Slaughter House Saturday
Apr 26th, 2008 by Dani
About three times a year, I brave Preston Market at closing time on a Saturday and join in the fun at Wes’s Meating Place. Wes, as you may have guessed by the name of his place, is a butcher. On Saturday afternoon’s, a cultural melting pot gathers at his storefront, shoulder to shoulder, packed tighter than sardines while Wes auctions off all his remaining meat.
Once you see the can of Wild Turkey and Coke emerge from the cool room and take it’s place near the front counter, the fun is almost ready to begin. Wes starts the sale, tray by tray, arms holding fistfuls of money shoot up in the air to grab a bargain. Competition is fierce but the folk are friendly. A tray is slapped on the scales and he’s off, “$64 worth of lamb chops going for $50, $45, $40, $30″, hands wave in the air, Wes points to the winner. One of his minions bags the meat, takes the cash and makes change while Wes moves on to the next tray. “Sausages! Who wants sausages? This whole tray”, he pauses to bang another handful on the tray, “$45 going for $30, $25, $20″. He doesn’t even finish speaking before 5 separate hands shoot up, all wanting the snags. And so it continues.
I did well today, securing a position close to the front and in a good place to read the scales. The people in front of me finished quickly which gave me a position right in the middle, front row. Just like royalty.
My haul;
- 4kg beef spare ribs $10
- 4kg assorted steak and topside chunks $30
- 2 large legs lamb $30
- 6 lamb necks $5
- 4kg hunk round steak $30
- 2.6kg lean mince $10
A total of 20kg of meat for $115. That averages $5.75 per kilo. By the time I divided it up, and put it in the freezer, we will get 25 - 30 meals depending on how it is cooked. I only tend to use around 500g per recipe and I often pad it out enough that I get more than one meal out of it. Given that we don’t eat meat every night, I anticipate this will last a minimum of 4 months
Of course if one is going to battle the market at it’s peak of business, it is only sensible to take advantage of other bulk/cheap purchase opportunities. Which, for me, were
- 72 rolls toilet paper $17
- 3.5kg pink lady apples $5
- 4.3kg plums $5
- 6 large bananas $1.85
- 3 litre canola oil $7 (for soap making)
- 2kg soup mix $6.90
- 1 large carrot, 5 roma tomatoes, 1 large eggplant, 3 zucchini, 2 cucumbers $3.85
- bag bean sprouts, bunch coriander and 5 avocados $2.95
That’s another $49.55, bringing my Preston Market expenditure to $164.55. Hmm, I seem to be over the week’s budget already. Oh dear. But wait, there’s more…
Before I got to Preston, I went to the Slow Food Farmer’s Market in Abbotsford where I bought;
- 1/2 green cabbage $1.50
- 1 large head broccoli $2.34
- 2 small turnips $1.20
- bag snow peas $3.85
- 3 baby leek $1.50
- 4 baby parsnip $1.50
- bunch kale $2
- kohl rabi $1.50
- large piece horseradish $8
- large bunch radish $2
- 9 apples - pink lady, fuji and nashi $4
- 600g figs $6
- 3 corn $2
There goes another $37.39, bringing the grand total for the day to $201.94. Way over budget. I haven’t been to the supermarket yet either, not that I need much there. That can wait until Monday. At most, that will cost another $50.
Now here is where it gets murky but it’s my logic and it works for me. If you don’t like it, you can point and laugh. While $100 over my weekly budget sounds horrendous, it’s actually OK. $163 of that is bulk purchasing of items that will last for months. Assuming I get an average of four months from the bulk items, that means I have spent roughly $10 per week over that period in today’s shop. So, if I spend $140 or less over the next 4 months, it all evens out and I remain within budget. The tricky part being of course that I had to outlay the cash today out of this week’s budget. I am fortunate that I am able to do that, even if it means we will be cash poor this fortnight. I think it’s worth it.
What a fantastic haul Dani!! I can only imagine the cooking and packing work in your kitchen after that.
We grew up a little like that - shopping and cooking in bulk - bulk buying groceries once a month, then the days following “killing day” were an endless process of mincing, cutting and packing meat (there’s an awful lot of meat on a full grown bullock…). It was lots of fun for a curious child - discussing anatomy, learning to understand why meat cuts were tender or tough, and being part of the process of feeding your family.
I’m absolutely with you on spending next week’s budget this week to buy bargains… it makes our budget work and keeps us well fed when things are a bit busy; the last few weeks we’ve virtually lived out of the freezer on meals I cooked up a month ago, supplemented by salad from the garden and steamed veg. It’s not how I’d want to live permanently, but it’s been a huge help while I’ve been sick and busy, and means we can still eat well during the crazy times
I dream of buying an entire bullock. I looked longingly at the whole lambs yesterday, lots about for Greek Easter but at a minimum of $75 a lamb and lamb not being my favourite meat, it didn’t seem worth the work. Funny you should mention anatomy, J loves watching me work with the meat and talking about where it comes from.
I hope you’re feeling better now. A well stocked freezer is such a life saver isn’t it? I guess not having that is where people resort to take away when things fall apart. That would be a lot harder on the budget than spending an extra hundred to get ahead for a few months.
[...] space for it. Which I do. In fact, I only have about 4 kg of beef left in the freezer from my last bulk meat buy. In case you’re doing the math and wondering, I paid a lot more per kg overall this time. The [...]
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