For those of you who don’t want to buy a side of beef or can’t make it to the farmers’ market (or, as now, the market isn’t open), a few retailers have begun carrying locally-raised meat.
You can find Hastings Farm grass-fed beef and lamb at Virginia’s Health Foods in Mobile and Ever’man Natural Foods Coop in Pensacola, FL. Their Local Harvest listing also indicates you can find it at Marley’s Global Eats in Fairhope and StageCoach Cafe in Stockton AL. I was at Virginia’s today and there was stew beef, ground beef, steak, soup bones, and other cuts, and several cuts of lamb.
You can buy beef from Irvington Cattle Company at the Bakery Cafe Market in Mobile. Their cattle is pastured on grass and supplemented with grain, and the beef is dry-aged for 21 days. We’ve had several pieces this year and the flavor is excellent.
NOTE 5/25/10: The Bakery Cafe Market has been closed for some time now. you can buy Irvington beef at Hazel’s Market in Daphne.
One Comment
Reader Cindy writes: I read yesterday’s post about local meat, and thought I’d share that I’ve been very happy with free-range chicken & pork bought recently from Boutwell Farms, near Montgomery. LuLu’s restaurant has been buying their beef from them. While not extremely local, they’re not too far away, and provide delivery. I mentioned something about them to Randall Hastings (Hastings Farm), he indicated that he supplies Boutwell with some of their cattle, so as he said, what’s good for one local farmer, helps another. Boutwell make several trips a month to Fairhope, Gulf Shores, & Pensacola for drop off, but no trips to Mobile. You can order individual cuts of beef, pork & chicken off of Boutwell’s website, which makes it pretty easy. I’m not sure about the pricing, but have to assume it’s cheaper than buying the same product in the store. We’re still enjoying bulk beef we bought from Hastings back in the spring.
http://www.boutwellfarms.com/