The Clam Rampant

Kasia March 7th, 2008

A while back, I was inspired by Jennie C. to look into raw milk, which got me onto the mailing list of a group called the Healthy Traditions Network. I haven’t been brave enough to try raw milk yet, but I got a very interesting e-mail from them the other day about organic meat.

Apparently, with the beef recall that took place, people have been looking for alternate sources of beef. There’s a meat processing company in Yale, Michigan (near Port Huron) called Roy’s, which has started offering “bundles” of organic beef and pork. “Hmm, interesting,” thought I, “but it’s probably WAY more expensive than my local Kroger.”

But I wondered anyway. So then I put the Canuck on the case. He wasn’t able to compare with my local Kroger (because he doesn’t live with me, and Kroger doesn’t post prices online because of different markets having different prices), but he did compare with some online grocery retailers, trying to get an average price. And you know what? Their organic meat is actually CHEAPER than online grocers! Yes, you have to pay for gas; but the smallest bundle has about 23 lb. of meat, so it’s not like you have to go every week.

Now, I expect that if you always get your meat on super-sale, or you always get it at Costco, or your brother is a butcher, you probably can get it cheaper than this. I’m planning to visit my local Kroger for some pricing comparisons this weekend. But in the meantime, I called Roy’s to get some more information.

You pick up the meat boxed and frozen. They are more than happy to wrap, say, the 3 lb. of farmer’s sausage in 1-lb. units, which is nice – I was anticipating having to have a marathon chopping and dividing session upon getting it home. She said odds are I wouldn’t even need a cooler, even in the summer, unless I had something like a pickup truck or was going a reeeeally long way.

The disadvantages (besides the obvious distance issue) are that you can’t substitute on the bundles, so you pick the best fit and deal with it, and it takes 3 – 3 1/2 weeks to get your meat once you place the order. Basically once you order, they slaughter your meat, hang it to age, then bundle and freeze it and call you to pick it up (which you don’t have to do right away). You pay on pick-up, not on ordering, and they take cash, check, Visa and Mastercard.

I went ahead and ordered the smallest bundle, as well as some boneless chicken breasts. What I want to see is (a) whether the meat is better than I get at Kroger, and (b) whether it’s enough better than the Kroger meat to justify any price disadvantage that Roy’s may have on organic vs. non-organic meat.

I’ll admit that I’m biased in favor of Roy’s. When I was growing up, my mother always got our meat from a local German butcher shop. (Unfortunately, that shop has long since closed.) I’ve been looking halfheartedly for a new meat source for several months anyway, preferably a butcher (as opposed to a Kroger), so this e-mail is fortuitously timed. And anyone who’s read up on practices at corporate farms can tell you that it’s more than a little offputting.

Anyway. If anyone wants to put in an order at Roy’s and share gas with me for driving up there to pick up, or just wants to know more about it, drop me an e-mail at clamrampant at yahoo dot com and I’ll forward you the message.

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