Cook Family Farm — Attraction in Hayes Township

BEST BEEF I HAVE EVER TASTED.

A lot to share. I was a first-time purchaser of 1/4 cow. I was told the hang weight of 159 pounds. Fortunately, I googled hang weight and learned the actual meat received would weigh far less. In this case, I received 95.46 pounds of meat.

Cook's staff: Pretty delightful to work with. Arranged pickup closer to me than their farm, as they had a store delivery near my home.

Cook's beef: HANDS DOWN the best meat I have ever had the pleasure of cooking and eating. I typically purchase from the meat counter of a supermarket - generally recognized as the best in the area. To compare them doesn't even make sense. It's like it's not even the same kind of food. I will want this excellent beef from here on out.

Processing (Ebel's processes the beef for Cook's):

Probably a mistake - I let the person who called to talk about how I'd like to receive the beef (favorite cuts, more of this...less of that) that I was first timer for purchasing meat this way. We walked through a sheet of options together, and I asked clarifying questions and stated what I'd like.

Ebels: Do you want beef shank? Me: I have never made it or seen it. How is it generally prepared? Ebels: Similar to roast preparation, and it can be made very tender. Me: I'd be happy to try one or two, just to check it out.

I receive NINE beef shanks. This is an inexpensive cut of meat (bear in mind all of the meat is provided at the same price per pound). A little over 10 PERCENT of the meat weight I receive was in beef shanks.

This is not the only - but is the most egregious example of this treatment. When I called Ebel's to let them know, the response I received was, "alright! I'll write on your order that next time you don't want so many beef shanks. I don't know why she did that."

There is no transparency in this process and, in the end, you get what you get. Most of the meat we received was in lower-end cuts (shanks, short ribs, chuck roast, ground beef, other roasts). The ground beef is phenomenal, and we would have loved to have had more. We have enough roast, however, for a loooong time. Too long.

For other cuts, we received amounts that are not ideal for serving (e.g. received .33 lbs of beef liver and .73 lbs. of tenderloin). These aren't workable for cooking for a family. This may be down to my ignorance of what can be expected purchasing only 1/4 cow - if the processor had shared that with me, I would have said we don't want it. It's a real bummer, because we absolutely want more beef from Cook's.

Here's the high-level breakdown:

Hang weight: 159 Received meat weight: 95.46 Price per pound: $3.90 (at the time of our purchase) This is based on HANG WEIGHT Received meat price per...

Yep that's right. We licked the plates CLEAN. Picked up our thanksgiving turkey today from these kind ladies and grabbed a raspberry pie as well... And let me tell you. This was THE BEST Raspberry pie I've ever had in my life. Definitely going back to try the other pies. Pie to DIE for. 10/10 thank you for selling these incredible confections! I give my compliments to the angels who put their love and incredible baking skills into these pieces of heaven. WOW just WOW. If you haven't tried these pies, I don't know what you are doing with your life. Lol 🤣 go on! Get on down there and get yourself one before there aren't anymore.. or before I go and buy them...

We went for a sleigh ride and had the most amazing time. This is family operated and what a wonderful family. Very kind and professional. There was fresh snow the night before to make everything magical for our ride. They have beautiful property. After the ride we got to warm up by a bon fire and enjoy hot chocolate and cookies. The sleigh ride had been a bucket list thing for me and I got to check it off! Thank you for that! We hope to make it back next winter!! ...