Thank you for your interest in purchasing one of our Carnation Farms Ground Beef Shares! 

First I would love to share a little bit about our cows. We care for a herd of Belted Kingshire cows whose original home was at Wild Canary farm on the other side of Snoqualmie Valley. Jim and Katie Haack (who we bought the herd from in 2021) spent years growing this herd up and pouring all their love into them and it shows! This is a very special breed of miniature cow bred especially for grass finishing in the Pacific Northwest, because of this you will find beautifully marbled steaks from these grass-fed cows. We care-take the largest herd in the world at only 45 cows, so there is nothing out there quite like them! They are some of the sweetest, most friendly cows around and we know them all by name. They are 100% grass-fed (they get the occasional pumpkin treats from our organic farm), and raised organically. Meet Bella and Hickory below, two fan favorites.

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Participating in our beef share program is a unique chance to buy beef directly from a farmer. This means there can be a few more logistics involved. Below is information to help walk you through the process, as always we are here to answer any questions. 

How It Works:

• When you buy a beef share directly from the farmer you are actually buying a “share” of a live animal. Doing this allows farmers and customers access to a type of slaughter and butchering overseen by the Washington State Department of Agriculture in their “Custom Meat Program.” It is similar to a fruit or Vegetable CSA in that you are investing in the farmer and in the animal before you receive the product. 
• When we offer these Ground Beef Shares it is most often because we have an older animal that we need to cull out of our breeding program. Since the meat is older and tougher farmers will usually have the whole cow made into ground beef instead of having steaks/roasts. This meat is often some of the most flavorful and delicious though!
• You’ll put down a non-refundable deposit on your beef share to hold it until harvest.
• When our harvest dates arrive, butchers will come out to the farm to do an on-farm slaughter. This is, in our opinion, the lowest stress for the animals since they are at home, in a familiar place with their familiar handlers. 
• After slaughter, the butchers will take the carcass to the butcher facility where the beef will “hang” for 7-14 days. This process, also called dry aging, allows the meat to become more flavorful and tender. 
• At this point, the butcher will part out the beef and package it into 1 lb packages. We (Carnation Farms) will drive out to the butcher and pick up all the ground beef and then bring it back to the farm to divide it into shares.
• You will then come to the farm and pick up your beautiful, grass-fed, local ground beef!

What You Get:

• We sell our Ground Beef Shares in 1/8ths so you will go home with approximately 40 lbs of beautiful, local, grass-fed beef. If you want more than that you can buy multiple shares!
• Animal harvest is never an exact science so we can’t promise exact amounts. Rest assured if we end up with much less in a harvest we will adjust the final cost to reflect that.

Cost:

• There will be two payments made by the customer.
  • The first will be to Carnation Farms in the form of your deposit when you first reserve your share.
  • The second will be a final payment to Carnation Farms for the balance of your beef share, this will include the harvest and cutting fee of the butcher as well as a payment to Carnation Farms for raising the beef.
• Carnation Farms charges $475 per 1/8th Ground Beef Share. $100 will be the deposit amount and the $375 balance will be paid before or at pick up at Carnation Farms

When:

• Our current butcher dates are set for May 4th. I will send out regular updates as we get closer to harvest. The whole process from slaughter date to pick up will take approximately 2 weeks though it will depend on the butcher’s schedule.

How to Reserve a Ground Beef Share:

• To reserve a ground beef share please respond to this email with your full name, what size beef share you would like to reserve (quarter, half or whole share), your phone number and any questions you have. 
• We will then send you an invoice for our deposit
• We will be in close touch with upcoming dates and logistics

We are here to answer questions and provide more information. Just email us at alexh@carnationfarms.org. Again, we appreciate your interest in our beef share program, and look forward to the chance to share local, grass-fed beef with our community!