We Ate a Rib-eye for Dessert!

In my last post I explained that we recently harvested our first two pasture-raised Black Angus steer. They lived on our lush, green pasture year round, eating grass and clover during the growing season and locally-produced hay in the winter.  They also got a handful of sweet feed in a bucket every day.  We did that so we could easily entice them back if they ever got out of the fence, which they did only once.  All we had to do was shake a bucket with little sweet feed in it and they came running! Because not everyone likes 100% grassfed beef, or even knows how to cook it properly, we finished our beef with a little grain.  That meant that during the last month we fed the steers a one to two pounds of grain each day.  This added some internal fat to the meat, making it naturally tender and juicy.

The steers were processed at Wells, Jenkins, Wells Meats (USDA inspected) in Forest City, NC.  They were such nice people to work with!  There the carcass was aged for two weeks; another secret to ensuring tender, flavorful meat.  Supermarket meat is rarely aged anymore because it is too costly a process.  Our meat was then butchered, vacuum packed, and frozen.

Today we sold our first two quarter-sides of beef.  I was envious that our customers were probably going to enjoy our beef before we did!  We already had a spaghetti dinner planned for the evening, so we ate that, but then celebrated our first sales by grilling a ribeye steak for dessert.  That's a picture of it above.  Oh my!  THAT was a good steak.  A very good steak.  It was juicy, flavorful, tender, and fragrant.  It was the best steak I have eaten in a very, very long time.  It was so good that we decided then and there to have steak for Thanksgiving dinner.  Now I can't wait to sample a roast and the ground beef.

We still have quarters for sale.  If you are interested, please read the post from October 19th for details or just email us at davis2722@bellsouth.net.