Meat, glorious meat! Hot sausage and mustard!
We’re singing the praises of meat (and yes, we took a few liberties with the lyrics of a song from the musical Oliver Twist), but perhaps you’re singing the same tune, ready to break out of your vegetable rut.
You want to support local farmers.
You’ve embraced the community supported agriculture, or CSA, mindset.
But you want to translate the support into a burger, a pan-fried pork chop or a grilled pastured chicken breast instead of another serving of kale or radishes.
We’ve got four local Atlanta meat CSAs that can help you satisfy that craving.
Darby Farms raises chickens for meat and eggs, turkeys, heritage pigs, sheep and cattle on farmland in Good Hope, Georgia. Farmer Daniel Dover offers three monthly CSA options: an egg CSA of four dozen eggs per month for $30, a 10-pound pork share for $100 and a 15-pound beef and pork share for $150. The woodland/pastured pork shares can include cuts such as pork chops and roasts and also ground pork. The beef and pork shares will include the same cuts of pork plus grass-finished beef steaks, roasts and ground beef. Purchases for more than one month at a time will receive a discounted price. The meat shares are delivered to your home on the first Friday of each month. Egg shares must be picked up at the farm or in designated drop spots in Atlanta and Athens unless you purchase a meat CSA share. Sign up here.
This program is run as a meat co-op, offering pastured pork and poultry as well as grassfed beef, lamb and water buffalo. In addition to including meat from its own animals raised in Conyers, the Grant Wallace Farm CSA includes meat from a range of local farms such as Carrell Farms, Frolona Farm, Tink's Beef and White Oak Pastures. The meat will be delivered to your door in a cooler bag with ice which should keep the meat frozen for up to 12 hours. Ordering options include weekly, monthly and custom delivery periods or you can just try it out with a single order. Prices range from $49 for a five-pound share of mainly ground meats to $119 for eight pounds of meat, a dozen eggs and four pounds of vegetables all the way up to $180 for 19 pounds of ground meats, roasts, steaks and sausages. The farm offers other meat packages including exotic local meats and a local poultry box of chicken and turkey. 678-517-3933. Sign up here.
Pine Street Market is a specialty butcher shop that offers fresh cuts of meat along with artisan items such as pancetta, bacon and salami. Your CSA box will contain eight to 10 pounds of fresh meat including sausages, ham steaks and ground beef and prepared items such as meatloaf and porchetta. And always some of their famous applewood smoked bacon. Pickup is at the Avondale Estates market. The CSA is available in three-month shares, payable in advance at $75 per month, or $225 total. 404-296-9672. Sign up here.
Riverview Farms in Ranger, Georgia offers a flexible meat CSA program. There's a standard CSA share with a mixture of pork and beef. It comes in 10- and 16-pound shares. Or you can customize your order and get an all-beef share. Or an all-pork share. Or an all-pork-and-beef share with no chicken option. Or you can order a custom box and select just the cuts you want. There are 12 pickup locations in metro Atlanta or for $10, they'll deliver to your door. You can pay monthly, or for three to six months at a time. Pricing starts at $68.33 per 10-pound share. 678-910-2831. Sign up here.
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