Some readers may have noticed a very nice letter to the editor in the Beloit Daily News – if not here it is….Letter From Morningstar

This unprompted, no-bribe-required letter was very nice and actually heart warming if I do say so. Many folks have stopped in looking for raspberries and yogurt since the letter appeared.

The reality is that behind the scenes of Bushel & Peck’s are a lot more people that enjoy bringing their products into the store, having lunch and going back home to their passion. Whether it be a soap maker or a potato grower or a borgeoning young sausage maker, many people come to Bushel & Peck’s looking to sell their goods. And very rarely, do we say no. Sometimes we make money, sometimes it’s an experiment and we don’t. But we always try to sell a good product from a local producer.

And while our produce case isn’t overflowing with fluffy green lettuce and bright and shiny apples, everything you see is local, recent, homegrown, fresh and keeps a dollar in the local economy. Some days you can come into the store and stumble upon the Raspberry Guy, The Apple Guy, The Honey Guy, The Elk Lady, The Chicken Guy (AKA Lamb Guy) and so on, perhaps all in the store within an hour of one another, stopping in to see what we need. This, to me, is so different than the Sysco Guy and the WalMart hauler showing up at the back door.

It’s cool – I wonder if there were actually a time when stores and restaurants were supplied this way? When was that?

Bushel & Peck’s has a meat case that has been empty for six weeks. A lot of people have asked for fresh meat. So it seems time to explain the absence.

Our philosophy on meat is that it should be produced on a small farm, on pasture, without antibiotics or hormones. “On pasture” means that the animal gets outside. All of these things seem reasonable, and one would think that in Wisconsin, it would be easy to fit all of the criteria.

So let’s start with small farm meat….Most small farmers raise just a few animals per year, and process only once in a while. A whole cow or hog goes a long way, and therefore is usually flash frozen when processed. Though we’d like to say that we’re selling a steer a week, we’re not. So we have to have the meat frozen. The small farms that provide us meat simply cannot have it done any other way than frozen.

Which brings us to commercial meat sources. We’ve been searching high and low for meat that we can purchase from purveyors of specialty foods. We ask questions; Where is it raised? Are the animals given antibiotics? Are the animals raised on pasture? Even after talking with many sellers of “all natural” meats, at least one of the questions is answered incorrectly. Most sellers can’t source their meat, most, even those labeled “all natural” have animals in confined feed lots.

The short answer is that we have chosen not to compromise our commitment to quality meat. For now, you’ll find great cuts in the freezer and we’ll keep searching for the right answer!