Grass-Fed Bison Meat: Packing Date Unknown

One of the first challenges I came across after deciding to eat healthier was the problem of where to find food. Eating organic and local is a great idea, but I really didn't know how to go about procuring this type of cuisine. The first idea that came to mind was a local farmer's market. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware of anything close, and I thought I had heard that farmer's markets close down during the winter. I'm not sure if that's entirely true, but I definitely wanted to find sources that were available year-round.

The next idea was some type of "natural" market, like Whole Foods. I haven't really taken a good look inside Whole Foods (or some other similar stores like Sunflower Market and Sprouts), but just the fact that they're chain stores with locations spread across multiple states makes me think they might not be the best option. They're probably a step above Wal-Mart and King Soopers, so I'm sure I'll take a closer look at them sometime. But I was looking for something a little more local.

At this point I decided to start small and find some grass-fed meat. Beef would be fine, but thought I might as well see if I could find some bison. It's supposedly a little healthier for you. Plus, at Ted's Montana Grill you pay extra for bison burgers, so bison must be better. Luckily, in The Omnivore's Dilemma, the author mentions Eatwild.com. Eatwild.com has listings for grass-fed meat providers. Just navigate to your area and you'll find a list of local farms and what they sell. There were a lot more local farms and ranches in my area than I thought there would be. They're listed with contact information and a website if available. A lot of the ranches only slaughter during certain times of the year, and some of those only sell half or whole animals. Even if our freezer was completely empty it wouldn't fit half an animal, so that narrowed down my choices. Eventually I decided to try Rocky Plains Quality Meats. There were somewhat close, had local (same state) grass-fed bison meat for what I thought was a reasonable price, and I didn't have to buy more than I could handle.

Rocky Plains was about a 45 minute drive away. It seemed like I might be driving a lot more than usual to eat healthy. I was a little worried that all this extra driving would end up being more detrimental to the environment than going to the local supermarket, but then I remembered that whatever meat I bought there probably traveled quite a bit farther than I was going to drive. It traveled in bulk, though, so I'm not sure what has the smaller net impact in that respect. But I'm going with the healthier option.

Grass-fed bison from Rocky Plains Quality Meats

The Rocky Plains store is close to the highway, but it's still on what looks like a ranch. There was a sign on the main road, so I was pretty sure I was in the right place. But I was worried I had gotten the address of the actual farm and not the store. Once I pulled in I noticed a store like building and my fears subsided. I walked in and was greeted by a nice older lady, the only other person there. They had freezers full of meat and sparsely stocked shelves with other local (Colorado and other western states) goods. I ended up getting two pounds of ground bison and one pound of ground bison patties (3) for burgers. I paid $7.29 for the patties, $8.53 for one pound of ground chuck, and $7.61 for one pound of regular ground bison. Significantly more expensive the ground beef I had been buying at Wal-Mart ($3 per pound or so). I was willing to pay extra to try this out, but it might end up being too expensive to continue. Their prices were about the same as the other grass-fed bison suppliers I found on Eatwild.com. Maybe we'll try some cheaper grass-fed beef next. If you take a close look at the picture, you can see that the box for the packed on date is empty. I'm assuming this meat isn't extremely old, but without a date I don't know for certain. I wonder if they don't put dates on the smaller batches, or maybe they just forgot on this one. I didn't notice the omission at the time, but I'll probably pay closer attention on my next shopping trip. We haven't cooked any of the bison yet. I'll report back on that when we do.