How to Maximize Your TF $$'s & See The Truly Expensive Foods

written by

posted on

January 23, 2022

It's week #3 of our 4 week January series to start 2022 off healthy and it's time to talk about everyone's favorite subject, especially farmers 😂: money!

Seems like everyone has been sick recently so the concept of "health being wealth" might be a little more real for some right now too - can't do much with that wealth if you haven't the health to use it.

But, changing the way you eat and where you source your food can be, or at the very least, can seem to be, more expensive.

Grassfed beef has the assumption of being expensive.

When something is thought of as being expensive we can immediately assume that we cannot afford it and just dismiss any further thought on it.

So we are going to talk through a couple of things today: 1. Is it more expensive? 2. Tips to make it more affordable for anyone.

Know that I am not coming at this from the position of a flush bank account. If you think starting a farm from scratch is a get-rich-quick scheme and that Andy is still working off the farm full-time (outside all this winter 🥶) for funsies, you'd be mistaken.

But we do understand value & quality and that you get what you pay for.

If you have ever come to visit us at Burger Night you'll notice our buildings and the stone siding. You also might notice high-quality windows in the house and garage and metal roofs on all our buildings.

Andy is a contractor and builds houses for his day job so he knows materials & has the skills (and all the tools - don't let him tell you otherwise!).

However, we also have budgets.

So as things come up we have to decide what we value most and where we spend our hard earned money & time: the short-term or the long-term.

We almost always choose long-term.

The costs are:

higher up-front costs
(which means) fewer projects
(and ultimately) living in a smaller house.

But the short and long-term benefits are:

lower heating & cooling bills
practically zero maintenance work & zero maintenance costs
beautiful craftsmanship we can enjoy just being around
buildings that should outlive us and carry the long-term benefits on to the next generation.
Bonus: a happy husband that doesn't ever have to roof again! ❤

We think these benefits outweigh the costs....well, most days, having 1 bathroom can suck.

The parallels between a house and your only true home, your body, are pretty easy to see.

Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live. – Jim Rohn

If you're choosing short-term for your body by eating the equivalent of particle board (seriously, some of the "food" in the store is not much different!), cheap vinyl windows and patching asphalt shingles on top of old ones well, you can expect some trouble....especially if your foundational health is already weak - any stressor that comes along could completely collapse your home.

The short-term gains might be:

convenience
high palatability (although your taste buds can change pretty quickly)
targeted marketing that helps you feel included and validated
less cost (maybe)

The costs might be things like:

feeling tired and losing time & progress
losing time getting sick
medical bills
not looking great
not outliving your body (being kept alive by pharmaceuticals or equipment but with zero quality of life)
mentally being unable to cope with the seemingly endless stressors

I believe that just like a house, any time we can chose nutrient-dense foods over the ultra-processed foods (think the middle of the grocery store or gas station), we are investing in the short-term enjoyment and long-term health of our body.

The beautiful thing about life is that we are still mostly free to choose what we put in our bodies (those of you that reach out weekly looking for raw milk know why I say "mostly").

I just want to make sure you are choosing based on facts and not assumptions.

The only barrier to truth is the presumption that you already have it. - Chuck Missler

So I did some price-checking.

Our ground beef with no discounts is $8.95/lb which is $0.56/ounce, of course you can get discounts (see below) and we have lower cost items but ground beef is the item people are most familiar with (those superfood kidneys last week were $0.28/oz!!).

Here's a selection of some of the convenient/palatable/popular items available from Wal-Mart and Woodmans (except the KT snickers). You can play this game easily at the store - simply check the tag for $/oz and multiply by 16 (ounces per lb) or, if the tag doesn't show $/oz just divide the cost by the ounces in the container and then multiply by 16....

Snickers bar from Kwik Trip = $0.91/oz
--->This is $14.56/lb - grab our snack sticks instead for just 39 cents more! This time of year you can even just leave them in your car.
Protein powders seem to average about $0.8/oz with some going much higher.
--->This is $12.80/lb - just buy the OG whole food proteins, not ultra-processed protein - there are a LOT of options for less than $12.80/lb.
Wal-Mart brand kale salad kit = $0.63/oz or $10.08/lb
Doritos from Wal-Mart, large bag = $0.38/oz
--->I know this is less than our ground beef comparison (note that single-serving bags are more), but at $6.08/lb is this the best use of food funds and are chips as cheap as people might assume they are?
Kind granola bars (on sale even at Wal-Mart) = $0.89/oz or $14.24/lb
Annies organic granola bars = $0.69 or $11.04/lb
Nature's Valley & Cascadian Farms granola bars = $0.45 and twinkies = $0.46/oz
--->Again, very popular items that are assumed to be cheap snack foods but at $7.35/lb is this a good deal for practically no nutrition and lots of sugar bringing with it blood sugar/insulin spikes?
Realgood pizza = $0.80/oz or $12.08/lb
Amy's cheese pizza w/ veg crust = $0.77/oz or $12.32/lb
Realgood Lemon Chicken bowl = $0.61/oz or $9.76/lb
Good Food Made Simple Chicken Pad Thai = $0.63/oz or $10.08/lb
Catalina Crunch keto cereal = $0.78/oz + milk or $12.48/lb+
Kellogg's Snax cereal = $0.92/oz or $14.72/lb
Cream of Wheat (single serving container) = $0.52/oz or $8.32/lb
Single serving of breakfast cereals like Cap'n Crunch, Cherrios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch = $0.66-0.83/oz + milk or $10.56-13.28/lb+
Quaker and Full Circle oatmeal cups = $0.78/oz or $12.48/lb
Kodiak oatmeal with extra protein cup = $0.93/oz or $14.88/lb
Munk Pack Keto granola bars = $1.27/oz
--->This is $20.32/lb - you can eat STEAK and eggs (at $3.59/doz, each egg is $0.30) for breakfast for cheaper AND more bio-available nutrition
Clif protein bar = $0.95/oz or $15.20/lb and Clif nut butter bars at $0.85/oz or $13.60/lb

Just for fun, some drinks, since some people replace meals or have these with their meals or snacks:

Monster energy drinks = 0.12/oz or $1.92/lb
Starbucks coffee drinks = $0.25/oz or $4/lb

Somewhat ironically the keto and paleo foods targeting the health conscious consumer with ultra-processed foods in place of whole foods, especially protein, are the highest cost per lb, as are single-servings of course.

It's no wonder that, according to Diana Rodgers "Americans are spending less on meat today compared to years before, but twice as much on processed foods & sweets." We actually spend the most on processed foods & sweets now where once we spent the most on meat.

This all empties your wallet fast because the lack of nutrients and protein, turns on your stop-eating or satiated signals slowly and are engineered to make you want to keep eating past fullness.

Out of curiosity, I checked out some of the fresh meats and was pretty surprised to see that Woodman's fresh beef stew meat was $8.99/lb (TF stew meat is currently $9.95) and their boneless sirloin tip was $9.99/lb ($9.95 for TF's sirloin tips already cut up!).

So, what's this mean?

Swapping out an ultra-processed food product with no or low nutrient content for a nutrient-dense food from Together Farm's could actually SAVE you some moo-la or at least not cost you as much as you might think AND, at the same time, be a long-term investment in health, community & environment.

Of course, I understand that you can buy in bulk and find cheaper prices for those things listed above or not buy name brand, etc etc, but that's like buying a house-worth of cheap vinyl replacement windows - you might save a little now but if you do the math, it's probably costing more in the long-run.

It's also worth pointing out that you'll probably need to eat more to feel full and a nutrient comparison at $ per bioavailable unit (like iron, B vitamins, etc) would blow any bulk savings out of the water and of course, there are all the aforementioned costs and missed benefits.

You can also buy in bulk and find lower prices with Together Farms, but without sacrificing your health, the environment or the community.

But again, it's all your choice as to what you value, I just want it to be an informed choice.

Tips & Tricks to Save

There are obvious ways to do this:

Buy BUNDLES which are usually available
Stock up during a SEASONAL SALE
Get MULTIPLE PACKAGES at once
--->Watch for items with a drop down arrow
Look for bonus items that are put on SALE
--->To see all the items on sale at any given time go to All Products and click the On Sale tag at the top or bookmark that link.
--->You might want to see if we're doing anything cheesy for National Cheese Day today! 🧀

Those are pretty obvious but there are a few lesser known things you can take advantage of like:

TF's REFERRAL PROGRAM: You get $10 & they get $20!
--->We know word of mouth is King and we value your help in spreading the good news to your family & friends
--->Simply log in to your account, go to in the top right-hand corner choose Referrals from the drop down list and copy your unique URL to send to family and friends as a link!
30% off GRAB BAG items
--->If you love all meat and are feeling adventurous, you can stock up on the packages that are safe but flawed in some way.
Live alone or have a small meat appetite? Order SHORTS
--->These are packages of brats, chops, sausage, etc that didn't get to the quantity or weight specified - maybe there is 1 chop or 2 brats.
--->To order, send an email, they aren't posted in the store yet.
Take advantage of FREE delivery with orders over $149
--->What are the savings in time and money to skip a grocery store trip?
--->note that we are running the numbers now and it looks like this may have to slightly increase soon.
RETURN those shipping BOXES! $10/box adds up quick!

Lastly we are working on accepting EBT for food items this winter, stay tuned for that update.

Hopefully you found a gem or two tucked in here that can help make eating nutrient-dense foods the easy choice - the more people that opt in to supporting their local farmers directly, the more prices can normalize as systems become more efficient too.

If you want to make small changes, change the way you do things. If you want to make major changes, change the way you see things. - Gabe Brown

Wishing you health & happiness in 2022!

Order by midnight on Sunday for pickup or home delivery next week!

Yes! Deliver Good Food to My Door!

Celery in meat - more deception?

UPDATE, 12-19-2025: I just learned that synthetic nitrites, aka pink salt, are pink because red dye is added to it. But, since it's at such a low percentage it is not required to be labeled on the meat (more bs in my mind). So that would be a point for Team Celery; however, with red dyes being banned, all the red dyed pink curing salts are now being phased out. So point is nullified, Team Celery still loses. Today we're talking about something that really irks me, really gets my britches in a bunch, really makes my blood boil, really drives me up the wall....but I will do my best to not devolve into anger and name-calling, I am clearly a professional so we'll keep this educational and factual because that's what you're here for and I don't even know where to get knickers from to twist. I'm obviously in such a state of controlled rage because it's Easter and so up popsCELERY. 😡Obviously. The gist of it: My belief is that nitrates and nitrites in meat should be avoided due to the creation of nitrosamines and that this is created whether the nitrates/ites are from the chemically pure lab-created (aka synthetic) nitrate/ite or if they are from concentrated nitrates/ites derived from celery because the same reactions will occur and be treated by your body in exactly the same way and it's best avoided. To further confuse matters, "their [synthetic nitrate/ites compared to those derived from celery] chemical composition is absolutely the same, and so are the health effects," says Joseph Sebranek, Ph.D., Morrison Endowed Chair in meat science at Iowa State University. 1 Just like how my blood sugar will spike if I eat a spoonful of sugar or a hunk of sugar cane. 🥄🌿REGARDLESS of what the label on the raw sugar cane says - it could say "natural", it could say "organic", it could saw "raw", it could say "derived from natural locations".....my blood sugar will spike because my digestive system is 100% immune from marketing gimmicks or downright deceptions.A+ work digestive system....please teach the eyes. 👁👃👁 Finding smoked meats without any added nitrates/ites in ANY form from animals raised well and organically on a small farm and then processed by an animal-welfare approved butcher that cares about health is quite a feat! Congratulations! 🎺🎺🎺Pictured: our $99 March Bundle of the Month (not pictured: included recipe cards and all the transparency we offer, mostly because it's transparent).Now that it's Easter time, the SMALL FARMS I follow are out there telling their customers that their hams are "uncured" and contain NO nitrates/ites because they use "celery" and therefore it's healthy....either they are directly saying it's healthier or are very heavily implying it. But they are literally say "NO nitrates/ites included" in their emails and social posts.Which is actually 3 lies. ‼ Lie 1. It's not uncured. Celery-derived nitrates/ites are chemically the same BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE. No literally. There's more. Since the USDA will not classify celery-derived nitrates/ites as being a curing agent (which makes zero science-sense) they will also not regulate it's use and so it's basically it's like the wild wild west.Not only that, but I have had butchers personally tell me that they then use MORE just to be "safe"!And the fact that nitrate/ite levels in meats using celery-derived nitrate/ite compounds is at least the same as synthetically sourced nitrate/ite was actually found to be true by researchers. So again, the chemical will behave the same, like a curing agent, regardless of how it came to be. Chemistry. Lie 2. It's just some celery - you know, the green leafy vegetable that is good for you. Well, yes but no. That's just like saying high-fructose corn syrup or glucose syrup is corn. 🌽Yes, but no. Yes it was derived from corn but after extensive further processing and concentration. If you told me "here's some corn for you to eat", I would imagine a cob of corn or perhaps a bag of frozen corn, I wouldn't think you were handing me a spoonful of glucose syrup. Same with the celery.They are not rubbing the meat with a stalk of celery, they are highly refining and processing the celery to extract out the naturally-occurring nitrates/ites and concentrate them which they then use as a substitute for pure synthetic nitate/ite curing salts. The entire point of adding the celery-derived nitrate/ites is for the nitrates/ites, not for flavor or nutrients or color or anything else. Nobody is even pretending there is any other reason for it's use except to act as a cure. Lie 3. It's healthier. I feel like we proved the point as far as celery nitrates/ites are the same chemically as synthetic ones and your intestinal tract also can't read, so just like my intestinal tract, it is what it is.The nitrosamines are created and probably cause colorectal cancer. But, wait, the celery option itself actually gets even a little bit worse. Okay, so it's true that nitrates/ites naturally occur in foods - especially leafy vegetables or any veggies with higher water content (because nitrates/ites occur in water) so then the veggies themselves concentrate that, some a little more than others, and we eat it, but that is seemingly okay. Kind of like how nicotine is naturally occurring in some veggies and actually might be good for you in small doses of that raw form, but I'm doing my best to stay focused here. Just remember, the problem seems to be the heating up of the nitrates/ites in a protein-rich environment, not necessarily the nitrates/ites themselves.Okay so what else are veggies that are full of water going to be full of? That's right - pesticides, herbicides and whatever else is floating around in or dissolved in all that water they are drinking or being splashed with. Celery currently ranks #16 on the EWG's pesticide contamination list (again, they don't look at any of the other -ides) and, here's the kicker! Non-organic celery is used to make celery-derived nitrates/ites even for organic products! 3So along with those celery nitrates/ites comes the concentration of whatever else was in that celery. I mean, at this point, if we didn't have this godsend of an option with our butcher of "D. None of the above".-------> we would choose synthetic over "celery". <------- Now at this point I should just leave well enough alone and send you on your merry way to digest all this info but I'm not really a professional like was indicated earlier so before we go, I'd like to show you this label and you tell me if it's telling you the truth and can be trusted or if it's deceiving you: It's hard to read but under the white banner it says "No Nitrates or Nitrites Added" and then in the asterisk at the very bottom in the white it says "except those naturally occurring in....celery powder" which you'll see below was added. 🤣 what?? so which is it? added or not added?That would be like if the Snickers or whatever candy bar said "no sugar added except for those naturally occurring in corn" instead of "high fructose corn syrup". 🤯And, of course, it says "uncured" in giant letters as part of the name, which it chemically is not Again, the back is hard to read though it does say you can have "peace of mind" eating this (more like, I'll give you a piece of my mind Applegate).A close-up of just the ingredients is included. Notice that the celery is not organic even though this is an organic product. It's not just celery. Some butchers will say "vegetable" or use carrots or beets or some other veggie or combo of veggies but it's all the same - a veggie being highly processed to extract and concentrate nitrates/ites to then be used as a better sounding cure. Could actually be worse depending on how much those other vegs concentrate bad stuff. Okay so they both said "no nitrates/ites added" but also then added the concentrated form of celery nitrates/ites which is chemically exactly the same as the synthetic nitrates/ites and behaves exactly the same way....as a cure.Okay and here's a picture of our label - what do you notice? The label says "uncured", the ingredient list does not include any vegetables or any asterisks that say "except for..." so it really is uncured and there really are no nitrates/ites added. Just good meat that was in a salt & sugar brine and then smoked the old-fashioned way using a smokehouse and hardwood chips! No water injections or reforming either. Just a smoked ham. That's right - actually no nitrates added. Congratulations! You have just unlocked a new set of decoder glasses complete with a ring! 👓💍This is a big deal, as the "Celery in Meat" ring + glasses are both are very hard to collect. This got much longer than I expected so I am going to save the butcher story for next week. I am also a little concerned I'm on the verge of starting a cult with all these secret super powers I am giving you so stay tuned for part 2 as to why and how we ended up here - clean meat, raised organically on our small farm and processed well. No way are we going to work so hard on raising the best meat we can (hand-fed pastured pigs!) only to have questionable ingredients added at the butcher! Hard pass. Of course if you want to eat meats with nitrates/ites in any form - great! If you aren't worried about nitrosamines, great! If you don't think I'm right or my references are not trustworthy, that's all fine. Of course, you probably shouldn't expect to be invited to present at the Annual Convention of Chemists, aka ChemCon, but that's fine, you've got better things to do anyway. 🧪 I just want you to be able to have the CORRECT and trustworthy information you need to make those decisions. And right now, "uncured" meats and "celery" are a huge pile of lies, deception and greenwashing. This really might be the worst example of greenwashing I can think of, specifically because we assume the word celery = better and we assume we can trust all these small farms. It's actually worse even than meat being able to be labelled "Product of USA" no matter where it's from because at least small farms aren't doing that to their blindly trusting customers. Ugh, it all just makes me so sad and frustrated. Also a small pro-tip, according to my chef friend, celery is best left out of broth making too as it brings some unpleasant flavors with it (nitrate is that you??). So keep celery in its place: Bloody Marys and we'll all be fine and live forever. Hmm, a drink actually sounds really good right now. Thanks for being a part of our little farm and I hope you really can trust us - I don't think we are self-deceived (although that's the thing about being self-deceived) and we do our best to be as transparent and honest as possible, but you'll never get the full story until our reality show becomes reality. ❤ Your farmer & founding-member-of-the-Church-of-the-Flying-Anticelery-Monster friend, Stephanie Schneider

How to Maximize Your TF $$'s & See The Truly Expensive Foods

More from the blog

Pricing Updates & Freezes

Celery in meat - more deception?

Holiday & Sale Updates & Deadlines

Local Farm • Grass-fed Beef • Meal Kits • Burger Nights • More