To Find Success, Butchers Stay Close to Home

The shift toward local, sustainable eating has gone beyond farmers markets, CSAs, and restaurant menus and into a bloodier realm: butcher shops. In search of meat with traceable origins, consumers are bypassing mega-market meat counters in favor of small butchers where local cuts are king.

"Our goal was to create a place where people can come and feel good about what they eat," Joshua Applestone told Slashfood, who started Fleisher's Grass-fed & Organic Meats in Kingston, NY, with his wife Jessica in 2004. Their philosophy is paying off -- literally. Fleisher's has been a smashing success, drawing national attention (Applestone has been in a number of food publications and recently appeared on Martha Stewart's television show) and securing some of New York City's biggest restaurants as customers. All of the shop's meat comes from family-run farms and slaughterhouses within 50 miles of their operation in Kingston. Applestone says they made that choice not just to support local agriculture, but also to minimize environmental impact. (Shipping meat cross-country requires extra packaging, refrigeration, and fuel to transport.)

At John's Custom Meats in Smiths Grove, Ky., Amy Sipes and her husband John Rediess make no secret of their pride in local cuts, and they want their customers to question where mass-produced cuts originate. "Ever Wonder Where Your Dinner Comes From?" asks the banner at the top of their website. The couple is somewhat unique in that they process all of their own cattle. And what they don't raise themselves, they buy locally.
Customers are discerning these days, Sipes says. "They want to know the process, how it got from there to here." And in this rural area two hours outside of Kentucky, it's not just health people are worried about. "I have different types of customers," she says. "In this community, it's not necessarily just about health concerns. Here, people also want to make sure they're supporting local agriculture. "

Sipes buys her cattle directly from local farmers, and because the couple processes the meat themselves, they're able to offer higher prices. "I give them more than your typical market," she says.

And the shop is drawing in an increasingly large number of customers, she says. "We definitely see more grocery-store customers than we had in the past." But she says, don't expect local butchers to overtake the pre-packaged grocery store meats. "It's still a niche," she admits.