Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

We'll eat well as long as freezer keeps running

I’ll take my ribeye medium rare please.

That’s a statement that all of us have said a lot less these days. Early in the pandemic last year we saw the meat cases at our supermarkets go bare or close to it, especially in the beef section. Then when the supply finally started to rebound the price went through the roof.

We suffered through it and ate less beef for awhile then we did what we used to do around these parts since settlers jumped off the wagon here. We all either raised a steer ourselves or found a friend, family member or neighbor with a half beef to sell or trade. My wife and I have never raised our own beef but my dad has done it a lot over the years and we’ve also bought beef from friends more recently.

Dad would buy Holstein calves off area dairies or trade for them and put them on grass at various places. When they got to the right stage he began supplementing with grain, what he called “finishing” the beef. That was always the best beef we ever had; the man knew what he was doing with that feed bucket.

My niece and her husband have a farm in Oklahoma where they have always raised cattle but never for their own table. We finally convinced him to pick a few to raise for the extended family. We would have had some of that Oklahoma beef in our freezer when the pandemic hit had it not been for a tough year or two there.

Instead we found a local friend selling beef and got a quarter in the freezer just about the time my wife began an extended stay in the hospital. I had thought I ordered a half but figured it was lucky I only got the quarter since we weren’t home a lot. Once she got home we were eating at home a lot and that beef was disappearing quickly. In the nick of time my niece informed us we would have beef in the fall. Fire up the grill!

In preparation for what I thought would be a half beef I defrosted our ancient freezer a little less than a year ago. This relic was acquired in the first few years of our marriage after her dad traded for the thing at the furniture and appliance store they ran together. It was quite old at that time, old enough someone traded it in. We will celebrate 40 years of marriage next spring.

This machine has been moved numerous times since we’ve had it. One place in Colorado we ran an extension cord to it and never unloaded it from the old moving van we were using as storage. Every time we plug it back in we say a special prayer for the thing. I’m sure it probably uses more electricity than all my other appliances combined but I like it.

Even buying from family and friends the investment in a half beef will get your attention. We’re going to eat well around here as long as that old appliance keeps humming.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]