Chris Wilcox Talks About Our Grass Fed Angus Beef

July is National Grilling Month and to kick it off, we thought it would be good to talk beef with Chris Wilcox: 

Hi, I feed and harvest around 20 cows.  Our cattle live on our organically certified orchard grasslands full of sweet Alice clover.  These cows roam year round on 120 acres at our century old Wilcox farm in Roy, WA.  These animals are grass fed and grass finished without hormones or grain.

Beef grazing on Spring Grass - Roy, WA

We sell our Black Angus cattle by the 1/4, 1/2 and whole sides of beef. Commonly a quarter beef weighs from 150 to 200 lbs.  We ask $0.55 cents per pound for the butcher and $4.00 per pound for the farm: total price of $4.55 per pound.  The same day the cow is slaughtered, the meat is transported by a state inspected and humane certified truck to Salmon Creek Meats in Mossy Rock, WA.  There the meat is dry, cold aged for 21 days.  You will see loss in moisture and weight during this process.   That's a very important step, which greatly enhances the flavor and tenderness.  Many restaurants will insist on this step.  

Space needed for 1/4 beef

When the meat arrives at the butcher, you are free to call and talk to the husband and wife team of butchers, Joe and Sona Markholt.  After the meat is aged, they will cut it up and your welcome to help direct the process or just follow normal, cutting and wrapping instructions.  You are entitled to organ meats like heart and liver as well as your portions of the tongue and tail.  Many people also get soup and dog bones, however, it's perfectly okay not to and you will not be charged. 

 

After the meat is frozen, I pick up the meat in a refrigerated truck and we arrange a drop off point that's convenient for all. 

Chris Wilcox with a returning customer picking up beef

 Food is a precious thing that you put into your family's mouths.   Whomever you choose to buy meat from, please do a careful due diligence on how the animal is fed, raised, and handled during the aging and butchering process.  It's important to me to do the right thing.   Each cow is traceable from my field to the butcher and then to you.  Often consumers have no idea where their food comes from.  Heck, you can even come out to my farm and check us out. 

I do hope you choose my farm.  We ask for a $100 deposit per quarter.  Mail deposits to Wilcox Farms at 40400 Harts Lake, Roy, WA 98580