Escorting meat the entire day. Yesterday I picked up several hundred pounds of beef and brought it home to fill our farm store freezers (Sorry, no steaks yet, just ground beef. Steaks will be ready July 26).
Today I started with filling out invoices in the house, then selecting the pork pieces ordered in our farm store and loading them in the wagon, then adjusting the invoices, back to the machine shed for Keith to load my heavy duty 2 wheeled cart and went back to Chenoa Locker and picked up MORE ground beef.
Heading south on Rt 55 I dropped off the burger I had just picked up. Specifically 150 pounds for Naturally Yours in Normal (Thanks you Michelle) and then headed west on Rt 74 to deliver 50 pounds for Naturally Yours in Peoria. (Thank you Virginia)
That means that the ground beef they sell in their store from us, goes from our farm to the locker and direct to the store. I think that is so cool. A thirty to 50 mile trip in the comfort of my air conditioned, recently cleaned Ford Transit Wagon . Really Ford, are you not listening ? I would be the best ad for your wagon. Come on Call Me. 1-800-Midlife-Farmwife.
Back to burger. No 1500 mile trip (the ave. travel length most food endures before it gets to your local grocery store) where numerous people handle your meat in who knows WHAT kind of heathen way before it makes it to your table. Oh, I even dropped off a milk sample from our milk tank to be tested at Daily Labs. How efficient am I ? Not very. Keith had to remind me, AND get the sample AND put it ice water AND remind me to write the check for them.
I can't do everything you know.
On the way home I called Keith to tell him I was going to stop in Eureka to see sister Teresa who jsut put HER house on the market. We seesters are in a moving mood it seems. See her very clean, very spacious home here http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/900-Oakwood_Eureka_IL_61530_M84569-92214
That is when Keith tells me we still have MORE meat to get in Eureka and maybe I should pick it up being as I was in town and all.
Fine.
I pick up more meat in Eureka, a 1/2 hog we had processed a couple of weeks ago. Hmmmm did I order those cheese filled brats ? Wow. what a stroke of brillance and just before the 4th as well.
Enough, lets wind this up shall we ? I visited the wonderful sister and then stopped back at Chenoa to get the REST of the meat I could not fit in the wagon this morning. Now that I had several empty coolers seems I can take the rest home.
Which I did . Keith met me at our store and we put all that meat away and more in the house and in the machine shed freezers. I noticed we had several packages of yummy beef liver and knuckle bones for soup making. Where was I going to put all those ? We moved things around, shifting meat from one shelf to another. Fianlly all of it put away.
Needless to say...we had popcorn for supper.
WOW! I am exhausted just reading this! You definitely moved a LOT of meat! Holy Cow--literally!!!
ReplyDeleteHilarious! even to a buddhist...:)
ReplyDeleteTHAT was a BIG day.
ReplyDeleteYou made me tired from just reading this post!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with selling the farm and going after your dream!
Have a great weekend!
Why not take everything to one locker?
ReplyDeleteAnon., we use two lockers because there is only one certified organic locker in ALL of Illinois. That one is Bittners Locker in Eureka. Therefore since we are certified organic we must process any of our meat there which is to be sold with the USDA certified Organic Label such as the meat we sell to grocery stores. Our chefs however do not care one hoot about the organic label they care only about how the meat is raised so we get their carcasses processed in Chenoa the non-certified organic locker. If a chef only want half a hog then I'll have the other half processed for our farm store. Thus , all of our meat is raised by organic standards but not all the meat we sell has the organic label even though the animal itself is certified organic when it leaves our property. And now you know...the rest of the story.
ReplyDelete