'But I don't like my meat frozen, I prefer it fresh and thawed from the grocery store'

I've heard this comment many times over the past couple years and I find it very interesting, because it's another example of how disconnected we are from our food.

So let's break it down

There's an aging process when it comes to meat. The animal is killed and then the carcass is hung, depending on the animal, this length of time varies and then depending on if it's fresh from a farm or not, the aging process also varies.

Store bought meat undergoes a process called wet aging, which is where the meat is put into vacuum sealed bags so that it can age during the shipping process.

Farm fresh meat undergoes a dry aging process, where the carcass is hung in the same room for a certain period of time.

Once a store receives the meat, there's about 2-7 days where the butcher will cut the meat into different cuts, put them on styrofoam trays and wrap them in plastic.

The cuts are then in the 'fresh' area for 1-5 days before they are either processed by the store itself and then sold as prepared food or then sold frozen.

In comparison, once farm fresh meat is cut and ready for consumption, it is immediately flash frozen.

Which keeps the cuts as fresh as possible and honestly making meat directly from a farm fresher than any meat at the grocery store.

The argument that meat in the refrigerated isle at the grocery store is fresher is not accurate. It's simply a way to make our life more convenient and disconnect us from the animal even more.

It's not fresher meat, it's just thawed meat and I promise that thawing farm-to-table meat is worth the added hassle.

Want to connect back to your beef by walking the land it was raised on, sharing a meal with your farmers and meeting the herd it lived with?

Click here to learn more about the Herd to Harvest Collective