Beware, tirade ahead

I don't know if I should even write when I am this angry. Maybe a chill pill would make more sense. It seems that every time we find a meat processing plant that does our beef the way we like it, they go out of business. We loved the SUNY meat lab; they did a great job. We tried another place after the dean closed them up, but they were horribly high priced. Therefore, we took our most recent animal to a company we used for years, back when some very competent older people ran it. We stopped going to that plant when the old folks sold out to some geniuses who sent back meat with steaks off opposite sides of the same cow that were so divergent in size that we could tell somebody got a little creative about who got whose meat. Since we sent out a Belgian Blue with rib steaks the size of platters and the weird ones were palm sized, but probably came off a prime angus, we didn't really do too badly out of that deal but still...

I didn't say anything to the boss when these new characters quoted him a real cheap price even though my feeling wasn't good about it. The feeling was right. They have had our steer for twenty-nine days, about two weeks past when we should have had it back. And they STILL have not cut it. (Beef normally hangs ten days to two weeks. Three weeks is pretty long, although we have hung them that long and had good meat. If the cooler the animal is hanging in is not a real good one the meat starts to taste funky after a while.)

For the nasty man from that company who just finished reading me out on the phone for having the audacity to actually CALL his place on the phone about the matter.

1) If you don't want me giving your girlfriend a hard time on the phone, don't leave your customers hanging on, waiting and wondering if you are ever going to cut their beef for weeks past the time you said you would have it ready. So what if I talked to you about it before? That was last TUESDAY. And the boss called you the Monday before. I don't think calling back six or eight days later is pressing you too hard. And tell her not to explain the aging process to middle aged farmers. Trust me we are familiar with it. I want to eat the meat not get Medicare for it.

2) Sorry you have had people sick and meat cutters out and all. We were real reasonable about that the first couple times we called. After a while reasons become excuses. That is OUR milk-fed steer sitting in your cooler getting older...and older...and older. Just how long CAN beef hang before it turns into something else?

Bah! I am too mad to spit!

Of course the guy will eventually cut our meat and it will probably be perfect, but we have been worrying...and worrying...and worrying.

Oh, and I persuaded the boss this morning, with very little difficulty to book the pigs he is fattening right now into the expensive place we went to after the meat lab closed. You get what you pay for and peace of mind is priceless.

**thanks to all ND readers for letting me get that off my chest so the smoke will stop coming out of my ears and I can go get some work done.