Organic Meat - where to get at lowest cost?

HappySad

Can you help? Organic Meat - where to get at lowest cost?

I normally buy:
extra lean beef mince (5% fat).
beef cubes
chicken wings
whole chicken

squeaky

Try putting your post code or nearest town into:-

www.bigbarn.co.uk

That will show you farm shops and organic butchers near you

gritts

I have scoured the stores, the web and farmers markets for organic meat looking for the cheapest and have tried lots of retailers / producers and now believe you really do get what you pay for in terms of quality and welfare standard for the animals.

Having said that wings and mince would not offer such a wide variety in terms of quality compared to a bit of steak or a leg of lamb.

Organic whole chicken range from £4.24 - £8 per kg. From Tesco to Graig Farm Organics. Typically if the meat is Soil Association organic approved then you'll pay more.

I'm happy to pay £5.70/kg for a chicken as it's sooo good. Not a moneysavingexpert thing to do but I like to save money in other areas to spend more on Organic meat.

Sorry if that was not much help. Check out Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's MEAT book for a good list of suppliers.

anniebeetham

squeaky wrote:

Try putting your post code or nearest town into:-

www.bigbarn.co.uk

That will show you farm shops and organic butchers near you

I've just tried this & window comes up which says 'Site For Sale'!

Curry_Queen

Try bigbarn.co.uk

squeaky

Sorry - I mistyped. I've been back and corrected the posts but the right address is:-

https://www.bigbarn.co.uk

Mrsbojangles_2

I searched for days and days on the tinternet for "reasonabl" prices organic meat and i'm afraid to say I couldn't find anything. I would love to go organic for both my principals and health, but unfortunately, the prices are just too high, is the price justified?

recovering_spendaholic

I agree with you mrsbojangles - I have searched and searched and it is just all so expensive and I can't justify or sustain that kind of outlay. I try wherever possible to buy outdoor reared pork and there is a butchers near me who sells orkney gold meat, which, although not organic is produced to strict animal welfare standards (or so he tells me). I really don't like to buy battery chicken though and will do without rather than buy it, or I buy free range, which is a bit dearer than battery but not as dear as the organic. I don't know if the cost is justified or not.

Mrsbojangles_2

recovering_spendaholic wrote:

I really don't like to buy battery chicken though and will do without rather than buy it, or I buy free range, which is a bit dearer than battery but not as dear as the organic. I don't know if the cost is justified or not.

Same here, I do what I can, would never buy battery eggs, always free range. I do think in a way that organic would be vastly more popular if the prices were reduced a little, I understand they have a profit to make, but feel sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate.

Good luck with the search x

howalsh

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isnt "organic" just another word for "expensive", & isnt this "Money Saving Expert"?

apple_mint

I no longer buy meat from supermarkets, but buy from my local farmers market. The difference in taste is incredible. May not be totally organic, but each butcher can tell you about the way the animals have been raised as they have their own farms or use locally sourced meat. We found that by adjusting how much you eat (smaller portions of delicious flavour) and by being creative (1/2 lb of lamb mince will make 6 HM pasties, or a shoulder of lamb will stretch to 3 meals) that it isn't costing us any more than previously. It's actually saving us money and we have some lovely meals.

As Martin explains - it's how much value you get out of a purchase that is important. The threads on rubber chickens have retrained me ... I can get at least 3 meals out of a chicken and make use of the carcass for HM stock. I work it out on a cost per meal basis. We never have any wastage (and I am now embarrassed about the amount of food we used to throw away).

Its a matter of personal choice. I still drool at the memory of my Grandad's cooking (many years ago) and he bought all his meat from a local butcher who raised his own animals. I got tired of being disappointed with the results from meat from the supermarket.