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Buying a Side of Beef: What It Actually Involves

Buying a whole or half beef directly from a Maryland farm is one of those things that sounds complicated until someone explains how it actually works, and then it seems obvious. Farms like Roseda Farm in Baltimore County or Springfield Manor in Frederick County sell animals this way regularly. You contact the farm, put down a deposit, and the animal goes to a USDA-inspected butcher, often a small regional processor like Kreider's in Washington County or B&E Meats in Howard County. The butcher handles the slaughter and aging, then calls you to talk through your cut sheet, which is just a form where you say how thick you want your steaks, whether you want ground beef or stew meat from certain sections, and how you'd like the roasts trimmed. A few weeks later you pick up a stack of white butcher paper packages labeled in marker.