Local Butcher / Farm Shop words of wisdom?

sopranolmu

Been thinking about buying more meat from butchers/farm shops, as I like the idea of supporting my local farmers, but also think it might be cheaper.

We've never done this before as a family, as my mother's convinced they work out a lot more expensive in the long run.

Any words of wisdom regarding prices, cuts etc in this topic?

GwylimT

I just ask what I can get for x money excluding pork and duck. You can normally get offal very reasonably priced, our sells preparer beef and lamb heart which is lovely.

Marktheshark

Yes, the Local Butcher and the farm shop all buy meat from a wholesaler who delivers it.
The misnomer that they somehow breed animals in luxury and whisper nursery rhymes to them whilst they cosh and butcher them giving you better meat is a myth.
They are Just a shop, that sells meat and veg, the same meat and veg the shops in the high street from the same suppliers, just for more money.

GwylimT

Marktheshark wrote: »

Yes, the Local Butcher and the farm shop all buy meat from a wholesaler who delivers it.
The misnomer that they somehow breed animals in luxury and whisper nursery rhymes to them whilst they cosh and butcher them giving you better meat is a myth.
They are Just a shop, that sells meat and veg, the same meat and veg the shops in the high street from the same suppliers, just for more money.

It depends on your butcher, ours uses four free range organic farms in a 30 mile radius alongside its own free range organic chicken farm. If you order online the individual farms tend to deliver to you instead of the butcher sending it out, or you can go direct to any of the farms to collect your order in their link farms.

Marktheshark

The idea of "supporting the farmer"
You do, to the tune of £59,000,000 a year.
Every acre of land receives a subsidiary from British tax payers via the EU farming subsidiary, the amounts are secret, but even small holding gets around £50k
The bigger the farm the bigger the windfall.
Then we come to the Land, have a look how much Land is worth, look how fast the UK is expanding and deregulating Green field sites, have a look at how much the "poor farmer" is sat on.
The calculator wont even crunch numbers that high.

They had Demo about milk prices in Leeds, the road was end to end with high spec high value cars and 4x4, the oldest cheapest car was the BMW 330 the traffic police came in.
Poor farmers my !!!!! !

Dr._Shoe

Farm shops, farmer's markets and blokes who sell meat from the back of a van are always more expensive than your local butcher.

I'm lucky in that my local butcher is one of the best in the country and has won all sorts of awards. It works out about 20% cheaper than the supermarkets, use locally sourced meat and can even tell you the name of the pig your bacon came from.