Belted Galloway Beef
Our Belted Galloway Beef is unique to our farm. It is pure Belted Galloway with a healthy balance of Omega 3 & 6 essential fatty acids. Being naturally grass fed on pastures treated with the biodynamic preparations, our beef is low in saturated fats and high in vitamin E & beta-carotene. As you can gather from the rest of this website, Belted Galloways are a rare breed that we sustainably and holistically farm, and the beef is then sold direct to our clients or ‘co-producers’.The unique combination of Belted Galloways, how they are grown, and cared for, creates truly unique boutique beef. It is full of flavour, which is distinct, and most pleasantly different.
Our ‘Belties’ are healthy and contented as part of a natural free-range system. They are moved frequently to fresh clean pasture, and drink fresh, clean piped spring water from the springs on our farm. The cattle remain part of a family unit for their entire lives.
We do not and will not use GM or GE in any form. Genetically modified organisms are an unknown quantity at this stage and the long-term side effects are all but being ignored. We don’t use herbicides, pesticides, hormone growth promotants, feedlots, artificial fertilisers, dogs or electric prodders.
We don’t use antibiotics either, however we will not endanger an animal's life or health by withholding antibiotics and will use them as a last resort. We try management and alternative treatments first. We will never use antibiotics in feed or water at sub clinical levels.
A few things you need to know.
We are micro or 'boutique' producers at the best of times, but the ongoing drought, means we are running very low numbers of cattle. This is to protect the topsoil and plant species it sustains. We also refuse to 'buy in' animals and sell them as our own, it's not ethical or in good taste (pun intended). This means that there may be a wait of several months before more steers are ready to join the food chain.
To put this into perspective, it takes us years to produce good beef; it is a slow process - quality takes time. From conception in paddock, to perfection on plate, takes nearly 3 years all up. So even if we wanted to, we simply can't 'produce on demand' because nature won't allow it. People are understandably sceptical when we say, "this is an exclusive product, slow growing, limited in quantity, high in quality, and demand is high too", it really does sounds like a sales pitch. However, Nature imposes very real limits to our production quantities. Of course in an economically rational world, we could put up our prices until demand slowed and balanced with supply. However we prefer a more egalitarian model - 'first in, first served'.
How much, what do you get, and what are your choices?
1. By the eighth at $17 per kg
2. Michael's Gourmet Pack at $27 per kg
3. Elizabeth's Slow Pack at $19 per kg
4. The Creative Pack 3.5kg approx. at $18 per kg
5. The 2-up Pack 2kg approx. at $25 per pack
6. Premium lean mince at $14 per kg
7. Sausages lean and clean at $12 per kg
for details, read on.
Beef by the eighth @ $17 per kg.
An eighth typically includes: Eye fillet, Scotch fillet, rump, porter house/sirloin, Round, Topside roast, Silverside (corned roast or as schnitzels), rolled roast, blade, oyster blade, Chuck, Osso Bucco, ultra lean premium mince, and sausages. The sausages are lean, gluten and preservative free, and in natural casings.
All cuts are packaged and labelled by cut, weight and 'best before' date. Steaks are in packs of two and approximately 25mm thick. The mince is in approximately 500 gram bags, and the sausages are in packs of 6 (500 grams approx.)
An eighth fits comfortably in a standard domestic fridge freezer, taking up about 35litres. All cuts are supplied, and an eighth weighs approx. 15 – 17kg and is $17 per kilo so around $255 to $289 all up. Individual growth differences of animals and seasons create this variation in weights and hence prices. Larger quantities are by negotiation, but are still in multiples of an eighth, i.e. a quarter and half and so on.
Once you confirm your order we will help you to select from a few options and sometimes this depends on availability. The beef is cut, packed and labelled by Darren of DJ’s Family Butchery in Yass. It is properly aged beef and is hung for 3 weeks in certified coolrooms. It is then taken down, cut, packed, weighed, labelled, and frozen in its prime.
In response to requests from our customers we have introduced two smaller beef packs. We hope they will be suitable for singles, couples and those with smaller freezers. Both contain our great Belted Galloway Beef – one is designed for those who want high quality meats to cook quickly, and the other is for those who prefer to cook their meat more slowly to bring out the flavours.
Anyway the resulting packs are;
Michael's Gourmet Pack @ $100 approximately
This pack is approx. 4kg in weight and at $27 per kg includes;
Eye fillet steaks
Scotch fillet steaks
Sirloin/ Porterhouse steaks
Rump steaks
Topside Roast
Oyster blade steaks
Elizabeth's Slow Pack @ $110 approximately
This pack is approx. 6kg in weight and at $19 per kg and may include;
Osso Bucco
Rolled Roast
Chuck (diced)
Round steaks
Rump steaks
Blade steaks
The 2-up Pack @ $25 (please note the 2-up pack can not be forward ordered)
This is a small sample pack that might suit an individual or couple.
The
2-up pack contains two premium steaks (usually porterhouse or scotch fillet), one pack of
500- 600 gram supreme lean mince, a pack of 6 of thick lean beef sausages which
also contain fresh tomato, onion and garlic and a pack of plain beef saugages. This pack is good value as
a sample pack and is $25. There are limited numbers of the 2-up packs,
with which we hope to entice new devotees.
Well, what else do you call a pack that we created out of necessity, that in turn requires creative people to cook it? Essentially these packs will be an ongoing feature in our line, and contain excellent cuts of beef left over after the eighths, gourmet packs and slow packs are filled. We always have cuts left over! This due to the fact that our animals are all different in growth rates and size, and we put together a eighth of beef based on a hypothetical 400 – 420 kilogram animal with a consistent carcass yield.
The Creative Pack contains a variety of cuts all of which are labelled by cut, weight and 'best before' date. The creative pack weights vary between 2 and 3.5kg, and sell for between $35 and $65.
Cuts may include; rump, round, blade, chuck, schnitzel and Osso Bucco. Obviously the contents will vary so a list of contents and weights is in every pack, please ask for details at the markets.
All orders can be collected from the Southside Farmers' Market, Sundays 9-12, CIT buildings on the corner of Hindmarsh Dr and Ainsworth St Phillip,
or we can deliver the order to you at a mutually agreed time and place.
Orders are paid for by cash, cheque or electronic funds transfer once it is picked up or delivered.
We also sell mince and sausages at the Farmers' Markets, and occasionally other cuts, by weight. So if you want to ‘try before you buy’ come and see us.
We have been repeatedly asked, "what makes your mince so much better than anything else we've tried?"
We don't treat mince as cheap necessity, to use up the less than satisfactory off cuts, but an important part in our line of produce. Our mince comes from one whole Belted Galloway in it's prime, and the cuts used are the prime cuts. So our mince includes all but the very best of cuts, which we keep for our personal consumption ;-) So prime cuts like Rump, Porterhouse/Sirloin, Round, and Scotch fillet, all end up in our mince. Our beef is properly aged first, by being hung for three weeks or more, so it tastes better and there’s less shrinkage. Oh, and it's preservative and food die free too.
Supermarket mince, on the other hand, is normally made from the trimmings, or off cuts, of many animals. The trimmings are the bits that really can't be sold because they are too tough, small and/or sinewy. These are stored until enough is available and then put through the mincer. The various animals may have been hung for as little as 4 or 5 days and could be the old bull or "cull cows". This includes their premium minces too, the only difference between the hamburger and premium stuff is in the fat content. It is often laced with preservatives and food dies too.
So our mince is very special and truly incomparable. Aged, pasture fed and finished, very lean and full of flavour. We sell it at $15 per kilogram at the Farmers Markets and I'm told, at this price, it's a bargain!
© 2007 by Michael Croft and Mountain Creek Farm, All rights reserved.