What’s in Season

Some products at the Cambridge Farmers' Market are only available during certain seasons because different crops grow at different times of the year. Below is a list of what's in season each month. Please note these are approximate dates and may vary according to local weather. 

Be sure to check out our Recipe Book for different ways to use fresh ingredients in your meals!

What's In Season in January

Let's talk about Beef! Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle, particularly skeletal muscle. Humans have been eating beef since prehistoric times. Beef is a source of high-quality protein and nutrients.

What to look for when Buying or picking:

Beef should be bright cherry color. If the beef is in a sealed bag, the color is typically a darker purplish-red. Once exposed to air, it will turn a bright red. Slight discoloration does not always mean that the meat is bad, it could simply be an older cut. Meat should be firm to the touch and have no odor.

Discoloured meat with a fowl odor should not be consumed.

The Basic Cuts:

Chuck

Beef chuck is a huge primal cut that comes mainly from the
shoulder section of the steer, as well as parts of the neck, ribs, and the upper arm. The entire thing can weigh more than 100 pounds, and it makes up fully 30 percent of an entire side of beef.

Beef chuck is relatively fatty, cuts taken from the chuck are loaded with big, beefy flavor making it a good place to cut roasts and steaks.

Chuck is commonly split into 2 sub-primal cuts. Chuck Roll and Chuck Shoulder Clod.

Brisket

Brisket comes from the breast section of the
animal, under the first five ribs. It is a large cut that is sold boneless and usually weighs in
anywhere from 8 to 20 pounds .

This large piece of flavor-packed beef is often cured or smoked, but it’s also one of the best cuts for braising and slow cooking. 

Rib

The beef rib primal comes from the beef forequarter, where it's separated from the beef chuck between the 5th and 6th ribs, and from the loin between the 12th and 13th ribs. Thus the rib primal consists of the 6th through the 12th ribs (7 ribs in all).

The rib primal is separated from the beef plate
primal by sawing across the ribs a few inches down from the pointy end of the ribeye muscle. The ribeye muscle, which is situated high up on the back of the animal, where it doesn't get much exercise, due to this, the muscle produces the most tender meat. It can develop excellent marbling, which imparts
moisture and flavor to the meat.

Beef Plate

This cut comes from the center of the steer just below the ribeye. In fact, when the rib primal is separated from the carcass, the lower portion of those ribs that remains is the beef plate, also called the beef short plate. This primal cut is  rarely sold intact . Included in the cut is the Skirt Steak, Hanger Steak, and the beef plate short ribs and the navel.

Beef Loin

The area below the backbone is home to some of the most
tender and popular cuts of beef, such as the Tenderloin, Strip Steak, T-Bone and Porterhouse Steaks. The Primal Lion cut is
classified by two sub-prime cuts. The Short loin and Tenderloin.

Fun Facts on Canadian Beef:

• There are approximately 60,000 farms and ranches with beef cattle across Canada.
• The average beef cow herd size in Canada is 69.
• There are a lot of small cattle farms with 39% of the farms having less than 47 cows.
• In 2016, Canada produced 3 billion pounds of beef, up 9.6% from 2015.
• Canadians eat 40.12 pounds (18.2 kg) of beef per person annually.
• Canada is the 12th largest beef exporting country in the world.
• Beef production contributed $16 billion to Canada’s economy (2012-2016 average).

Learn about the benefits of buying local.