Meat Gathering

[truck driver]

We go about it in different ways and this weekend my wife and I did just that.
I don't have pictures because I was too busy cutting and trimming meat, anyone who has butchered knows what I mean since it is very labor intense.
My daughter wanted to put some meat in the freezer and her husbands brother raises steers and has a butcher shop on his farm.
She asked us to go in with her to buy a side of beef and split the meat and cost.
But we also had to help cut and package the meat. The brother in law has all the equipment but as we know there is a lot of labor after the steaks and roast are sawed out on a ban saw.
I trimmed the roast, steaks and cut up the odd pieces for burger and the wife ran the vacuum sealer, sealed the 1lb bags of burger and boxed the 1/4lb burger patties.
Along with a few friends who helped out it took us 6hrs to cut, grind and wrap a 1/2 of a beef. But it didn't stop there since the friends who helped us also had a side to cut up and we stayed and helped them till we had to leave and pick up my daughter from work where she is a 911 operator and dispatcher.
This mourning my wife said we have done that twice the first time and the last time since she was so sore she could hardly move and i had to take a couple of doses of Amish muscle cramp remedy so I could sleep last night and again this mourning to ward off the muscle spasms.
Both of us are getting to old for that kind of hard work but I think we saved a bunch of money because I spent 1/2 of what I would have at the butcher shop for a months supply of meat and got 1/4 side of beef for what I pay for a months supply of meat and the freezer is full of fresh prime beef.
Had a couple of Rib eye steaks for dinner last night and boy they tasted good.
Seems like when you have to work hard for something it always taste better. >)

 

[6mm Remington]

True story. It does feel nice to process your own dinner fare and you then know how it was cut and how it was handled and taken care of. A lot of comfort in that for me anyway.

 

[sask boy]

Rodger that is exactly how Nettie and I feel now. I still help with getting our animals including steers ready to be cut and wrapped but it is a lot of work for this old body .
There is always satisfaction in doing a good job and your own home made always tastes better .

Blessings,
Dan

 

[truck driver]

Thanks for the responses.

Dan I used to wrap meat in paper and then went to freezer bags and this time we used a vacuum sealer to help keep the frost out and the meat tastier.

 

[sask boy]

Rodger, we still use the paper as our meat is normally split 4 ways so it never sticks around long enough to get frost on it :wink:.
If I get a Moose or a Elk this coming fall we will be going with vacuum sealing .

Blessings,
Dan

 

[truck driver]

Rodger, we still use the paper as our meat is normally split 4 ways so it never sticks around long enough to get frost on it :wink:.
If I get a Moose or a Elk this coming fall we will be going with vacuum sealing .

Blessings,
Dan

I understand where your coming from feeding 4 families from a 1/2 side of beef.
I will say even though we split a 1/2 side 2 ways the vacuum sealer made short work of packaging the meat and with out the fuss of cutting paper and tape.
The wife is thinking about using it for veggies from the garden that we freeze in plastic bags.

 

[truck driver]

The wife drug me to Wally Mart to day to look at vacuum sealers. They come in three different sizes and she decided to get middle priced one.