I haven't considered a vac-thingy before Tricia, but maybe I will now. Also, I don't like to shop so the vac will come in handy for Costco steaks and such. I should also get the standup freezer I've been thinking about for awhile for Odo's chicken and other frozen stuff. I gave away the old fridge.

Time for more tofu.

I'll be watching for the meat sales. Yesterday I got two pork loins and a whole chicken @50% off. Also have a rain check for 6 beef tenderloins @9.99lb, they were sold out. Sunday, Tues and Thurs are the days the meat mgr marks down meat here. He's my buddy!

Nancy

Buy local meat..

I bought half a pig and 20lbs of ground beef Friday. I paid $3.91 hanging weight on a 60lb side for the pig..and 3.50lb for the ground beef in 1lb "chubs".

The guy I bought it from said..he used to be able to raise 4 pigs and selling 3 would pay for his pig for his freezer..with the cost of feed and such, he ended up selling all the halves instead of keeping any for himself because it only paid for about 1/3 of the pig he would have kept..but he did say that he was going to go buy 4 more pigs.

I'll be in line for another half! It's so good to have farm fresh meat!

Stagflation!

I've had to erase every thought on the subject. Math can be so controversial!

: )
lyra

Remember when cornbread was cheap eats? The last time I ordered whole dent corn it was fairly pricey, so I went ahead and ordered 25-pounds assuming it was going to continue to go up (which it has). The corn has more growth on the value than my IRA account (LOL). But nothing beats the taste of cornbread made with freshly-milled corn meal.

I'm with terri pacnw, we purchase meat and poultry from the producer who happen to be relatives and friends.

I've also been going to the store early in the morning once a week so I can take advantage of the marked down meat and check ads for buy one - get one free and then check my grocery price book to make sure that's a real bargain. Some so-called bargains/sales are NOT real bargains, so I have to keep track of pricing.

Not so long ago I used to have a $2.00/pound meat limit, but those days are long gone. Now I try to keep to $10 (of my weekly $50 food budget) for meat, and at least $5 a week goes towards foods in storage.

Even canned tuna isn't a bargain anymore when you figure the price by the pound. A can of tuna that costs $1.19 = $3.17 a pound. Tuna that is 59-cents = $1.57 a pound.

-Grainlady

Grainlady,

"Not so long ago I used to have a $2.00/pound meat limit, but those days are long gone. Now I try to keep to $10 (of my weekly $50 food budget) for meat, and at least $5 a week goes towards foods in storage."

The prices & costs you post are amazing to me and, frankly, just not relevant in my world. Even with your skills at stretching the budget I 'think' you'd have major sticker shock in CT. I mentioned your $50/week budget to my DH a few months back when we were discussing grocery prices.

He laughed and said, "Yes but, my dear Tricia, what you are not considering is that we have to pay thru the nose for beef so that the cows may live out their lives in the bucolic Litchfield Hills of western Connecticut some of the priciest pastoral real estate in the country!" I laughed & said it didn't seem fair that the cows could live on real estate that we could never afford! :)

Terri,

Yes, at $3..91/lb. hanging weight I'd be buying also.

Over the course of the past year I've searched for farm fresh, grass-fed beef here in CT. I've learned that CT does raise some beef & it's considered excellent.

Unfortunately, almost all of it goes to high-end restaurants within the state. In fact, I've learned that it's considered a little known secret that CT even raises beef.

Whipoorwill Farms seems to be my best possibility. But it's laughable to think I'm going to buy their beef for $2.00/lb.!

Here's their price list. There's a small link at the top of the page...almost like they don't want you to look at the prices. These are for products that you pick-up at the ranch. There are a few organic markets that offer Whipoorwill beef in limited quantities but the store mark-up just makes a bad situation worse. The farm is a weekend trip for us. It's clear on the other side of the state. So, either a 10 hour drive...or add another $259-$379/night room cost to the price of that beef! These cows share the Litchfield Hills with outrageously expensive 18th century "Gentlemen's Farms", equestrian estates, pricey antique stores, the most expensive garden center in New England (White Flower Farms), upscale retail shopping/restaurants, etc. It's a 'destination' area for vacationers seeking the Norman Rockwell 'New England Experience'. They are lucky cows.

We're going to make the trip this summer just to see what all the fuss is about over Whippoorwill Farms' beef but I sure don't anticipate filling our freezer from these folks.

I don't know how to add two links but here's an example of the type of place we could spend the night on our beef shopping excursion...

http://www.interlakeninn.com/

Their restaurant menu looks good though & not unreasonably expensive ($13 for a burger):

http://www.interlakeninn.com/dining/menu_morgans.html

It's really quite comical.

/tricia

Here is a link that might be useful: Whipporwill Farms - Price List

If I were to eat meat, I'd only eat 100% pasture raised meats. It makes sense for the environment, and, more importantly, for the welfare of the animals. I'm told the beef tastes different than corn fed beef - more gamey and tough, but I wouldn't be a reliable source for that info.

With the price of corn going up, it could be the feed lot cattle will cost as much as pastured raised.

Sally

tricia - I happen to live in a rural town that has a cost of living indexed at 87.4% while the national average is 100%, so well below "average". Groceries are 88%. The Median Per Capita Income per Household: $38,206. Only 2.40% of the 18,690 residence earning income make $150,000 or more. All things are relative...

I think I can ship you all the high-quality, locally grown and processed beef and bison you need for the price of that hotel room (LOL).

-Grainlady

Our government has decided, contrary to any economic principles, that corn should be used to make fuel for our cars. That has boosted the price of corn which, in turn, has raised the price of all foods which use corn as an input. It has also raised the price of all foods which are alternatives to corn. Those foods include meat, oil, margarine, dairy products, flour, sweeteners, grains, etc. Meanwhile, the cost of fuel has skyrocketed. What were they thinking?

Jim

Hmmmmm? Guess I should increase my number of "vegetable plate" dinners a week. What do you think?

I have continued to do the vegetable plate dinner once a week for the past month or so. I'm finding I really like it, too!

Teresa, YES! and if I could get away with it in this household..you'd better believe I would..

The closest I can come...LOL is tonights dinner..A pot of Organic Pintos with 2 large chunks of that home grown pork bacon cut up and "rendered"(which is pretty funny because yesterday I used some EVOO to "help") before adding. And Cornbread and Biscuits.

Grainlady~I too will make a beeline to check marked down meat even if that's not what I went in for. Yesterday it was Foster Farms thin sliced chicken breast for 3.99 instead of 5.99. They make for quick quick meals!

Sally~omgoodness...home grown, grass feed beef is not in anyway shape or form gamey..or I wouldn't eat it! I don't like anything that is considered "game". You can't sneak pond/lake grown fish or even wild birds by me..blech....oh and other wild beasts...I shutter at the thought..LOL
I don't even like the taste of buffalo meat.

We are lucky enough to live in a rural area of Texas. We have a big vegetable garden, and are freezing everything that we can. Our neighbors are wonderful--whatever one person doesn't grow is given in abundance by someone who does (you should see the squash exchange pattern--it looks like a map of the Los Angeles freeway system).
We have chickens for eggs, and within a quarter mile we have access to fresh pork and beef. Several neighbors are eyeing our chickens, but I have explained that after they stop laying eggs, they are going into a sheltered care facility in our barn to spend their golden years pecking and pooping.
Our herb garden provides all the seasoning we need, except for pepper, and I bake our own bread.
All this said, I have noticed that our weekly grocery bill has jumped by about $7.00. I attribute this to the small increase in paper products (transportation), potato chips (okay, we're addicted!), and the sausage and bacon that I get. Heaven knows what the prices will top out at, and although we are all trying to compensate and stock up, I think we are in for a bumpy ride.

grainlady, you might be onto something.........

We could ship food to each other in some cases much cheaper than buying it locally.
There's some just not right about that, but in today's world it is starting to make sense!!

coastal folks send seafood inland.
inland folks send beef and pork to the coast
southern residents send citrus north
northern folks send apples and pears south

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........something to think about!

Deanna

I can send apples and pears south, but the cherry crop was completely destroyed by frost this year.

However, I'm lucky enough to have that huge organic garden, my "girls" for eggs and my own homegrown beef and pork.

Beef prices? I sold beef last year for $1.65 a pound hanging weight and that was organic grass fed beef too. This year we won't have any to sell because one of last year's calves was born dead, that would have been our "commercial" beef, LOL.

As for the price of beef in Conneticut, most beef there don't live "bucolic" lives in high priced neighborhoods. They are feed lot beef living a miserable and unhealthy existence, just like most other commercial beef. You're just paying a premium for them because of the incomes and cost of living there.

Like Grainlady, the median income in my county is about $43,000 annually, about 20% below the average in Michigan. Most workers are blue collar or agricultural workers, 11% of the residents have a bachelor's degree or higher. Still, even with my degree I make less than $40,000 annually.

So, we have cheap groceries because we have low wages. Gas here costs as much for me as it does for people making $140,000 somewhere else, though, so I walk.

Annie

Oh, Annie, your poor baby calf, (I know, redundant) and it's poor mamma cow. I hope she was okay.

Terri, I was just saying that because I thought that's what Pollan said in his book, and also a man that worked briefly where I work is a retired butcher. He said most people wouldn't want to eat grass fed beef - they wouldn't like it. I can only go by what I've read and been told, since I've never eaten it, and haven't eaten beef in about 10 years or so. It's good to know, though, that it's actually a tasty alternative to the horribly tortured animals most people eat.

Jim, you said, "It has also raised the price of all foods which are alternatives to corn. Those foods include meat, oil, margarine, dairy products, flour, sweeteners,...". The foods you listed are corn. Feed lot cows are corn recycled, cause that's what they are fed. Sweetners are made from corn. Dairy products - see above about feed lot cattle, etc. Nearly everything in the grocery store is or has as an ingredient, some form of corn.

Now, with the flooding in the midwest farm fields, prices are going to go even higher. Plus, I saw on the news tonight that the flooding has brought a lot of the shipping to a standstill. They can't ship down the Mississippi, nor can the trains get through, nor some of the trucks get through the flooded regions. Sheesh, what a mess.

Sally

Sally, it is true..if you are expecting grocery store beef..and eat "homegrown"..it's not quite the same..you soon realize that grocery store beef is very "bland".

Terri, I agree, homegrown beef isn't "gamey" but it is, somehow, "beefier". As for tough, I guess that depends on the animal. Mine are about 18 months old when I eat them, so they are still tender without the help of all that fat marbling. If you're eating an old animal that's extremely lean because it's grass fed (or for whatever reason), it'll be tougher than a younger animal. Of course, it will weigh more, so many farmers wait longer to offer their animals for sale.

Sally, mama cow was fine, sometimes things just happen. Not very often, thankfully, but occasionally, just as it does in humans. It's a part of nature's cycle, and you take it as it comes. The mama cows wander around for a couple of days like they are lost, then apparently they just forget about it and get back to the business of being a cow.

Annie

Jim...

Like so many things these days fuel from corn was and is a complete fraud. The difference between fuel used to grow the corn and fuel obtained as a result is so small as to make it a waste of good food. Far better to make alcohol from sugar cane or diesel fuel from hemp seed. Rather then develop a working alternative energy source our society turned to yet another fraud. Another go at cheating honest working people out of the American Dream. More to come... I'm afraid.

: (
lyra

I will shop exactly as I've been shopping for years - local farmers' markets, non-chain bulk food stores and small ethnic stores. Prices have been rising but not at the same rates as the grocery stores.

With rising food prices, it's been interesting to see an influx of customers who had never shopped there even though they don't live that far away. Unfortunately, they shop with their eyes instead of food knowledge so are a pain in the butt to the stall owners. But the extra business is good for the local vendors.

In my town, you need an acre of land to raise chickens. I always tease the DH and tell him I'm going to get chickens, but maybe I should be looking into it?! I'm still planning to expand the garden - better late than never. Right now the ground is covered in black plastic - hoping to smother out some weeds.

Unfortunately, Lyra is right. I saw on TV (so it must true!) that the amount of corn it takes to convert to ethanol to fuel one car one time is enough to feed a child for a year. Tell me how that is more efficient in the grand scheme of things! They really should be looking more at wind power, water power, thermal energies, etc. If they can run a watch on a quartz battery why not a car?

Maybe they'll go back to sweetening things with good old fashioned sugar. Maybe Americans will have their weight go down because of it.

Excuse my rant of random thoughts!

Hemp. I have a friend who grows hemp in BC, also has a refinery up there. He is doing everything he can to get the US to wake up to the benefits. There's more benefits from hemp than you can imagine.... and that's hemp without THC..

Nancy

Come on, people, y'all are talking common sense. Enough of that already! lol They can't handle that in Washington.

It would be common sense to allow hemp production in the U.S. It would give tobacco farmers something else, more useful, to grow. Nancy, I'm intrigued your friend in BC wants the U.S. to wake up. If the U.S. were to do that and allow hemp growing here, wouldn't that be competition for him?

Ruthanna, how are shoppers that shop with their eyes a pain in the butt for the stall operators? When I shop with my eyes I tend to buy more. Oh, I'm being dense, aren't I? they're not buying just looking?

Sally

Sally, he's not doing it to make money (mega millions). He has been into ecology his entire life and believes in hemp. His life goal is to help future generations and he sees hemp as a valuable resource. Owns a pharmaceutical Co in Amsterdam, on and on.

Nancy

Due to the climate hemp is the only plant currently available to North America that will return enough fuel to justify planting it. The US gubment discourages cultivation on the grounds that it makes sense and would provide benefits to society. At the moment the only approved application is to provide raw material for the prison industry.

: )
lyra

The ethanol thing is a huge fiasco, and a bipartisan one so far as I can tell. It needs to be rethought before it causes more problems.

On a different topic:

"I'm still planning to expand the garden - better late than never."

boo, I keep finding more and more veggies which are best planted in early July or later for fall harvest. Only in recent years have I realized that, with much of what I grow, planting in May is not a key to success. This applies to many green leafy crops which tend to bolt in warm weather as well as radishes, peas and a number of others. There is still time to make good use of the new space.

Jim

I just don't get it. In one or two years they can't have built enough processing plants to make that much more fuel from grain. So the price of grain and all the corn being grown this year was going where? I say was because now with the Midwest there may not be such a big glut but I know some farmers (ex-BIL, nephew) - they are all growing more corn so there should still be quite a bit more than an average year.

Current Kansas Ethanol Production
13 dry mill ethanol plants are currently in operation in Kansas with a capacity of about 504.5 million gallons. (As of May 20, 2008) Current Kansas production creates a market for about 180 million bushels of sorghum and corn. The two grains are interchangeable in the ethanol-making process.

One-third of the grain used for ethanol returns to the food stream as wet or dry distillers grains (DDGS), a valued, high-nutrient livestock feed. Combined Kansas corn and sorghum production normally ranges between 500 million and 600 million bushels per year. The 2007 Kansas crop produced 730 million bushels of corn and sorghum combined. Kansas ethanol plants bring millions of dollars of revenue and economic development to Kansas and the rural communities where they are located.

This thread cost me money...I read it and also read a similar article in my local newspaper predicting higher meat prices. So I made a Costco run and came home with a huge box of beef, pork, & chicken. Now I've got to cut everything up into usable portions. But at least I'll have a fully stocked freezer!

I guess that I am one of the lucky ones. My folks slaughter 2 cows each winter, one for hamburger one for steaks and roasts and also hamburger. Each family (7 of us including my folks) Each get a portion for Christmas each year and it usually lasts a whole year. Also dad will get at least one pig butchered a year and buy farm raised chickens from one of my friends folks. She sells them frozen ready to go either whole or cut up ready to fry.

Stacie
girlsingardens

Having grown up on a cattle ranch, I won't buy feedlot beef. Besides, it tastes greasy. Since my husband is a chef, we buy a quarter of a side from a specialty grower and while high, the cost hasn't changed in about 7 years.

Another option to purchasing beef is through your local 4-H. My kids have raised steers for the last three years and then sold them at the end of the project. We purchase one of them for ourselves and sell the other( we raise two). The meat is THE BEST. Last year the cost of the cow turned out to be about 2.50 a pound. That's for the whole thing. However, we got 800 lbs. of beef and you have to be prepared to freeze it. Some people go in together and share one when it's purchased. This year is going to be different. I just checked the price of feed. In January I paid 8.50 for a bag of feed. Last week I paid 10.25 for the same bag of feed. Also, last year I paid $20 for a round bale of hay. This year I'm having to pay about $ 30 to 35. The price of corn and diesel are killing us.
As I said earlier, the taste is superb. I can literally cut my steak with a fork it's so tender. I get comments all the time when people come over and we eat a steak. Several have said that it's the best steak they've ever eaten. I can't say enough good about 4-H and what my kids have learned. My family and all that eat with us receive the benefits.

Grass fed beef, especially grass FINISHED beef, does not have to be tough or gamey. Managed Intensive Grazing (sometimes called rotational grazing) moves animals daily to fresh new pasture and grows meat very different from the cows your grandfather raised that wandered back and forth over a 40 acre field.

Also, animals raised on grass never develop the virulent e-coli strains that kill people. These strains were bred by dreadful agricultural practices of feeding large amounts of grains to animals that are uniquely designed to eat grass. Eating grains makes their digestive tracts alkaline rather than acid. Combine this with the other dreadful practice of feeding low level antibiotics to increase appetite and voila, deadly e-coli.

For more info, look at the website, eatwild.com.

laceyvail, you are absolutely right about feeding corn and other grains to cattle. It's a practice that was promoted by the government sometime in the late 40s or early 50s to use up a big surplus of grain.

It's bad for cattle, they aren't designed to eat that way, the low fiber diet is bad for their ruminant digestion. In addition, it's environmentally unsound and a very inefficient feeding practice in addition to the health issues (both for people and animals).

From Cornell University:

EIGHT MEATY FACTS ABOUT ANIMAL FOOD

>From "Livestock Production: Energy Inputs and the Environment"

-- WHERE'S THE GRAIN? The 7 billion livestock animals in the United States consume five times as much grain as is consumed directly by the entire American population.

-- HERBIVORES ON THE HOOF. Each year an estimated 41 million tons of plant protein is fed to U.S. livestock to produce an estimated 7 million tons of animal protein for human consumption. About 26 million tons of the livestock feed comes from grains and 15 million tons from forage crops. For every kilogram of high-quality animal protein produced, livestock are fed nearly 6 kg of plant protein.

-- FOSSIL FUEL TO FOOD FUEL. On average, animal protein production in the U.S. requires 28 kilocalories (kcal) for every kcal of protein produced for human consumption. Beef and lamb are the most costly, in terms of fossil fuel energy input to protein output at 54:1 and 50:1, respectively. Turkey and chicken meat production are the most efficient (13:1 and 4:1, respectively). Grain production, on average, requires 3.3 kcal of fossil fuel for every kcal of protein produced. The U.S. now imports about 54 percent of its oil; by the year 2015, that import figure is expected to rise to 100 percent.

-- THIRSTY PRODUCTION SYSTEMS. U.S. agriculture accounts for 87 percent of all the fresh water consumed each year. Livestock directly use only 1.3 percent of that water. But when the water required for forage and grain production is included, livestock's water usage rises dramatically. Every kilogram of beef produced takes 100,000 liters of water. Some 900 liters of water go into producing a kilogram of wheat. Potatoes are even less "thirsty," at 500 liters per kilogram.

-- HOME ON THE RANGE. More than 302 million hectares of land are devoted to producing feed for the U.S. livestock population -- about 272 million hectares in pasture and about 30 million hectares for cultivated feed grains.

-- DISAPPEARING SOIL. About 90 percent of U.S. cropland is losing soil -- to wind and water erosion -- at 13 times above the sustainable rate. Soil loss is most severe in some of the richest farming areas; Iowa loses topsoil at 30 times the rate of soil formation. Iowa has lost one-half its topsoil in only 150 years of farming -- soil that took thousands of years to form.

-- PLENTY OF PROTEIN: Nearly 7 million tons (metric) of animal protein is produced annually in the U.S. -- enough to supply every American man, woman and child with 75 grams of animal protein a day. With the addition of 34 grams of available plant protein, a total of 109 grams of protein is available per capita. The RDA (recommended daily allowance) per adult per day is 56 grams of protein for a mixed diet.

Annie