Most consumers have never even met a real butcher, someone responsible for the respectful slaughter and traditional meat processing of locally raised livestock. USDA approved slaughterhouses have put an end to all that with the processing of animals located as far away from the consumer as possible so that the horrific practices of factory farming of animals can be kept hidden.
Farmstead Meatsmith aims to change all that.
A personal, small scale livestock processor in the Seattle area, Farmstead Meatsmith is seeking to produce a series of free, instructional videos on the lost art of home meat provenance and traditional butchery.
Livestock harvesting is clearly a missing link in the chain of sustainable agriculture.
Farmstead Meatsmith, owned and operated by the young and passionate Lauren and Brandon Sheard, is motivated by the empowerment this kind of old-world knowledge promises to deliver to burgeoning agrarian communities and traditional family kitchens alike.
Lauren and Brandon’s goal is to lay one more step on the path towards a new food culture by reviving homestead meat provenance, but they need your help to help spread this campaign to a vast audience through social media and email.
They are also seeking donations, no matter how small, to fund this project. They are currently 1/3 of the way to their goal of $10,000 to fund the webisode production with 37 days to go in the campaign.
Their project is close to my heart as my own grandfather was a butcher and I have often been saddened that the lifelong career of which he was so proud has become nearly extinct in recent decades.
Can you help Lauren and Brandon on their mission? Watch this short video and be inspired by their passion and then click here to see how you might be able to help.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com
Sarah Pope has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. Her work is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.
Her work has been covered by major media including USA Today, ABC, NBC, and many others.
The Weekly Comment Spotlight 7/1/2011
Wow! These people look SO COOL! Thanks for the turn-on! We’re going to have to get them on the show! (My family produces a weekly podcast called Sweet Peas Podcast – http://www.sweetpeaspodcast.com.)
I’m tingling over here! You rock! Thank you!
Lisa Marie Lindenschmidt
Owner, Rite Chocolate
I have a butcher that works across the street and down a ways. He is willing to process a grass fed cow, but now I just have to find a local grass fed cow. I see the cows grazing around but I have not way to contact the owners. I think these cows get shipped elsewhere to be finished on grain. I wish the Plotsky success.
Many butchers are amazing and we would all do well if we had more contact with them — any contact with our food producers is awesome! (Hence why my farmers are now also my friends.)
I do want to note that not ALL butchers are awesome, unfortunately. My farmers had to move from one small, local butcher to another in the past several months because the one they were with generally processed and sold (retail as well as wholesale) conventionally-raised beef. They did not like the “competition” from my farmer (who raises only 100% grass-fed, chemical-free meat) and kept harassing him and stamping his meat with labels like “not for resale” and such. It is sad. When meeting a butcher (and do!), make sure to ask all kinds of questions first!
Looking at that picture on the top of this post and wishing the sellers at my farmers market would leave that thick fat on the meat like that. Ughhh I hate dry meat. I’ve tried 4 different farms around here and while the meat is grassfed I just cannot seem to find well marbled beef and then they cut off the fat around the steaks too. Fatless meat makes me sad.
What really struck me about the video was the idea that slaughtering an animal is a sign of plenty and an event that should be shared with the community and celebrated. It made me yearn for more culture in our society – a culture that can only be born of sharing with one another and being connected to our land and our food. We have a good start when we instill a strong family table culture in our homes, but I want to go beyond that for my children and grandchildren – back to respecting and celebrating the animals and plants that feed us and seeing them as something more than a bellyful. Maybe that would help curb the obesity epidemic, too.