In a country where food recalls have become the norm, Perron’s return customers understand that his pork and free-range poultry is fresh, hormone- and additive-free and, most important of all, safe.
“It’s about building a relationship with the farmer themselves,” says Perron, 34, who does his best to provide cuts his customers request and takes orders for products he’s run out of so he can bring them back the following week. He also tries to supply specific and special cuts when his customers ask.
That’s not always possible when you buy your meat and poultry at a national or regional food chain. Though most now sell organic products, the supermarket butcher has become a dying breed, according to Mike Hoglund, owner of Countryside Butchers in Scarborough. Hoglund also says many packaged supermarket meats are pumped with sodium phosphate to improve their shelf life, thus eliminating the need for a crew of in-store butchers.
“Read the fine print” on the packages, Hoglund says.
Does he mind that supermarket poultry may be stamped and dated for 21 days on the shelf?
“Oh, we love it,” he says. “So many customers ask ‘Why does your hamburger taste so much better than the grocery store?’”
One of the reasons is the fact that many large supermarkets receive their product in tubular lumps and then regrind it and put it in their own styrofoam packaging. Hoglund says that’s why supermarket hamburger cooks up in strings rather than clumps, like his does.
Another reason is the freshness. “We cut it and it’s gone that day,” Hoglund says.
Perron is working with similar freshness standards with his chickens. He slaughters on a weekly basis, and though the product may be frozen for ease of transport, you can rest assured the meat hasn’t been hanging around for a trip across the country, an unpacking by a stock boy and display time in your grocery store.
Perron and his helpers are the only handlers the chickens ever know, so there’s no questioning the way they lived or died. He learned from his father, who always says a prayer before slaughter, to treat the chickens with respect.
When it comes to his pork, Perron raises pigs in small batches, just four to five at a time. The hogs take part in crop rotation, eating the corn and buckwheat he grows and doing their part as his “harvest team.”
The pigs are taken to a USDA-certified slaughterhouse in Windham that has earned Perron’s trust. “I’ve never delivered and put my animals in a dirty pen,” he says. “What I see there is very professional and very humane.”
Whether any kind of slaughtering of animals for meat is humane is a question for the ages, and one that was included on a national consumer survey by Texas-based Whole Foods in 2006. In addition to flavor, the survey revealed that consumers’ top concerns were safety and humane practices regarding the meat and poultry they consume. But the survey revealed something else very interesting: Though 51% of consumers said the standards set by a retailer for handling meat products are key in choosing where to shop, 51% also admitted they didn’t know what those standards were.
Perron has a ready answer when a question like that arises.
“We rely a lot on inspections these days and we allow other people to do them for us,” he says. “As a local farmer, anyone can come to my farm and inspect their food and interview me about the food they’re putting in their mouth.”
It’s easy to understand the confusion when it comes to USDA standards, so here’s a quick primer:
Natural — A product containing no artificial ingredient or added color, that is only minimally processed (a process which does not fundamentally alter the raw product) may be labeled natural.
No hormones — May be approved for use on the label of beef products if sufficient documentation is provided showing no hormones have been used in raising the animals.
No antibiotics — May be used on labels for meat or poultry products if sufficient documentation is provided demonstrating that the animals were raised without antibiotics.
Organic — Meat containing 95% organically produced ingredients (excluding water and salt).
Each of these labels are taken very seriously by producers like Caldwell Farms in Turner and Pineland Farms Natural Meats, Inc. in New Gloucester, which supplies Wolfe’s Neck Naturally Raised Beef to the Hannaford’s chain. Wolfe’s Neck cattle is raised from birth without antibiotics. The cattle never receive added hormones, steroids or animal by-products and those treated with antibiotics at any point will not be marketed through the program.
Caldwell Farms is just as strict with its practices, raising its organic, natural cattle on a 85% forage/15% grain diet, with grain introduced only for the final six to eight months of an animal’s life. Dee Dee Caldwell stands behind her family’s meat for superior freshness and flavor. “Cook one of our steaks and a conventional steak and you’ll be amazed at the difference in smell and flavor,” she says.
Caldwell Farms meat is processed fresh every week on Tuesday and Wednesday and delivered to stores and restaurants on Thursday and Friday. When necessary, meat is Cryovac sealed, which Caldwell says is much better for freshness than traditional grocery store packaging.
That’s freshness neither Perron nor Hoglund can dispute, but both say the added touch of a connection with the supplier is what many of their consumers crave.
“One of the things we push here is that someone in the store is a chef or a cook so they can help with cooking instructions,” says Hoglund, who claims customers drive from Ellsworth, Fryeburg and Rochester, NH to purchase his meats. The fact that, as he puts it, his choice grade meats are “not hard on the purse” keeps them coming back.
It also makes a difference that these little guys will go out of their way to please. Perron plans to set up a website and take orders for fall hogs and free-range poultry through the winter (call 388-3440 for info). He’ll drive to Portland every other week to make deliveries so his regulars can keep eating good.
“I think it’s the whole package — price, quality and friendliness of the clerks,” Hoglund says. “It’s all that combined.”