By Danielle French

Butcher Share

We have an exciting offer to share. Recall, last month, we started a Butcher Box on our website, allowing guests to order cuts of meat that we source from local farms. A Butcher Share takes this journey a step further to meaningfully connect to a different way and philosophy of eating. Our Butcher Share is an opportunity to be part of a community of whole animal eaters and share in the bounty of what the animal has to offer.  

What does this really mean? Whole animal eating is the practice of purchasing your meat directly from farmers as whole animals. This is appealing to those of us who want to know where our meat is coming from and how it was raised. It is also often more economical to buy a whole animal directly from a farmer. However, the problem is that most people today either don’t know a farmer or how to make that connection, or more commonly, don’t have the space in their home to store meat in bulk.

What are we doing? Our butcher share program aims to solve these problems. We connect with the farmers we already know and trust and work with throughout our regular season. We know the life and home of the animal and you participate in that knowledge as well. We support them by purchasing their animals in advance and in its entirety. We then hand over the animal to a local butcher shop that we work closely with to break the animal down into cuts that are smaller and more familiar. Then we put together manageable shares that you can fit into your fridge or freezer.Why are we doing it? We have always valued the highest quality ingredients. What makes quality, is how vegetables and meats are raised with good soil, nutrients, care and compassion. Whether it is a radish in the ground or a lamb on a farm, the farmers raising it determine the quality of the food we then put into our bodies for nourishment. We believe there is a disconnect between us and our food and the people who grow our food. We hope that this program will help us connect with where their meat is being raised, how it is being raised and knowing the entire process from start to finish with confidence. We want to go back to communities supporting their farmers. There are lots of ways to do this, and our Butcher share will be just one of many that ultimately may change our food system.

Our Butcher Share this month is lamb. The lamb comes from Middle Kingdom Farm in Bethany. It is a family run farm, raising Rideau Arcott Sheep sheep with compassion. They are located nearby to our farm and over the years, we have purchased and served their lamb for many of our events. 

With the help of Sweet Beast Butcher Shop in Peterborough, we have assembled 10lb shares of lamb cuts. Each cut is in approximately 2lb packages, perfect for 4 portions. 10lbs of lamb will feed approximately 20 – 25 portions. Everything will be fresh when you receive it so you can use it right away, or stock up your freezer for future use.  

Click here to order.

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