Dear Heritage Meat Shop Supporter,
As many of you have seen, the Heritage Meat Shop has undergone some significant changes for the better thanks to the excellent team that maneuvers the meat case and band saw each and everyday. Led by Caroline Denham, the HMS group includes our burgeoning charcutier Emile Frohlich, our well-aged veteran butcher Dionisio Silva, and Patrick Martins who works every Thursday! Any questions, special requests or event needs are the domain of Caroline, so please talk with her next time you visit us!
Every Autumn, agriculture explodes with the soil’s and mankind’s most delicious effort to survive the winter. The Fall is when we harvest goats, lamb, turkeys, ducks and geese that naturally mate (no artificial insemination). This is the season for whole birds, racks and chops, steaks and roasts, salted and aged legs, and cured bacon!
We are honored to serve the Lower East Side Community and proud to sell antibiotic and hormone free Heritage breeds raised on pasture from a group of 30 family farms in the Midwest and Upstate New York. Rare and Heritage breeds are the livestock equivalent of the Bengali Tiger and Spotted Owl, but because they are livestock the way to save them is to eat them and keep them a regular part of the market, Essex Street and beyond!
Our big projects for the season include TURKEY and GOAT. Its important to pre-order as supplies are limited and farmers only bring in what we can sell. Sign up sheets are available at the shop.
HERITAGE TURKEYS
Limited Supply!
While many farmers now use the term “Heritage”, Frank Reese and his team raise the truest example of the original Heritage Turkey. According to the USDA, Frank remains the only farmer allowed to use the term “Heritage” on his label thanks to his American Poultry Association certification, the oldest agricultural organization in North America.
Since the inception of the Heritage Turkey Project, more than ten farms have converted to Good Shepherd from a corporate system whose weak protocols on husbandry, welfare and genetics necessitated the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics at all stages of production. We are proud to be a key player in the revitalization of our national agricultural heritage.
In more recent news, The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) made Frank Reese the first farmer to receive a $150,000 Grow Your Farm Grant. The profits from Frank’s expansion will repay the grant money so that the ASPCA can give again to another deserving farmer, thus making the grant perpetual. Your purchases have strengthened the backbone of sustainable farming, raising awareness, and making these kinds of grants possible.
Since the inception of the collaboration between Heritage Foods USA and Good Shepherd numerous breeds of turkey like Standard Bronze, Bourbon Red, White Holland, Slate, Black, or Narragansett have been upgraded on endangered species lists for livestock. You have to eat them to save them.
GOATOBER
This October 1,000 male goats from 15 farms in New England will be sold to New York restaurants and homes around the country by Heritage Foods USA and Heritage Meat Shop. No Goat Left Behind is a project conceived by cheesemonger Anne Saxelby after she learned that males, especially male goats, are of little use on dairy farms unless an end market is secured. Led by project director Erin Fairbanks what started as a project to help dairies evolved into a project to expand all goat consumption in the U.S. while improving the taste of their meat through cross breeding, for instance dairy breeds with meat breeds.
Sincerely,
The Heritage Team
