Buying Bee-autiful Beef in Bulk
Merri Bee Organic beef is the by product of our efforts to make cheese and our Jersey house cow breeding programme down at Karridale. There in the freshest salt air about 6 kms from the beautiful Hamelin Bay grows 50 acres of lush grass and some shady peppi trees, home to our Jersey herd and Wiltshire Poll sheep flock. The soil was tested free of chemical residues before we purchased the property in 2012 and compost is our only input.
About half of all calves born are male. We castrate them at 2 to 4 weeks of age and they stay with their mother for their whole life, drinking milk and grazing on the wonderful legumes and grasses that grow in this high rainfall, limestone area . By one year old they are bigger than their mums and in the prime of condition. They are slaughtered between 1 and 2 years of age.
When you buy in bulk you save $ and have the convenience of a ready supply of meat in your freezer. We encourage customers to consider installing photovoltaic solar panels and to procure a chest freezer. It is apparently more energy efficient to have 2 small chest freezers rather than one big one.
Rather than selling specific cuts each customer will get an equal quarter share of the whole body when purchasing a quarter of beef. Depending on the season, the weight of the animal and how the butcher cuts it up , a quarter may weigh anywhere from 20 to 35 kg. The average quarter looks like this:
| Cut | Number of Packs |
| Chuck Steak | 3-4 |
| Gravy Beef or Osso Bucco | 3-5 |
| Mince | 7-12 |
| Schnitzel or Silverside Roast | 2-3 |
| Blade Steak | 2 |
| Oyster Blade | 2-3 |
| Topside Roast | 3-4 |
| Diced Steak (made from Round Steak) | 2-3 |
| T-Bone Steak | 3 |
| Rump Steak | 2-4 |
| Porterhouse Steak (Sirloin) | 2 |
| Scotch Fillet | 2-3 |
| Fillet | 1 |
| approx. 40-50 |
LAMB
Merri Bee Organic Farmacy lambs are born and raised on clean pasture just 4kms from the coast at Karridale, strictly according to organic standards. The property was purchased in 2012, and tested for chemical residues before contracts were exchanged. Woolly sheep are kept at home base in Nannup.
Our sheep are neither drenched for worms or treated for lice, and are in superb health thanks to peaceful lives on unfertilized pastures in the sun and ocean air . We have not drenched (or had need to) in a decade, and have bred for worm resistance in our rams. No pharma medications are used. Weekly low stress handling means our sheep come to a call and have no fear of us. Salt winds from the Southern and Indian oceans deliver cooling breezes in summer but also trace elements to the grasses, herbs and fodder trees on our farm.
The sheep graze with jersey cows and are moved to new pasture weekly. This cell grazing removes vast amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere, sequestering it as humus in the soil. This means Merri Bee organic lamb is not only delicious and nutritious but enjoying a Merri Bee lamb dish on a regular basis is most likely the best thing anyone can do about climate change.
Our sides of lamb are all cut up and minimally packaged in freezer bags. Please contact us to discuss ways we can provide you meat without plastic packaging.
The basis of the GAPS diet, which has been shown to cure many cases of childhood autism and other behavioural and learning disorders, is meat stock. The gelatinous and boney meats when simmered for a maximum of 5 hours with onions and garlic, perhaps other peeled and seeded vegetables, effect deep healing of the gut wall, providing nutrients with which the body renews itself. A lamb shank or neck chop stew is ideal to rotate with a pork hock and trotter stew , a whole chicken stew or a beef osso bucco. By removing all starches from the diet and only eating meat and stock, served warm with fermented dairy (if tolerated) and fermented vegetable juice, we eventually see at least a subsidence in symptoms in many cases, and a complete cure in some. The Gaps protocol is at least a 2 year process, gradually adding more difficult to digest foods in to the diet. For further information and to seek out your local GAPS practitioners and GAPS coaches, visit http://www.gaps.me/find-a-gaps-practitioner.php
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