Jeepful of Meat

My wife came back from a farm near Kalmar yesterday with 105 kg (c. 230 lbs) of beef packed into five banana boxes in the back of the Jeep. She'd visited the farm a couple of times before, after picking up a flyer from an organic produce stall in the town square market back in the spring. On one previous visit, the farmer had mentioned that, a couple of times each year, they slaughter an organically-farmed bull, and asked my wife if we'd be interested in putting our names down for a share of the meat the next time around. She said yes, as we seldom see organic beef in the supermarkets here, and often look in vain for particular cuts such as T-bone steaks. There are no specialist butchers' shops for many miles around: one must either go to a supermarket, else direct to a farm. Last Thursday, the farmer called to say that a bull was about to be killed that night, and a quarter of it remained unsold. We asked around, and found that my collague Mr. T______, and his wife, were interested in coming in on the quarter-share with us.

I went back to the T______s' place after work, where Mr. T______ and I waited while our wives stocked up on freezer bags, foil, ties and labels, and, in our case, a new chest freezer, which they also managed to somehow squeeze into the back of the Jeep. When they arrived, it cost the four of us almost two hours' effort to separate, pack, wrap and label the five boxes full of fine-looking meat and bones. After that we had to load our c. 52.5 kg share back in the car, drive it to the Mañana, then get it, and the new freezer up to the fourth floor. Having done all that, we weren't in the mood for a steak right away, so I walked across to O'Leary's and ordered some take-away stuff, while Dog delightedly gnawed at the marrow in a length of bone we'd given him.

Posted by misteraitch at December 4, 2002 03:09 PM