Hunting for CSAs (community-supported agriculture)
Yes I know that most of the meat I buy in the grocery store comes from animals that lived miserable lives. I've heard the stories of egg-laying chickens crammed into cages, barely able to take even a few steps their entire lives. Ditto for the tales of pigs in overcrowded pens biting each other's tails off. The environmental devastation from pig shit was new to me. (Gee, thanks _53 for posting a link to that. You nearly ruined my boyfriend's appetite for the bacon-wrapped pork chops I was serving up!)
There's no way I'm going vegetarian. Humans are omnivores and I accept that we kill to get our meat. Besides, I could never give up bacon. So I went to farmer's markets, thinking that I'd get my meat from small farms where the cows grazed in open fields, the chickens scratched about in the dirt, and the pigs wallowed in mud. But that meat cost 2 to 5 times as much as the cheap meat on sale at the grocery store. The whole chicken I could get for as little as 79 cents/pound? Try $5/lb! Reeling from sticker shock, I shrugged and said, "Those reports are from nutso PETA extremists anyhow. They're exaggerating." And how seriously am I supposed to take a group that says keeping pets is another form of animal exploitation? Spittle-spewing zealots. But I also told myself that when I wasn't so strapped for cash, I would revisit the issue.
And little by little I have. I've switched to buying the cage-free eggs that cost $2.49-$3.29/dozen depending on store instead of just $1.10 or so. (I'm guessing on the regular eggs.) I've been expanding my repertoire of vegetable dishes and thus don't need to buy meat quite as often. Meat is still the central dish in most of my meals but I try to cook up enough vegetables and starches that I can have some leftover meat for subsequent meals. But that's about it. The sale prices for meat are too tempting. I can feed myself pretty tasty meals quite economically if I stick to buying the items that are on sale.
$2.50/lb for ground turkey.
$3/lb for boneless pork chops
$2/lb for boneless chicken breasts
80 cents/lb for whole chickens
(Are these prices typical?)
But recently, roadriverrail posted about Michael Pollan's views on eating meat and that reminded me to revisit the issue. My finances are on sounder footing now. I'm lucky enough to be able to afford the higher prices, if I should so choose. Realistically, I'll probably end up either eating less meat than I currently do or supplementing with some cheap grocery meat. Maybe not. I'll continue eating meat in restaurants too. Baby steps.
The Boston area has choices for locally produced meat. One plan lets me buy a sampler pack of various frozen cuts of pork for $125. I don't even know if I can fit 15 pounds of meat at once in my freezer since I share the fridge. Another place has a subscription service of 10 pounds of meat per month for $7/lb. When I think about paying $7/lb for ground meat and sausage my frugal sensibilities want to club my ethical sensibilities senseless. The Meat CSA subscription could include things like chicken, beef, pork, and lamb. Maybe even throw in some eggs. Have I mentioned the shocking price of the eggs? $3-$5/dozen is what I've been finding online. I might stick to buying the cage-free eggs at the grocery store. Some reviews swear they taste so much better fresh but I don't know if my taste buds will really detect the difference or care. I guess I could buy 1 dozen just to compare and see.
And then I've been looking at vegetable CSA shares. The cheapest ones I've found are about $250 to $300 for the season. (Another common price point around Boston is about $500-600.) Assuming a 5-month (22 week) harvest season of June through October, that's $11.50-$13.75 each week in vegetables. Looking over my last grocery bill, I did spend $11 in just vegetables and overpriced fresh herbs so that doesn't sound too unreasonable.
Hey wait a minute...
$350 5 months of Meat subscription (10 lb/month @ $70/month)
$250 5 months vegetables CSA
----
$600 5 months meat and veggies (22 weeks for June through October)
That comes out to $27.50/week for meat and veggies for the season. I would still need fruit, dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt), pasta, rice, nuts, prosciutto, smoked salmon, sun-dried tomatoes, wine and hard cider but...
my overall grocery bill might be cheaper when I commit to buying the expensive stuff. That would be really weird.
Edited to add: Follow-up post with list of Boston-area CSAs
There's no way I'm going vegetarian. Humans are omnivores and I accept that we kill to get our meat. Besides, I could never give up bacon. So I went to farmer's markets, thinking that I'd get my meat from small farms where the cows grazed in open fields, the chickens scratched about in the dirt, and the pigs wallowed in mud. But that meat cost 2 to 5 times as much as the cheap meat on sale at the grocery store. The whole chicken I could get for as little as 79 cents/pound? Try $5/lb! Reeling from sticker shock, I shrugged and said, "Those reports are from nutso PETA extremists anyhow. They're exaggerating." And how seriously am I supposed to take a group that says keeping pets is another form of animal exploitation? Spittle-spewing zealots. But I also told myself that when I wasn't so strapped for cash, I would revisit the issue.
And little by little I have. I've switched to buying the cage-free eggs that cost $2.49-$3.29/dozen depending on store instead of just $1.10 or so. (I'm guessing on the regular eggs.) I've been expanding my repertoire of vegetable dishes and thus don't need to buy meat quite as often. Meat is still the central dish in most of my meals but I try to cook up enough vegetables and starches that I can have some leftover meat for subsequent meals. But that's about it. The sale prices for meat are too tempting. I can feed myself pretty tasty meals quite economically if I stick to buying the items that are on sale.
$2.50/lb for ground turkey.
$3/lb for boneless pork chops
$2/lb for boneless chicken breasts
80 cents/lb for whole chickens
(Are these prices typical?)
But recently, roadriverrail posted about Michael Pollan's views on eating meat and that reminded me to revisit the issue. My finances are on sounder footing now. I'm lucky enough to be able to afford the higher prices, if I should so choose. Realistically, I'll probably end up either eating less meat than I currently do or supplementing with some cheap grocery meat. Maybe not. I'll continue eating meat in restaurants too. Baby steps.
The Boston area has choices for locally produced meat. One plan lets me buy a sampler pack of various frozen cuts of pork for $125. I don't even know if I can fit 15 pounds of meat at once in my freezer since I share the fridge. Another place has a subscription service of 10 pounds of meat per month for $7/lb. When I think about paying $7/lb for ground meat and sausage my frugal sensibilities want to club my ethical sensibilities senseless. The Meat CSA subscription could include things like chicken, beef, pork, and lamb. Maybe even throw in some eggs. Have I mentioned the shocking price of the eggs? $3-$5/dozen is what I've been finding online. I might stick to buying the cage-free eggs at the grocery store. Some reviews swear they taste so much better fresh but I don't know if my taste buds will really detect the difference or care. I guess I could buy 1 dozen just to compare and see.
And then I've been looking at vegetable CSA shares. The cheapest ones I've found are about $250 to $300 for the season. (Another common price point around Boston is about $500-600.) Assuming a 5-month (22 week) harvest season of June through October, that's $11.50-$13.75 each week in vegetables. Looking over my last grocery bill, I did spend $11 in just vegetables and overpriced fresh herbs so that doesn't sound too unreasonable.
Hey wait a minute...
$350 5 months of Meat subscription (10 lb/month @ $70/month)
$250 5 months vegetables CSA
----
$600 5 months meat and veggies (22 weeks for June through October)
That comes out to $27.50/week for meat and veggies for the season. I would still need fruit, dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt), pasta, rice, nuts, prosciutto, smoked salmon, sun-dried tomatoes, wine and hard cider but...
my overall grocery bill might be cheaper when I commit to buying the expensive stuff. That would be really weird.
Edited to add: Follow-up post with list of Boston-area CSAs