What state are you in? Do they have a Grower's Association? Here in Minnesota it's a list of food producers in the state listed by product. They put out a catalog every year that's called Minnesota Grown. It also lists where the producers sell their products, if they sell from their farm, their phone number, website, etc. Check with your state AG department to see if they can help you.

Here in Minnesota many stores carry bison products.

Here Bison is even sold at the local Meijer's, right next to the lamb.

You might check at localharvest.org, or call your extension service, they usually have information about local farms and markets.

There is a bison farm about 25 miles from me, so I've occasionally picked some up there, I've never ordered any on-line.

I think I've also seen it at Whole Foods.

Annie

teresa and annie thanks for the suggestions. I looked into them and I couldn't find any bison farms in my area. We live on the east coast and there just aren't any. There are no Whole Foods by us either. I did find bison in the Stop n Shop but it wasn't organic and I won't buy it. Thanks again, I'll just keep looking.

Annie you are so lucky to have a bison farm only 25 miles from you.

I'm attaching a link to a site that has a search engine for farms and stores that sell products raised in a healthy way. Included are farms that ship their products.

If you are eating bison for the reduced fat and cholesterol content, you may be interested to know that when you compare bison to grass fed/grass finished beef, the difference is very small with regard to those things. Often the beef is quite a bit less expensive. In our state, the farmer told us that it's because the state pays for the inspection of beef, but the farmer must pay for the inspection of bison. You can do a search on the fat content of both meats to find comparison data.

Good luck finding a local source,
Cj

Here is a link that might be useful: Eat Wild

This post was edited by cj47 on Wed, May 1, 13 at 13:03

My local family owned market carries Bison from Gunpowder Bison & Trading, located in Monkton Maryland, so I am fortunate I am able to buy it thru the store. I would not hesitate to order online from them. The quality is far superior to the bison I bought from Whole Foods and less fat. I always keep the ground bison in the freezer and get nervous when I get down to 5 lbs :). I recommend calling them if you want more specific information. They have been featured in major newspapers and had a hard time keeping up with the demand a few years ago as bison became more popular and restaurants included bison on their menus - supplied by Gunpowder. I have included a link to their website.
(I am not affiliated to the company.)

Here is a link that might be useful: Gunpowder Bison

I only see ground bison. How come stores don't have actual "cuts" of bison? Do those of you with bison farms up the road get bison short ribs, bison chuck, bison tenderloin, etc?

John, here stores and farmer's markets do have actual cuts of bison. I've never looked for short ribs, as I dislike them and their greasy residue, but I've seen bison chuck roast, bison porterhouse, bison round steaks and roasts.

As cj mentioned above, the nutritional values are close to grass fed beef. Because I raise grass fed beef I buy very little bison, but a local doctor used to have a "buffalo bbq" every summer and the big seller was a "buffalo burger". That was before it was called bison, LOL. No one wanted the steaks back then, it was too lean and everyone thought you had to cook bison until it was shoe leather so the steaks were invariably tough as....well....shoe leather.

Annie

cactuscatie - I don't know where in New England you are, but we used to live just outside Boston. The Market Basket stores carried bison in the meat department.

Don't recall much about it, except I bought some kind of steak once. DH grilled it, and it was tough! I used some ground bison in a meat ragu, and I couldn't really tell the difference between the bison and the ragu made with ground beef.

Cheryl

John, I have all the cuts available from my local farmer, too. And as the others said, if you overcook it, you'll be chewing it until those proverbial cows come home. It'll taste good while you are doing it, but you'll work off every calorie! :-)

Annie, having your own grass fed beef...that must be so wonderful!

Cj

Ted Turner (Jane Fonda's ex) is the largest bison ranger in the world.

May be you can track down what he does with the meat.

dcarch

I'm curious. What makes organic bison different from bison meat that is not labelled organic? I have only noticed frozen ground bison at our farmers' market but don't know if it was organic or not.

magothyrivergirl Thanks, I will lookup Gunpowder.

jadeite, we live in New Jersey in an urban city. It is very very hard to find bison or even grass-fed/finished beef. Our butchers do not carry bison.

annie, wow, having your own grass-fed beef must be awesome. Wish we could have it too, but I don't think the city council would approve or our neighbors. lol

cj47, cracking up over "the proverbial cows come home". I have been researching how to prepare bison also.

I have realized, through this post, just how different we all live. Thanks everyone for answering.

Try looking for a "game ranch". Those are hunting clubs where people hunt exotic animals. Trophy hunters often don't want the meat and the herds are also culled of non-trophy animals. Local club offers buffalo and elk that I remember. I'm a fan of the elk and meh about the buffalo. Buffalo is kind of cool in that a steak can cover the whole grill if you like playing Fred Flintstone. When the herd is culled a list goes up where I work... about time one went up. Herd has been down the last 3-4 years but I'm once again seeing groups of 20-30 deer grazing... the farmers will be screaming mad by fall.

: )
lyra

Lyra/Michael, I'm glad to see you here again!

The farmers are already screaming mad, I saw 153 deer on my way home from the farm two weeks ago, just before everything got green. That's an 18 mile drive and it's only the ones I could see from the road. Gaacckkk. I've been walking fence every day from those rats on hooves blasting through it. People need to eat more venison!

cj and cactuscatie, I love having my little herd of cattle, the "mama" cows are as much pets as my horses are. Since I am a beef farmer, the daughter of a beef farmer, the granddaughter of a beef farmer, I don't eat very much beef, it's not a treat for me at all. I much prefer fish, LOL, but I'm sure not adverse to a nicely grilled and extremely rare porterhouse and I've been known to eat my beef raw.

I care about my animals, their treatment, their diet, their lives, and I'm offended by the horrible conditions commercial processors force animals to exist in. If I had to eat commercial beef I'd give it up altogether so if I want to continue eating beef, I have to raise it myself. Although I still live in town, I raise beef on the farm I grew up on, eventually I'll live there.

Annie

Bison is available in many of our grocery stores. I buy it occasionally.

~Ann