Carrie Oliver Rating: Gateway Beef™

For nearly a year, Artisan Butcher Tracy Smaciarz said I needed to taste Chris Wilcox’s  grass-fed beef. At last, I was lucky to hear the word from Lisa Wilcox that they had some available for me to review. This is a great beef for grass-fed lovers and doubters.

Tasting Notes:

These grass-fed steaks and burgers have a some chew Texture, a straight forward to adventurous Personality, and a medium Impression. They are slightly herbaceous, a bit smoky and have Parmesan cheese and baked potato flavors. The burgers were quite robustly flavored and piquant.

Meet The Farmers

The Wilcox family is best known for their Food Alliance-certified eggs but I expect they’ll soon become just as well known for their delicious grass-fed Angus beef. Chris and Lisa are part of the fourth generation to manage the original 101-year old farm in the Harts Lake Valley east of Olympia, Washington. As @grass_fed_beef_ on Twitter, Lisa does a great job in promoting pastured based meats and eggs, not just her own.
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How To Find Steaks & Burgers: The Wilcox’s sell just a small number of cattle as whole beef so you may need to get in line like I did. Remember: if you can’t fit a whole beef in your freezer, you can always create a cow-pooling arrangement with your friends and family. Buying in bulk is not only a great way to buy Artisan Beef at a great price but you’ll always have your favorite flavor of beef on hand, too. To learn more, visit Wilcox Farms for their eggs and Wilcox Angus for their grass-fed beef.  You can also find them on Facebook.

Tasting Overview:

Taster:	Carrie Oliver
Date Tasted:	December 2009
Cut Tasted:	Sirloin, Filet Mignon, Ground Beef (made into burgers)
Diet/Feed:	Grass Fed
Cooking Method:	Charcoal Grill
How Served:	Medium Rare
Seasoning:	Kosher Salt
Previous Cut Tasted:	None
Previous Date Tasted:	None
Previous Taster:	None

Quick Facts

Breed:	Angus
Growing Region:	Harts Lake Valley, Washington
Farm/Ranch:	Wilcox Angus Beef
Farmers/Ranchers:lllllllll	Chris and Lisa Wilcox
Diet/Feed:	Grass-Fed & Finished (100% grass-based diet)
Raising Protocols:	Raised on organic pasture including timothy grass and white Alice clover via sustainable grazing rotation practice.
Finishing Protocols:	See above.
Slaughterhouse:	On-farm slaughter
Butcher:	Heritage Meats, Rochester, WA, and Meat Shop of Tacoma
Aging Technique:	Dry-Aged
Aging Time:	21 Days
Packaging:	Butcher freezer paper
Never Use Antibiotics Ever:	-
Use Vet Approved Spot Treatment Antibiotics:	X (only if sick and then removed from beef program)
Never Use Feed Antibiotics	X
Never Use Added Growth Hormones:	X
Never Use Ionophores:	X
No Animal, Fish, Fowl By-Products in Feed	X
100% Vegetarian Feed (100% pasture and ranch grown hay)	X (grow all our own organic grass and hay)
Practice Rotational Grazing	X
Practice Managed Intensive Rotational Grazing	-
USDA Natural	-
USDA Naturally Raised New Voluntary Certification	-
Third Party Certified Organic	-
Third Party Certified Humane	-
Other Third Party Certification	Farmland is certified by Oregon Tilth

Tagged as: dry-aged beef, grass-fed burger, grass-fed steak, Washington, Wilcox Angus Beef