By Julie
This action tip may be helpful for you if you’ve recently bought meat from us or have
never thought to keep a running inventory list going for your beef or pork supply. I’ve
found over the years that with a freezer full of meat several things can happen 1)
I’ve literally forgotten what’s gotten buried in there over time and 2) I wouldn’t
realize that I’m running low on a particular cut of meat that I was hoping to use.
Simply put, if you have goals to eat healthier meals at home, and you have taken the
time to source out good meat from your local farmer, then the next step to take the
frustration out of meal planning or not waste this precious food, is to keep it
organized (even just a bit!)
Here’s how I do it, and how you can start a freezer inventory list of your own:
For those of you who have bought a smaller shares from us, like the 30 or 60 lb
option, making an inventory of your meat is easiest to do as soon as you bring
it home from the farm. Jot down on paper how many of each type of steaks,
roasts, and the amount of burger you have and then organize it in your freezer
with putting like things together (roasts in one stack or area, the steaks in a
small plastic box, the burger stacked neatly).
For those who have bought half a beef from us (or pig) then the butcher has
provided a list for you with the amounts of each type of cut of meat. That’s a
handy list to have and the work is already done for you! From this point,
people with their cut sheets can then just update it each time they use up
some of their meat.
But if you’ve had beef in your freezer for a while and don’t know where your butcher
cut sheet is or if you even still have it, you can make a designated time to organize
and make a list of what you have in your freezer which will help you plan your meals
better.
Here’s a picture of my freezer inventory list after I had pulled out the meat shelf by
shelf and counted up and listed the different cuts. I even tried to organize the pork
on one shelf, beef on another and so on.
I listed the name of the cut of meat on the left and made small marks on the right
that I can strike off each time I take out a piece of meat. I’ve tried in the past to just
write the number of cuts next to the type listed, but I would often forget to write
down when I take something out and then the list does me absolutely no good over
long term. I keep a magnetic marker right there on the freezer (or fridge) and the list
taped up so that each time I take out a piece of meat, I just strike through the
number or marks and I can easily see about how much I have left of that type of cut
of meat in the freezer. Even if you have a deep freezer chocked full and this seems
overwhelming, I did a whole freezer inventory in about a half hour.
Planning ahead for healthy meals and knowing how much meat you have on hand to
do it with is the very basic beginning of being able to stick to the goal of healthy
eating.
The “why” behind all of the planning is not just for the sake of planning, but
because it is vital we eat more good, heart-healing, body-strengthening food, and
some little steps of planning and making an inventory of your meat might help you
get a little closer to your goal of healthy living – and part of that is home-cooked
healthy protein. One of the blessings of buying in bulk is having all that wonderful
meat on hand, and with a little simple inventory (it doesn’t have to be as detailed as
mine even!), you can know exactly what you have on hand to use for your upcoming
week’s meals.