8 reasons we're in love with our new meat processor

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November 5, 2021

So much care and attention goes into every little detail of our farming practices. Our goal is to provide you with the most natural, most nutritious, and most delicious food. Although we have full control on the farm, once an animal goes to the processor, it’s out of our hands.

We don’t want an “ok” or “good” processor. We want an “awesome” processor, one that holds the highest standards, just like we do on the farm.

I wish it was easy to find what we’re looking for. But, sadly it's not. Awesome processors are hard to come by. We were starting to think they didn’t exist, just a mythological creature that exists in fairy tales.

We had given up hope and were working with the best options available. Then… something miraculous happened. Our dreams came true. Let me enthusiastically introduce... Olde Tyme Meats!

Olde Tyme Meats is actually not a new processor. They used to be “ok” or “good”. But, about a year ago, they came under new ownership - owners that truly care about natural farming and quality. And then, everything changed.

After conversations with the new leadership, a tour of the facility, and a couple processing dates, farmer Aaron can now proclaim that Olde Tyme Meats is an “awesome” processor. Hooray!!

Here are 8 reasons we’re in love with our new processor, Olde Tyme Meats.

They treat animals humanely. No long waits at a feedlot that’s overcrowded or poorly ventilated. Our animals are kept in a low stress environment and are slaughtered the same day they arrive, one at a time, with respect to each animal.
They use a natural sanitizer for “washing” meat. Raw organic apple cider vinegar is added to water for cleaning meat. Yes, this is USDA approved and an excellent, more natural alternative to lab produced citric and lactic acids.
They have better quality cuts that are consistent and clean. This makes for better cooking results. We can even offer sliced beef liver, which is quite a challenge to make.
Offering the weird cuts. Olde Tyme Meats will process a wider variety of offal. Now, we will have beef adrenals and beef spleen!
Using quality ingredients. Nothing proprietary here. We will have control over the sourcing of the ingredients, local or organic.
Consistent pack sizes. If we say a pack is an average 1lb, it will be closer to that estimate now.
Packs are sealed tight. This will reduce the amount of leaky packs, which I’m sure you’ve experienced when thawing meat at home.
Good customer service. When we have feedback, they care and listen and make changes whenever possible to solve the problem.

We love it. We love it. We love it all.

We plan to process all of our grass fed and finished beef and pastured woodland pork with Olde Tyme Meats from this point forward. We still have some older inventory in the freezer, so it will be at most a year before we are fully transitioned to the new processor.

What does this mean for you? Even better quality beef and pork!

What do you value when buying meat? Are the farming practices or the butchering quality more important? Do you wish any of our meats were cut or packaged differently?

Join the conversation below (no account needed) or contact us here.

Pastured Meat

Cooking

Health and Nutrition

Ugh greenwashed labels. What does it take to get ___ on a label anyway?

Not a fan of the confusing, greenwashed labels in store? Yea, me too! And it's especially real for me, because I'm responsible for getting our labels approved with the "powers that be". Here's a little story with a big inside scoop... I made new labels for our bone broth a little while ago. It didn't go as smoothly as planned. Why? I put the little icons about our farming practices on them. They look like this: Yup, despite being 100% accurate and true, they were denied!! We're not allowed to put those statements on our food labels. So, I asked the USDA guy, "What would it take to get those claims on the labels, anyway?" The answer was kinda shocking. First off, there's some guidance on wording. Silly technicalities in my opinion. For example, you can't use the term "No Spray" but you can say "Produced without the use of synthetic pesticides." Or another example is that you can't say "No Routine Antibiotics or Vaccines" but you can say "Raised without routine use of antibiotics or vaccines." Second, the processor needs to update their documents to provide traceability. In other words, they need to document how they make sure the bones for our bone broth don't get mixed up with bones from other farms. I mean, this is pretty simple, especially with small batch foods like ours. But the documentation needs to be meticulous. Drafting it in government-approved language can be time consuming and/or costly. And lastly, once you get the wording and process right, you need proof. This was the real shocker for me: Want to know what proof would suffice for all the claims above? A 2-3 sentence affidavit (AKA a super short letter) signed by all farmers that supply us. That's it!? This lead me to a bunch of questions: What if a company submits a letter from one farmer but actually has other farmers that supply them, too? What if a company changes farmers? Will they submit new letters?What if a company's farmers change their practices in the future? Will they immediately update their labels?Are the "powers that be" checking on this? Is anyone checking on this?Is this why most farms and food facilities don't allow outside people coming in? It seems to me that, if a business isn't doing what the label says, the only way to find out is via a whistleblower. And the only way to make them stop is to take them to court. You know, like what's happening with Vital Farms and their pasture raised egg claim right now. It seems to me that, all that good natural stuff on labels - grass fed, pasture raised, antibiotic free, etc - doesn't mean it's true. Certifications are a little better, but the same kinda thing can be said about those, too. This is why, at Miller's, we choose to NOT sell in stores. No wholesale for us. In fact, we don't even have an on farm store. We only sell directly to our customers via our website. And, we choose to only get certified for what's required. This way, we can make our own natural standards. And, we can provide you will all the info and proof you need. Descriptions, photos, blog posts, test results, and more. So, what do you think? Should we do the affidavit thing to get claims on our bone broth labels? What proof do you need to feel confident in your food choices? I'd love to hear from you. Comment below (no account required - just start typing) or contact us 😊

8 reasons we're in love with our new meat processor

We don’t want an “ok” or “good” processor. We want an “awesome” processor, one that holds the highest standards, just like we do on the farm.

We had given up hope and were working with the best options available. Then… something miraculous happened. Our dreams came true. Let me enthusiastically introduce... Olde Tyme Meats!

Here are 8 reasons we’re in love with our new processor, Olde Tyme Meats.

We love it. We love it. We love it all.

What do you value when buying meat? Are the farming practices or the butchering quality more important? Do you wish any of our meats were cut or packaged differently?

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Ugh greenwashed labels. What does it take to get ___ on a label anyway?

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Miller's Bio Farm, 523 Valley Road, Quarryville, PA 17566