Meat Share Round Up

A friend recently asked me about meat shares, and I promised to put together a list of local meat shares for her (a week ago). Here they are - sorry about the delay, Laura!

• Chestnut Farms, Hardwick, MA - my own meat CSA, and we LOVE them! I pick up in Arlington Center on the first Tuesday of every month or the following Wednesday at the Arlington Farmers' Market, but you can also pick up in Natick, Waltham, or at their farm in Hardwick, MA. Cost of the meat depends on how much you buy: $80 for 10lb, $115 for 15lb., $150 for 20lb., $175 for 25lb. Shares include chicken, beef, pork, and lamb, with a promise of goat in the future. You can opt out of pork or lamb, if you wish. You can also order turkeys, and they frequently have eggs for sale at their pickup locations. Last I heard, they had a 6-month waiting list.
  
• Stillman's Farm, Lunenburg and New Braintree, MA - pickup locations in Jamaica Plain, Brookline, Cambridge, Quincy, and Lunenburg. They also offer chicken, beef, pork, lamb, and seasonal turkeys. Their pricing model gets cheaper the more you pay in advance and is otherwise comparable to Chestnut Farm. They do offer a 5lb quarter share for smaller households, and they give their shareholders a 20% discount when they buy additional meat at farmers' markets.
• Austin Brothers Valley Farm, Belchertown, MA - This relatively new meat CSA just got started in August, so they may actually have shares available. They've sold meat in the parking lot by Harvest Coop in Cambridge for years, and I've found the meat quality to be quite good. Pickup locations in Cambridge, Amherst, Belchertown, and Worcester. 5lb/month for $9/lb, 10/month for $8.25/lb, and 20lb/month for $7.75/lb. They offer only beef and pork.

Remember that there's also a fish share now available, too. Pick up in Harvard Square, Cambridge.

In researching this, I came across this (slightly out of date) list of local CSAs: http://fitfool.livejournal.com/143862.html.

Hmm, so few meat CSAs. Is this an opportunity for aspiring farmers?