On August 29th, a Monday, we decided that enough was enough, it was time to open the doors. It was a blast, the food was gorgeous, and the customers enthusiastic (and understanding as our cash register was being installed as they began to stream into the shop.) We even had a friend stop by to donate his restored 1920′s Hobart slicer to the shop where we will use it for only the most lovely charcuterie. We had some sandwich specials (pulled pork, roasted lamb, and short ribs) and started to fill the case with fresh local meat, available for the first time in Berkshire County. Our shop was and remains only partially filled, with more meats, prepared foods, and finally we are building a carefully edited pantry of things one would need to make a simple dinner, including fresh produce provided by the new Community Cooperative Farms. Here are a few shots from the day.

Untitled from Barking Dog Farm on Vimeo.

We have been working hard behind the scenes to bring our project into reality, and we are happy to say WE ARE ALMOST OPEN! Jeremy is putting the finishing touches on the space, and soon we can begin the very fun part where we fill the cases and the walk-in with the most gorgeous locally raised meats we can procure for you. Thank you all so much for your support- you are about to be richly rewarded!

Untitled from Barking Dog Farm on Vimeo.

As we spread the word about the amazing foods that we will offer at The Meat Market, I am reminded that many people don’t have a direct experience in their past of shopping at a butcher shop, or of the assistance that a butcher can offer them in terms of meal planning, cooking instruction, and even shopping within a budget. For these people, the advantages of such an amenity are mysterious, and they may even have arguments against the necessity of such a shop in the era of the supermarket. I will use the next few postings to attempt to explain the whys and offer another perspective against the why nots.

Ten Promises

1.  PROVENANCE: We will know exactly where our meat comes from and be proud to tell you all about the farm, the animals raised, and the farmers who raise them.

2. AGING: We will know how long the meat has been hung, and be happy to hang it longer for you if you ask.

3. COUNSEL: We will advise you on the right cuts for particular dishes, and give you as much assistance as you desire in the preparation of those dishes. We will help you select cuts and offer cooking instruction to match any budget.

4. TASTE: We will encourage sampling and prepare a small taste of the meat you are purchasing so you can taste what you are bringing home.

5. SOURCING: We will order special things for you, and do custom preparations with some notice, so that you can create the dishes you long for.

6. SERVICE: We will prepare the cuts of meat to your specifications, and grind meat to order.

7. PACKAGING: We will not pre-pack our meat, and advise you how to store it once you get it home.

8.  ARTISANAL: We will make a variety of our own fresh sausage and cured meats. We will have a brine tub, and a smoker.

9. CULINARY: We will make a variety of stocks, stews, and demi glace, as well as ready to cook meals such as pot-pies and soups for when you are too busy to cook.

10. HOSPITALITY: We will create a friendly, clean, and welcoming environment with happy professionals ready to assist you.

(the list is modified from the very helpful list in The River Cottage’s Meat Book, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall)

Shopping for food should be a wonderful experience. The Meat Market will be a meeting place, a place of discussion, of wonderful aromas, and of tasting. We seek to reconnect people to their food through flavor, texture, and sense of place that eating perfectly raised, properly aged, and expertly cut meat makes possible.

There is a movement afoot that looks at investing in small local businesses as form of activism. Slow Money is an organization, founded by former venture capitalist Woody Tasch, whose mission is to build and test the concept of something he calls “nurture capital” — a healthier and more sustainable alternative to venture capital for funding new businesses. It’s time, he says, to shorten the distance between investors and their investments. It’s also time, he says, to create new economic models that deliver a return but that also put community, soil fertility and the environment into the calculation of the bottom line.

In May 2009 Jeremy was invited by the Slow Money Alliance along with farmers, other entrepreneurs and investors to participate in one of a series of research and exploratory conferences to inform the the Alliance as to the most helpful direction they could take to further their mission. Though we had already determined our fund raising plan for The Meat Market, the Slow Money conference discussions this conversation validated our plan and deepened our commitment to raise money in ways that include and in fact depend on, community involvement.

We are raising funds in two ways: Founding Supporters and Partners. We will raise $50,000 through smaller investments by Founding Supporters, members in our community (geographical and personal) who, with their investment, are pre-purchasing products and services offered in the shop. Founding Supporters, in addition to raising capital, also act as direct marketers for the business. We know that once people taste the foods The Meat Market will offer, they will be enthusiastic customers: the Founding Supporters are our core customers, and they are heralds of the business as it gets off the ground. We are also seeking individuals as Partners , larger investors in the project, to share our mission of taking the goals of taste, quality, service and respect for the local environment into a brick and mortar reality.

The nature of investing in this way is in alignment with the principals set forth by Slow Money.

Soil fertility, carrying capacity, sense of place, care of the commons, cultural, ecological and economic health and diversity, nonviolence — these are the fundamentals of nurture capital, a new financial sector supporting the emergence of a restorative economy. And these are the fundamentals of the Slow Money Principles.

We are living in a time when large markets are revealing their problems, the issues of food safety, environmental degradation, and unstable markets make large scale farming in the United States obsolete.  We are fortunate that the tide is turing in favor of small and sustainable, more options are available to consumers who are looking for products that are healthy to eat, promote environmental heath, and support small farms.

A 2006 New York Times story- The Range Gets Crowded for Natural Beef- concluded:

“Organic meat is the fastest-growing segment of the $14 billion organic food business, even thought it represents only 2 percent . Last year, organic meat sales which includes poultry and fish, soared 55 percent, to $256 million from 2004, far faster then the overall organic food industry’s 15 percent annual clip, according to the Organic Trade Association.”

“George Chivari, president of Coleman Natural Foods, one of the largest producers of pasture raised meats, estimates that organic meat will account for as much as 25 percent of its sales by 2010, up from 12 percent this year, and 7.5 percent in 2004.”

Become a Founding Supporter, your taste buds, your body, and our farmers will thank you!

getting the smoker ready

Jeremy stoked the fire with cherry from our woods. The weather was very hospitable, a pale blue sky looked benevolently from above as he put the Narragansett turkey in his very home-made smoker at about 1PM, and continued to allow it to smoke until it reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees. When he brought the bird in, the kitchen filled with the rich smokey aroma as we admired its mahogany skin.

My baguettes will be sliced as the base for the turkey meat, and smeared with fresh mayonnaise, and topped with cranberry relish with bosc pears, raisins, a little jalepeno pepper and lime juice.

pork sausage with fennel and peppers, served with just-baked Rye and mustard.

The documentary project attempts to answer questions regarding sustainability as we humans increase our consciousness about how our food animals are raised: how do we balance the ethical and health implications that arise when we try to grow large amounts of cheap protein, and what is the actual cost of the practices that have evolved to meet that demand ? We believe that the answer comes with a compromise: if we eat less volume but better quality protein we will gain tastier more satisfying meats, improved health, and get to support the earth’s environment and the rural communities from which our food is produced.

We hope to see you tonight so we can share these wonderful tastes, and get you ready for the feast on Thursday!
Happy Thanksgiving!

The reasons for utilizing the whole animal are easy to grasp: Less waste, additional flavors, cost efficiency.

Philosophy: the animal comes with all their parts, so out of respect for the creature, we should find use for as much of it as we can, which historically is exactly what happened. Currently, only about 30-40% of the animal is used as ‘choice’ cuts, and sold at typical supermarket butchers, with the rest of the animal essentially thrown away. This represents a tremendous waste of nutrition, that if reduced will greatly decrease the number of animals needed to meet consumer demand, which has many environmental advantages. (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16573-eating-less-meat-could-cut-climate-costs.html)

Gastronomic experience: flavors and textures exist beyond the ‘prime cuts’ which can stand alone as the star of a dish, or of course shine as supporting characters for the final result (bones being an obvious example.)  There is a treasure trove of food traditions which informs us about how to go about preserving, preparing, and cooking all of an animal’s parts.

Beef Bones for Stocks, Braises, and Stews.

Pig’s Feet

Cost considerations: the finest quality animals, which we believe are locally raised and fed a natural diet, are cared for by farmers on relatively small farms where they are able to graze or forage (edified by Sean Stanton of North Plain Farm.) This requires more space and hands-on care than conventional industrial farms utilize, naturally there are additional costs inherent in raising animals in this way. Customers of the Meat Market should not be concerned that these costs will prevent them from eating this high quality product on a regular basis. Knowledge of how to use the less expensive secondary cuts, organ meats, and other often forgotten bits allows the conscious consumer to enjoy these fine animals more often. Jeremy’s culinary background will be your resource for creating delicious meals of the finest quality ingredients every day, so that purchasing local pasture raised meats is not reserved for special occasions.

I have been making sausages for years, starting at La Bruschetta in West Stockbridge in the 1990s. At that time customers were looking for novelties, which led to a recipe for seafood sausage with spinach and carrots in it: I served this in a course at the James Beard House in 1997. During the years of Stellar Pasta (1999-2005) I worked with Barbara Delmolino (affectionately called Mrs. D) and Dominic Polumbo (Moon in the Pond Farm) to preserve Mrs. D.’s family recipe, and once a year turned the pasta shop into a sausage workshop.  In 2006 I worked for Stafford Premium Meats, a slaughter house owned and operated by New England Heritage Breeds Conservancy and funded by Cabbage Hill.  I worked on research and development of recipes using pasture raised meats: bresaola, beef jerky, bacon, hot dogs, hams, and many types of fresh and cured sausages. While in Italy (2004 and 2006) as a dellegate of Terra Madre (Slow Food’s biannual meeting)  and visiting sausage shops, I refined my knowledge of the art. The most important thing I discovered was that you don’t need fancy or expensive equipment to make great sausage.

Here I am making Hot Italian Sausage for our launch party (using a recipe I gleaned from Arnaldo Giovasi in North Adams.) The meat grinder is a Kreft #12, capable of processing 20LBS per hour.

Our shop will produce 1000 pounds of sausage per week, both for sale fresh, and for cured products. We will use a Hobart #20 grinder with 150 pounds per hour capacity to do the job. All the sausages will be hand stuffed.

From the rich tastes of the charcuterie we make by hand at The Meat Market with heritage pigs raised in Sheffield, to the small batch hard cider made from apples we harvest in New Marlborough and press by hand at Southfield Spirits, and the grass fed and pasture raised cattle, pigs, lambs and poultry we purchase from our dedicated local farmers like Lila Berle and Dominic Palumbo and cut to order for our customers—food truly from the land, food hand grown by sustainable practices, is central to our cultural heritage and to our vision.

These days, with the steady stream of stories in print and on television about “local food” and “sustainable agriculture,” there is no doubt a seismic change is taking place in the way Americans think about what they eat. It’s as if what was old is now new again, but with a heightened appreciation of why it is so important. We are proud to be part of this great tradition.