Meat...$$$...Argh!!!

[Spirit Deer]

A lot of corn which used to go for cattle food is now being used to produce ethanol. You know, that stuff that is cheaper but cuts your gas mileage so you might as well just buy pure gasoline to begin with, and which uses massive amounts of gas to produce.

Plus there was a bad drought last year and the year before, so crop yields were down and cattle food prices went up.

It's been sort of a perfect storm of bad things happening to push prices higher the past couple of years.

[hmcart]

My family loves their meat and we do pretty well I think at the store. We have been shopping almost exclusively at Aldi and Dollar General this month. 3lb bags of frozen chicken tenders(not the fried kind) are $5.99 here and 1lb frozen ground turkey is $1.49. We buy those for most of our meat consumption.

[zakity]

I just learned about an online co. called.........

www.zaycon.com

HAS ANYONE EVER ORDERED FROM THEM?

I order from them.

Chicken:
The chicken breasts are really tasty. They are way better than what you get in the stores and it is way cheaper. You have to cut them up into meal sized portions though.

There is a certain amount of "waste". I bag up mine and C's "waste" and make homemade cat food out of it. My cats think that they are in heaven.

C tosses a portion of her box in her crockpot and then baggied and labeled when it is cooked. She does some baggies up diced and some just sliced. She also bags up some raw and puts marinade in the baggie, labels the baggies, and tosses them in the freezer. My boxes just get cleaned up, divvied up into baggies, labeled, and then tossed in the freezer.


Bacon:
The bacon is really good. It comes in 7.5 lb packages (4 four a package, so 30 lbs total). We just toss the 7.5 lb packages in the freezer. Most people that I talk to bags it up into the sizes that their family needs and then freezes them. C said that her husband can eat the bacon from Zaycon, but he can't anywhere else. It gives him a tummyache if it is from anywhere else.

Sausages:
They offered german sausages once. We tried them, but they weren't a hit for the family. I don't think that Zaycon has had the sausages again. I could see people not really being happy with them. They were a little spicy.


Hamburger:
They have hamburger also. We don't purchase it because we buy a whole beef and we get more than enough hamburger. If we didn't get a cow, I could see us ordering it.


Other foods:
They have other things that you can order. During the summer, they had fruit and such. I haven't tried it yet.

[Ponderer]

I just registered for Zaycon. So near as I can tell you can only place orders when they are in your area, and only for the items they list as being available for that event?

I just missed the cut off for my location as it closed on 1/13. It only listed chicken breast so does that mean that no bacon would have been available? Just trying to get a feel for this for the next time it is avaible for placing orders.

[zakity]

They have "events" randomly throughout the year. I haven't gotten the "cycle" down yet. I don't know if they really have a "cycle". They are a newer company and I think they are working on what that cycle is still.

They will email you when the next event is scheduled.

[frugalfranny]

Thanks zakity.......and uniwolf.......for your response.

I went onsite and looked around........I have to either get another freezer or get mine much lower before I can order 40 lbs of meat.
Think another freezer is in my future........have too much garden stuff that I want to save too.

Zakity.......you mentioned "waste"............why so much? What is it?

I have heard rave reviews about their chicken........so may have to try it.

[mndtrp]

I got boneless skinless chicken breasts yesterday for $1.79 a pound, which didn't seem too bad since it's not the frozen kind pumped full of salt solution.

I buy the same, at the same-ish price. Sometimes 20-30 cents cheaper.

A lot of corn which used to go for cattle food is now being used to produce ethanol. You know, that stuff that is cheaper but cuts your gas mileage so you might as well just buy pure gasoline to begin with, and which uses massive amounts of gas to produce.

It will be interesting to see what happens, now that the ethanol subsidies aren't being renewed. I only buy cattle raised on grass, so the corn prices shouldn't have much to do with it, although I'm sure it does somehow.

Plus there was a bad drought last year and the year before, so crop yields were down and cattle food prices went up.

It's been sort of a perfect storm of bad things happening to push prices higher the past couple of years.

My butcher also said it's because places like Wal-Mart are getting into supplying the better cuts of beef.

The OP looks like she got decent prices. The only way to really do much better would be to buy from someone growing the meat locally. Even then, you may not be able to.

My grandfather-in-law works on a farm that raises cattle and chickens, among other animals. A quarter cow comes in at about $2.50 a pound, while whole chickens are about $.40 a pound.

[zakity]

Zakity.......you mentioned "waste"............why so much? What is it?

The "waste" is the fat that you cut off and the "juice" that is in the bottom of the bags. We also cut off the bits that have a vein in it because it grosses me out to leave it in. There really isn't that much, maybe a quart size baggie full (depending on how much you cut off) per box if you don't count the "juice". It varies depending on how fat the chicken were and how careful you are when you cut off the fat. At my house, as we get deeper in to the 40 lbs or 80 lbs (if I order two boxes), we get less careful. It also depends on who is helping because the boys aren't as careful as DH and I are and we wind up with more waste when they help.

But, between C's waste and my waste, I have some pretty happy cats.