Very Handy FAQs

It’s simple, really. A beef share is a whole, half, quarter, eighth, or sixteenth of a cow—bought directly from the farmers who raised it. It’s a great way to buy fresh-from-the-farm beef, affordably and sustainably. Shares are priced by hanging weight (the weight of the cow after harvest) with the option to customize largershares (whole, half, and quarters) to receive the cuts you want. Customizations are included in the hanging weight price, so you never pay extra for them. (More on allthis, plus timelines, etc. below!)

It means that the animal was processed in a facility that is “exempt” from continuous USDA inspection, which is only the option when purchasing a share.   Our animals are “field killed,” i.e. slaughtered in the same field where they have lived, with no trucking to slaughter and no time ever spent in stressful feedlots.   

Custom-exempt processing allows us to have better traceability, and means we are more connected to the food we provide than a large USDA processing facility is. 

We get it! We want to make sure you have space before you pick up your share. Below breaks it out for you. FYI, beef keeps well in the freezer for at least two years, so pack that thing full! 

• Half beef - requires an 11-cubic-foot freezer. 
• Quarter beef - requires a 5-cubic-foot freezer. 
• Eighth beef - fits in your standard kitchen refrigerator/freezer with room to spare. 

A beef share is the best way to enjoy high-quality, 100% grass-fed beef for much less than what you’d pay at the grocery store, without having to make trips back and forth to pick up the cuts you like to cook. Long story short: the more you buy, the more you’ll save. 

Some meat math: $6.50/lb for a whole beef = 680lb hanging weight x $6.50 = $4,420 

That leads to 450lbs take home weight = $9.82/lb retail equivalent. 

We charge by hanging weight, not how much meat you take home. We do this for a few reasons: We work with other regenerative farmers to bring you the best quality products while investing in and practicing processes that will benefit the land now and in the future. Farmer’s costs are based on live weight, butcher’s costs are based on hanging weight, and sales costs are by retail weight. Charging by hanging weight covers all these costs, including harvesting and butcher fees, animal care, wages, cutting, etc. It helps everyone get paid on time. Money is what keeps the lights on, after all.

It doesn’t! The price you pay per pound includes customization and packaging of your cuts. (Another reason why shares are an awesome deal.)

While timelines do vary, most shares are ready for pick up 16 or so days after your specific harvest date. You can collect your share at our farm store, The Meeting Place in Hillsboro (our butcher), or arrange to pick it up a local farmers market (during market season).

Buying meat in bulk as a share is the most economical way to source the highest quality meat, raised regeneratively, and in direct support of your land stewards. Requiring a deposit will allow us to sustainably plan the herd with our farming partners, ensuring they will have the correct amount of animals at the time of harvest. 

We are requiring a deposit for new reservations on any animal share, including beef, pork, lamb, and poultry. This deposit will be required for all customers. Deposits are becoming industry standard, and as we grow and adjust to that growth, we’re following that standard.

Here's what you can expect:

• Invoice and deposit are issued via email at the time of booking your reservation with a 1-week due date for the deposit to be paid.
• Final notice will be given 6 weeks prior to the harvest date if any changes need to be made. This would be the last chance for you to move your share and deposit to a later date if absolutely needed without a loss of your deposit. Any changes after that 6 week period will result in a loss of your deposit.

Our curated boxes are only available for purchase online. However, you can purchase one online for pick-up at the farm stand. Please allow a minimum of 48 hours after placing your order.

We have a 100% customer satisfaction of our product arriving fresh and frozen.  Due to the nature of the product, we do not accept returns, but we will provide a credit toward a future order if there are any issues with delivery. Please email us at myfarmer@sourcefarms.love for support.

We ship every Tuesday and provide both next day or 2nd day delivery options. We’ll send you tracking information as soon as we ship it out. You can also choose to pick up your order at our Farm Store.

If you've purchased a subscription, your order will always ship on the following Tuesday closest to your chosen recurring cadence.

We now offer nationwide shipping! Deliveries to Oregon, Washington and Idaho are a flat rate based on how many boxes are purchased; all other states will have shipping calculated at checkout. Perishable orders cannot be shipped to PO Boxes, A.P.O or F.P.O addresses.

Each shipment includes corn-based insulation and 2-5lbs of dry ice that ensures your meat will arrive fresh and fully frozen. We use a maximum of 48hr shipping to ensure the product maintains integrity throughout the shipment process.

Shoot! If your order arrived thawed, you can still eat it within 4-5 days. If it is thawed and room temp, please dispose of it and reach out to our team at myfarmer@sourcefarms.love. 

Our packaging is all recyclable.

Dry ice: We wrap the dry ice in brown paper and it will be on bottom of your package inside the insulation. You may put the paper-wrapped dry ice in a bowl and place in a well-ventilated area, away from pets and children. The dry ice will dissipate over time and when gone, you may recycle the brown paper it was wrapped in. Do not open and touch the dry ice with your bare hands as it may cause burns from the extreme cold. 

Insulation: Cut open the film holding the insulation and pull out the foam panels. Recycle the film. Once the foam and film are separated, you’re able to dispose of it in a few cool ways: submerge it in water and watch it disappear, add it to your compost pile, save pieces for your barbeque or fire place to start your fire quickly and easily, or add pieces of it to you’re a bucket when watering your plants (it serves as natural plant food!).  

Check back frequently as we restock or try one of our alternative boxes as a way to get creative with your cooking!

Subscriptions are great if you know you want a recurring delivery of one of our boxes because you love it so much! Subscriptions have a 5% discount rate per box. Five days before your order is processed you will receive an email reminder. At that time you can choose to change or skip that occurrence.

We require a minimum of three deliveries for your subscription order. After that, you are free to cancel if you so wish.

Great question! In short, regenerative agriculture involves farming practices that work with nature, rather than against it. By adopting farming techniques that mimic natural cycles, regenerative agriculture can build healthy soil, restore biodiversity and sequester carbon from the atmosphere, all while producing nutritious food. 

Please refer to our blog post for more information.

Read More About Regenerative Agriculture

Grass-fed and grass-finished means simply that. Any animal that is labeled this way has only consumed grass in their lifetime. The two animals that only eat grass are lambs and cattle. Both these animals are ruminants, meaning they have multiple stomachs with their own microbiomes which allow the sugars within pasture grass and hay to be converted to energy and mass. 

All beef and lamb sold by Source Farms is grass-fed and grass-finished. In addition, our beef from Pat N Tams is finished on grass and vegetable scraps, resulting in a beautiful marbling.

Well, first there are the health benefits:  According to Mayo Clinic, grass-fed beef generally has: Lower total fat content, more heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, more antioxidant vitamins such as vitamin E, and more cancer-fighting Conjugated Linoleic acid (CLA).  There are no hormones, antibiotics, preservatives, nitrates/nitrites, fillers, or other chemicals or additives used in either the growing or processing.   

Then there are the environmental benefits: fewer fossil fuels used in production, no manure lagoons or feedlots, more land in permanent pastures and less in frequently plowed row crops that require more chemicals, more fossil fuels, more irrigation, and release more greenhouse gasses (compared to permanent pastures). 

Rest assured, our beef and lamb will never eat a grain in their life.

Kookoolan Farms was founded in 2005.  Tabula Rasa Farms was founded in 2018 The two farms came together in 2022 to form Source Farms.

Simply put, we would not exist without them. Tabula Rasa Farms is one of the farm suppliers for Source Farms. The farm is owned and operated by Brenda Smola-Foti and Frank Foti, who also are the proud owners of Source Farms. Both Tabula Rasa Farms and Source Farms are part of the food group within the larger umbrella of The Ground.

Learn more about Tabula Rasa Farms here.

The Ground is a business that connects farm, food, and people through hospitality. Learn more about The Ground here.

No. Certifications require extensive paperwork and overhead. We choose to work with farmers that treat their land and animals as regeneratively and humanely as they can while still offering the products to our customers at a great value.  

We believe that organic certification is important when you’re buying in an anonymous grocery store environment because there is no one but the label available to talk with you.  When you buy directly from Source Farms, you are able to look us in the eye and ask all the questions you want about feed and husbandry and processing.  This relationship essentially puts the customer in the role of certifier.   

No. Source Farms is a distributor for our family of farms that have been meticulously chosen because of their regenerative agriculture practices and humane treatment of animals.

Many of the sundry items in our farm store, such as local and imported cheese, olive oils, hazelnuts, spices and so forth, are selected by us from other farms.

Our protein is wrapped in plastic which is BPA-free. If you prefer not to have plastic wrap, you must purchase a custom share and request with the processor that it is wrapped in butcher paper.