Butcher/Slaughterhouse Beef Purchase.. (Tampa, Apollo Beach: co-op, Home Depot, buying)

[wiltznucs]

I've grown a little tired of paying ridiculous prices on beef at local groceries and meat markets. Especially when considering that you cant go a mile on any highway leading out of Tampa without running into a cattle operation. At my previous home in Atlanta local farmers would happily sell entire or partial steers through their local packing facility. In general you'd save hundreds of dollars provided you have the freezer space. Anyone here have any recommendations or insights as to where you can do this in the Tampa area?

[wparker377]

Can you tell me where I can find some of the local packing facilities of some of the farmers in the Atlanta area? I know this doesn't answer your question, but I moved here from the midwest and have not been able to make bulk purchases of meat in the area. I prefer buying in bulk and cutting out the constant store runs to the local meat market or grocery store. Thanks.

[Nav]

There is a co-op place in the Bay area called the "dam ranch" where you can buy whole sides of beef.
You can email them at thedamranch@aol.com

Nav

[TampaKaren]

Have you looked into Land and Sea Markets? They have several stores and a website here --> Land and Sea Market.

There's also Apollo Meats on Apollo Beach Blvd in (guess where?)... Apollo Beach.

We used to buy from Alessi Meat Market, but they've downsized to just the bakery.

[Kathleen1971]

I can't cook to save my life and am not a big meat eater but everyone else in my family swears/swore by Apollo Meats and considering that part of my family is from New York and NJ they consider that a compliment.

[wiltznucs]

Apollo Meats quality is outstanding and the service is good. That being said, they are also a little pricey. But as far a bulk purchasing is concerned, I havent found what I'm looking for yet.

I'll give the link above a try! Thanks!

For wparker, I've been away from Atlanta for two years and understand my rancher sold his property. I cant for the life of me remember the name of the butcher/slaughterhouse I dealt with but it was located in Walton County a few miles outside of Loganville.

[TampaKaren]

Guess what? I saw an ad for this in the mail this week. Seems there's a meat market called "House of Meats" on East Fletcher Ave that sells sides and bulk meat. No mention of Atlanta though. I googled the telephone number (813-977-9207) and it used to be called Kansas City Meat Market. I don't know anything else about it other than it's in an area near USF with a bad reputation.

[Phrogz3]

You can find small local farmers selling beef,pork , eggs and so on at [url=http://www.localharvest.org]Local Harvest / Farmers Markets / Family Farms / CSA / Organic Food[/url] there is also [url=http://www.eatwild.com]Eat Wild[/url] that is more toward grass fed only. I think for most people Local Harvest is your best bet. The meats at the meat markets mentioned in the other posts (land & sea .....) are not at all from local farmers, more then likely they are from feedlots in the mid-west and have been all jacked up on growth hormones and antibiotics. There is a very healthy sustainable local food movement going on in the Tampa Bay area. Keep your money local it helps local farms stay in business and keeps the circulation of cash in the local economy. You pay Farmer Joe, he goes down to Pete's Feed Store and buys some more grain, Pete pays his boys that load the feed , the boys that load the feed take there girlfriend to Jack's BBQ on Saturday night.... Ok so the money maybe left town when Farmer Joe went to Home Depot , but you get the idea. And, last but not least we are what we eat! Junk in junk out.