Tasteful selections

According to its founder, The Meatery MN is built off the faith that, if people get a chance to taste good, down-home food, they’ll want to keep coming back for more. “Access,” says kickstarter Collette Drager, “will feed inspiration.

“What we’ve done is developed this community where everyone can be engaged and in the sharing mode. To support that and really grow on that inspiration we make the whole process of selecting and receiving the products smooth and simple.”

Briefly summarized, The Meatery is an online platform based in Mankato that publishes the stories and lists the products available from area producers. All of the partner suppliers have been vetted for their high quality and the personal touches they add to their offerings: in other words, the Meatery has found them to be unique and versatile. The Meatery collaborates with each partner farmer to highlight the special elements of items listed online, making it possible for customers across most of the world to have access to the fresh-off-the-farm flavor outstate Minnesotans take for granted.

Collaboratively, through their website, the organization’s partners have created a platform for all of their respective products, facilitating a system which allows  the farmers and markets to ship their offerings directly to the customer in a span of only a day or two.

According to meat market owner Dean Morgan, the best way to explain The Meatery is to look at it like a grocery store. If The Meatery is the grocery store, each aisle in the store is a different farmer, a different provider. A consumer who wants a combination of different meats can go from aisle to aisle to choose among them. Consumers can pick and choose from what each “aisle'' is providing. “These are all farmers that are bringing you quality products,” elaborates Colette. “They will tell you their story–about whether the uniqueness of their products is related to the breed, the nutrition, the way they care for them.”

The start of The Meatery was small–an idea conceived by a meat lover, then shared with–and by–another meat lover. Each new member of the conversation added suggestions or possibilities. According to Colette, “The Meatery was one of those things when your family and friends end up together, you come up with all sorts of ideas– you talk smart and it’s just an idea.” 

Until it becomes more.

In The Meatery’s case, the discussion centered around a realization that people need to bring back the connection between the farm and table. That the best food is fresh and is prepared with attention to detail. The conversation grew and the concept molded into a genuine plan–one that would make made-at-home taste available away from “home.” 

Back in April, their concept became practice, with the start of the 12-person team that is The Meatery.

Although the service is still in its infant stages–“It’s a few months old!” Colette laughs– and the process may seem complicated, in reality it’s pretty simple. As The Meatery is not a seller itself, it provides the means for the seller, including the shipping labels, the shipping provider, the advertising, and the website where people go to choose what they want. It connects the farmer or producer to the end user. Although there’s a lot that goes into it, what The Meatery is essentially doing is bringing its seven, soon to be eight, partners together in a platform which offers customers an array of high-quality, down-home options. The partners do not see themselves as being in competition with one another because the more variety and niche-filling items they list, the more customers they expect to draw in.

For markets like Dean Morgan’s, “It’s a way to expand our visibility,” he says. “Exposure is big.”

Area farmer Tim Fischer is also looking for visibility.  “I’ve been selling meat to restaurants for 23 years,” Fischer says, “It’s always been hard for me to sell.” He explains that there are only so many hours in a day, and much of his time is spent handling production. As a “hobby” farmer who raises his pigs, takes care of his farm, and much more, he is grateful that The Meatery takes the task of finding and informing customers off his plate.  “We have the product, we just need help getting it out there to the next step,” Fischer says.

Between blogs, videos, a very active Instagram page and website, and just a lot of cooking, Colette explains that The Meatery staff works to inspire people, putting special sets of products together which they think complement each other. “Our business is a combination of spreading the word and inspiring creativity–we help each business,” she explains, noting the importance of social media for the online company. Colette highlights that really, The Meatery is far more about helping partner businesses get the word out.

To the farmers, meat market employees, and people who just get it, knowing that there are people whose idea that seven-day shelf meat is “fresh” is hard to comprehend. “There are just a lot of people who have never had farm fresh meat. Huge difference,” Morgan says. “Once people try it, that’s the only way they want to go.” For people locally genuinely fresh meat is in easy reach. But The Meatery is trying to provide less privileged people worldwide access to the variety and quality of the products that they could get.

At a meeting of 50-year-old friends – “not to say we’re old,” Morgan clarifies – colleagues Morgan and Fischer met with Colette to discuss the variety of their own products and how they could be combined to provide the best taste a customer could experience. “Once you realize that this model works, the opportunities that you can think of to even take it to the next level for all these partners is tremendous,” Colette mentions, with both Morgan and Fischer excited to take the next step of combining meat products.

As Fischer claims enthusiastically that they’ve become the “Amazon” of meat, Colette says that really all parties involved are just regular people who shoot for authenticity. “We’ve had some great, great support from our local communities,” she says, “What we’re asking of people in this general area is to really spread the word.” 

Morgan gets in a final quip: “It’s a win-win situation for everyone, buyers and sellers alike. That doesn’t happen often enough, so it deserves to be talked about.”