Butcher Shop CSA Pre-Buys

Update:
CSA Pre-Buy Quarter Pig and Half Pig’s are sold out.
See the CSA Pre-Buy page for current details.
Check out our Kickstarting the Butcher Shop project for more opportunities to support our project and get great pastured pork shipped to your home.

Big Pig with Fall Foliage
Our secret Big Project is revealed – we are building a USDA/State inspected on-farm slaughterhouse and butcher shop here on Sugar Mountain. The other day I discussed how we’re funding the butcher shop out of pocket through bootstrapping and personal loans from other farmers and extended terms with local merchants. I also mentioned that some of our customers are pre-buying next future pork now which gives us cash in hand to pay for concrete and other things. Here are the promised details of how to get free processing, free delivery and save 30% on a pastured pig.

CSA Pre-Buys:
A CSA or Community Supported Agriculture is a way that consumers help farmers with expenses from planting to operating to capital improvements. There are a number of different models from the risk based share of the harvest typically used for garden crops to simple pre-buys generally used with livestock and for capitalization of major farm projects, construction and equipment. Our on-farm butcher shop fits this latter model. In exchange for paying up front we’re offering free processing which comes out to about a 30% discount off of the price of a whole pig. Since the cost to us of the processing is primarily our labor and we do the cutting ourselves this works. It gives customers a great deal while providing us with funds we need now for construction. We already have some CSA Pre-Buy even before I officially announced this. Here’s how the numbers work:

CSA Pre-Buy Pigs
Package:	Whole	Half	Quarter
Unit Price:	$3.50	$4.00	$4.50	$/lb
Hanging Weight:	180	90	45	lbs
	—-	—-	—-
Package Price:	$630	$360	$202
Approximate Yields:
Cuts	120	60	30	lbs
Oddments	45	22	10	lbs
Free Processing With CSA Pre-Buys:
Slaughter:	$45.00	$22.50	$11.25
Butcher:	$135.00	$67.50	$33.75	75¢/lb cut & wrapped
Delivery:	$10.00	$10.00	$10.00	At delivery route drops
	—-	—-	—-
Processing:	$190.00	$100.00	$55.00
Discount:	30%	28%	27%	= Processing / Package Price

Decade of Pork:
The Decade of Pork is an extra discount on the price of the pork itself in addition to free processing for a whole decade. Several people have already purchased these and we appreciate their support. The Decade of Pork consists of ten half pig certificates which may be used at the rate of one per year. Two “Decade of Pork” orders would make up a whole pig a year (two half pig certificates per year). With the two Decades of Pork if you like you can get them delivered periodically over the year to reduce the load on your home freezer, for example getting one of the halves in the spring and one in the fall.

Lifetime of Pork:
Several people have asked about something beyond a decade of pork. With that in mind we have ideas for a lifetime of pork package. If you are interested in that please contact me

Grower Piglets Hanging Out
How to Order:
You can just send a check with a note to:

Sugar Mountain Farm, LLC
252 Riddle Pond Road
West Topsham, VT 05086
walterj@sugarmtnfarm.com

Either way you choose to pay, we appreciate the assistance with funding the butcher shop! Be sure to let us know who referred you so they can get their bonus referral credit!

Fine Print and definitions:
In order to make this great deal work here are the guidelines:

• Limited Number: We, Sugar Mountain Farm, LLC and the Jeffries family may limit of the number of CSA Pre-Buys with free processing to 250 pigs.
• Fulfillment begins after we get our facility certificate of inspection and are able to slaughter and butcher under inspection. Any shipped orders will need to begin after we get our USDA certificate of inspection in order to cross state lines if that is necessary. Choice of dates is done by order of pre-buys based on the date we receive payments. That is to say, people who pre-buy early get first choice of when to get their pork. Of course, the exact opening date depends on how quickly we can get our grant of inspection. We are shooting for the February 2010June 2011. At our option we may limit CSA Pre-Buys fulfillment to half of our production per week so we can continue to supply fresh pork to our existing restaurant and store customers who have been patiently waiting for this for a year and a half now. For example, if all the CSA Pre-Buy pigs were sold and we did two CSA Pre-Buy pigs a week it would take a little over two years to fulfill all the pre-buys. Spreading the fulfillment out like this makes it work for us so that we can afford to give away the processing free while also continuing to support our existing customers.
• Processing will initially just be slaughter and cut & wrap. We won’t be doing cured, smoked, linking or sausage in the beginning. We do want to add these additional processes soon but first we need to get the on-farm slaughter and butchering running smoothly. When those value added processes become available they will be included free in the CSA Pre-Buys for customers who choose to wait to schedule their delivery that long rather than scheduling early. They must buy now with the CSA Pre-Buy to get the free processing. This means that early processing includes slaughter with cut and wrap to typical cuts like pork chops, shoulder roasts, belly, ribs, fresh pork ham, oddments, etc. When we get to that point I’ll have a cut sheet ready. Check out our Pork Cut Chart to see the cuts of pork in a pig.
• Transfer your CSA Pre-Buys as gifts, donations to local food banks or other organizations in your name. A great way to leverage your charitable and gift giving this holiday season by 30% extra through free processing. Do note the limit about shipping.
• Cash Out: At the buyer’s option unused CSA Pre-Buys certificates may be cashed out after ten years for their original cash value with 90 days notice to us. Should more than five whole pigs worth of cash outs be submitted in one 90 day period we reserve the right to serve them on a first-come, first-serve basis at the rate of five per quarter year in order to maintain our cash flow.
• Pre-buy multiple pigs for delivery in the future over time and the processing is free since you pre-bought now. This lets you lock in the price of the pig as well as getting extended free processing for years to come.
• Quarter pig is not a literal front or back quarter of a pig but rather a mix of commercial cuts representing a quarter pig of weight. This gives you a variety of pork cuts. Upon request we will also include the oddments for the adventurous chef. By the way, a quarter pig fits in about one cubic foot of space.
• Weights are not exact. These are real animals, not assembly line plastic pink pigs. To keep the pre-buy simple we are using an average pig market size for weight and we will make sure that all of the CSA Pre-Buy pigs are at least that big so you get your money’s worth. As is the norm with whole animals sales the price per pound is based on what is termed hot hanging weight also called simply the hanging weight. That is the carcass weight after it has been slaughtered, gutted, cleaned, inspected and is ready to enter the chiller for hanging. There is a small amount of loss to evaporation during hanging time and some loss to trimming during meat cutting. Actual commercial style cuts are generally about 67% of hanging weight plus oddments bringing it to about 90% of hanging weight. Be an adventurous cook – Eat like a farmer chef!
• Oddments? What are oddments you ask? Those are the cuts the farmer’s family eats a lot of, the parts that are not typical commercial cuts, not the prime cuts of the pig. Oddments include good food like hock, jowl, tail, bones, back fat, heart, liver, kidney, trotters (feet), head, etc. These are excellent fare and can be used for soups, stews, stir fry and many other dishes. If you do not want the oddments of your pig, just let us know. The oddments generally amount to about 25% of the hanging weight and are generally tossed at many butchers – a sad waste. The commercial cuts generally account for about 67% of the hanging weight and what you see in the meat case in the super market: pork chops, shoulder, ham, etc.
• Legal thingy: Our farm is not a charitable organization so donations are not tax deductable and this is not an investment or stock purchase. This is a purchase of product. if you ever want a refund of your original purchase amount prior to your taking delivery of your pork, just ask per the cash out above – we appreciate the help. In the hopefully never to occur event of litigation regarding this, any disagreement is to be resolved by binding arbitration in Orange county, Vermont under Vermont law with each party responsible for their own expenses and half the arbitration costs. Lets keep everything friendly and personal.

Wow! That was a lot of fine print for something I’m trying to keep simple. Hopefully that makes everything clear and straight forward. The CSA is a win-win for everyone. Customers get a great deal on pork and we have the funds to move forward with construction. If you have any questions, please ask, make suggestions, etc.

Sugar Mountain Farm Delivery RoutePickup & Delivery: Customers often pickup here at the farm gate. We also offer delivery along our route for $10. For CSA Pre-Buys we will include the delivery free if you meet us at one of our regular delivery points along our route. An extra bonus that will save you time and driving! Our delivery route in Vermont covers:

• Barre
• Montpelier
• Plainfield
• Waterbury
• Burlington
• Essex
• Bradford
• Norwich
• White River Junction
• South Royalton

Towns between these locations are possible drop off points too. We occasionally deliver to Stowe, Waitesfield, Danville, Marshfield, St. Johnsbury, Newbury and other towns in northern central Vermont.

Shipping:
Several people have asked about shipping meat. I have no actual experience in shipping meat but have been reading about this. It looks prohibitively expensive. The meat is heavy and would have to go Next Day or 2nd Day delivery to arrive
safely. Looking at the rates from the USPS, UPS and FedEx it appears that the cost of shipping a pig worth of pork would cost as much or more than the cost of the pig itself! Basically, depending on the distance it appears to be about $2 to $4.50 per pound for shipping including special packaging. If anyone knows otherwise, please write me. I’m open to this as an option but it seems very expensive. Thus all CSA Pre-Buys are at our farm gate unless you arrange otherwise for shipping. Of course, any pork shipped across state lines must wait for when we have the appropriate licensing, that is to say the USDA certificate of inspection. If you do ask for shipped pork you might want to skip the oddments to save on the cost of shipping those cuts. Just let us know either way.

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