Buying from a butchers?

[JennyPenny23]

I have never bought from a butchers before as I always get meat from the supermarket. But my new house is a 2 min walk from a "traditional butchers" that looks great.

Can anybody tell me the benefits of buying from a butchers? Is it much more expensive? I feel a bit clueless about the whole thing but we are on a healthy eating mission here so think it might help if I am avoiding the supermarket as much as possible!

Our butcher slaughters its own pigs, lambs and cows too, so I know all the meat is local. And it means they can offer you absolutely ANY cut of meat you want, plus all the offal and nasty bits!

When they have cut up the lamb for chump chops, they sell off the ends (boney but with lots of meat on) for £2.50/kilo. I buy all the 'chump ends' and stew it slowly in stock with onions, then pull the meat off. Voilà delicious lamb in gravy that works out about 50p per portion.

They are also great for things like scoring pork for making crackling, bashing out escalopes, and cutting you EXACTLY the size of steak you want.

Mmmmmmm I love my butchers