84 Responses to ButcherShop

1. Jim Needham says:

   Friday August 20, 2010 at 01:19

   I am a member of the Molalla, Oregon City Council and candidate for Clackamas County Board of Commissioners, Position 3. I have been, and continue to be supportive of all efforts to maximize Community Supported Agriculture, and I’m very impressed with your achievements at Sugar Mountain, Vermont! I don’t know if there is yet a national coalition of Community Supported Agriculture advocates, but if there isn’t there should be! If so, I would love to become a member/supporter!

   Reply
2. Ryan says:

   Saturday November 13, 2010 at 13:38

   Is the RTE kitchen which I assume is a heat source, being in the “cold zone” going against all the superinsulation efforts of the overall building?

   Reply
   • Walter Jeffries says:

     Sunday November 14, 2010 at 10:17

     Good catch, Ryan. The RTE kitchen is a sometimes warm, sometimes cool area. The heating portions (smokehouse, ovens, etc) are located outside of the super insulated reefer section to the south in Admin. The cooler functions such as slicing bacon, packaging, etc will be done in the RTE kitchen itself. In all probability there may be a cook stove in the RTE kitchen unless I figure out how to do those functions in the smokehouse – possible. Otherwise venting will be key.

     Reply
     • Walter Jeffries says:

       Thursday March 15, 2012 at 21:37

       An update on this. Will and I have figure out a way we might move more of the heat out of the RTE kitchen such that we end up with a warm kitchen and a cool kitchen. Turns out the inside of the building is bigger than the outside. :-) Stay tuned.

       Reply
3. Darren Allen says:

   Tuesday November 23, 2010 at 06:29

   I just found your website online Walter. We share the same passion, farming. I am very interested in your own butcher shop. Their isnt a USDA butcher shop in my county. I need the USDA to sell our lamb and pork at the market. (I am told). I live in the Sandy River Valley in Avon, Maine. (Western Maine mountains). I pastures my pigs (Tamworth-Large Black crosses) on the side of the mountain this year on a rotational system. We are small scale (35 Katahdin Sheep, 5 breeding pigs) Grain prices for pigs just jumped $40 a ton. We buy Non GMO grain from a local producer in Farmington. Looking at ways to feed pigs with out going broke and get our meat prices down so people can buy them locally. Love to hear what other farmers are trying and what works and doesnt. The butcher house is a great concept.

   Reply
4. Ron says:

   Tuesday November 30, 2010 at 20:17

   Darren, I’m in Farmington and in the same situation as you. We’re raising pigs and want to start selling meat. As I understand it, as long as you sell “in state” you only need a state inspected butcher shop. (which is hard to find as well) We’re feeding bagged pellets and I’m curious where I can buy grain locally. We have been raising pigs for family and friends and will be breeding two sows for the first time this month. Walter, Great site. Lots of good information. I too like the concept of your own slaughter house.

   Reply
5. oldtimeway says:

   Wednesday December 1, 2010 at 11:43

   This new farm bill in the lameduck session of congress will put me, thee, and everyone else out of business. It’s important we get hold of our congresspersons and tell them to stop it.

   Reply
   • Walter Jeffries says:

     Wednesday December 1, 2010 at 12:21

     Yes, see here and here. They’re trying to take away our rights to farm and food. Government at its finest.

     Reply
6. Darren Allen says:

   Wednesday December 1, 2010 at 12:31

   I see s510 has cleared the first hurdle. My congress people voted for it (aaarrggghhh). I loathe overeaching government, the more they try to help, the more harm they do.
   Ron, I buy purina pellets from and the mash from a local producer. The mash I add my own nutrients. I love the fall, summer and Spring months I put my pigs in about 2 acres and they forage for themselves. In the winter its very difficult to do that. I move them to the barn for the winter. (I dont like it). They have access to the outside, same as all the animals.

   Reply
7. Darren Allen says:

   Wednesday December 1, 2010 at 12:37

   Ron can you email me? Interested in what youve done info@votervalefarm.com

   Reply
8. Darren Allen says:

   Wednesday January 5, 2011 at 21:10

   Walter,
   We are trying to get started here on a butcher shop. What are the added expenses having it USDA inspected and licensed??

   Reply
   • Walter Jeffries says:

     Wednesday January 5, 2011 at 22:45

     The USDA Inspection License isn’t a big additional cost. The cost is simply in being inspect-able – that is building to their standards. The recommendation from both our state and the USDA was to start with state inspected and then move to USDA inspected. The requirements are the same but the state offices are more accessible to those just getting started so it makes for a logical stepping path.

     Reply
9. Charlen Grobben says:

   Saturday January 29, 2011 at 18:29

   Hello,

   I just found your website! It’s great! Ihave a farm with about 51 pigs. We are hoping to start a small scale slaughtering/butchering shop. Any suggustions would be greatly appreciate.

   Thanks

   Charlen

   Reply
   • Walter Jeffries says:

     Saturday January 29, 2011 at 19:14

     We’re working our way along this path too. Check out the tag cloud in the right sidebar and look at the Butcher Shop section. Also follow the links on the Butcher Shop page (the menu above). It is an adventure and worth it.

     Reply
10. Jasmine says:

    Saturday May 14, 2011 at 10:11

    This is such an amazing project. Please keep posting about it. I love watching you work. It’s like a virtual construction site with peep holes!

    Reply
11. Viking Mom says:

    Wednesday June 8, 2011 at 18:45

    Just found your site. I am rather impressed and encouraged seeing your farm and future butcher shop. I live in Southern California and have had to go north, way north, to find organic grass fed meats.
    I think the more word gets out that there is an alternative to “factory meats” the more of a demand will help with costs and politics.
    May I add you to my blog?

    Bless Bless
    Viking Mom

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Thursday June 9, 2011 at 09:15

      Sure thing.

      Reply
12. christine sander says:

    Thursday June 23, 2011 at 08:41

    I completely agree with what you said on the Grist page about the myth of the Urban Landscape. I currently live in an ex-urb of NYC and I can tell you how we have carved up the land, air and water to support communities of people who commute to work in NYC. We are part of this black scape you speak of. We hope to move one day… Happy farming to you and your family, C Sander

    Reply
13. Ken Scharabok says:

    Thursday August 11, 2011 at 13:50

    Are their any ethenol plants in your general area? Their after-product is essentially spent brewers grain.

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Thursday August 11, 2011 at 14:09

      Not that I know of. This isn’t a big corn area. The corn that is grown goes to feed dairy cows, generally on the same farm it is grown on.

      Reply
14. David Lang says:

    Thursday September 15, 2011 at 12:02

    looks like business is booming in the green mountain state. look forward to trying of you top quality pork

    Reply
15. C. Mopas says:

    Saturday October 8, 2011 at 13:20

    Just a thought: Since you guys are trying to get money together for your nano-slaughter house which has the potential to help change industry, you may want to try to appeal to the world through Kickstarter.com. The website is essentially dedicated to hosting the petitions of people looking for help to accomplish a variety of things like starting up businesses, raising money to bring the arts to locals, educating the masses, etc. From the looks of it, people are incredibly responsive, especially when it comes to causes that have the potential to serve the greater good. The following are just a few:

    Fully Funded :
    Smoke BBQ

    A fundraising work in progress:
    Whitelock

    Another fundraising work in progress:
    A Well

    If you can manage, try and post a video.

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Saturday October 8, 2011 at 13:36

      Several people have suggested Kickstarter and I contacted them twice but they weren’t interested.

      I also contacted SlowMoney which turned out to have NoMoney – they “wanted me to donate to them so they could then donate some of that to people like me.”

      Banks and government loans were also no-go. Banks said, “They’re not lending to new or expanding businesses at this time” despite all the money President Obama gave them precisely for that purpose. The government said we’re too small to bother with. They wanted bigger projects.

      Fortunately we have been able to get funding through our own farm’s cash flow, through customers who have bought CSA Pre-Buys, through local businesses who offered us vastly extended terms on materials and through individuals who have provided small and large loans towards our project. The lovely part about this is it is real people who loaned to us and it is to real people that we are paying interest. The middlemen, the bankers, were cut out of this loop. The people who have loaned to us thus got much higher returns (interest) than they could get at a bank and we got a lower interest rate (cost of borrowing) than any bank would have given. It has been very much a win-win for both us and those generous people who lent directly to us.

      Reply
      • Jonathan says:

        Tuesday November 29, 2011 at 00:05

        Great stuff here Walter, I will follow your progress with interest.

        I am farming pure Tamworth here in Souther Oregon, and am in the process of establishing our own butcher shop and custom processing facility under state inspection.

        With regards your post above I had two suggestions:

        1. Kickstarter is not an organization that will of itself be “interested” in supporting your venture, hence why you got the response you did. They only facilitate you reaching out via their site to people you know… and word of mouth… to source essentially free money. You could for example have all of us visiting here donate 5 or 10 bucks just to be on your email list…
        I’d suggest you take another closer look, it’s a great resource.

        2. Slow Money – as a national organization IS looking for money and members to do what it does – coordinate and facilitate. We just attended their 3rd annual gathering, this year in San Francisco. We saw scores of business people like you (and us!) knee deep in the rural/food world stand up and present in front of a room full of potential investors. This also occurs at the State and local level too. Here’s your local contact: Tom Stearns ~ info@slowmoneyvermont.org

        Drop him a line, he’ll help hook you up…

        Best wishes and thanks for sharing the experience via this blog,

        Jonathan
        Iron Age Farm
        Ore

        Reply
        • Walter Jeffries says:

          Tuesday November 29, 2011 at 17:10

          They had said they had no interest in our project because it was a business (kickstarter) and they had no money (Slow Money). Their response was: “Thanks for writing in and sharing your idea. Kickstarter is a platform for projects rooted in the creative arts that can offer tangible, personal rewards to an engaged community. We’re not really a platform for raising funds for general business or equipment expenses. Your project falls outside of Kickstarter’s scope.” Perhaps things have changed on both fronts. That would be great.

          Reply
          • Walter Jeffries says:

            Monday January 30, 2012 at 13:41

            Interestingly, things may have changed at Kickstarter as I just had a note from someone there to resubmit our project. Looking through their funded projects I see several that are just like ours. Perhaps they have broadened their project range. I’ll give it another try.
16. jovial gent says:

    Sunday November 13, 2011 at 16:30

    This is a great story. Hopefully you set a model for people across the nation.

    Reply
17. Caity says:

    Tuesday December 13, 2011 at 13:27

    Hi Walter,
    I’ve been reading many of the posts on your blog today about pigs, building your small cottage, and trying to build your own butcher shop so you can process and sell your meat, and keep costs down for your local customer base. As the economic situation continues to worsen our regional communities will be depending more and more on folks like yourselves; not only as a source of food but also as role models. I’m originally from New Hampshire, and I’d like to move back to my parent’s land and maybe buy a few more acres and start some small-scale farming. The farm down the road from us raises sheep and lamb for slaughter but they were told by the state that they had to send their meat for processing, and consequently their meat is pretty expensive. We still buy from them, but it is more of a special treat for us, not a weekly thing. The state and federal governments want to keep consumers dependent on the CAFO’s because the food corporations don’t want to lose profit (as I’m sure you know). I want to commend you for taking back the power of the people to produce and sell their own food to their neighbors. I hope that one day this rampant corruption will be a thing of the past.
    I have a question: I’ve been researching the straw-bale stuff, and you are sure it won’t work in the New England climate? And you say your cottage only cost you $7,000? Could you elaborate on how you kept costs down, where you got your materials, etc. Thanks so much, and again, good luck with your project.
    Caity

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Tuesday December 13, 2011 at 17:08

      The straw bale test experiences I have had is that they rot out and I’ve heard that from actual straw bale houses that were built in our climate. I think they’re a great solution in much drier climates, we’re just too wet here.

      The number one thing we did to keep costs down is building small. Building small makes a huge difference. Many houses are a lot bigger than people really need or use. Even in our old house which is small by many standards we only used a small part of it most of the year because during the winter we closed down large sections of it as it wasn’t worth heating them. The materials we did use to build the cottage were inexpensive – concrete, cinder blocks, even rebar isn’t really very expensive. Our windows were salvage – a big cost savings. The door was from the discount bin. After that comes doing the work ourselves – labor is a big cost. Back in the various tiny cottage posts you’ll find more discussion of costs.

      Reply
18. Helen says:

    Thursday February 9, 2012 at 15:01

    What an extraordinary family project. Your story is so inspiring that people still DO things. You are so real.

    Reply
19. Kelly McGarva says:

    Friday March 23, 2012 at 14:47

    Wondering about the status of the slaughterhouse? What is your projected open date?

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Friday March 23, 2012 at 15:05

      When winter hit we had just poured the vaulted ceilings over most of the reefer, including the 15′ tall carcass chiller room, the final meat cutting room and the kitchen. The blast freezer, super cooler and brine room didn’t get covered before winter so we put a temporary conventional roof over them for the cold months. In Admin we got the form work up for the vaulted ceilings for the smoker, mech room, hall, bathroom and inspector’s office but the depth of winter hit before we were quite ready to pour concrete. Today Will and I were pulling protective plastic off and examining the arches. They look good. The form work fared well through the ravages of winter. It should since even a many foot deep snow load is nothing compared with six inches of concrete.

      Soon we’ll pour the ceilings and interior walls of the Admin. What we may do is open for meat cutting this summer using the smokehouse space as our initial butcher shop space. This will let us then take on the butchering while we continue construction of the lairage, abattoir and chiller with the goal of having slaughter also under our hand by fall.

      We’re opening in phases. That has always been the goal, to break the project down into manageable steps. We’ll get each portion of the process running smoothly before taking on more. We did need to do the entire foundation, super insulated floors, walls and reefer to get to phase one, the butchering, in order to build an energy efficient building. Once it is closed in though we can then gradually expand to cutting, slaughter, brining, the super cooler (27°F), blast freezer (colder than Hell) and later the smokehouse and chicharone (puffed pork rinds).

      Reply
20. Kern says:

    Sunday April 8, 2012 at 23:01

    Walter, my dad mentioned your Kickstarter campaign and I’m happy to see you making great progress there- best of luck!

    I’d like to suggest that you also look at http://www.indiegogo.com/learn/features as another crowdfunding avenue. indiegogo offers a model that Kickstarter does not – if you choose, you can launch a campaign type that allows you to gather in all pledged funding, whether your overall goal is met or not.

    Good luck!
    Kern Sutton

    Reply
21. Jason Kaye says:

    Tuesday May 1, 2012 at 20:43

    Hi Walter. I am gathering information on USDA and state regulations in regards to small-scale farmers. I am very interested and excited in the process you are going through to obtain USDA approval for your butcher shop. I’ve searched your website but have been unable to find a detailed write-up of your process and its caveats. If you have posted something like this already, please send me the link. If not, I am eager to speak with you to gain some insight into the successes and challenges you’ve had throughout this process. Thanks and continued good luck.
    – Jason

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Wednesday May 2, 2012 at 06:40

      There is no one post that covers it all but do read through the Butcher Shop posts. Also go to the USDA’s Small and Very Small Plant Outreach web site.

      Reply
22. Ellie Wilson says:

    Friday May 18, 2012 at 04:11

    Wow!! found your website while researching on what to feed my mini potbelly pig.
    I live in Houston, Tx. and my husband and I own Raw to Retail license and this is our second year (newbies). Our Jerseys, goats, Brangus, and chickens are 100% pasture raised and “semi-wild”. Our animals goes to our local USDA butcher (the closest butcher-1 hour away). We were butchering about 20 to 30 of broiler chickens each week outdoor ourselves believing we were exempt from building a slaughter facility if we were under 10,000 chickens per year. Suddenly 2 months many State inspectors came around and gave everyone hell. Our butcher is still close… inspector kept adding new requirements at every return visit. Inspector told us it was very unsanitary to butcher our chickens in the open air, under the sun, & on stainless steel surface because there are BACTERIA in the AIR that will contaminate the chickens…. excuse me…what bullshit is that!!! So we got no meat to sell to our customers for 2 month… but we will find a way to continue. SO, I LOVE AND ADMIRE WHAT YOU ARE DOING… YOU INSPIRE US !

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Friday May 18, 2012 at 06:20

      We don’t do poultry for sale so I don’t have direct experience on this but I remember seeing that Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm does outdoor slaughter in the open air on stainless steel tables much like you describe and he seems to have the system working. If you haven’t already check out how he manages it then definitely do. Yes, there is bacteria in the air. But that is true if you out doors or indoors. My understanding is they key is to move quickly from slaughter to chill to package. Keep it clean, keep it cool, keep it cloistered. One of the USDA inspectors I was talking about this with emphasized that the most important of those three is the cool. She said there is bacteria everywhere but when kept cold enough the bacteria don’t grow.

      Reply
23. Ellie Wilson says:

    Friday May 18, 2012 at 04:14

    Sorry…for the terrible writing…it is 3 in the morning

    Reply
24. Walter Jeffries says:

    Friday May 18, 2012 at 13:48

    Someone asked: Why not just use the word “small”? It’s not like you are doing molecular level butchering.

    Because the USDA already uses the terms:
      Meat Processing Facility
      Small Scale Meat Processing Facility
      Very Small Scale Meat Processing Facility
    and all of these have very specific meanings.

    Our facility is another step smaller by a large amount thus I use the term:

    Nano-scale Meat Processing Facility

    I thought about using milli-scale but while it would be a more appropriate term people, other than geeks like you and I, aren’t familiar with the term milli despite the existence of millimeters. So nano it is. Eat small. :)

    Reply
25. Martin Mcmillan says:

    Wednesday May 30, 2012 at 10:34

    Walter I am astounded at you and your familys undertakings. You not only do things differently and succeed but you share your way so generously. All too many people like you by that I mean innovators are charging humungo dollars for weekend seminars. You on the otherhand freely share what you know. Your generousity is greatly appreciated. I have learned so much from your web site for making our farm better. Kudoz! If you ever write that rumored book I’m inline to buy it!

    Reply
26. Mike Davidson II says:

    Thursday August 23, 2012 at 09:28

    Your family is tremendously inspiring. I and several other farmers out here have been following your project with great interest and studying all the links youve refered. We hope to eventually build a similar ultra small processing facility for all species out here. After studying your articles and rationals I think we too should start with just one species beeef in our case before we try to add others but we will have to build with all in mind. I know that you are only planning on slaughtering one day a week but if you were going slaughter twice or three times a week would you make any changes to your design?

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Thursday August 23, 2012 at 10:33

      Our rooms are made to a minimum size which fits just us working since we will have no outside employees. If you were going to have more people working you would probably want more work space.

      We don’t have much in the way of employee non-work space since our facility is just outside our home’s door, just down the hill. If you had employees you would want a break room, etc.

      Our chiller is designed to exactly fit our maximum possible throughput which is around 30 animals a week. We only intend to do ten finisher sized pigs a week plus the occasional sow, boar, roasters, beef and sheep or goats. Thus our chiller, which is the limiting capacity on our facility, is about 150% to 200% of our needs but if you were doing work for other farms you would probably want a chiller that was four times larger.

      We have very little freezer space because we store our inventory out on the hoof. If you have member farmers they may appreciate having locker space so you would want more freezer space and cooler space for that. We do have a larger super-cooler which will run at 27°F, just above the freezing point of meat (25°F) for maximum quality. Very few people are going to have that sort of cooler so having a large one available to member farmers would be a big asset for your facility. I think that I would figure on about one pallet of freezer space and two to four pallets of super-cooler space per member – I’m kind of guess there though.

      Our lairage is big enough for about 40 to 50 animals at max. If you increase the chiller capacity you would want to increase the lairage capacity to match. Since our animals are coming in right off the farm it is a little easier since we don’t need any unload space, truck dock or sorting pens in the lairage.

      Realize that every time you increase the floor area you increase your annual real estate taxes as well as the initial construction costs. Cleaning and maintenance costs also go up.

      Reply
27. Mary says:

    Thursday August 23, 2012 at 09:58

    Looking forward to when you open! Keep up all your hard work cuz it will reward you in the end having your own onfarm shop!

    Reply
28. Craig says:

    Friday September 21, 2012 at 13:28

    Thanks for sharing. I wish there were national non-profit networks to help their chapters with slaughter regulations and to be our advocates & to promote natural meats. organizations like ceritfied naturally grown would be a good fit, for example.

    Funding obstacles, trying to run a small business, all while playing next to the corporate giants that can afford the zealous government directives, is all very challenging. Thanks again.
    Craig- Small pig producer in TX

    Reply
29. Sally Shepherd says:

    Monday October 8, 2012 at 22:20

    I am just so amazed by what your family accomplishes. The way you all work together is extraordinary, you all are an example to modern people who have lost this sense of purpose and togethereness.Keep up the wonderful work and wonderful reports of your projects!

    Reply
30. Justin Robins says:

    Saturday January 26, 2013 at 15:18

    Let me ask you this…if you were to do a “Mobile Butcher” shop would it be less expensive to get USDA certified? Just curious, because we have a few of those around here.

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Saturday January 26, 2013 at 19:09

      See this post about Mobile Slaughter Unit thoughts.

      Reply
31. JudiB says:

    Sunday March 24, 2013 at 14:29

    You had originally said estimated time of delivery would be Dec 2012. Just checking to see what it’s now estimated to be. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Sunday March 24, 2013 at 16:02

      I wish I knew the exact date. We are very much looking forward to starting to do our own butchering. We would like to be cutting our own meat as soon as possible – spring? Realistically it is probably several more months. We continue to make progress. We’re working on finishing off the interior now and then need to get our inspection approval. The inspectors won’t start that process until the space is finished off and equipped. As we make progress I’ll keep posting updates and when we are ready to start filling meat rewards I’ll start mailing out to people. We’ll be filling Vermont orders like yours earlier than distant shipping once since we’ll have our Vermont inspection first. If you have a change of address or will be away on holiday just let us know.

      Reply
32. Trav says:

    Wednesday March 27, 2013 at 18:17

    Why dont you get a grant? The government gives out millions no I mean bilions of dollars in grants to do this sort of project.

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Wednesday March 27, 2013 at 18:35

      When we started our project we were explicitly told that there was no funding from the government for our type of project. Subsequently I found out that the government funded one in southern Vermont to the tune of $765,000 soon about nine months later – a pure grant that the butcher shop didn’t have to pay back or anything. Yes, it must be nice to get free money and not having to repay a loan principle or interest would certainly make it easier. Since that is my tax dollars funding my competitor it does seem rather strange…

      I don’t have any philosophical objection to getting free money. I have applied for grants but am always told that we don’t qualify because: 1) we’re only processing for our farm; 2) we’re not hiring enough people; 3) we’re only hiring family; 4) we’re doing our own construction; 5) our project doesn’t benefit anyone else… The list goes on. They always have explanations. Holly thinks that it is a matter of who you know that determines if you get the grants or not. Perhaps she is right. I don’t smooze.

      We persevere without any government or bank funding.

      Reply
33. Amanda says:

    Sunday April 14, 2013 at 17:26

    I am so in awe… I am literally just starting out. Im 30 years old. My husband and I are getting into butchering. I figure, well… it is a job that is always in demand. This year I am taking a class at a local college on butchering and it is USDA. I would love LOVE to be doing what you are doing. I am so intimidated. I feel like I have no idea where to start. Your pages here are a true inspiration. Thank you. God bless you in what you are doing!!

    Learning in NY!

    Reply
34. Yanny says:

    Wednesday August 28, 2013 at 08:22

    Amazing project! Will you so much success!

    Reply
35. Mallory says:

    Sunday September 15, 2013 at 09:55

    Hi, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just curious if you get a lot of spam comments? If so how do you protect against it, any plugin or anything you can recommend? I get so much lately it’s driving me crazy so any support is very much appreciated.

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Sunday September 15, 2013 at 11:57

      Well now, what an interesting question, especially since you are a spammer M. Mallory. I get a lot of spammers who post comments like this to try an appear human but let’s be clear, spammer’s aren’t human. In fact, most are bots. All get caught and fried.

      Since you asked and I’m in the mood, let me explain what I do to fry spammers as there are real human bloggers who might want to know how to better deal with your ilk:

      1. htaccess with “deny from” for spammers I’ve identified, like you dear Mallory. That is my first line of defense and it is highly effective.
      2. Akismet plugin for WordPress.
      3. Bad Behavior plugin for WordPress.
      4. BlackList plugin for WordPress collects IP addresses of spammers who try to leave their turds on my blog and then I add those to my .htaccess file – see #1 above. I’ve hand added your IP address so you won’t be able to actually view this reply to your spam but hey, it was fun chatting.
      5. Hand moderation for the remaining few like you who actually managed to get through the above blocks. All comments get check by me so you would have to be really good to get approved and you did not pass the Turing Test.

      Between these techniques absolutely no spam gets through onto my blog and yours didn’t since I castrated it of links. For more about spam see these posts.

      Cheerio,

      -Walter

      Reply
36. Jes says:

    Sunday September 15, 2013 at 22:43

    When are you due to commence processing animals through your butcher shop? The plans above said 2013 if I understood them correctly.

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Monday September 16, 2013 at 07:45

      Very soon we hope. I just finished the plumbing in the trenches so now we can pour our final floors in the Administration and initial cutting quadrant of the butcher shop. I have a little electrical conduit and such to setup and then we’re ready for that pour. After that it will probably be two more months of work until we’re ready to open. Then it is a matter of getting our inspection and licenses which we can’t start until we have the physical space ready for the inspectors to see. They’ve actually been visiting all along as we’ve worked so hopefully things will go quickly and smoothly on that.

      Reply
37. Rebecca T. says:

    Tuesday December 17, 2013 at 11:40

    Walter- I am sure you have already answered this somewhere, but why did you not just build a regular building that took 6-8 months to build instead? It seems you could have built a 2 x 6 framed building, super insulated it, with washable walls on the inside and be up and running by now. I guess I just don’t understand the point of a concrete bunker and the vaulted ceilings and such. I am not criticizing you for it, I just want to understand your goals and the economics better.

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Thursday December 19, 2013 at 21:20

      A short answer is probably what you wanted: Our facility will cost a lot less to operate, require lower maintenance, use less energy, be easier to keep sanitary and is based on the best recommendations of the USDA standards. 2×6 frame building construction doesn’t achieve any of that. Our butcher shop will also last generations.

      The long answer is quite long. Sometime I’ll pull it all together in a post about Better Building.

      Reply
38. Nanders G. says:

    Thursday December 26, 2013 at 01:04

    Your family’s projects amaze me. Building your own house. Building up a farm from scartch. Building a butcher shop. WHen people say they built something they normally mean they hired someone to build it and got a loan from the government or the banks to pay for it but you people really do it all. So amazing! And all the thinking and understanding that you put into designing and building things so they are better. So amazing!! Your kids are wonderful and lucky!

    Reply
39. Walter Jeffries says:

    Thursday February 6, 2014 at 16:27

    Someone wrote about the equipping progress:
    >Positive news on butcher shop progress,the end is approaching! Hopefully by next winter you can reduce/eliminate trips to Massachusetts

    The plan has always been to phase in gradually, starting with meat cutting but unfortunately we will have to still go weekly to Mass. We had toyed with going every other week and tested that but the slaughterhouse does not have enough temperature controlled hanging space to make that work. Really every week is the only way.

    The other aspect of why we have to keep going weekly is that we can only transport six full size finisher pigs in the van at once plus a few roasters.

    The good news is that once we’re doing the meat cutting and sausage making the money we save doing the work ourselves can then be spent to get the next phase going. It is a snowballing sort of thing.

    Reply
40. Dan says:

    Saturday June 7, 2014 at 17:11

    Very impressive, Walter. I found your blog a few days ago when googling pastured pork methods as my wife and I are planning on farrowing pigs for a local grass based farm within one to two years, and I have got to say that your blog has been a veritable wealth of information. I do have to blame you for keeping me up to 2am multiple nights, though! You are a farmer, builder, inventor, innovator, writer, and a family man.

    Thank you for taking the time to type all these things out for us random internet strangers to glean from. I’ve only been reading for a few days and it has already helped me tremendously.

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Saturday June 7, 2014 at 17:17

      You’re welcome and I hope our experiences are helpful. I enjoy writing. It is relaxing.

      Reply
41. Sarah B. says:

    Tuesday December 2, 2014 at 15:59

    Walter – I’m wondering why you went with fully inspected on the butcher shop instead of custom exempt? I’ve been reading about it, and sounds like you could sell the animal on the hoof, then slaughter/process it for the customer under custom exempt. It could even be sold to multiple people, as long as it has been “sold” before processing. This is something we’re considering in the future and are trying to figure out.

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Tuesday December 2, 2014 at 16:45

      Custom exempt would be appropriate if we were butchering other people’s animals for them or selling only directly to individuals. We don’t do that. We primarily sell in stores and restaurants as well as some direct sales to individuals. For this one must have at least state inspected which is really the same as USDA inspected thus we build to the same standards as USDA inspected. We have some out of state sales so eventually we’ll shift from the startup phase of state inspection to USDA inspection. In any case, Custom Exempt, State or USDA, I would want the same high quality facility for maximizing sanitation and food quality while minimizing cleaning effort and long term maintenance & repair – that part is about the long view.

      Reply
42. judib says:

    Tuesday December 2, 2014 at 19:33

    you’re up and running?

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Tuesday December 2, 2014 at 19:40

      Almost. I have a little final electrical, plumbing and other odd items to finish. Today I was putting in more of the stainless steel and equipment in the initial cutting room and Will was working on the butcher shop roof vent.

      Reply
43. Farmerbob1 says:

    Tuesday February 3, 2015 at 11:52

    Always interesting to see people building interesting things.

    You seem to be very much interested in reduced cost of operation, with common sense solutions. Have you considered using a solar preheater for water?

    In a regulated food processing facility, you almost certainly will need to have some sort of gas or electrical water heating system to guarantee water temperatures, but a simple black hose water heater on the roof, or on the roof of a nearby shed, could preheat water between the water source and your water heaters, reducing the overall cost of heating water, without adding anything complex.

    I can’t see anything concrete indicating you aren’t already planning that, but if you aren’t, I figured I would toss the idea your way.

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Tuesday February 3, 2015 at 12:34

      Yes, there are two locations designed in for solar hot water preheating plus for compost heat to preheat the hot water as well. These won’t get implemented immediately but the conduits for them are already poured into the building. We also have propane and electric. Those cost money so I’ll look to use them as little as possible, just for the final boost to 185°F.

      The cost of solar electric is also plummeting and I have designed in for the possibility of using that as well as hydroelectric in the future should the opportunity become enticing.

      Reply
44. marcus says:

    Friday June 19, 2015 at 17:35

    Love following your progress. Your family and your projects are SO amazing! Congratz on your latest achivement!

    Reply
45. Randall Legere says:

    Friday July 10, 2015 at 14:59

    Your site is great and I can appreciate the time to providing the data in such orderly and informative fashion as you have. Nice work and keep cranking the American Dream. Double congrats on no loans. No man to report to and Nobody holding you hostage.

    Congrats on your life!

    Randall Legere

    Reply
46. Walter Jeffries says:

    Tuesday December 1, 2015 at 09:58

    G Water wrote:
    I was wondering, why do you send out to slaughter if you’re doing your own butchering? Is that a USDA requirement for retail?

    We are building our USDA/State inspected on-farm meat processing facility in phases.

    First we built the shell of the building as one unified structure. This makes it energy efficient and tight against vermin. Initially we’re only using a small portion of the building and this gives us room to expand as we have the time and money to build out the rest of the facility.

    The most expensive part of hired processing is the butchering, the meat cutting and packing. That makes up about 50% of the total cost of processing. This is also the least expensive portion of the facility to finish off first. Thus we finished off the butcher shop portion where we cut the carcasses to chops and such first so that now we are saving that high cost of butchering.

    Then we added sausage making which has added regulatory complications but is a minor addition to the process. This represents about another 15% of the cost of processing and lets us do some new types of sausage as well as having better control over the process, do smaller batches, etc.

    If all goes well then next year we’ll add smoking which is the next most expensive part of the processing.

    Later we’ll add the slaughter which is the least expensive part to have someone else do and the most expensive part to finish off in the building.

    By breaking the project up into phases it makes it so that we can afford to do it financially and also makes it so that we only take on a small chunk of new learning with each phase. This keeps it all manageable and affordable.

    Reply
47. Luke says:

    Monday February 12, 2018 at 03:17

    Walter, how are you going to summon a USDA Food Inspector to come inspect your micro processing facility?

    What’s the procedure to get one to come inspect for you… Just a number to call and set up an appointment?

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Tuesday February 13, 2018 at 10:01

      Last summer we began the process of transitioning from State to USDA by sending in our application. We have our USDA plant number now and are awaiting a time when the regional USDA head can come do a walk through. I’m hoping it will be this month.

      Reply
      • Luke says:

        Tuesday February 13, 2018 at 15:44

        Apologies, I meant to ask about the process of getting an inspector for Processing Days, not the inspection of your butcher shop.

        Reply
        • Walter Jeffries says:

          Wednesday February 14, 2018 at 09:23

          I don’t understand your question. Can you rephrase it? Both halves of what you wrote seem the same to me.

          Reply
          • Luke says:

            Wednesday February 14, 2018 at 12:36

            From everything I have read, an FSIS Inspector has to be on site during each processing event.

            By the sounds of it hopefully I misunderstood something along the way.
          • Walter Jeffries says:

            Wednesday February 14, 2018 at 20:38

            For slaughter they have to be there for ante mortem inspection, the kill and post mortem inspection.

            For other types of processing the inspector shows up at some time during the day and is there for some amount of time checking records, observing operations, etc but they are not there all the time. When we first started out they were there the whole day, then gradually fading out to just a little every inspected processing day as they felt we had everything under control and had completed our 90 day validation period.
48. P&I says:

    Friday March 6, 2020 at 16:34

    An impressive share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a colleague
    who was doing a little homework on this. And he actually
    ordered me dinner due to the fact that I found it for him…
    lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thanks for the meal!!
    But yeah, thanx for spending the time to talk about this subject here on your internet site.

    Reply
49. Rianne says:

    Saturday March 14, 2020 at 01:55

    Hey there this is somewhat of off topic but I was wondering if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding know-how so I wanted to get guidance from someone with experience. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

    Reply
    • Walter Jeffries says:

      Saturday March 14, 2020 at 13:57

      I suspect that most bloggers use the What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editors. I’m old school from back in the machine language era so I code in HTML/js. I find the WYSIWYG editors do not produce as tight or efficient code as I do by hand and I’m fast by hand since I’ve been doing it for so long.

      Reply
50. matt says:

    Thursday May 7, 2020 at 08:35

    Now that meat is becoming hard to find for the urban/retail consumer, I’m VERY hopeful that the artisanal butcher shops will have their renaissance. It’s way overdue!!

    Reply

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