Why, yes. A cow WILL fit into the back of a minivan.
Why on earth would we put a cow’s worth of meat into the back of our van? Remember when I talked about meat during the Staying Whole Series?
That’s why. And we also like to save money by purchasing in bulk. Putting half of a cow into a freezer is the epitome of buying in bulk, I think.
A couple of weeks ago we drove about an hour to Fallon, NV. We’re lucky to live near several ranches, but I believe we have found Nevada’s Joel Salatin.
This is Roger. He’s around 80 years old. He and his wife, Margot, have a small ranch where they raise organic, antibiotic-free, grassfed beef. Roger gave us a tour of his land and talked all about his organic farming and grazing practices — practices that cause other farmers in the area to ridicule him.
He’s so passionate about what he does! Super cool guy.
The 79 head of cattle are moved from pasture to pasture every few days to feed on fresh grass. We drove out to one of the pastures in his dusty Toyota Camry and watched him yodel out to the cows.
At the sound of his voice, all of their heads turned and they began walking and mooing toward him. Seriously, with a relationship like that, who needs a horse or a dog to drive cattle around?
After our tour we picked up our butchered meat and counted off all of the cuts. We split our cow with a friend, but we hauled all of the meat back home in our van.
(My daughter will pose in front of anything.) This, my friends, is what a whole cow’s worth of meat looks like. It’s around 400 pounds worth of steaks, roasts, ground beef, soup bones, and (at my husband’s request) organ meat.
I have to admit… this is more meat than I anticipated. It’s tasty, though!
If you come over to our house for dinner in the next year and a half, I hope you like beef.
Thank you, Mills Ranch!
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DancingMooney — August 22, 2012 @ 12:51 pm
That’s so cool you buy your beef straight from the ranch! And absolutely awesome how this guy is raising his cattle, I wish they were all that way. You go girl. :)
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Natalie replied: — August 22nd, 2012 @ 9:33 pm
Oh, I wish, too! I felt like hugging the guy.
Brynn — August 22, 2012 @ 12:54 pm
We buy beef in bulk too! It is cheaper, and tastes better than what we have gotten from stores. Awesome!
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Natalie replied: — August 22nd, 2012 @ 9:34 pm
Amen. I threw some roasts in the crock pot when we had family here over the weekend and the beef was amazing! I’m so excited to pull out the tenderloins!
gwen — August 22, 2012 @ 12:57 pm
That’s awesome, Natalie!
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Natalie replied: — August 22nd, 2012 @ 9:35 pm
I know! I wish we would have done this sooner. This has been on our list of things to do for a few years.
Meg — August 22, 2012 @ 12:59 pm
yay! i love this!! there is a farm near us in toronto, ontario called westside beef that offers the same thing, which we’d totally be buying from this fall if i hadn’t decided after much soul searching to become a vegetarian :) (my husband’s ambitious, but i don’t think he’s ready to tackle 400lbs of beef by himself!)
i’m totally all for buying from small, local & ethical farms, and it’s amazing when you have the opportunity to buy a whole or part of a cow, so you know all your meals are coming from the same animal. it really ups the gratefulness factor, and the awe of how much we can truly benefit from one single animal. much better than shopping at the supermarket and having to wonder where those ribs came from :) yay! enjoy the many barbeques to come.
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Natalie replied: — August 22nd, 2012 @ 9:36 pm
You guys are lucky as well! I think half of a cow amounted to just under 200 pounds of meat, but I bet you could buy 1/4 of a cow or a share of a certain weight (25 or 50 lbs). I totally agree with you about gratefulness. It’s cool to connect with where your food is coming from and truly appreciating the effort that went into treating the animal well.
Monica B. — August 22, 2012 @ 1:09 pm
Oh my gosh!! That’s so awesome!!!
I need to come up with a reason to drop by your house for dinner. :D
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Natalie replied: — August 22nd, 2012 @ 9:37 pm
Reason: You haven’t seen my baby yet!!
Reason: We really like hanging out with you guys.
Reason: You should really consider moving to Reno. :)
Monica B. replied: — August 22nd, 2012 @ 10:13 pm
Oh Natalie! James and I both laughed out loud.
Thanks for that.
Yes, those are very valid reasons. I’ll have to see what I can do.
Maura @ My Healthy 'Ohana — August 22, 2012 @ 1:20 pm
Wow, that is a lot of meat! I had no idea they had such a ranch in Fallon, that’s so amazing how the cows responded to his voice, what a connection :)
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Natalie replied: — August 22nd, 2012 @ 9:38 pm
Ya, Maura, I was surprised by his connection with those cattle! Thanks for stopping by. I noticed you’re in NV as well! (Or Hawaii…?)
Maura @ My Healthy 'Ohana replied: — August 23rd, 2012 @ 7:11 pm
We used to live in Las Vegas, and would drive quite frequently to Reno to visit my sister-in-law and her family…I believe we’ve driven through Fallon! Just moved to Hawaii and we are loving it so far :) I really enjoy your blog!
Erin @ Texanerin Baking — August 22, 2012 @ 2:06 pm
I looked at the pictures first and thought, “Cool! Cows are neat. Oh, what a nice old man. Aww, look at him with his cows! Oh…” I love meat but seeing the animals and then the animal all cut up depresses me. It’s ridiculous, I know. I’m just going to pretend that I never saw that last picture. :)
You are SO SO lucky to be able to get this beef! Amazing. I miss US beef so much. The stuff here is all grass-fed as far as I know, but it’s absolutely terrible. Supposedly most of it isn’t hung, and if it is, it’s not hung nearly long enough, and the meat usually comes from milk cows. Bla. Can’t wait to be able to visit a rancher like this one day!
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Natalie replied: — August 22nd, 2012 @ 9:40 pm
You’re funny, Erin. You know, I had mixed emotions during this. Part sadness, like you said, but part gratitude for the way the animals were raised and also reverence. I’m not usually a food waster, but knowing exactly where this cow comes from makes me even more frugal and resourceful when cooking! (I feel the same way about vegetables from my garden.)
Erin @ Texanerin Baking replied: — August 23rd, 2012 @ 1:38 am
I would have felt exactly the same way. I would probably feel much better about eating meat (it doesn’t usually bother me but sometimes it strikes me like when I’m picking apart a roasted chicken) if the animals were at least treated in a decent way. And I love that you bought it directly from the rancher. Amazing. I’m saving this post for the day that I’m back in the US and have a house. My husband doesn’t seem to understand the concept of having a freezer in the garage. This’ll show ‘em.
Renee — August 22, 2012 @ 3:09 pm
I’m curious about your freezer – do you have an extra freezer in your garage where you’ll put the meat? Buying half a cow is on my long-term list of things I want to do, but I just need more freezer space! I have two boys, so I’m thinking that maybe when they’re in jr high or high school, we’ll need to do this just to save some money! In the meantime, I will buy meat at the farmers’ market every once in a while.
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Natalie replied: — August 22nd, 2012 @ 9:32 pm
Hi Renee! Yes, we have a small freezer in the garage (14 cubit feet, I believe). Half of a cow almost filled the entire freezer. Roger told us to figure 1 cubit foot for every 20 pounds of meat. We were lucky to inherit one from someone who didn’t need it anymore, but I’m sure you could find a good, used one on Craigslist or something similar!
Joanne — August 23, 2012 @ 4:31 am
I may be a vegetarian but I am soooo in favor of you doing this!! You rock
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Rachel @ Baked by Rachel — August 23, 2012 @ 12:34 pm
Woah that’s a lot of beef and your daughter is so funny.
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Kristin — August 23, 2012 @ 1:12 pm
This is so neat. What a cute old man! I love that he is passionate about it.
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Ellen — August 23, 2012 @ 6:11 pm
I remember when Lucy Ricardo bought a side of beef! It was a LOT of meat.
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Bree — August 24, 2012 @ 8:19 am
That’s awesome! We split a cow with another family once and I had a tough time with some of the random cuts, so I will look forward to your tips!
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Patricia — August 24, 2012 @ 2:39 pm
This is the ranch that my husband manages. Roger is such a treat to work with. A few times a week I am lucky enough to go out and take part of this ranching. All we eat is Roger’s beef and in the last year alone I have dropped 30 pounds just by switching to this grass-fed beef and eating local organic produce from Fallon. Whatever he is doing IS working!!!! If ever in Fallon be sure to go by Mills Ranch!!! Roger, Margot, Larry, and maybe even I will see you out there!!! Mooooo!
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Natalie replied: — August 24th, 2012 @ 3:25 pm
Hi Patricia! I believe we did meet your husband! We’re big fans of Mills Ranch now and will definitely be back! It’s amazing how much better you feel (weight loss or not) when you eat organic, local food. Congrats on the weight loss, too!
Kate@Diethood — August 24, 2012 @ 3:32 pm
We also buy grassfed beef, lamb, and pork from a local farm/ranch. Best investment ever. I had to buy one more deep freezer just for all that meat. :)
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Sue — August 24, 2012 @ 4:20 pm
I have been looking around Sac for a ranch that offers this. This is awesome you have this available. It is so good to see people are really tired of being fooled by the food industry and raising the bar by being proactive! Good for you Natalie!
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Natalie replied: — August 24th, 2012 @ 5:30 pm
My friend in Tracy found a great place for beef not too far from them. i’ll send you the link on FB!
Leonor @FoodFaithFitness — August 24, 2012 @ 4:29 pm
That is so cool! I love the fact that the farmer doesn’t care what other people think!
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Laurie {Simply Scratch} — August 24, 2012 @ 5:23 pm
We did a quarter cow before and THAT was a ton of meat! I can’t imagine a whole cow!
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Natalie replied: — August 24th, 2012 @ 5:31 pm
Ya, I’m thinking a quarter might have been better. Luckily we split the cow with a friend and have half of it instead of the whole thing! (Maybe if we had 8 kids… all boys… :))
Megan {Country Cleaver} — August 28, 2012 @ 2:35 pm
Natalie I am so thrilled you’re practicing what you preach. Happy cows really are better tasting cows. There is no comparison when it comes to taste from mass raised animals to small farm raised animals. Yay for beef!
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Abby — September 2, 2012 @ 3:05 pm
I wish I could buy my meat this way! I’m going to have to look around a little bit more, there’s gotta be a place.
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Angela @ AnotherBitePlease — September 4, 2012 @ 6:52 pm
LOVE – love organic small farm raised meat. Can’t wait to see what recipes you share with that trunk load of meat :-)
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Sonia! The Healthy Foodie — April 9, 2013 @ 2:29 am
Hey Natalie!
I meant to ask you how you liked the whole experience of buying a complete cow? I’ve been seriously considering buying half or a quarter of a cow and was curious to find out how things went for you… Is this something that you would do again? Did you have a hard time cooking some of the random cuts? Did you find you had WAY too much meat? Any tips that you could give me before I go through with this project?
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