The new generation of butchers revive the craft

Posted by
#Food

As this video in this post deals with butcher shops and butchers, it contains graphic footage that may upset some readers.

Screen shot from the video of decor in Avedano's Meats.
Screen shot from Thrash Lab’s video of decor in Avedano’s Meats.

If you’re the kind of Homie who likes to know where his or her meat comes from, likes to support local business, and is concerned about waste, sink your teeth into the recent reinvigoration to the art of butchery as documented by Thrash Lab:

Being a butcher may not seem like a dream job to you, but in this episode of Subculture Club, we visit three independent butcher shops in the San Francisco Bay Area and reveal how the job has become a whole lot hipper and more desirable than it used to be. This generation of foodies and meat lovers want to know where their meat comes from and as a bonus have a relationship with their butchers (just like the old days).

If you want, you can watch the vid here. What do you think about the indie butchers, whole-animal butchering, and foodies who like to know everything about their food?

About the Author: Offbeat Editors

@offbeatempire

Working tirelessly to bring you stimulating content day after day, our team of Offbeat Editors will not sleep until you've gotten your offbeat fix.

Comments on The new generation of butchers revive the craft

  1. I don’t have a problem eating animals, but I don’t eat much meat because I get icked out by the things that gets done TO our meat. Mistreatment of the animals? Injecting with saline? Hormones?

    I would love to find a local butcher to get meat! Anyone know of resources to help me find one?

    • Your farmers market is a good place to start. If you don’t live in an area with a farmers market try getting a hold of 4H, FFA, or your state university’s extension office. They may have recommendations.

      The farmer/butcher I buy my meat from I met at the local farmers market. He, his sons, and nephew do everything from calving to selling steaks. It’s really good and you can tell he takes fantastic care of his animals. He will even let you come and check out the farm. It’s as clean as anything with cows and pigs can be and the animals look extremely happy and well cared for. Plus he’s really raising the next generation of farmers right. His son got a D in math so this summer his punishment was to check everyone out at the market without a calculator….

      Additionally your farmers market is a great place to source ethically raised dairy and eggs.

      • I definitely need to get down to my farmers market and find a local butcher. I am moving soon to a new place and it’s the first time my bf and I will live alone, sans roommates. I’ve never really cooked before; we always ate out or ate with the roomies. I’m really excited (worried) to try cooking my own food and ethically raised meat is something I really care about. I’m also excited to try some of those Megan simple recipes!

    • In DC we have a great festival/fair called Crafty Bastards. While I’ve only found one butcher there (Red Apron) they had tons of other food services. So perhaps a large event that tilts toward a subculture would give you a chance to meet some folks? And of course, farmer’s markets!

      Another place to try and find local food is to start with looking for said farmer’s markets and CSAs. I use Local Harvest but I think their site is up to the individual organization to keep info maintained, so be wary. A lot of times they have websites and they’ll mention a store that can be visited for one-stop shopping.

      Finally, one method is actively asking people who are like-minded. Just this weekend I learned about a great butcher in NOVA (Springfield Butcher). When living in rural Illinois I merely mentioned it and was thrown a few names of very small places in tiny towns. Now I try to make trips into a little outing party where we carpool to places, talk about what we’ll cook, divvy up larger portions, and have some lunch together.

      • Yes! I love Springfield Butcher. I get all my meats from them. They have lots of different meats too that you don’t always find at the large groceries, like duck, rabbit, venison, and elk. They are very helpful and will let you know if they can special order things for you. They usually have Groupons every couple months if you want to try them out, but I haven’t found them to be more expensive than other places in the area.

  3. Buying locally grown meat just makes so much more sense, I love that so many people are getting back to basics, especially when it comes to their food. We have some fantastic small locally owned butcher shops in the town I live in. Growing a garden and buying local food has always been a part of my life. I grew up in a family that composted before it was the cool thing to do. I was the only kid in the neighbourhood that has a compost pile in the yard, I had to try to explain what it was to my friends, they thought it was the grossest thing ever. The only fertilizer they had ever seen came out of package and was added to their front lawn.

  4. its great to see happening! at my culinary school one of the guys who taught the butchery class owned a local shop, and he was very sad because he had no one to give the shop to when he eventually retired. none of his kids wanted to learn the craft, and it was just generally dying… so its great to see it coming back!

  6. Disgusting. I thought the Offbeat sites were supposed to be vegan-friendly, instead I see this foul, heartless, glorification of oppression in my reader…and endless recipes featuring corpses and animal products. Unsubscribing.

    • Why would vegan-friendly have to mean vegan-only?

      Why not contribute some delicious vegan recipes instead of judgements?
      I for one would love some vegan baked goods/sweets.

    • Just as a head’s up…just because a site is vegan-friendly doesn’t mean it’s not omni-friendly too! The more you know!

      Also…didn’t you say you were vacating the premises after that “pit of snakes” comment a month ago?

    • Where in the “About” section of this website did it say that this was a vegan-only website? Offbeat Home is about people expressing and experiencing their own stories. If someone wants to eat meat, but do it in a local, more ethical way, then that totally fits into the “Offbeat Life” since it’s not an article on “hey I went to the supermarket and bought some factory farm beef, yum,” ya know?

      Vegan friendly can be omni or carnivore friendly, too. It’s all about being respectful. Don’t read the articles that are going to trigger you!

      • Vegan here, and I can’t hate on any article that contains the words “people who want to know where their meat comes from”. I think everyone should make an effort to educate themselves about where our food comes from, even if they end up reaching a different conclusion than I do.

        So heartened to see how many Homies frequent farmers who are willing to show how the cows are raised and do the butchering themselves or through a local shop. It’s the factory farming that I’m most opposed to.

  8. I eat organic grass-fed meat when I can – but I have struggled to find any butchers that aren’t an hour away or more (San Diego and San Fran have em) what about greater LA area (specifically I am in the 909 dun dun duuuun!)
    I do farmer’s market, a local farm (rainbowranch) and Sprouts mainly. Just looking for any suggestions 🙂

  9. I actually really like the video linked. It shows that the butchers have a connection to the animal, and then go onto to make sure that everything from the animal is used. As silly as it is, the fact that nothing is wasted really means a lot to me.

    Go small business! ^_~

    Personally, I use farmer markets already. Love the quality of the fruits and veggies. Now, kinda curious if there’s a local butcher in my area as well.

  10. i’m a butcher’s granddaughter. to say i’m picky about my meat sources is an incredible understatement.

    in my house, we rarely eat beef…we never buy steaks that don’t have a bone (because meat glue is disgusting, y’all). if we’re in the mood for good steak, we’re fortunate enough to have a bison farm about a half hour from my house, and i can buy their products at a local farm store. we stick to bison as i can go to the farm and see the animals eating grass and scrub, like they’re supposed to. they’re not pumped full of chemicals, and the meat tastes a hell of a lot better to me…not to mention it’s better for my body to ingest fewer drugs through my food.

    we’ve taken things a step beyond all this, though. we’ve started hunting. you want a connection to your food? take a bow and arrow and go stalk one in the woods. 😉 we haven’t yet brought home an animal, but it’s hard to get a perfect shot with a bow, and i refuse to take anything but a perfect shot.

  11. I’m excited to see this on here, and excited to see offbeat homies supporting the local food movement. I think it is our responsibility as the consumer to make sure the meat we buy is healthy and humanely raised. That is basically impossible when you are buying meat from factory farms. When you buy meat from small local farms it is more likely the animals were raised outside and were raised humanely, it is less likely the animal lived in filth and was injected by hormones and antibiotics. Better yet when you buy from a small local farm you can find out the exact history of the animal. I this movement is important for humans’ physical, mental and spiritual health. Physical is obvious healthier animals = healthier meat = healthier food = healthier humans. Mental & spirtual – my thought is that torturing animals in factory farms takes a real toll on the human psyche, of the individuals witnessing it and therefore on the collective human psyche as well. All that and i didn’t even get into the environmental impact of the situation, more on that at a later date 🙂

Join the Conversation