s/o grocieries

[piper]

I mentioned in my post that we might be Cowpooling with another family.

Has anyone ever done this?  Did it work out? 

[soozy87]

Yes, we split one with my brother and my parents. A little different because my parents grew it themselves, but still much cheaper.

[piper]

Jul 29, 2013 14:21:53 GMT -5 @kizmet said:

Is this where you go in and buy half a cow? I've always wanted to do this.

Yes. We have been thinking about it for a while and found a family at our CSA that wants to do it. 

DH is concerned that the meat will not be split 50/50. 

[circa1978]

Yes. I split a side with my sister earlier this summer. The meat is incredible. We spent about $380 for, what is that, like a 1/4 a cow? The ground beef is going fast, because that's pretty much what H can cook, but I expect the other cuts to meet our red meat needs for a year.

ETA: We weren't able to split it EXACTLY down the middle when it came to some cuts, but we got pretty close. Then we just swapped for what we wanted. So if I wanted a filet and she wanted a bunch of soup bones, she got more pounds but I got a better cut. 

[Dusky]

We've done it before, and it worked really well. It ended up being about the same price per pound as the cheapest cut from the grocery, so it was quite the steal on some of the better cuts. We bought a half and split it with another family.

[piper]

Jul 29, 2013 14:25:33 GMT -5 circa1978 said:

Yes. I split a side with my sister earlier this summer. The meat is incredible. We spent about $380 for, what is that, like a 1/4 a cow? The ground beef is going fast, because that's pretty much what H can cook, but I expect the other cuts to meet our red meat needs for a year.

ETA: We weren't able to split it EXACTLY down the middle when it came to some cuts, but we got pretty close. Then we just swapped for what we wanted. So if I wanted a filet and she wanted a bunch of soup bones, she got more pounds but I got a better cut. 

good to know.  I was thinking that we should go with 1/4 for our first shot. 

Yes, DH is more concerned with cuts than lbs. 

[AlpineSlide]

The meat locker you use for processing will take care of splitting it evenly. We've done it many times, usually we get 1/4 cow but have done 1/2 as well. It works out to be a lot cheaper than store bought and tastes so much better.

(eta- fixed my typo)

[nomad100]

We are actually picking up our 1/4 steer tonight after work.

Our CSA farmer raises the steers and pigs. We are lucky in that we don't need to buy the whole steer. They take care of matching us with others that want 1/4s or halves. We also get a 1/2 pig every year.

[sergey]

We've never gone in on a cow with other people but have ordered 1/4 cow and a 1/2 pig straight from the ranch before. The cow was grass fed and finished and was the best tasting meat I've ever had. I have no idea how it worked out price wise vs buying in store but the convenience and guaranteed quality was absolutely worth it.

[lilybug]

Kinda. xFIL raises cows, and splits one with us every year as our Christmas present. You need a big freezer, but I'd say it's worth it. The locker will split the meat for you, so it's not like you'll be fighting with the other couple over the last t-bone. At least the locker FIL uses does. Maybe there are others that let you haggle with each other.

[snickers]

My sister has done it and loves it, but it takes up a lot of space in her freezer.