We’ve had lots of feedback from our initial couple of months in business. Nearly all of the feedback has been positive. However, some customers have wished we could stock Fresh meat more readily. We thought it would be good to give an insight into why our Beef & Lamb is sold as frozen.
We are a small scale, independently run farm with 27 cattle and 300 sheep. Spread out over 225 acres of grazing pastures. As things stand we can allow one Bull or Heifer per month to go to the butchers. Once the meat has been processed, vacuum packed and returned to us we sort the Fresh meat for our pre-orders and get those delivered pronto!
Once that’s done, ALL the meat goes into the Freezer immediately. But why?
To retain all its FRESHNESS! The shelf life of the meat once we pick it up from our butcher is 1 week. That’s not very long, and to make our tiny business viable we cannot keep all our meat fresh as we would have to sell it all within a week. This would require us to send more bulls or heifers to the butchers and probably result in wasting some of our precious produce. Supermarkets and High Street Butchers can sell fresh meat readily. Their suppliers list is huge, can negotiate prices and can also cook their meat into pastries and pies when the shelf life of the meat nears its end. (This is something we are considering in the future)
But what about the quality of frozen meat?
Red meat is well known to be much better at freezing and not losing any of its tenderness and flavour. The water content in beef and lamb is very low which means freezer burn is very unlikely. All our meat is vacuum packed too, so there’s no chance of any air spoiling the meat. All we recommend is that you defrost the meat slowly, by putting it in the fridge first, and then out of direct sunlight. It just takes a bit of planning, to defrost the meat beforehand, but we promise you…. its worth the wait.
Are there any benefits of Frozen meat and food?
We think so!
- Our meat contains no preservatives. The freezer does that for us, its a natural way of preservation.
- Our frozen meat is ‘Fresher’ than Supermarket meat. It can take days if not weeks for it to hit the shelves – especially if the meat has been imported.
- Convenience! Stock up your freezer and use when you need. No need to waste meat that has gone off, and only defrost the amount of meat you need.
- Buying frozen food with its longer shelf life you can make fewer trips to the shops by car. Doing so reduces your individual carbon footprint.
- It’s cheaper! Our beef and lamb is cheaper than our local butchers that sell it fresh. We don’t have the overheads that are required to keep it fresh.
- Save your energy bills! Your freezer uses less energy if it is stocked up. Also by placing the freezer as far away from the cooker / fridge as possible will help to make it run more optimally. It is even better to have a separate chest freezer in the garage or a separate room. Running a freezer can cost as little as £18 per year!
Ok, so buying frozen might require a little change from you. We understand that it’s the norm to have fresh meat available in the shops. Buying from us, where your meat is reared locally, sustainable and more carbon efficient we think is more important than having it available fresh every day of the year.
Our beef and lamb is available to buy FROZEN now. Please get in touch orders@farndalefarm.co.uk
If you wish to have fresh our next meat will be available in January. Keep an eye on website homepage for details. Or pre-order now for delivery when it arrives.
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