Author Topic: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?  (Read 9270 times)

Linea_Norway

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Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« on: March 16, 2017, 02:33:13 AM »
Copied from another thread:

At this point in the year, we are able to shut down one of the deep freezers and combine two into one. Always a happy day for me. Good electricity savings anda good indication that we are using up our 2 sides of beef and 60 chickens!


I'm wondering when it pays off to buy a separate deep freezer, as it is another thing that uses electricity. We only have a freezer with 3 drawers under the fridge. And another beer fridge with 3 freezer drawers.

I fill a drawer with bread for the whole week, so I can take out a portion every evening and have fresh bread in the morning. We freeze multiple portions of meat whenever we drive through Sweden where meat is cheaper. I also freeze self-picked berries and some mushrooms that are not fit for drying. My husband sometimes catches trout or seatrout in bigger quantities than we can eat at the same time. I have made dried hiking food, which I freeze because I don't have a sealing machine and am a bit worried about conservation. We also freeze leftover portions of dinner until we have an occasion to eat them. I would like to make ice cream more often, but don't have space to chill the ice cream machine in the freezer and to store the ice cream. My husband thinks a freezer will mostly be used to store even more food, but maybe not for good reasons.

The person in the comment above obviously buys meat in big portions, which I guess is a lot cheaper than buying small portions in a shop, but it probably also takes more time to handle. Where is the point that is pays off to invest in an extra separate freezer with good electricity score?

Lews Therin

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2017, 03:27:09 AM »
Hunters.

My uncle can feed 3-4 families with the amount of game he stores every year. He sells some/trades with other people so that he has one full of beef/chicken, another filled with various game meats.

I don't think he's bought any red meat in decades.

It would be a personal calculation of how much it costs to run the freezer (very little if it's the chest variety); and the savings from being able to fill it with either the best deals/be able to store for long times. If you can store a full years harvest; rather than buy things in winter, it can easily be cost effective.
« Last Edit: March 16, 2017, 03:29:01 AM by Canadian Ben »

Metric Mouse

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #2 on: March 16, 2017, 03:32:45 AM »
Hunters.

My uncle can feed 3-4 families with the amount of game he stores every year. He sells some/trades with other people so that he has one full of beef/chicken, another filled with various game meats.

I don't think he's bought any red meat in decades.

It would be a personal calculation of how much it costs to run the freezer (very little if it's the chest variety); and the savings from being able to fill it with either the best deals/be able to store for long times. If you can store a full years harvest; rather than buy things in winter, it can easily be cost effective.

This. Also, if someone goes through 2 sides of beef in a year, (assuming family of 6 or so) then it probably pays for itself in savings buying bulk, though most people can get ground beef cheaper per pound on sale at the grocery store than buying sides of beef.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #3 on: March 16, 2017, 03:42:05 AM »
In our case, we have a household with only 2 people and we don't hunt. We only do the stuff mentioned in the first post. We have never been offered a lot of meat at the time. But we did once catch in total 16 kg of salmon on one day that was taken home for eating.

Metric Mouse

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2017, 03:46:13 AM »
In our case, we have a household with only 2 people and we don't hunt. We only do the stuff mentioned in the first post. We have never been offered a lot of meat at the time. But we did once catch in total 16 kg of salmon on one day that was taken home for eating.
And the electricity prices in your country are likely much higher than someone in America, say. This would make running a deep freezer more expensive for you than for some others, as well.

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #5 on: March 16, 2017, 03:53:27 AM »
we use our chest freezer all the time. Great for when things are on sale, buy meat bulk, costco frozen veggies, etc.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #6 on: March 16, 2017, 03:57:20 AM »
In our case, we have a household with only 2 people and we don't hunt. We only do the stuff mentioned in the first post. We have never been offered a lot of meat at the time. But we did once catch in total 16 kg of salmon on one day that was taken home for eating.
And the electricity prices in your country are likely much higher than someone in America, say. This would make running a deep freezer more expensive for you than for some others, as well.

Not sure, we have power from water reservoirs. We pay a little under 1 USD  0,1 USD per kWh. What do you typically pay?

The Neighbour is planning to put solar panels on his roof and let us buy cheap warm water from that. When that ever comes into place and we could generate electricity from that, it might pay off.
« Last Edit: March 16, 2017, 05:02:06 AM by Linda_Norway »

Lews Therin

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #7 on: March 16, 2017, 04:13:20 AM »
5.71c (0.0571$)/Kwh for first 30kW + 3.78$ every K/wH after.

Gotta love Quebec Hydro.

Metric Mouse

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #8 on: March 16, 2017, 04:23:04 AM »
5.71c (0.0571$)/Kwh for first 30kW + 3.78$ every K/wH after.

Gotta love Quebec Hydro.

Yeah, it's something like $0.1/kwh here.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #9 on: March 16, 2017, 04:35:38 AM »

Not sure, we have power from water reservoirs. We pay a little under 1  0,1 USD per kWh. What do you typically pay?

Typo. I meant 0,1 USD (0,88 NOK).
« Last Edit: March 16, 2017, 04:59:55 AM by Linda_Norway »

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #10 on: March 16, 2017, 04:39:04 AM »
For you, it probably doesn't make sense, as you can fill up the single deep freeze and won't empty it before the specials come back.

If you were further away from places like Costco, it could also be worth having more storage to do only 1-2 yearly runs to fill up on the main stores.

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #11 on: March 16, 2017, 05:28:16 AM »
Having recently had a large chest freezer, and now two refrigerators (both with freezers), I say you don't need the large freezer. While it gave us a lot of room to stock up on meats (3 turkeys one time), vegetables, and homemade dishes, we ended up throwing away a lot of food. Even now, with two smaller freezers, we have been eating down our stocks for at least a month, and the freezers still look full. That is with a family of 4, sometimes 5 adult-sized people. It takes a very long time to use up the volume of food in a chest freezer.

I think if you have a large garden, then it's probably a good idea to have a freezer, because you are not paying a lot for the food that goes into it. Otherwise, let the supermarket pay to keep your food fresh/frozen for you.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #12 on: March 16, 2017, 05:49:49 AM »
Having recently had a large chest freezer, and now two refrigerators (both with freezers), I say you don't need the large freezer. While it gave us a lot of room to stock up on meats (3 turkeys one time), vegetables, and homemade dishes, we ended up throwing away a lot of food. Even now, with two smaller freezers, we have been eating down our stocks for at least a month, and the freezers still look full. That is with a family of 4, sometimes 5 adult-sized people. It takes a very long time to use up the volume of food in a chest freezer.

I think if you have a large garden, then it's probably a good idea to have a freezer, because you are not paying a lot for the food that goes into it. Otherwise, let the supermarket pay to keep your food fresh/frozen for you.

A convincing advice, thanks for sharing.
Our vegetable garden is really small, so I guess you are right.
We should also eat up the dried hiking food some time soon, as it can't be conserved forever. That would free up space for the ice machine.

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #13 on: March 16, 2017, 06:20:01 AM »
We got a small deep freeze (7 cubic foot) for about $130 (USD).  The estimated electricity cost for the year is $20 USD, so let's call it $30 USD.

When I consider the sales on fruits and meats we've already gotten in the first 3 months, I think we are already at a $60 savings. It will pay off in short order. 

Our kitchen freezer never had enough room.
« Last Edit: March 16, 2017, 08:48:56 AM by iowajes »

horsepoor

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #14 on: March 16, 2017, 08:40:18 AM »
A small chest freezer is really cheap to run.  We had a ~7 cubic foot chest freezer and I think it was about $2 a month.  The problem was organization.  I ended up throwing out lots of freezer burned food because it just got lost down in the bottom of the freezer and forgotten.  I think now I'd be more organized about rotating and using the food, but that's how it worked.  That small one was about $200 new, and I resold it for $100 after about 5 years of use.  Kind of wish I'd kept it for seasonal overflow, but can always get another of Craigslist.

About three years ago we got a good sized (~17 cf?) upright freezer and I love it.  I think it's more like $5/month to run, but to me it's worthwhile because it's much easier to organize and I can see/find my inventory, so now I rarely throw anything out.  I freeze a fair amount of garden produce and some of my chicken stock.  It also gets used for whole salmon bought on sale and cut into fillets and vacuum packed, and whole chickens bought on sale (we like a certain kind that I only catch on sale every few months).  Plus we will buy a beef quarter and a whole lamb locally.  Those aren't cheaper than conventional grocery store meat, but much better quality @ less than half the price it would be if I bought it by the package at the local co-op.

radram

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #15 on: March 16, 2017, 09:10:21 AM »
This. Also, if someone goes through 2 sides of beef in a year, (assuming family of 6 or so) then it probably pays for itself in savings buying bulk, though most people can get ground beef cheaper per pound on sale at the grocery store than buying sides of beef.

Here in WI, it never pays financially to buy beef by the side. Hanging weight will have a loss of about 40%. The cheapest hanging weight here is $2 per pound, meaning you will pay close to $4.00 per pound of meat that gets into your freezer, with close to half of that meat being ground beef.

I do way better with grocery store sales. I regularly find 80% lean angus ground beef for $1.99 lb. I buy about 50 lbs at a time. I sometimes grind our own sirloin tip roasts, which is about 90% lean for $2.99 lb on sale. We also cut these into steaks for marinating. Steak dinner with a fajita lunch the next day. Yum! We buy very little porterhouse, T-bone, etc., because that cut is not worth the higher price to us.

I have not paid more than $3 for any pound of meat that ever went into my freezer. I can not get a single side of beef purchase under $3 per pound.

Many people believe it is worth the extra price for local grown, grass fed beef. That is a fine opinion, but not a financial one.

We make a similar choice when we help friends process chickens every year. We buy 20 of them, and help process about 125 or so 1 day per year. Financially, it does not pay. We pay about $1 per pound for the whole dressed bird. My local store just sold boneless, skinless breasts for $0.99 lb. We do not do it for the cost. It is an enjoyable tradition with friends that yields a years worth of wonderful meals that remind me of them. That said, I still bought 10 pounds of the breast sale. 5 years ago, we were on our way up to slaughter weekend, and my local paper had leg quarters for $0.29 per pound in 10 bound bags. I would have bought over 100 lbs were I not on my way to spend a day working to buy the whole bird for 3.5 times more. Still worth it to me, but when the tradition ends, we will benefit financially while losing a great weekend with friends.

DTaggart

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #16 on: March 16, 2017, 09:15:18 AM »
We got a small deep freeze (7 cubic foot) for about $130 (USD).  The estimated electricity cost for the year is $20 USD, so let's call it $30 USD.

Yeah we have just about the same thing here, I think I remember the Energy Star sticker on our chest freezer claimed it would cost about $26 a year to operate (but I'm lazy and have never tried to figure out if that's accurate or not), so a little over $2 per month. I am quite certain I save well over that much just being able to buy large quantities of meat and frozen veggies on sale. I also like to do batch cooking and having the extra freezer is quite useful in that regard. I know I save oodles by having prepped meals on hand that mean I don't end up going out or getting take out on busy nights.

It's not just money I'm saving, but time as well. I don't have to go to the store *every* time meat is at a rock bottom price because I can buy enough each trip that it lasts through 2-3 sales cycles if I want. I find it a HUGE boon to be able to say "meh, I don't feel like shopping this week so I'm just not gonna go" when life is busy. We're a family of just 2 adults as well.

Spork

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #17 on: March 16, 2017, 09:22:47 AM »
I've measured my freezer.  It costs me $4.11/month... about $50 a year.  It's not a chest freezer.  We had one of those and even with various plastic bins for organization, we just really had a tough time keeping it organized useful.

For $50/year, this is what we do:
* We're a family of 2.  Often garden output is more than we can consume.  Extra fruit/veggies go to freezer.  Over runs of fruit get made into wine in the following winter.
* We like to barbecue.  This is often large cuts of meat.  These things go on sale various times of year (4th of July, Father's day, Memorial Day, etc) and we buy bulk.  Also, if you smoke a pork butt or brisket, it's more than a couple people can eat in a reasonable time.  After several meals, the leftovers go back in the freezer and are eaten when we're less tired of it. 
* My sister in law usually raises something: chickens, pigs, etc.  When she does, we share expenses and will take a couple of whole hogs or several chickens.
* Some things are hard to find around here: goats, lambs.  When you find someone willing to sell one, you buy it!
* We watch meats that are in the "sell fast bin" at the grocery store.  This is usually over stock that is nearing a sell-by date.   Buy->freeze.

In short:
I haven't done the math on the savings (or loss).  We do keep it full and we use it a lot.  From a convenience point of view, it's awesome.

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #18 on: March 16, 2017, 09:37:53 AM »
So far we are on the Team Scarcity side. I keep 2-4 whole chickens and maybe a package of frozen fish, plus some excess produce bought on sale or preserved from the garden, in our regular fridge freezer. It's enough. We have a small house in biking distance to 7+ grocery stores. I can barely manage what we've got. I don't think I do a better job of managing an additional box of easily forgotten food.


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kite

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #19 on: March 16, 2017, 01:25:23 PM »
Did the math, doesn't pay for us.  Hurricane Sandy drove home just how risky a proposition it is to hoard stuff. 
The fact is, the sales keep coming around.  Once I've exchanged liquid assets for frozen chicken parts that may get eaten in the next 3 months, those frozen thighs have zero chance of increasing in value.  But the odds that they might spoil are not nothing, and the cost of preventing spoilage erodes all "savings" from buying in bulk. 

In the broad view, Just-In-Time inventory keeps Wal-Mart profitable, and largely following the same strategy works for our household. 

Spork

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #20 on: March 16, 2017, 01:31:38 PM »
Did the math, doesn't pay for us.  Hurricane Sandy drove home just how risky a proposition it is to hoard stuff. 
The fact is, the sales keep coming around.  Once I've exchanged liquid assets for frozen chicken parts that may get eaten in the next 3 months, those frozen thighs have zero chance of increasing in value.  But the odds that they might spoil are not nothing, and the cost of preventing spoilage erodes all "savings" from buying in bulk. 

In the broad view, Just-In-Time inventory keeps Wal-Mart profitable, and largely following the same strategy works for our household.

My free generator has the spoilage risk at very close to zero.

Before we had a generator, we had a longer-than-week-long electricity outage.  I picked up the freezer with the front end loader, put it in the back of my $25 pickup and drove it across town to a relative's house.

Scortius

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #21 on: March 16, 2017, 02:33:50 PM »
We have a full stand-up deep freezer and we keep it fairly full.  Mostly my wife likes to make extra servings of food and freeze half or more.  If I were to guess, I would say it's a net negative on costs overall, but then we're not using it just to save money.  It's so nice to be able to go get a full home-cooked meal from the freezer on those days were cooking just isn't going to be possible and you're out of regular left-overs.  I consider it a worthwhile price to pay for the time it saves, as we use it when when those time saving really make a difference.

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #22 on: March 16, 2017, 02:47:53 PM »
If you can buy in a lot of on sale items at once, then yes it does pay.

ysette9

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #23 on: March 16, 2017, 02:56:14 PM »
We bought a small chest freezer for the garage online when my baby first came home from the hospital and I was producing twice as much milk as she could drink. I got close to filling that entire sucker up with milk before she figured out how to nurse and we self regulated. I ended up having to donate a fair amount because of shelf life, but I consider the ability to keep that milk and to help someone else out in need to be well worth the price of the freezer and the electricity. Obviously this is a bit extreme versus others yelling about freezing sides of beef. :)

Now we keep big bags of Costco mixed veggies and fried tofu puff from Ranch 99 (so delicious but so perishable). We probably don't need it but it is convenient.

kimmarg

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #24 on: March 16, 2017, 06:02:22 PM »
We got a small deep freeze (7 cubic foot) for about $130 (USD).  The estimated electricity cost for the year is $20 USD, so let's call it $30 USD.

When I consider the sales on fruits and meats we've already gotten in the first 3 months, I think we are already at a $60 savings. It will pay off in short order. 

Our kitchen freezer never had enough room.

This is pretty much my situation exactly. I save plenty by only getting things in season. I pick strawberries for the year, blueberries for the year and buy all meat in bulk only on sale. The increase in electricity was minimal.

MsPeacock

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #25 on: March 16, 2017, 06:16:05 PM »
I have a small upright freezer (larger than a dorm fridge, smaller than an apartment fridge) and it is about 3/4 full of venison. When that runs down I'll get a 1/2 pig at the butchers, or maybe  hind 1/4 cow. Venison is nearly free (pay for processing) and the other meats are much cheaper in bulk. Other than that it is handy to have some extras of whatever was in sale stashed away in the freezer.

sparkytheop

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #26 on: March 17, 2017, 06:21:02 AM »
My electricity expenses are fairly low (winter, I pay around $40/month, winter, with AC running almost non-stop, it will spike at $120 for a month).  The freezer is in use year round, so not sure what it costs to run, but it's reasonable.

We get a side or quarter beef from my brother or my niece each year.  When we can, we get half a pork as well ("home grown" bacon is so much better than store bought).  We help my parents out with their large garden, and have ready access to all the blackberries we can pick, so we fill up the freezer with things from there.  I also like to be able to buy a rack of ribs on sale, or some cushion pork, and know I have a spot to put them.  The space also comes in handy when I want to freeze bottles of water for camping or a trip, or I want to freeze something on a cookie sheet.

Last week, asparagus was on a good sale.  I bought a few pounds, blanched them, packed them, and put them in the freezer.  I like to add asparagus to stir fry, so being able to process and freeze my own allows me to use it year round.

We also live over an hour from the nearest Costco, so it's nice to be able to stock up on a few things from there and know I have room for it in the freezer.


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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #27 on: March 17, 2017, 08:29:35 AM »
The fact is, the sales keep coming around.  Once I've exchanged liquid assets for frozen chicken parts that may get eaten in the next 3 months, those frozen thighs have zero chance of increasing in value.  But the odds that they might spoil are not nothing, and the cost of preventing spoilage erodes all "savings" from buying in bulk. 

In the broad view, Just-In-Time inventory keeps Wal-Mart profitable, and largely following the same strategy works for our household.

THIS. 

Very well said.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #28 on: March 18, 2017, 04:10:45 AM »

The fact is, the sales keep coming around.  Once I've exchanged liquid assets for frozen chicken parts that may get eaten in the next 3 months, those frozen thighs have zero chance of increasing in value.  But the odds that they might spoil are not nothing, and the cost of preventing spoilage erodes all "savings" from buying in bulk. 

In the broad view, Just-In-Time inventory keeps Wal-Mart profitable, and largely following the same strategy works for our household.

I have in the past had to throw away long overdue frozen meat. An onforgivable mistake. That is why I am now emptying the freezermore often.

icemodeled

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #29 on: March 18, 2017, 07:14:36 PM »
It's just my husband and I and we bought a modest size deep freezer a couple years ago and never regretted it. We love buying in bulk for lower cost plus when we find great deals we can buy as much as we want and freeze for later. I'm sure it made a difference to our electric bill.. but honestly I never noticed a increase. Our electric bill is and has been very low. It's worth it if it's efficient and will be well used.

I'm a red panda

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #30 on: March 18, 2017, 07:37:14 PM »
To the response that sales happen frequently...we've tracked prices for a long time and don't plan to stock up on small sales. So far the ones we've taken advantage of really are once a year type things.

We also got the 7 cu ft instead of a 15 or 20 because it seems reasonable for a family of 3 and helps hedge the bet on spoilage.  Our most frequent power outages are winter though, so it could all just be set on the deck....

Blissful Biker

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #31 on: March 18, 2017, 08:23:09 PM »
Our deep freeze definitely pays for itself.  It allows us to buy half a grass fed cow or a pig from our local farmer, who gets it packaged at our local butcher.  Not only does the meat cost less than at the grocery store, it is higher quality and we are supporting local farmers.  Talk to the meat seller at your local farmers market, as I am sure they can do the same for you.

horsepoor

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #32 on: March 19, 2017, 09:07:09 AM »
Our deep freeze definitely pays for itself.  It allows us to buy half a grass fed cow or a pig from our local farmer, who gets it packaged at our local butcher.  Not only does the meat cost less than at the grocery store, it is higher quality and we are supporting local farmers.  Talk to the meat seller at your local farmers market, as I am sure they can do the same for you.

Just this week an opportunity came up to get a beef quarter from a local 4-H family.  It will run about $4/lb once it's all cut to my specifications and in the freezer, plus I'll render off a few pints of tallow for cooking, and can a bunch of beef stock from the bones.  Last I looked, grassfed ground beef is about $8/lb, and then it goes up from there for other cuts.  We really have gotten spoiled on it.  I picked up a package of conventional ground beef while I was working in DC, and it seriously tasted like cardboard despite the spices I added to it.  So yeah, pretty happy to have the freezer space for it!

Spork

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #33 on: March 19, 2017, 09:31:32 AM »
Our deep freeze definitely pays for itself.  It allows us to buy half a grass fed cow or a pig from our local farmer, who gets it packaged at our local butcher.  Not only does the meat cost less than at the grocery store, it is higher quality and we are supporting local farmers.  Talk to the meat seller at your local farmers market, as I am sure they can do the same for you.

Just this week an opportunity came up to get a beef quarter from a local 4-H family.  It will run about $4/lb once it's all cut to my specifications and in the freezer, plus I'll render off a few pints of tallow for cooking, and can a bunch of beef stock from the bones.  Last I looked, grassfed ground beef is about $8/lb, and then it goes up from there for other cuts.  We really have gotten spoiled on it.  I picked up a package of conventional ground beef while I was working in DC, and it seriously tasted like cardboard despite the spices I added to it.  So yeah, pretty happy to have the freezer space for it!

My one experience with a 4H purchase put me off of it forever.  I suspect the problem was with the butcher, not the pig, but it was the foulest, most awful thing I have ever smelled or tasted.  Choose your own butcher!

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #34 on: March 19, 2017, 01:30:02 PM »
Our deep freeze definitely pays for itself.  It allows us to buy half a grass fed cow or a pig from our local farmer, who gets it packaged at our local butcher.  Not only does the meat cost less than at the grocery store, it is higher quality and we are supporting local farmers.  Talk to the meat seller at your local farmers market, as I am sure they can do the same for you.

Just this week an opportunity came up to get a beef quarter from a local 4-H family.  It will run about $4/lb once it's all cut to my specifications and in the freezer, plus I'll render off a few pints of tallow for cooking, and can a bunch of beef stock from the bones.  Last I looked, grassfed ground beef is about $8/lb, and then it goes up from there for other cuts.  We really have gotten spoiled on it.  I picked up a package of conventional ground beef while I was working in DC, and it seriously tasted like cardboard despite the spices I added to it.  So yeah, pretty happy to have the freezer space for it!

My one experience with a 4H purchase put me off of it forever.  I suspect the problem was with the butcher, not the pig, but it was the foulest, most awful thing I have ever smelled or tasted.  Choose your own butcher!

Oh yeah, that is pig.  Pork can be really nasty if not fed properly, which is why I stick with beef and lamb until I can find a well-known pork supplier.  We get lamb from the 4-H/FFA kids next door to the stable and it is to die for. Even people who don't like lamb love it. My coworkers have been buying from this new to me source for 10 years and swear by it.  With beef, IME, the worst that happens is the mean is tough, but I've bought from four different sources and never had it taste nasty.

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #35 on: March 19, 2017, 08:07:52 PM »
I bought pork from a coworker friend, and didn't care for the way the butcher cured the ham.  The bacon and sausage was good, but the rest had a weird flavor. 

I'm hoping my nephew does pigs again soon.  Between the way my brother and his family raise their animals and the way the butcher they use, the meat is the best I've ever had.  I can't just use their butcher because they are a five hour drive away.


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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #36 on: March 20, 2017, 04:36:12 AM »
Our deep freeze definitely pays for itself.  It allows us to buy half a grass fed cow or a pig from our local farmer, who gets it packaged at our local butcher.  Not only does the meat cost less than at the grocery store, it is higher quality and we are supporting local farmers.  Talk to the meat seller at your local farmers market, as I am sure they can do the same for you.

Just this week an opportunity came up to get a beef quarter from a local 4-H family.  It will run about $4/lb once it's all cut to my specifications and in the freezer, plus I'll render off a few pints of tallow for cooking, and can a bunch of beef stock from the bones.  Last I looked, grassfed ground beef is about $8/lb, and then it goes up from there for other cuts.  We really have gotten spoiled on it.  I picked up a package of conventional ground beef while I was working in DC, and it seriously tasted like cardboard despite the spices I added to it.  So yeah, pretty happy to have the freezer space for it!
And the rancher probably makes even more profit off selling it at this price than they do to a store. The best way is to sell directly to local food coops; people will pay $8 a pound for local grass-fed/grass finished certified gluten-free blegh, but the overhead is so much lower. Most people will pay so much more for that labeling and say it 'tastes sooo much better' even though they couldn't tell the difference if they were eating a Piedmontese or a Black Angus. It's truly awesome.

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #37 on: March 20, 2017, 07:28:52 AM »
I think it pays.  For starters, the freezer on your refrigerator is not very good for any type of long term storage, they get opened and closed too much, temperature fluctuates too much, and items stored in that freezer just don't last as long or keep as well.  A separate deer "freezer" can be purchased for a couple hundred dollars and will maintain that consistent, freezing temp better.  Keep it in a cool garage or basement and it doesn't have to run too much either.

We need the space, as we generally have a couple deer or an elk each fall to process and store, freeze lots of fish that I catch, as well as garden produce.  Also by beef, pork, chicken, seafood and other items in large quantities when on sale, break them down into portions, vac seal and freeze for future use.   Pull out a couple vac sealed steaks from the freezer, drop them in a pan of cool water to thaw and you can grill them an hour later.

Another benefit is ice, if you do outings where a cooler is used.  Freeze a few milk jugs of ice and put them in your cooler.  They last about ten times longer than bag ice and are virtually free, since you already have the freezer.  Stick back in and re-freeze when done, or drink the chilled water.   If you want the ice in direct contact with things like a cooler full of beer, bust up the milk jugs with a hammer, then cut them open for chunked ice.  This also lasts a whole lot longer than bag ice due to the size of the chunks.

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #38 on: March 20, 2017, 07:53:03 AM »
Our deep freeze definitely pays for itself.  It allows us to buy half a grass fed cow or a pig from our local farmer, who gets it packaged at our local butcher.  Not only does the meat cost less than at the grocery store, it is higher quality and we are supporting local farmers.  Talk to the meat seller at your local farmers market, as I am sure they can do the same for you.

Just this week an opportunity came up to get a beef quarter from a local 4-H family.  It will run about $4/lb once it's all cut to my specifications and in the freezer, plus I'll render off a few pints of tallow for cooking, and can a bunch of beef stock from the bones.  Last I looked, grassfed ground beef is about $8/lb, and then it goes up from there for other cuts.  We really have gotten spoiled on it.  I picked up a package of conventional ground beef while I was working in DC, and it seriously tasted like cardboard despite the spices I added to it.  So yeah, pretty happy to have the freezer space for it!

My one experience with a 4H purchase put me off of it forever.  I suspect the problem was with the butcher, not the pig, but it was the foulest, most awful thing I have ever smelled or tasted.  Choose your own butcher!

Oh yeah, that is pig.  Pork can be really nasty if not fed properly, which is why I stick with beef and lamb until I can find a well-known pork supplier.  We get lamb from the 4-H/FFA kids next door to the stable and it is to die for. Even people who don't like lamb love it. My coworkers have been buying from this new to me source for 10 years and swear by it.  With beef, IME, the worst that happens is the mean is tough, but I've bought from four different sources and never had it taste nasty.

So...  it may have been both.  The butchering was terrible.  The bacon still had hair on it.  I love bacon like it was my long lost child... and smelling it cook made me want to hurl.  Cured meats like ham were unevenly cured.... stripes of pink where the curing salts hit it and the rest an awful sickly gray.  I split the pig with a buddy.  We tried it first and said how bad it was.  He made fun of me and said I'd never had proper "country cured pork."  That weekend he put pork chops on the grill.  He came back to turn them, opened the grill, smelled them, closed the grill and went inside to order a pizza.

And I am jealous.  I wish someone around here raised lamb.  It is exceedingly hard to find locally.  The little bit that is raised is raised halal for the Islamic community.  It's not de-nutted, giving the lamb an overly gamey taste.

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #39 on: March 20, 2017, 08:45:33 AM »
Our deep freeze definitely pays for itself.  It allows us to buy half a grass fed cow or a pig from our local farmer, who gets it packaged at our local butcher.  Not only does the meat cost less than at the grocery store, it is higher quality and we are supporting local farmers.  Talk to the meat seller at your local farmers market, as I am sure they can do the same for you.

Just this week an opportunity came up to get a beef quarter from a local 4-H family.  It will run about $4/lb once it's all cut to my specifications and in the freezer, plus I'll render off a few pints of tallow for cooking, and can a bunch of beef stock from the bones.  Last I looked, grassfed ground beef is about $8/lb, and then it goes up from there for other cuts.  We really have gotten spoiled on it.  I picked up a package of conventional ground beef while I was working in DC, and it seriously tasted like cardboard despite the spices I added to it.  So yeah, pretty happy to have the freezer space for it!

My one experience with a 4H purchase put me off of it forever.  I suspect the problem was with the butcher, not the pig, but it was the foulest, most awful thing I have ever smelled or tasted.  Choose your own butcher!

Oh yeah, that is pig.  Pork can be really nasty if not fed properly, which is why I stick with beef and lamb until I can find a well-known pork supplier.  We get lamb from the 4-H/FFA kids next door to the stable and it is to die for. Even people who don't like lamb love it. My coworkers have been buying from this new to me source for 10 years and swear by it.  With beef, IME, the worst that happens is the mean is tough, but I've bought from four different sources and never had it taste nasty.

So...  it may have been both.  The butchering was terrible.  The bacon still had hair on it.  I love bacon like it was my long lost child... and smelling it cook made me want to hurl.  Cured meats like ham were unevenly cured.... stripes of pink where the curing salts hit it and the rest an awful sickly gray.  I split the pig with a buddy.  We tried it first and said how bad it was.  He made fun of me and said I'd never had proper "country cured pork."  That weekend he put pork chops on the grill.  He came back to turn them, opened the grill, smelled them, closed the grill and went inside to order a pizza.

And I am jealous.  I wish someone around here raised lamb.  It is exceedingly hard to find locally.  The little bit that is raised is raised halal for the Islamic community.  It's not de-nutted, giving the lamb an overly gamey taste.

Was it feral pig? That can be super sour.

There is also no reason for halal to be any different to normal. The only difference is the prayers. All NZ export lamb is halal. And thats yummy.

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #40 on: March 20, 2017, 02:13:58 PM »
Our deep freeze definitely pays for itself.  It allows us to buy half a grass fed cow or a pig from our local farmer, who gets it packaged at our local butcher.  Not only does the meat cost less than at the grocery store, it is higher quality and we are supporting local farmers.  Talk to the meat seller at your local farmers market, as I am sure they can do the same for you.

Just this week an opportunity came up to get a beef quarter from a local 4-H family.  It will run about $4/lb once it's all cut to my specifications and in the freezer, plus I'll render off a few pints of tallow for cooking, and can a bunch of beef stock from the bones.  Last I looked, grassfed ground beef is about $8/lb, and then it goes up from there for other cuts.  We really have gotten spoiled on it.  I picked up a package of conventional ground beef while I was working in DC, and it seriously tasted like cardboard despite the spices I added to it.  So yeah, pretty happy to have the freezer space for it!

My one experience with a 4H purchase put me off of it forever.  I suspect the problem was with the butcher, not the pig, but it was the foulest, most awful thing I have ever smelled or tasted.  Choose your own butcher!

Oh yeah, that is pig.  Pork can be really nasty if not fed properly, which is why I stick with beef and lamb until I can find a well-known pork supplier.  We get lamb from the 4-H/FFA kids next door to the stable and it is to die for. Even people who don't like lamb love it. My coworkers have been buying from this new to me source for 10 years and swear by it.  With beef, IME, the worst that happens is the mean is tough, but I've bought from four different sources and never had it taste nasty.

So...  it may have been both.  The butchering was terrible.  The bacon still had hair on it.  I love bacon like it was my long lost child... and smelling it cook made me want to hurl.  Cured meats like ham were unevenly cured.... stripes of pink where the curing salts hit it and the rest an awful sickly gray.  I split the pig with a buddy.  We tried it first and said how bad it was.  He made fun of me and said I'd never had proper "country cured pork."  That weekend he put pork chops on the grill.  He came back to turn them, opened the grill, smelled them, closed the grill and went inside to order a pizza.

And I am jealous.  I wish someone around here raised lamb.  It is exceedingly hard to find locally.  The little bit that is raised is raised halal for the Islamic community.  It's not de-nutted, giving the lamb an overly gamey taste.

Was it feral pig? That can be super sour.

There is also no reason for halal to be any different to normal. The only difference is the prayers. All NZ export lamb is halal. And thats yummy.

Nope.  Hand raised.  (And my SIL occasionally traps and feeds/slaughters ferals.  Just fixing their diet makes them taste fine.

Maybe Halal isn't the right term.  They are not castrated and you can taste it in the meat.... like the difference in venison between a buck and a doe.

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Re: Does it pay off to buy a separate deep freeze?
« Reply #41 on: March 22, 2017, 09:36:23 AM »
^ just a nasty cure then!

If you know someone raising sheep as them to keep a lamb an extra year and eat that. 2 year old sheep (we call it hogget ) has the nice lammy tenderness but combined with the deeper flavour and fattiness of mutton IMHO.