Why We Don't Ship Meat
Why We Don't Ship Meat
We understand that more and more you’re wanting to get things delivered directly to your doorstep, especially during our current national and worldly crisis.
It’s why since the very beginning we’ve been selling our meat online and delivering it to your doorstep. We’re like you, we are busy, we could use one less errand and when we need something we go directly to Google to find it.
So, we totally understand why we get the question ‘do you ship your meat’ quite often. However, instead of answering why we’ve decided not to ship our meat via postal services behind the scenes, I feel it is time to put it out there.
This is why we don’t ship meat
It goes against our own desire to source our food from our local farm community.
Especially in Wisconsin we have an abundance of beautiful, tasty local food right out our back door. Obviously, this isn’t the case around the nation and we understand that. For us however, we believe that food grown by our ‘neighbors’ is worth preserving. If we start shopping elsewhere the farmers here may not be able to sustain themselves. We strongly believe that food is grown by neighbors for neighbors. The concept of ‘shop local’ is such a big part of who we are, so it is our goal to be part of our community in a way that our community can support us and we in turn provide them with quality meats and neighborly service.
Shipping meat across the state/nation steals from your local community
Now, I want to preface this statement, we do not want to shame other farms that have chosen to ship their products statewide or nationally. They might have very good reasons to do so. Each farm has to make decisions that make their model sustainable, and sometimes shipping is the means to that result.
However, I believe there is an abundance of great farmers, great local farms, especially in the Midwest. So, my dear friends in Minneapolis may buy from me when they visit, however, I know there are incredible local farms in their area that would love to serve them. So, I believe that they should find them and support them. Food has a beautiful way of connecting us to each other and if you can source the food you want near you I believe you’ll get far more than food on your table.
You could also think about it this way. If you’re a local real estate agent (or any other business person reliant directly on community support), wouldn’t you want your local farmer to buy land using your services? Obviously you would! In order for that farmer to purchase land, get their hair cut, eat at the local restaurant or buy any product or service locally they have to BE IN BUSINESS. If you’re shipping in your family’s food from another state when your farmer down the road has what you need (and also, provides a great service and has a quality product) WHY would you not want to support them? That money you spend comes back around within YOUR community.
We do not process our meat at a USDA facility
Currently, there is only one local butcher that provides on-farm harvest, and on-farm harvest is extremely important to us. We believe in providing the best end possible to our livestock. To harvest them in their natural environment and that by reducing stress on them we provide exceptionally tasty meat for our community. Our butcher is state-licensed which means we can only sell our meat within Wisconsin. So, shipping out of state isn’t even a legal option for us.
Our farm can be fully sustained by our local community if they chose to source their meat from local farms.
I think we’d be answering this question quite differently if our community wasn’t supportive of our farm. However, as we’ve slowly grown and slowly started to sink into our community, the community has been there for us. For us, if we show up and are a part of our community we can sustain our farm within a 20 mile radius. We are blessed to have found a farm so close to a large city center that is filled with people who love and appreciate local agriculture. For that reason, it is unnecessary for us to ship our meat.
Our encouragement in these times
Obviously the COVID-19 crisis is dramatically changing the way we buy food. We go out less and get more delivered to us. Now is the perfect time to start sourcing our food from our neighborhood farmers.
I know for us this crisis has formed a very strong sense of community. We are proud to offer a safe meal to those in the Madison area. We are proud to be dropping our meats on the doorsteps of our neighbors. We’ve been here for them all along, but it is times like these when we feel that we can support each other in the simplest of ways. For us, that simple meat delivery sustains our family, feeds our neighbors and that is exactly why we’ve decided not to ship our meats.
