Salmon
Creek
Ranch, Bodega, CA
100% Grass-Fed Beef
Overview:
Our grass-fed beef is raised the natural way, without
antibiotics, GMO's or added hormones, all on certified
organic pasture. For superior meat production, we use both
Angus crosses and Scottish Highland
cattle, breeds well-suited to the rolling hills and
cooling mists of the rugged Sonoma coast. We cut no corners -- our beef is dry-aged 21 days to
enhance tenderness at extra expense, before butchering.
All our cuts are USDA-inspected, labeled and vacuum-packed
for maximum long-term freshness. Due to the
slow-maturation of Scottish Highlanders, beef from this
heritage breed is only available occasionally.
See our Beef
price
list page for
current pricing.
Advantages of Grass-Fed Beef:
Most beef in the USA
is produced from steers fed on corn, in crowded feedlots, to
maximize fat and carcass weight in the minimum time.
Corn is not a natural diet for cows, so to force digestion and
combat insanitary feedlot conditions,
hormones, antibiotics and other substances have to be fed to
prevent casualties. The result is an artificial product that
deserves the bad rap that "red meat" has acquired in modern
dietary science. Our grass-fed beef, on the other hand, comes
from cattle that roam freely, foraging their natural diet of
grass and browse at will. The resulting beef is much leaner,
with far more Omega-3 fatty acids, the type of fat that is
considered good for you. It is also high in cancer-preventing
conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs ) and has 4 times as much
vitamin E. In short, it is the type of food our bodies were
originally designed for.
USDA
Processing and Packaging:
We
purposely avoid the questionable practice employed by many
direct-marketing meat producers who sell you what is
theoretically a quarter, half or other fraction of the live animal in an effort to circumvent
the expense and legalities of USDA inspected processing.
When we first started in the business, we thought USDA
inspection was just another layer of government red tape and
inspection a mere formality involving a small random
sample of a small percentage of carcasses processed at a plant
on any given day. However, we soon found out that the USDA
stamp of approval means a whole lot more and inspectors are on
site at all times in even the smallest plants, inspecting
every part of every carcass relentlessly to ensure public
safety.
Bypassing this process will save you little if any
money -- the base price per lb quoted by the
USDA-quality-avoidance producers may seem
cheap, but is usually based on
"live weight" which is 2 1/2 to 3 times the weight of the
final cuts you end up with. After adding their processing and
butchering fees, you are not saving much, if anything.
Furthermore you are forced to buy at least a quarter of beef
at a time (around 120 lbs), for which you will have to fork
over about $600, as well as finding space for it in your
freezer. To cap it all, your meat is not inspected for
possible health issues so you are not really sure what you are
buying.
By contrast, we use exclusively USDA-certified processing
plants and butchers, in which inspectors check every part of
every carcass, so every cut carries the USDA label. Our
state-of-the-art vacuum packaging means that the oxygen that
supports spoiling bacteria is virtually eliminated, and the
meat can be preserved almost indefinitely in the freezer. This
is in sharp contrast to the brown paper used by non-USDA
butchers. Furthermore the vacuum process makes attractive
packages that actually allow
you to see the meat you are buying! Also there is no
minimum purchase -- instead of spending hundreds of dollars at
a time you can buy individual cuts for as little as $5 at a
time as you please,
Prices and
Availability:
See the Beef
Price
List page for detailed pricing of individual cuts.
Our USDA-inspected grass fed beef is available
year-round. Call us at (707)876-1808 or email info@salmoncreekranch.com
to have an order shipped or to schedule a visit to our on-farm store. (We
caution that shipping east of the Rockies can be very
expensive, so be forewarned.)
If you prefer to get the
most common cuts just a few clicks, visit our
online store.