Beef Cows Come to Dairyland and I'm Blogging Again

At Home in Dairyland, the Herd Waits Patiently for New Pasture

Well two busy months have passed and my blogging went down the tubes in a swirl of Movable Beast happenings and real estate work (I’m a Realtor too). So here’s what’s been happening with the herd… we moved them to Dairyland! Never heard of the place? It’s up Route 52 right on the border of Ulster and Sullivan Counties in the Catskill Mountains with views of both the Shawangunks and the Catskills. A former dairy farm with 200 acres of hillside pasture was available for us to graze and although it’s ½ hour away from our home, we were happy to have the opportunity to keep the animals eating grass longer into the winter season. One sunny day in late August, after Charles and I spent hours setting up perimeter fencing in front of the barbed wire fence that had begun to sag into the ground, we sat down to eat some bread and cheese and I felt like I’d finally realized a childhood dream … becoming Heidi. Well not exactly becoming, as I’ll never be her age again, but feeling something of what life must have been like for her, on those bright summer days in the mountains.

In addition to moving the whole herd, we also sent our two year old steers to slaughter through these last months. That process, never a happy one, this year included the added stress of using a new butcher and slaughter house which were in two different facilities in two different places, both too far away. Thankfully, we were using our reliable, experienced trucker, Mike Soule, and the wonderful Regional Food Bank freezer facility in Albany to store the frozen butchered beef. Much went smoothly but there were also time consuming “wrinkles” in our relationship with the butcher and to a smaller degree with the new start-up mobile slaughter house. Boy, did we learn a lot! In the end everything worked out well with our customers reporting that the meat is delicious.

I thank Meaghan for this wonderful site, Hudson Valley Food Network, for its user friendly, info-packed, up-to-date, posts! Also thanks for bringing us eight new customers who recently bought a whole animal and shared it for the low price of $3.70 a pound/hanging weight (approximately $289 for an eighth of 100% grass fed beef). Of course I also thank all our customers, new and old, not only for their purchases but for their understanding of those “wrinkle” times when our butcher communication broke down and we ended up having to re-box their orders, or have them delivered at a later date than we had promised. Although this year’s butcher gave us great yield we will be using another, closer, facility next year.

Interested in trying some of our beef, cooked to perfection? Go to The Village Tea Room in New Paltz or Gs on John St. in Kingston, or check out the Unison Auction on Nov. 13^th where a beef dinner cooked by Cathy Vogt, a Natural Chef, will be auctioned off as well as some of our steaks for you to cook. Soon you will also be able to purchase ground beef at the High Falls Food Coop, but of course you can cook your own meal to your own taste by ordering from us. We still have this year’s product available and ready for sale and look forward to getting your calls &/or e-mails with questions or orders. I just re-read Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma and feel reinvigorated as both a producer, and eater, of naturally raised, local food. Enjoy yours!

Evening Grazing After Moving to the New Pasture