What are the benefits of buying from a butcher? Today’s consumers are becoming increasingly conscious about where their food products are coming from. Because of this, many are seeking local butchers and farmers to help them make informed decisions about their food and the sources they buy from. For thousands of years, butchers have been helping keep eaters educated, farmers profitable, and the supply chain from paddock to plate short and sweet.
Yet many shoppers rarely interact with a butcher, instead purchasing their proteins from supermarkets or online. As such, the average customer may need to realize that buying directly from their favorite butcher offers multiple benefits. This could be a friendly conversation, help with your dinner plans, meal prep for pets, a specialty cut or request, or even someone who grows to know precisely what you like and has special treats waiting for you.
Other fantastic benefits include your dollar being spent in a way that directly supports local farmers and businesses. When you purchase meat from a grocery store, typically, only 1-3 cents from every dollar returns to the farmer, and the rest goes to all the middlemen. When you buy from a local butcher, because we work directly with farmers and ranchers, 40-50 cents from every dollar goes directly to the farmers because we work directly with farmers and ranchers. Butchers having a direct line and relationship with the farms and ranches also provides you, the end consumer, with honest and more overall information about your meat products. This means we know exactly what the animals eat, how they are treated, and that they have the best lives possible. Going from many middlemen (processors, warehouses, distributors, grocery stores) to 1 middle man (the butcher) guarantees a fresher and better product.
If you’re looking for a healthy and fresh alternative to big box supermarkets and online unknowns, shopping from a local butcher should be your go-to option. Rather than stocking pre-packaged, processed meats, we at The Butcher’s Hook offer a variety of freshly cut options that are healthier, safer and taste better. In addition, by buying your proteins from an experienced butcher, you can be assured you are getting the best quality meat. Visit us at The Butcher’s Hook Evergreen, and we can show you precisely what we mean!
Still not convinced? Check out our post, “5 Reasons to Buy From Your Local Butcher.”
5 Reasons To Buy From Your Local Butcher
1. Fresh & Flavorful
Shopping at your local butcher is one of the best ways to ensure you get the freshest and most flavorful cuts of meat. By buying directly from a butcher, you can be confident that the meat has been appropriately handled and sourced, which means that it will retain more of its natural flavor and offer superior quality.
Local Butcher shops have direct relationships with their ranchers, making ensuring the best quality and the quickest turnaround easier. Extensive processing facilities and grocery stores typically hang on to their meat products for longer and can freeze and defrost items multiple times before the end consumer receives them.
Extreme Honesty + Top Quality
At The Butcher’s Hook, we believe in extreme honesty about our products. That means we will always tell you exactly where and what your item has been through and when it is from. Being a small local business, we want to provide top-quality items the freshest way possible. This means limiting how many animals we bring in weekly and utilizing the whole thing. This guarantees our customers fresh and new products each week.
Top-quality items aren’t solely picked by freshness. It also means the best flavor, USDA grade, and proper butchery. USDA grades (for beef) are Prime, Choice, and Select. At The Butcher’s Hook, we mainly carry Prime grade beef from our ranch, Lazy Acre Beef. Like people, every cow is a little different; not all can be big and have the most fantastic fat and intramuscular marbling that is prime grade.
This does not mean that choice and selection are not good products; it only means they have less fat and marbling, and that is A-Okay! Like any other luxury item prime, grade meat comes with a prime-grade price tag. Because we want every single person to have access to top-quality meat products, we carry various grades in various price ranges. We like to remind folks all the flavor in your meat comes from when that animal is alive. The flavor comes from where it lives, what it eats and drinks, and many other factors.
Lazy Acre + Butcher’s Hook
At Lazy Acre, we focus on providing the best possible lives for our animals while producing the best quality and most flavorful meat you have ever had. Our beef tastes like no other because of this process. We encourage you to stop by and grab a steak to test this! The flavor is what it is all about, and these cows will have you singing for more!
At The Butcher’s Hook, we take great pride in our butchery skills. This is another element of what makes the best end product. If a steak, roast, or other item is cut improperly, that brings down the quality of the meat. Cutting in the right direction, leaving the right amount of fat, getting rid of silver skin or tendons, etc., butchering is an art form that takes a lifetime to master. However, cutting your meat correctly makes life so much better and easier! Your local butcher shop will always take a little longer to cut items perfect for you. Large corporations and groceries make money on mass production and don’t spend the time to make things the best. It just gets done vs. getting done well.
Knowing where that meat is coming from is impossible when purchasing from large shops. Do you know where it is from? What has it been through?
2. You Support Your Local Economy/ Butcher
Did you know that buying from a local butcher goes beyond the freshness/flavor of the meat? It also helps to support your local economy. Buying from your local butcher helps support small businesses in your area and local farmers and ranchers who are directly involved in raising and harvesting livestock. This, in turn, helps to preserve family farms and create jobs for your local community. In addition, when communities invest in local businesses, it helps to strengthen the entire area. This economic feedback loop ensures the highest-quality meats and services are available to you.
For more on this subject, see our post, “What Your Dollar Does.”
3. You Receive Personalized Service
Trying new things is hard, and cooking new things is even more challenging. When you shop at your local butcher (The Butcher’s Hook Evergreen), you are guaranteed advice and help. Butchers not only need to know how to turn muscle clods into steaks and roasts, but they also need to know the best cooking technique for each cut.
This means you can ask for guidance when trying something new. It also means the butcher may suggest what works best for anything you have planned. We at The Butcher’s Hook have a great series of questions to ask you that will help us determine the best item for you based on your preferences and needs. And we love to chat with our customers about what they are cooking, how, when, for how many, and other general topics.
A Great Butcher
A great butcher will take the time to answer any and all questions you have about the meats in their shop. At The Butcher’s Hook Evergreen, education is one of our central values. We believe everyone should be privy to the info behind the product. For too long in the U.S., we have eaten what we can find at the grocery store. This has impacted our health, food knowledge, and natural nutritional instincts.
Now people are starting to care about and research food items and products. This helps the world of butchery immensely because the more people care, the more small butcher shops there can be. This also helps stimulate our ranching and farming communities and brings together health, wealth, and community.
At The Butcher’s Hook, we value health and help folks get back to health. Our Head butcher Cora specializes in working with anyone who has gone through any sort of health issues. Cora also loves to help reintroduce animal proteins back into people’s diets. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns in these areas.
4. Sustainably Sourced Meats
At The Butcher’s Hook Evergreen, we work directly with ranchers and farmers. We do all the research on sources, so you don’t have to work hard to find the best possible options. We look for local, ethically raised, and sustainably sourced. This means that your meat is healthy for you and the environment.
Unlike many large-scale supermarkets and online stores that may source their meats from distant countries, shopping from a local butcher ensures that animal products are sourced responsibly with much less environmental impact. Buying locally sourced meat has also been shown to boost your immune system, and some research shows it can help with allergies. Furthermore, by buying directly from a butcher, you can be assured that all meats are of the highest quality, with no nonsense or shortcuts.
The Butcher’s Hook cares about the environment as much as we care about our animals. We always do our best to keep up with the best farming techniques and help our partners do the same. In addition, we always look for the best ways to reduce our footprint while providing the best service.
5. You’ll Get What You Need/Want – And Nothing More
One of the best benefits of shopping at your local butcher is knowing that you’re getting exactly what you need and nothing more. When you walk into The Butcher’s Hook, we have only the best cuts of meat available – no fillers or junk.
Plus, we understand that not everyone needs large quantities of meat to feed their families – so if you don’t need an entire cow’s worth of meat, you can usually get just the amount you need for your next meal. This means less waste and more money in your pocket. In an economy where every dollar counts, having someone to guide you can help preserve your budget.
At The Butcher’s Hook, we will always ask a few questions to gauge your needs. One of our top questions is, “are you, big eaters?” This helps us understand if you are looking for large/small portion sizes if you want leftovers, and how many people are eating.
These are all crucial factors that go into helping you get the exact amount of food you need. Unfortunately, grocery stores pre-pack much of their meat products, making you work hard to fit their criteria, not the other way around. We think that’s just silly. The Butcher’s Hook will always do everything we can to help make your meal perfect.
There are numerous advantages to buying meat at a local butcher shop, like The Butcher’s Hook, instead of a big box store. From fresher, more flavorful cuts of meat to personalized service and supporting your local economy, there’s no denying that shopping from a butcher is the smarter option.
Choose The Better Cut at The Butcher’s Hook
Why not give your local butcher a try? If you live in Evergreen, Colorado, or any of the surrounding Jefferson county or Denver metro area, stop by The Butcher’s Hook for all your fresh, sustainable meat needs. As a locally-owned and operated butcher shop, we guarantee the freshest cuts of meat with unbeatable customer service. So visit us today and taste the difference. We do meat, honestly!