Moora Farm Beef

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Earlier this week we slaughtered two of our Belted Galloway steers.

We are planning to sell the beef in 10 kg packs - made up of around 3 kg of premium cuts, 3 kg of sausages and mince and 4 kg of 'every day' cuts.  We will have some boxes with pack sizes for small families - and some with pack sizes for bigger families.  The beef will have been hung / aged for just under 3 weeks.

After the slaughter earlier this year of another animal, we feel very confident of the quality of our grass fed beef.  As I loaded them onto the trailer on Monday they looked pretty good.  Their names were Asher and Gustavo - named after colleagues I worked with on a project in Israel a few years ago.  The funny thing is that earlier today I got a LinkedIn contact request from the human Asher (an Israeli) - after no contact for several years.  The human Gustavo lives somewhat closer to home.  I wonder whether I can sell him a Beef Pack?

I have no problems eating my animals.  My view is that they are beef cattle - bred for that specific purpose.  My responsibility is to take the very best care of them - right up to the point when I sell someone their meat.  In most cases what is good for the animal is also good for the beef consumer.  Good natural food, clean water, shelter from hot weather and as little handling stress as possible.  I don't include shelter from the cold particularly because my beautiful Scottish cows just put their furry butts into the coldest, wettest, South Gisborne wind and look completely unfazed.

This photo shows cattle in the afternoon light grazing pretty happily.  This was not a cold, wet, South Gisborne day.

Among the beefy highlights of the first animal we slaughtered was a standing rib roast - which was great when we first had it - but almost better in a roast beef sandwich the following day - and the day after that.  Beautiful fresh brown bread, butter, thick slices of reasonably rare roast beef - and plenty of Dijon mustard.

Another highlight was the sausages - when they were fresh.  They were just the butcher's plain beef sausage recipe - because we forgot to tell him anything different - but they tasted so good.  It was like the difference between a real egg from your own chooks - and a supermarket egg.  It was not just pride of ownership.

One last highlight has been the mince - so good I need to tell you about two recipes.  The first was our friend Mike - who made mini hamburgers about the size of a Post-it note.  To the mince he simply added an egg, a little oatmeal and some seasoning.  He also hand made some mini bread rolls - and then had a variety of condiments so you could make up your own 2 to 4 bite burger (although 4 would be pretty dainty).  It was a great way to show off the simple good taste of the beef.

The last thing I particularly remember was a recipe from an American barbecue cook book given me by my son's father in law.  It's the recipe for the chilli in a Cincinnati Chilli Dog.  Google it and you will get a variety of recipes - but the essential (spicy) bits seem to be cayenne, cumin, allspice, cinnamon and (wait for it) unsweetened chocolate.  Try it.

All this good beef (and much more besides) came from what might have been thought a considerably less promising animal than the two who took their last ride on Monday.  She was a cull heifer who after two failures to produce a calf was nearly 4 years old.  She still produced a quality of beef I don't think you can easily get from a butcher - let alone a supermarket.

My description would be that you taste the quality along the sides of your tongue.  The taste should fill your mouth and tell you you're eating something that is the main part of a meal.  When I was a young man, I might have looked for a huge steak (I'm a big guy), but now I just want good taste and a modest portion.  A modest portion of this beef satisfies.  And provided it's cooked well, it will be tender - some of the steaks we have had could almost be cut with the back of your knife.

We're looking to sell our meat as close to home as possible - and essentially just by word of mouth.  A 10 kg pack of aged Belted Galloway beef will cost $150 if you pick it up from Moora and $160 if we deliver it to an address in metropolitan Melbourne - or points not too far north of the city.

Packs will be available for pick up on Saturday 18 September - and we will do deliveries on Sunday 19 September.  Anyone interested - please call me or Kristina on 03 5428 3671 - or email me on giholdaway@gmail.com.