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I am transcribing the diary of a doctor who lived in Farmers Branch in the 1840s...(.and longer)

He was the physician, but he also had some farming going on. He had two hired men.

Anyway, several times he has mentioned that he went to the beef club and got xx lbs of beef. I figured it must be a coop for meat, and I guessed right.

Found a link to that.

http://modernfarmer.com/2014/09/survival-guide-meat-clubs/

FYI

I miss having our own supply of beef and pork. But it was getting harder and harder to find a processing plant. The plant we really liked was in Greenville. It was operated by a man my husband had worked with, and his wife. When he retired from E-Systems he opened the processing plant. I *think* there was one in Emory but I can't remember the reason we didn't want to use it. OK, I really hated eating any of our calves, if truth be told.

When I was young, my parents had a "meat locker." IIRC, the name of the place involved the word "locker."

We took our animal over, they butchered it, cut the meat per my mother's instructions and put the meat in the locker our family rented.
I remember going with my mother once and it was a large walk in freezer with metal baskets/ drawers (think of gym lockers) that held our family's meat.
Mom took out what we were getting that day. We had a 22 ft. chest freezer at home but it would not hold an entire butchered calf.

We always used a place that was about 30 miles away. There was a place in Alvin (10 miles away) but she would not use them.

My uncle, who lived in Alvin, used the local butcher/locker place. One year he took his calf over. In a few weeks, he was told the meat was ready. I think he had picked some up........but then, his calf walked up--returning home. When my uncle asked WTH? He was told that the calf escaped so they substituted one of their calves that was similar in size rather than tell him his calf was on the loose. -----

Ann,
When we raised a calf for meat we knew that xx was going to be our meat steer. We gave the animals names, but always knew he was the one destined to be dinner.
I just never thought about it...sort of disconnected any emotional connection.

However, a younger sister, about 7 at the time, --when she realized that we were going to eat him, refused any meat for about a year, until she knew her friend was no longer in the freezer (or so she thought).

My grandmother told me that back before refrigeration, when you slaughtered a beef, you "peddled' it to your neighbors and local markets. I assume you put out the word a few days beforehand.

Well now you know why your uncle went to that place. Integrity! That's such a funny story. So many things happened when we decided to buy a former dairy farm. Two city slickers, were extremely lucky to have our vet/friend/neighbor advising us. He recommended a local old timer to buy our cattle. Claudy did a fine job and the vet would bring his family out on Sundays and show us how and when to innoculate. Our kids were the same age and his wife and I traded off taking the kids to preschool, so it worked out well.

So many funny things happened, but no tragedy's because of an expert neighbor buying our cattle, our vet being so available, and hubs and I reading A&M literature instead of our regular reading material. Steve was traveling a lot then and the only way I could get in touch with him was through an Air Force "patch". Most times, I wasn't sure where he was but could kind of guess when it's summer and I had to pack winter clothes, for instance.

LibraryLady wrote:When I was young, my parents had a "meat locker." IIRC, the name of the place involved the word "locker."

We took our animal over, they butchered it, cut the meat per my mother's instructions and put the meat in the locker our family rented.
I remember going with my mother once and it was a large walk in freezer with metal baskets/ drawers (think of gym lockers) that held our family's meat.
Mom took out what we were getting that day. We had a 22 ft. chest freezer at home but it would not hold an entire butchered calf.

We always used a place that was about 30 miles away. There was a place in Alvin (10 miles away) but she would not use them.

My uncle, who lived in Alvin, used the local butcher/locker place. One year he took his calf over. In a few weeks, he was told the meat was ready. I think he had picked some up........but then, his calf walked up--returning home. When my uncle asked WTH? He was told that the calf escaped so they substituted one of their calves that was similar in size rather than tell him his calf was on the loose. -----

I remember going to my Memaw and Pepaw's in Jacksonville and they had the "meat locker" also at the place the processed the beef. Not sure if we just picked it all up and took it to their house, I think they kept it there.

There is still a locker plant operating in itasca.

This thread reminds me of something that happened when I was still in college. One of our former next-door neighbors in our apartment complex was the caretaker of a lake near Lufkin, and he and his wife had given us some of the meat from a cow they had raised there. When they got the next cow, they asked us to go in 1/4th with them and two other couples. They did all the work, and our financial commitment was $50 for the animal and feed. A date was set for slaughter, and we got our freezer ready.

That day came and went, and about a week later, our friends called and said that they had waited an extra week to let it fatten up, and the day before it was to become steaks, it was bitten by a rattlesnake and died. We were disappointed, of course, but said, "Hey, stuff happens; thanks for letting us know."

About a week later, they came by and gave us a check for $50. When we asked what it was for, they said that the wife's brother and sister-in-law were upset and demanded to be reimbursed for their investment. They had given them their $50 back, and were doing the same with us. Long story short, we said, "That' crazy", told them they could either take the check back or leave it, but either way, it was getting torn up. We thanked them for doing all the work on the deal, and invited them to come back later for peach pie and Blue Bell.

When I was a freshman in high school, our ag class boarded a bus and went to the next town over. They had a processing plant there called "Jack's Wholesale Meats." We saw the entire process.

It was the period before lunch. Nobody became vegetarians that day, but we did feel a little funny about our meal. And I have never forgotten it.