They had a sausage guy there but that was really it from a "farmer" point of view. Someone was selling strawberries but there is a huge farm not far from hurstbridge anyway. Actually, I lie, there *may* have been one other meat person there but I recall it wasn't that great (hence why it's blocked from my memory!).

[Miss.September]

Thanks Mother Goose, sucks that it isn't great. The one we went to today was at Bundoora Park. We got there at around 9.30 - 10ish, but lots had been sold out from the more specialty stalls, so next month we're going to go early. When you drive into the park, there's signs up directing you. The park is on the right and the market is on the left when you drive in. $2 entry for each person (goes to rotary).

ETA - just ordered from Greenvale Meats too for 5kg of lamb. They do base prices, $15 per kilo for beef and pork and $14.50 per kilo for lamb. You get a variety of cuts. So we'll go and pick that up next week

Oh and dinner tonight was soooo good Slow cooked lamb necks in stock and red wine, with some pears, onions and carrots, served with some mashed potato. The lamb fell off the bone.

[peanutter]

mmmm, sounds great!

I have to find out what farmer's markets are out east, my side of town!

[Miss.September]

Sent you a PM, peanutter - gives the list of farmers markets in the state.

[Beach Mama]

Sounds awesome PRM!!! I just had a look at their site and it sounds awesome plus reasonably priced as well. Do you have a deep freezer??? DH doesn't like freezing meat but I don't mind and it means I am organised in advance! Will have a look at others as well!

[Miss.September]

We don't have a deep freezer. Our fridge has a two basket freezer on it, but we find we can fit a fair bit of meat in there because we don't have a lot else in it!

The lady from Greenvale Meats rang me this morning to say that they don't have lamb at the moment, they've sold out for the season and the animals they have are too small, but she's hoping to have some ready by August.

The lamb and beef we got yesterday is from Little Creek Beef, they're at Seville but will deliver to your door. They also have a shop-outlet on the property.