Uneducated Fool Looking For Fancy Food

[notafarmeryet]

Howdy y'all!

I'm new to this site and forums, so I wanted to ask you guys your own professional opinions on which farms are the absolute best of the best in the industry for each type of meat and/or produce?

I've had Bresse chicken, Wagyu, Swiss calf liver, veal, lamb from central Asia, pork from Ukraine, beef from all over the great USA (as well as Argentina, Japan, etc.), heritage chickens and chickens with all kinds of yellow fat under their skin which were butchered fresh as can be as well as all types of other great foods/produce.

I want to know what you guys think about each type:

Lamb
Beef
Poultry (Chicken & Turkey and eggs too)
Pork
Veggies & Fruits (lettuce, cucumbers, etc.)

Lay it all on me! Who makes the best stuff? Why is it the best?


Not worried about price, just looking for the best raised/healthiest and/or best tasting.

 

[used red MN]

Hello nota…, welcome to YT! In my opinion with maybe an exception or two staying away from anything produced or distributed by factions support by the “mainstream” is best. Without a doubt knowing the actual person who raised the produce or livestock that you are purchasing is by far the best way to know what you are getting. For example the well known “Omaha Steaks” are tender and flavorful, but they have been “chemically tenderized” and seasoned to provide that consistent product. Whether that good or bad is in the eyes of the beholder.

 

[paul]

That’s a big topic with a lot of opinions that will never change and very little facts on any of it.

So it is a difficult question for a machinery forum.

I think the best is what you get used to and enjoy yourself. Kind of like, which pizza is best? Or which is better a Ford or a Chevy, a John Deere or an IHC?

With food being a constant expense your whole life it often comes down to finances. I’m sure there are some wonderful cuts of meat that cost $100 a meal. But that isn’t very practical for 95% of us, and not even possible for 75% of us. So, who cares, it’s pointless….

Myself, I tend to shy away from those who self promote their food as some sort of better, sustainable, our stuff doesn’t stink type of place. I’m just not comfortable with their type of advertising, where they put everyone else down to sell their meat at a cost higher than need be. It leaves out most consumers, and is very narrow specialty selling. As well I find the ‘grass only’ beef which is often their type of marketing to be very lacking in flavor and texture. But that is my personal opinion and it is indeed mine. Blah.

Likewise I just don’t like the super cheap stuff. I very rarely go it a dollar store type of place, one time I looked through the canned section and they had a little tin of canned meat. I looked at the ingredients and it listed ‘meat’ as the only description on the whole can. Wow. Horse, kangaroo, beef, chicken? What part of the animal as well as what type? Yea, I’m not shopping for meat at a dollar store, nor do we like Walmart and such.

We are blessed with a couple good grocery stores in our town and can search and find good meats at them. Some days it’s picked out and not as much. You just have to shop. On balance there is a lot of good food there if you are capable of shopping and looking a bit. It is an affordable and keeps everyone fed and healthy, assuming one makes good choices of how to prepare the meat and eats appropriate portions. Most of the unhealthy we fear is more about the add one and extras and double helpings we do, not the actual meat someone put in the warehouse.

Growing your own meat is the only way you really can control what you get, if that is important t you. And then your critter genetics and your feed choices and the weather can all affect what you actually end up with. But by the time you get all the expense paid of doing this, you will declare your home grown meat the best ever no matter how dry, tough, or good it is. You have too much invested in it to think anything else!

I hope you find what you are looking for, but I’m not really sure what your question is, or what answers you are trying to influence.

Paul

 

[Hoofer B]

Nota, Welcome to the site. My best advice for whatever it is worth, is to buy local. Find a source of beef and then buy a quarter or half of beef where you got to meet the farm family that raised it and conditions that is was raised in. Better yet, find a way to grow and raise your own food. Start small and build from there. I assume that is your plan because of your user handle. Good luck Bill

 

[Mark-Ia]

www.ChopLocal.com to buy direct from the farmer. My daughters online business

 

[timcasbolt]

I usually had pretty good luck buying my meat from a local farmer. He would deliver it to a butcher shop and I would tell them how to cut it up and package it for my needs.

 

[Turkeyfoot]

Howdy y'all!

I'm new to this site and forums, so I wanted to ask you guys your own professional opinions on which farms are the absolute best of the best in the industry for each type of meat and/or produce?

I've had Bresse chicken, Wagyu, Swiss calf liver, veal, lamb from central Asia, pork from Ukraine, beef from all over the great USA (as well as Argentina, Japan, etc.), heritage chickens and chickens with all kinds of yellow fat under their skin which were butchered fresh as can be as well as all types of other great foods/produce.

I want to know what you guys think about each type:

Lamb
Beef
Poultry (Chicken & Turkey and eggs too)
Pork
Veggies & Fruits (lettuce, cucumbers, etc.)

Lay it all on me! Who makes the best stuff? Why is it the best?


Not worried about price, just looking for the best raised/healthiest and/or best tasting.

Welcome to the site. You can learn a lot about all that stuff here. But I'd recommend being a little more specific in your queries. Also, you might try posting them on the tractor tales forum too. I raise all my own meat and hunt deer. It's pretty darned hard to beat meat (little Freudian slip there) you've raised, butchered and processed yourself, in my opinion. Even more so with veggies. Hang out here and you will hear and see a lot of interesting things about home food production.

 

[jwal10]

1. fresh. grown local from trusted growers.

Lamb, hair sheep, no lanolin taste
Meat goats, not dairy but I ate the young from my milk goats as I am lactose intolerant.
Beef, well marbled but less fat. Angus or holstein, grass fed heifer, but I only eat beef ground. I hunt elk, deer, bear and turkey.
Poultry (Chicken & Turkey and eggs too) Pasture raised, farm fresh. I can not stand today's soft, fat, tasteless poultry dunked in Clorox. For broth, soup or casserole and any thing other than fried or "chicken dinner" (which I do not eat) I would rather have a retired pastured egg layer, has flavor
Pork I like my pigs smaller than commercial size, not fat finished. I fed mine whole oats with some goat milk, kitchen scraps and garden waste as slop. basically a 160 lb feeder pig. No brassica's for the last 60 days, it taints the flavor.
Veggies & Fruits (lettuce, cucumbers, etc.) Home grown fresh organic....James

 

[cjunrau]

Howdy y'all!

I'm new to this site and forums, so I wanted to ask you guys your own professional opinions on which farms are the absolute best of the best in the industry for each type of meat and/or produce?

I've had Bresse chicken, Wagyu, Swiss calf liver, veal, lamb from central Asia, pork from Ukraine, beef from all over the great USA (as well as Argentina, Japan, etc.), heritage chickens and chickens with all kinds of yellow fat under their skin which were butchered fresh as can be as well as all types of other great foods/produce.

I want to know what you guys think about each type:

Lamb
Beef
Poultry (Chicken & Turkey and eggs too)
Pork
Veggies & Fruits (lettuce, cucumbers, etc.)

Lay it all on me! Who makes the best stuff? Why is it the best?


Not worried about price, just looking for the best raised/healthiest and/or best tasting.

In the beef department find a steer with some Holstein in it. keep it till 2.5 years old before butchering. fed corn silage and some barley is the best testing I have had. Second on the beef is DO NOT age over 10 days and not 1 day in the wrong cooler. I worked in a few butcher shops and can tell you the taste of aged meat to me is awful. think A&W burgers. If you can handle that taste then more power to you. I know when I bite into a good steak it may not be the most tender but the flavor is great. My animals get cut and wrapped 2 days after slaughter. Fat content makes them tenderer than lean.
eggs and chickens: we do cornish chickens and they are 6-7 months old and 10 lbs dressed. We give 100 birds a pen 50 yards by 30 yards. they get food on one end and water on the other. all the scraps from the garden and corn and oats. lots of fresh air and exercise and they grow slower and have a much better taste.
eggs from outside running chickens have a very dark yolk and to me that flavor is top notch, my dad hates the taste. we grow are vegies and the best tasting carrots come out of the most manured area of the garden. don't ask me why but they are so sweet when grown in 2 year old manure with not alot of added dirt.
we find that variety in different soil makes a difference. kinda like coffee. you take your grinds to somebody elses house and use there water and tastes completely different. every body tastes different but for me the least chemical is the best. My opinion only

 

[wore out]

Howdy y'all!

I'm new to this site and forums, so I wanted to ask you guys your own professional opinions on which farms are the absolute best of the best in the industry for each type of meat and/or produce?

I've had Bresse chicken, Wagyu, Swiss calf liver, veal, lamb from central Asia, pork from Ukraine, beef from all over the great USA (as well as Argentina, Japan, etc.), heritage chickens and chickens with all kinds of yellow fat under their skin which were butchered fresh as can be as well as all types of other great foods/produce.

I want to know what you guys think about each type:

Lamb
Beef
Poultry (Chicken & Turkey and eggs too)
Pork
Veggies & Fruits (lettuce, cucumbers, etc.)

Lay it all on me! Who makes the best stuff? Why is it the best?


Not worried about price, just looking for the best raised/healthiest and/or best tasting.

Dunno where you are at and exactly what you are seeking, but check out the link below.

https://ndfu.org/about/restaurants/

 

[michakamp]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[MarkB_MI]

The fried grasshoppers I tried once were pretty tasty, but it takes a lot of them to make a meal.

 

[notafarmeryet]

You guys are awesome with all these answers! I really like some of the suggestions here. I'm in the DMV area, but am interested in buying from farms that practice the techniques that you guys are using. Any recommendations?

 

[Mark-Ia]

www.ChopLocal.com. you can choose from farmers and ranchers all around the United States. From Beef, Pork, Lamb, SeaFood ect.

 

[notafarmeryet]

www.ChopLocal.com. you can choose from farmers and ranchers all around the United States. From Beef, Pork, Lamb, SeaFood ect.

I am already ordering from there! But I do want to know the individual recommendations of others on the board for special stuff in particular.