Triform Farm: The Meat Shop

Thursday, January 8, 2009

The Meat Shop

This year, 2009, I am finally opening the meat shop at Triform Farm. I am graduating this year from Triform Camphill Community. The meat shop is part of my Apprentice Project. First we need to organize the shop and make doors and windows. Then we need to find a good deli scale, make a sign for the front of the shop, and organize the inside of the freezers. Then we will be ready for the grand opening. We hope to open the shop at the end of March or beginning of April.

We want people to be able to get fresh, organic, biodynamic and grass-fed meat. Grass-fed meat is less fattening. By running a meat shop we will learn about how much things cost, using a cash register, and using real, real, money. When people come to buy meat they will see the farm where the animals are. They will get to meet the meat manager and the farmers as well. We can't hardly wait for those people who are interested in getting meat to come to our farm.

-Billy Spillman

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: What a nice article about your new meat shop. I hope hundreds of people come and buy your delicious and nutritious meat. Good Luck!; February 14, 2009 at 11:39 AM

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About Triform Farm

Triform Farm is part of Triform Camphill Community. Triform, founded in 1979, is a residential and therapeutic community for young adults with special needs, located on 125 acres in New York's rural Columbia County. The mission of Triform is to build a vital community life that provides each person the possibility for healing, self-development and fulfillment of potential.

Triform Farm is a USDA Certified Organic and Demeter Certified Bio-dynamic farm. The farm consists of a hand-milked dairy herd, grass-fed beef herd, and heritage breed pigs. On the farm the young adults have an opportunity to gain practical work skills. Students come to the farm to experience working with the animals. They feed the cows, steers and pigs, muck out the barn, clean pens and provide bedding for the animals. They learn to use different tools and how to work as a team with the other members of the farm crew.

Some students go on to become farm apprentices. The apprentices work more full time on the farm and carry many of the daily responsibilities of running a small dairy. They learn how to milk the cows by hand, maintain the machinery, do building projects and repair work to the barn and animal pens, drive the farm golf cart, identify when animals are sick or in heat, and much, much, more. The apprentice program is about four years in length. In that time the young people gain a very broad knowledge of farming. Some go on to work on other farms. Even if they do not, the sense of responsibility, independence and empowerment they gain through land work carries over into other aspects of their lives.

The same can be said of many young co-workers who have come to Triform to volunteer for one year or many. They come with an interest in land work and leave with a very thorough training in biodynamic agriculture. Triform Farm is an exciting place to learn and gain strength and confidence through trying new things. Everyone soon finds that they not only know how to do a new task but have taken on the responsibility of making sure that job is maintained. They can each see that their contribution is vital to the running of the farm. In that way everyone shares in the ownership of Triform Farm.