Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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I recently moved to the Bay Area from NYC, and I am looking for a new supplier of grass-fed beef (or other pastured meat). Preferably I would like to buy an entire cow, to save as much money as possible. I have a car and am willing to travel to transport the meat.

Does anyone in the area have a farm they regularly work with?

Thanks for your help everyone!

flag	asked May 9 2011 at 18:39 Will 1,195●4●16

Will... you are sooo lucky! The bay area seems to be the 'good clean food' capital of the US! I am in Oregon and we aren't bad, but where you are at least raw milk/cream isn't banned! – Kim The Nourishing Cook May 9 2011 at 19:31

Shanon H · Answer 1 · 2011-05-09 19:13:17Z UTC

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http://www.marinsunfarms.com/

answered May 9 2011 at 19:13

Shanon H
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Ditto, although you're probably better elsewhere price wise for buying a whole cow. – stephthegeek May 9 2011 at 19:46

Shari Bambino · Answer 2 · 2011-05-09 19:20:26Z UTC

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I like Marin Sun Farms and Prather Ranch. You can pick up some Prather Ranch at many of the farmers markets to try it out. Marin Sun has only two outlets but I suggest you try before you commit to an entire cow. Not that Marin Sun Farms isn't good. I just highly recommend buying a small quantity from any farm first just to make sure it tastes good to you.

Marin Sun has a great meat CSA if you don't want to go with a full cow. Prather Ranch sells whole, half and quarter cows.

answered May 9 2011 at 19:20

Shari Bambino
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prather isnt completely grass finished – dsohei May 10 2011 at 4:48

Are you sure? Where did you hear this? I have spoken extensively with them and I know for certain they say that they are so this is seriously disturbing to me. – Shari Bambino May 10 2011 at 14:23

O.k. I just saw on their website that they do some grain finishing. This is in direct conflict with what they have said to me. I am not happy. I'm going to speak with them this weekend and find out the scoop. I love that they are humane certified which is very important to me but obviously I don't like the grain finish and more than that I don't like being mislead or lied to. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. – Shari Bambino May 10 2011 at 14:27

My family and visited the Prather ranch at Mt. Shasta. Dsohei is right -- they finish the last 4-6 months on 'grassheads' of barley which increases their bulk more than pure pastures. It is not exactly a whole barley grain, they are 'grassheads' with the grain+fibrous outside and are very dry and light. The ranch manager took us around for several hours and we got to ask all kinds of questions. nephropal.blogspot.com/search/label/Grass%20fed Barleyheads are not ideal (b/c a portion of the herd develop a bovine condition known as 'bloat' requiring antibiotics or they die) just ok. – grace May 10 2011 at 18:31

baconbitch · Answer 3 · 2011-05-09 19:22:38Z UTC

Welcome to the Bay Area! I'm up here in Sonoma County and we have several ranchers up here. Not knowing exactly where you are, I plugged in San Francisco into the Local Harvest Search and came up with the following list:

Ranchers in the Bay Area

I'd love to know where you are! Also, a lot of Crossfit boxes have people willing to go in on a cow with you. Just call them up and ask.

Dexter · Answer 4 · 2011-05-09 21:17:52Z UTC

there are a lot, however due to the limited slaughterhouses, availability and cuts can be limited. just keep this in mind that you might not be able to get certain offal, etc. because of this i tend to order a lot from other parts of the country, but if you want an entire local cow and have the room to store it, that's easier in the bay area. http://eatwild.com has lots of listings, as well as this page: http://bamcsa.ning.com/notes/Ranchers

Sara · Answer 5 · 2011-05-10 02:39:46Z UTC

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South Bay uses Morris farms. I don't have a freezer yet, but will be ordering from them when I get one.

answered May 10 2011 at 2:39

Sara
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I think Morris sells all over the bay area. – Richard N May 12 2011 at 19:13

Richard N · Answer 6 · 2011-05-12 19:12:35Z UTC

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Marin Sun does not have organic "pastured" pork. There might be places to get it in bulk but BiRite Market in San Francisco is the only place I've been able to find it.

answered May 12 2011 at 19:12

Richard N
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Shari Bambino · Answer 7 · 2011-05-22 18:45:23Z UTC

Thank you Grace for the information regarding Prather Ranch. I am happy to head it's not quite grain but am still angry that they weren't completely honest so I'm no longer going to patronize that business.

I did find another vendor that I like very much. They are smaller that Marin Sun Farms but their product is excellent and I am very pleased with all the cuts I have tried. The great thing is that they use mobile slaughter so the cows are not stressed by being put into trucks and transported to slaughter. You can find them at some farmers markets but can order online very easily in large quantities or smaller ones. Johansing Farms

I love MSF but I really like to support smaller operations when I can. Competition is a good thing in this market!

Robert · Answer 8 · 2012-09-09 07:25:13Z UTC

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http://markegardfamily.com/ they have farm days and I went, they definitely have happy cows, great family everyones nice, and you can buy their stuff from the half moon bay farmers market .

answered Sep 9 at 7:25

Robert
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Kellen Kaiser · Answer 9 · 2012-10-13 21:29:14Z UTC

Full Moon Ranch, in Hopland,CA is a very small scale operation that sells grass-fed and finished free range Beef in quantities of quarter/half/full animal, available generally in April or October. Contact at (415) 933-4719 for more information.

Grass-fed farms in the Bay Area?

9 Answers