With “Pink Slime” being all the rage these days, I figured it was about time to update you on some more of the amazing local food sources we have available to us here in the Hudson Valley. I cannot stress this enough; there is NO reason for you to still be purchasing “meats” in the grocery store, when you can go straight to the source! No reason at all! First up, Beef.
Words cannot describe how amazing the beef from the Osterhoudt Family really is, seriously, it is like NO other. We purchased a beef share in the fall, it was $3.08 per lb, hanging weight for 3 – 1/4 shares. I organized the share and included in it my sister, some friends and a few other people (Sophie you are awesome!) from Hudson Valley Food Network. This was a fantastic way to try a lot of different cuts; but eventually we ran out of beef, so about two weeks ago we went back up to replenish. I would recommend not getting a share unless you are going to get an entire 1/4 share for yourself. I think it works out better to just go to the farm and get what you like. Price wise and poundage wise. For what I spent this past time, I really got a lot of beef to feed my family with. The farm is like no other, I’ve talked about it here at length previously, if you would like some more background on the farm, please read on here. It is a closed farm where the cows live and are harvested all on the same property. There is no “shipping them out”, no stress on the animal. Just a beautiful walk up the hill, the way it should be.
The Osterhoudt family has their own harvesting facility, and WOW, it is beautiful. Impeccably clean and well maintained. Spotless doesn’t even begin to describe how clean it is! For more pics of the facility and the farm, check out the album here. I just adore Holly and Claude, they are two of the most lovely people you will ever meet. Holly is the kind of person I just want to sit and enjoy a cup of tea with and chat with and learn from; she is really inspiring to me! I called her in advance to plan on a time to go up, and make sure they would be “ready for us” since Becky and I were both planning on stocking up. The first weekend we had in mind they were just going to be harvesting, so we planned on going the following weekend. THIS is the kind of relationship everyone should have with where their food comes from! It really doesn’t get any better than this!!!! The prices are different for each cut, but I can say with all honesty, there really isn’t much of a difference between their prices and the supermarket. Further reason for you to skip the “grocery store” and go straight to the farm!!!! I didn’t make a list of everything I bought, but I can tell you, I got aabout 20lbs of ground beef, and lots and LOTs of steaks!!!! I spent about $150 and my freezer is PACKED full. I will have enough beef for a few months. I can’t even convey how convenient it is to go there. We brought my niece Taylor with us, and she loved it! They welcome children at the farm, and it is a great learning experience for them. You just tell Holly what cuts (or ground) you want and she rings you up. There is absolutely no reason at all that you should STILL be buying “meat” that is mass produced and packed in plastic and foam. THIS is how meat should look! This skirt steak which you see here in its package, when unfolded, is about three times that size! Yes, that picture below it, is indeed what came out of that package. You won’t find that at the grocery; it fed us for two meals!
You can reach Holly and Claude by calling them at 845-687-9521, and leaving a message. They will call you back. And tell them you found out about them from me, Jessica. 
- CEO Natural Angus Beef, 3866 Atwood Road, Stone Ridge NY 12484
Onto Pork. I don’t know what made me ask him, but for some reason, something just told me to ask my buddy Ted if he knew of anywhere, and guess what, he did! (Thanks Ted!) He pointed me in the direction of Meiller Slaughterhouse, in Pine Plains. I called them and asked a few questions. They offer a pork share, half a hog or a whole hog’ half is 100lbs of pork, priced at $1.75 per pound, talk about a great deal! You will NOT find prices like that at a “supermarket!” So again, my sister and I split it, about 50lbs of pork each, and it was a GREAT deal!
Everything came cut, wrapped and frozen, it was perfect and ready to go right in the fridge. I have never had such a tender, flavorful pork in my life. It is definitely the pork equivalent of the beef from CEO! And I am just talking about the pork that came straight from them, I haven’t even gotten to the cured cuts yet! The ham, hocks, and bacon came fresh (it all needed to be cured) so we took that to my good friend Mark Elia, of Elia’s Catering Company & House of Sausage, and for a very reasonable price he cured it all for us! He cut the ham after curing it, giving us two HUGE hams to enjoy.
One we ate right away (served 10adults and LOTS of leftovers) and the second we froze and had this past Sunday for Easter Dinner (served about 14 plus leftovers)!! The ham hocks I used for a huge batch of split pea soup that I split (no pun intended) between Becky’s household and mine.
The bacon…. oh the bacon… bacon as far as the eye can see! Once it was sliced up there were 10 packages of bacon. Mark not only cured the bacon, but also sliced and sealed it (he’s got a special machine) for easy freezing and storage, talk about service!! I did not expect that bacon, but once it is cut, it is as if it multiplies! I almost forgot about their sausage; their sausage is mind blowing!!! I mean REALLY REALLY amazing. It is by far the best breakfast sausage I have ever found!!!!
There is no earthly reason you should ever purchase pork in a store again. There just isn’t. If you can’t fit 100 lbs in your freezer than split it with someone! It is super easy to set up an order with them. Just give them a call let them know if you are looking for half of a hog (100lbs) or a whole hog (200lbs) and they will let you know when they will be harvesting. For us, it was about a 2 week lead time between us placing the order and the pork being ready to pick up. So it’s a very quick process. Once you pick the pork up you will just need to take the fresh/unfrozen cuts to Mark for them to be cured, and that takes about 2 weeks, and is well worth the wait! He really knows what he is doing and will bring out the flavors of the pork. I would recommend calling Mark once you know when you will be picking up the Pork, that way it’s all planned ahead!
- Meiller Slaughterhouse, (518)398-7711 and they are located at 2768 Church Street, Pine Plains NY
- Mark Elia, (845)691-9312 and he is located at 85 Vineyard Ave, Highland NY 12528
Originally I planned on including poultry information in this as well, but I don’t want to overwhelm you too much. So I’ll save that for another post VERY soon!!! But enjoy, and if you have any questions feel free to ask me. Enjoy and ! :-)
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