Those of you who’ve been around for a while, know that we do things a little differently (hands up if you remember the San Diego drop off days!). But those of you who are new to Glacier Grown might be wondering what the heck is going on here! In order to clear up any confusion, here are some Glacier Grown ordering basics.
We take orders, and then harvest animals, twice a year - in fall and late spring. We start taking orders in about April and September for our two harvests. We sell halves, quarters (split-halves), eighths, smaller variety bundles, and ground meats. Because we base our harvest numbers on the orders that we receive, we have people order and pay up front.
Our butchers start processing animals. Based on the orders that we receive, we start harvesting animals a few weeks after the ordering begins. Depending on when you order in the whole process, there could be anywhere from a 1 - 10 week wait for your meat (occasionally longer if we have an exceptionally hard winter making dry ice deliveries and shipping difficult). For example, if you order at the beginning of April, you could possibly be waiting until early June to get your meat, BUT ordering then ensures that you get the products that you want. However, if you order in May, June isn’t too far off. And if you order after we’ve already harvested, from what we have remaining, we can get it out to you the following week. Once you order, we will contact you and let you know where we are in the process and when we expect to have your meat back from the butcher, so that you can have your freezer ready.
Once we get the meat back from the butcher, we start setting up shipping dates. We will never ship until we confirm a shipping date with you. No one wants frozen meat to sit on the porch for 3 days while they are camping!
Lastly, and most importantly, you get your meat and start eating the best grass fed, grass finished, free range, chemical free meat you’ve ever had!
SOME ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Just because we only take orders twice a year, doesn’t always mean that you have to wait until the next harvest…..but unless you stock up, sometimes it does. Unlike some large companies out there with multi-zillion dollar marketing budgets, and very large freezer capacities for storing inventory, we are a small company and do not plan
to stock inventory between harvests; however, we usually do end up with some inventory remaining between harvests. For instance, if we have orders for 7 1/2 bison, we obviously have to process 8 animals and would have a 1/2 animal (or 2 - 1/4’s, or a few bundles) available until it sells out. We try to list everything available on the website (www.glaciergrown.com) between harvests, but if you are out of meat and need something, get ahold of us to see what we have in stock. We can often do customized orders with our remaining inventory at the end of a season.
Our shipping and harvest dates change depending on the year, weather, ranchers, and animals. Our harvests aren’t at the exact same time every year. Some years we have long (REEEAAAALLLLLLYYY LOOOOOONNNGGG!) winters and so our spring harvest is closer to summer so that the animals have plenty of time on lush, green grass prior to harvesting. Winter also affects the fall harvest. Our winter (and sometimes fall) weather determines dry ice deliveries to our area, the ability for the butcher to get to the animals for harvesting, and shipping schedules. Remember, we are dealing with real animals (not just inventoried meat), and we live in MT where we can have some crazy winter conditions and where there are 7.16 people per square mile - that means lots of great pasture land for animals to roam around on, but it also means that dry ice companies are far away and that our access is often limited. We don’t live in podunk nowhere (we have a Target and a Costco nearby, hallelujah), but we aren’t high on the list of importance in the scheme of business deliveries either. And, when there’s weather forecasted (whether it is extremely hot or extremely cold), we don’t take a chance on shipping; we wait until things clear up.
We know that this method might not work for some people, and that’s okay. But we know for a large number of you, this works wonderfully. We take pride in knowing that we are providing you with the best quality and best tasting, grass fed, grass finished, free range, clean meats available. If you ever have questions, please contact us - we are happy to answer them.
OUR OFFERINGS
While many companies offer a large variety of products and combinations of individual items for you to pick and choose from, at
Glacier Grown
we offer a more streamlined set of products. We have three main product categories that allow for a good deal of variety and will accommodate any household size and need: bulk (halves, quarters, and eighths), ground meats, and variety packs.
BULK. We sell both
Bison
and
Beef
in half, quarter, or eighth shares. Buying in bulk allows you to have a larger supply of meat as well as a nice variety of cuts. Not only is this the most cost effective way to purchase, but it is also super convenient to have a number of different clean and healthy meat options available in the freezer. In order to spread your payments out and make things a little easier on the budget, if you are ordering in bulk, we require a non-refundable deposit at the time you place your order, and then your final balance due invoice will be sent once have your animal's actual hanging weight. It does require that you have a little more freezer capacity, but the cost of a small extra freezer is well worth it. There are usually some small chest freezers at Costco that are both energy efficient and super inexpensive.
BURGER.
Our
Ground Beef
and
Ground Bison
come in approximately 1 lb packs and are sold in quantities of 25 and 50 lbs. We also have what we call our 1/2 & 1/2 Burger Combo order. This Burger Combo consists of 12 lbs of Ground Bison and 13 lbs of Ground Beef in the same box. Our packs aren’t exactly 1 lb, so we get as close as we can to half of each, while still giving you the specified poundage of your order.
BUNDLES. Our pre-specified bundles are packs containing steaks, roasts, burger, and a few other cuts giving you a good variety of items. They come in 10, 20, and 30 lb quantities of
Bison,
Beef, or a
combination of the two. On the website, you can see more specifics as to what is in each bundle.
Although we specialize in only a few key products, we are confident that you will be able to find a perfect match for you and your household among the many healthy choices that we offer. If you aren’t sure what would work best for you, please contact us; we would be happy to help you figure it out.
**Glacier Grown sells meats from free range bison and beef that are 100% grass fed and grass finished. They are healthy and happy animals raised without the use of pesticides, hormones, or antibiotics from birth to harvest.
