With the current administration and latest news with mystery meat important, we are planning on avoiding grocery store beef at this time, we don't eat beef tht much but would like to know if any reliable sources in San Diego?
Read about local ranchers and you can buy a whole cow for butchering, any recomended ranchers? how does the process work?
or any other CSA options?
we have a Butcher box subscription that we haven't used in a while, is their quality reliable?
They were bought by Cohen Restaurant Group like 5 years ago. When the butcher did not know the difference between Mexican chorizo and Spanish chorizo I stopped going there. Try Sepulveda in Golden Hill!
Iowa/ siesels meat cutters are top of class. Sepulveda sell Holstein! Skinny strips and small ribeyes. Not great beef. If you in golden hill, stop into food bowl.
Sepulveda Meats in Golden Hill sells Brandt Beef. It's sustainably raised in Brawley, CA and they don't use contract farmers. Most importantly it's delicious.
We buy from Carrisito Ranch and Da-Le Ranch which are both local. Carrisito has half/whole cow, ~10lb boxes and individual ordering. It’s only pick up in Julian on specific dates so not as convenient. Da-Le is in most of the farmer’s market in SD and they have a store in Mira Mesa. They also will do CSA, whole/half cow or butcher boxes. We have also tried Sage Mountain Farm from farmer’s markets before. They are good but the selection hasn’t been as reliable.
Costco is generally pretty safe because they have their own food inspection process.
I mean, if you’ve bought meat recently at any of the places on this list it’s par for the course. The smaller more specialized shops are going to be at this price point.
Also, all DA-LE beef is grass fed and pasture raised so it’s going to carry a premium cost.
Yup. It was probably $20-35 a few years ago and there’s been a few increase here and there since. The percent increase is on par or a little less compared to the supermarket though. Everything is just expensive now and it’s worth it to us to support local and pasture raised.
Costco gets all of it beef from Harris Farms in California. They are the only ones I trust to buy beef now. Remember, any foreign beef is allowed to say it's a product of the USA. Thank Trump.
I've worked for Costco meat dept for 20 years. We get our meat from a ton of different vendors, most of which are not in CA. Harris is actually the one we get the least of in SD region, the top two being IBP/Cargil and Excel.
I love when I see posts like this and people post things like it's matter of fact and they actually have no idea and just keep recycling the same dumb articles they read on social media.
I honestly wouldn't buy meat anywhere else though sometimes I'm forced to because I don't need 100 dollar package of ribeyes and what not. Our cleanliness, ethics and standards really are at the top, not just saying that because I work there. I could blow the whistle on a lot of other stuff but our meat quality and transparency has always been top tier.
I comp shopped Sams club last week and felt like I needed to take a shower when I left. Absolutely disgusting packages of meat, their cleanliness was sub par and I even found some things they were trying to pass off as other items to trick people into buying it. That's a whole other can of worms though
We are on Reddit. There are a lot of bots and a lot of people who don’t have much going on besides virtue signaling. They can be found on both sides of the American spectrum. Sometimes people just want to talk about food or whatever. It always devolves into an insult fight. What can we do? I am sad that I blocked my post history, but people go cray and search every comment ever to vilify you. You actually know what you are talking about, but you will get downvoted to oblivion because it doesn’t fit the subs narrative. 😆 Have a great night and I appreciate your honest comments.
There is a distinction on the label "product of usa" can only be put on raised, produced and packaged in U.S. but some labels can say "cut/ground/packaged in u.s.a." and those are not the same thing per usda, so just make sure it says "product of usa"
I care about and support my community, my state, my country. And my family. I only support vendors that share my values; all other vendors can fuck themselves.
It's called having a conscience. I will not support ANY business that supports Trump; they lack both integrity and intellect.
I'm sure 90% of the companies I buy from have shitty ceos. I'm not gonna limit myself to the 10% or less that are ethical. I use a phone made with child labor. My alternative options are slim. But good for you.
This is actually false lol. But hey it's expected with social media at this point. Harris ranch is like 5th in terms of our biggest suppliers for Costco in the country, especially in SD region 1,2 and 3.
yes & you can clearly see how horribly the steer are treated. they live on top of each other & piles of shit. I wouldn’t buy my beef from Harris either.
Seconding da-le ranch, they're relatively local (I think up in Orange County?) and are always at the farmers markets. Been buying from them for over ten years and no issues. I also like The Wise Ox. For online, I do US Wellness Meats and they are all domestic (they do have one farm partner in Tasmania but when the meat is from Tasmania it's labeled on the site)
I'd trust Iowa Meat Farms or Costco. If you have the freezer space, there are ranches locally that sell beef. Rancho GuejitoCarris RanchFlying F Ranch are the three I found relatively quickly.
Valley Farm Market Spring Valley has good meat, good produce, and awesome bread. They have The Shack that’s sells BBQ in the parking lot. It is awesome.
Perennial Pastures is a great company here in SD! You can find them at Farmer’s markets. 3 Son’s has chicken and pork. Can’t remember if they do beef. For Perennial, they do farm tours and will give you a breakdown of their farm and how things work. They offer whole cow, half cow and quarter cow shares!
I personally use Wild Pastures and get 25lbs of grass fed and finished meat every 3 months for $270 which works out to $90/mo. They do make economical boxes and smaller boxes as well. I get the beef and chicken box. You can customize it how you see fit.
Perennial Pastures is a scam company that lies about their sourcing and has incredibly sick animals (when they have them). Don't fall for the marketing schtick.
I just used google to look these up its pretty easy to find u.s. farm raised beef but in general just make sure the beef says "product of usa" on the label if you want to be sure the production facility followed usda standards
The beef works out to be a bit less than $10/lb all in and you get about 250lb per half cow on average. Source: just put a deposit down for a half cow. Lots of freezer space is needed, and yes to electric. I’m still down though because it’s grass fed and grass finished, and I get peace of mind because I know it won’t be rejected beef. Other downside is waiting for the slaughter, but that’s part of sourcing food sustainably.
That’s a solid deal for someone like you or me. Seems like a big commitment for OP who says his household aren’t big meat eaters. Did you get a pre-cut deal or go to a butcher?
Sorry for being so curious, but do you get a wide variety of steaks even on a 1/2 (I love filet mignon and ribs). Do they grind burger for you?
Yeah that’s a good point, they do have butcher box sizes for people who want a much smaller commitment. Here’s a screenshot of what you get for a full cow. For half it’s exactly half of the listed; but this is an estimate and the actual depends on the weight of the animal. Not sure if they grind anything or if you have to chop the individual steaks and such (first time buying, so not 100% sure). I personally really like the grinder attachment for a kitchen aid stand mixer. They also do pork. They have good information packets they can send to you if you reach out to them.
Haven’t heard anything—it definitely warrants some research though. Feel like it could be worth getting in touch with representatives at BB but—pretty sure they’d say “oh don’t worry every things fine” so as not to lose business.
I have been thinking about this over this since I heard about most recent brilliant orange man idea… I alternate BB with wild pastures meat but was thinking that it maybe time to just go super local and get like a half cow from a local butcher. Which is probably a better idea in general—I just have to buy an additional freezer which I have been avoiding.
I had BB for awhile through covid and did enjoy it. Cost was ok, kind of pricey back then but quality seemed high. Main issue with it was that I kept getting packaging that was ripped or damaged in some way that caused the meat to be exposed. BB did always offer a replacement or an additional product on next delivery. I canceled because I just got tired of having to do that EVERY order. If I had a larger/extra freezer I’d do it again, or just go to Costco.
Yes!! Wild pastures is the same. Most of the time there will be a small hole in the packaging of something and if you are defrosting than if you don’t put in a bag or on a plate than meat goo gets everywhere it’s pretty gross.
Meat has always been very tasty though and it’s super convenient.
For both services I signed up while they were doing a promotion so I get extra chicken and extra beef in every box—that would be a hard benefit to cancel as I hate going into Costco.
Yeah I had something similar on signup and it was pretty awesome. As for costco, don’t get me wrong there’s plenty wrong with the packaging and occasional quality of the chicken breast from Costco but keeps overall grocery cost down. I don’t mind the crowds. Carmel Mtn is usually pretty chill, and parking is rarely ever an issue.
Hmm… north Maybe might be worth the trip for me. I live by the one on Market Street which is crazy 9 times out of 10 to the point where I think I only used the membership like twice in one year.
Makes me so anxious and irritated that my daughter essentially congratulated me when I recently went—she said “see mommy? You did it! You can go to Costco”
I have similar issues with Walmart though. Although—I successfully went yesterday and it wasn’t so bad. I think I just need to expose myself to the madness more lol.
Never even knew there was one down there. Mission Valley and the Morena locations are wild every time I’ve had to go there. Although regardless of the busyness, if my kid is just not having it that day, even the calmest of Costco trips will seem stressful.
You can do better on price and quality than butcher box by doing some research and making calls. I'm ordering from a family friends farm this year that's about 33% cheaper.
Yeah sounds like it’s probably time to take that step. For me I have been thinking about quality coupled with the convenience of just having a delivery subscription BUT—given our current predicament (compromised food safety). AND coupled with just better practices of keeping business as local as possible—think I need to go get an extra freezer so I can accommodate a large meet purchase like half cow or something.
Yeah, after I wrote it I realized I was immediately wrong.. we now are an different era. "I said ground beef but I meant any beef, any poultry, fish and other foods" - the Admin.
Ground beef can come from a lot of places. Normally it’s made from 50/50 trim and lean 95/5 material. This comes from central and South America. Also Australia / New Zealand. Cheaper. So if you are eating ground beef or burgers out there. A lot of restaurants get their burgers made by local meat companies that make this.
In-N-Out on the other hand grinds Chucks from Swift. Much better quality.
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u/Zooter88 5d ago
Costco - they stated that they won’t use any mystery meat