Buying meat - looking for suggestions

DH and I are really wanting to get our meat straight off the farm, if possible. We're looking for no hormones, free range, you get the gist!

I've been looking at Aussie Farmers Direct - has anyone used them? What did you think?

Or if you have any other suggestions for where we can get our meat (all cuts, and happy to get the animal in tact too, we have a meat boner in our family), please fire away. We're trying to get to some farmer's markets too, see the range. So if you have any recommendations at all, I'd love to hear them. We're in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, but "have car, will travel" :lol:

Do you have land you can grow your own?

I wish HotI! Mum's place isn't an option right now and our place is a shoebox block where I actually have no room for chooks, would love them though.

In terms of retail, check out the Plantagenant Pork website, they have all their stockists listed.
Many of the butchers that stock PP will also stock free-range, ethical poultry too.

Also, google Belmore Meats, their meat is amazing.

Thanks Lime, I checked out the PP website, but the stockists are only in Perth. I know I said I'd travel...but......:lol:

Checked out Belmore Meats too, that's not too far from me so will give them a go. Thanks.

Have come across Greenvale Meats at the Farmers Markets. Have not had a chance to use them as we just have not had the upfront cash for an order.

We just had something through door for Havelock Farm - sounds like deliver to all Melbourne, and are free range and no antibiotics or hormones - think they might only do lamb though.

Astrid - just looked up Greenvale Meats and they look great too. What farmer's markets have you seen them at?

Wysiwyg - Lamb is okay - DH did a job today for a lady who has organic beef on French Island, but she doesn't do anything else. Thanks.

I think we saw them at Port Fairy, but the seem to travel around, I think maybe even Ballarat, it has been awhile since I saw them. They do mention delivery on their website, so may be they also deliver to Melbourne.

Belmore Meats is awesome. Expensive but awesome.

Get a cow or 2 and set them up at ZFs., she won't mind!

Forgot about Cleavers Organic Meat. Used to be stocked directly by Coles and Safeway about 7 years before they went all "private Label". Dh used to deliver for them, so often we would get any leftover boxes if there had been a picking error. Looks like you can still get their meat through some of the speciality stores in Melbourne or online. It was very good back then.

Hi, another recommendation for Greenvale meats. We've stayed on the farm a couple of times and i can say they have happy animals!! We normally buy about 17kg beef and half a lamb at a time. They also do pork. Last time the farmer actually dropped off our order to our door - which the kids loved (seeing him again)! Their produce tastes a million times better than anything in the supermarket. Well worth it.

Thank you for all your replies, you've all given me different avenues to take now. Will let you know how we go :)

This could have being my post! Dh and I have being talking about buying direct from the farm.

I would strongly suggest you go to the Farmers Market website and get your meats from those - some can involve a drive, so that's not awful for the fam, and you get a variety of meats at the one market. On Sat I went to my local, Coal Creek market and picked up venison, lamb and beef. At the Inverloch one I got goat meat and there's usually the barramundi man about, too!
Google South Gippsland free range beef - best stuff from over this way :p
I spent about $70 on meat that will last us more than 2 weeks in meals.
Once we know what we're doing we'll be doing some kills and we could look into killing to order ;) Watch this space! Plus, we'll grow some goat, sheep and quite possibly pig. For now it's beef - free range (not organic because we've been spraying weeds so that we can soon go organic), grass fed :)

Thanks Mayaness. I did check out the website for the farmer's markets and we know we've got a bit of exploring to do. We go to Healesville (the one that used to be at Yarra Glen) and we've been to the Collingwood Children's Farm one (got some great buffalo sausages there!) and we're going to try the Hurstbridge one next month. We're off to Phillip Island over Queen's b'day so might see if the Inverloch one is happening then and check it out.

Zap - feel free to hijack with anything you find! We'll learn together :)

I've put in an inquiry to Greenvale to see if they deliver to us or if there is a common drop point that I can meet them at. Aussie Farmer's don't deliver to our area, but I've put in a request anyway to try and see if we can get them here.

Just an update - spoke to the lady from Greenvale Meats and she is so lovely!!!!!! They're looking into starting a Melbourne Metro market in the next two months, just finalising which one and she's going to call me back to let me know, but at the moment she suggested I go to the Ballarat market and she can have an order ready for me, or they can meet me somewhere when they deliver to Melbourne restaurants. Can't wait to try their meat!

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 ...

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Do you have land you can grow your own?

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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 :rofl:
Hmmm if you want to pay for fencing and food i'll lend you an acre :rofl:

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.

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.

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

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 :p

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.

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!).

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 :happydance:

Oh and dinner tonight was soooo good :D 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.

mmmm, sounds great!

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

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

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!

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.