Is Local Farm Meat Too Expensive? Let's Do the Math.
- Full Farm CSA
- Feb 25
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 4
We hear it sometimes: "Your prices are high." And on the surface, we understand why someone might think that. A premium steak, a wedge of aged farmhouse cheese, or a pound of house-made sausage from us looks different than what you see at the grocery store. But we'd like to invite you to look a little deeper — because our store has something for every budget, and when you calculate what you're actually paying per meal, our everyday staples are a remarkable deal.
The real question isn't whether our prices are high. It's whether the alternative is actually cheaper — once you account for what you're getting, and what you're not.
The $35 Chicken: A Week of Meals
Our whole chickens run about $35 for a 4-pound bird. Here's what that gets you:
Sunday: Roast chicken dinner
Monday: Leftover chicken tacos or a salad
Tuesday: Chicken soup made from the carcass (this alone makes two meals)
That's 4–5 meals from one bird — which works out to roughly $6.80–$8.25 per meal for the protein. Compare that to a restaurant meal ($15–25+), or even a Whole Foods organic chicken ($25–30, with no story about how it was raised). And our chicken is pasture-raised, regeneratively farmed, and grown right here in the Willamette Valley.
Ground Beef at $10.75/lb: An Everyday Staple That Earns Its Keep
Ground beef is one of our most accessible everyday items — and one of the best values on our entire store. One pound makes two solid meals: a pasta sauce one night, tacos the next. That's about $5.38 per meal for the protein, from cattle raised on pasture without synthetic inputs, by a family you can actually meet. "Natural" ground beef at a chain grocery store runs $7–9/lb, but commodity beef comes with many problems from the quality and source of the product to the way it affects our entire food web.
Our ground beef, eggs, and whole chicken are the workhorses of a real food budget — reliable, affordable, and miles ahead of anything on a supermarket shelf.
Side-by-Side Comparison
Here's how a sample weekly basket compares. Prices listed are member prices.
Item | Deck Family Farm | Typical Grocery Store |
Whole chicken (4 lb) | $35.00 | $20–30 (non-organic) |
Organic ground beef (1 lb) | $10.75 | $7–9 ("natural") |
Organic eggs (1 dozen) | $9.00 | $5–8 (cage-free) |
Raw whole milk (1/2 gal) | $12.00 | Not available in stores* |
Organic seasonal vegetables | Farm-fresh, picked to order | Days old, shipped from afar |
* Oregon doesn't allow raw milk sales in stores. It is only legal through herd share programs like ours—protecting your right to choose real, farm-fresh milk directly from the source.
A Sample Week on ~$100
Here's what one person's weekly basket looks like with real prices from our store:
Product | Qty | Price (member pricing) |
Whole chicken (4 lb) | 1 | $35.00 |
Ground beef | 2 lbs | $21.50 |
Raw whole milk | 1/2 gal | $12.00 |
Pasture-raised eggs | 1 dozen | $9.00 |
Fresh-baked bread | 1 loaf | $8.40 |
Carrots | 2 lbs | $5.60 |
Beets | 2 lbs | $3.64 |
Broccoli rapini | 1 bunch | $3.50 |
Pears | 3 | $4.20 |
WEEKLY TOTAL | $103.34 |
That's a full week of protein-rich, vegetable-forward eating for one person — with ingredients you can trust — for about $100.
How to Shop With Us on Any Budget
Our store has a wide range of price points. At the top end, you'll find excellent steaks, prime cuts, aged cheeses, cultured butter, and house-made sausages — the kind of items that make a special dinner truly unforgettable. These can be thought of as splurge items, and they're worth every penny when the occasion calls for it.
But the backbone of our store — and the backbone of a real food budget — is things like ground beef, whole chicken, eggs, raw milk, seasonal vegetables, and fruit. These are everyday staples priced to be just that: everyday.
Here's how to think about building a basket at any spending level:
Tight week? Start with a dozen eggs, a pound of ground beef, and whatever vegetables look good. That's a full week of real meals for around $30.
Moderate budget? Add a whole chicken and a half gallon of raw milk. The chicken alone covers 4–5 meals because the carcass makes stock.
Feeling flush? Treat yourself to a steak, a wedge of aged cheese, or a pack of our farm sausages. These are items you simply cannot find at this quality anywhere else in the region.
However you shop with us, you're getting food that's honest, traceable, and grown with care. That's true whether your basket is $25 or $150.
What You're Really Paying For
When you buy from Deck Family Farm, you're not just buying food. You're buying:
Meat raised on pasture, without synthetic hormones or antibiotics
Regenerative farming practices that build soil health and sequester carbon
Raw milk from cows that live as cows should — outdoors, on grass
Vegetables and fruit picked fresh and sold directly to you — no middleman, no cold storage
A local farm family in Junction City that you can actually visit (just send us an email to set it up!)
The real question isn't whether our prices are high. It's whether the alternative is actually cheaper — once you account for what you're getting, and what you're not.
Ready to try it for yourself?
Shop our full weekly availability at fullfarmcsa.deckfamilyfarm.com. Sign up and get member pricing at deckfamilyfarm.com/subscribe.
