A Sustainable Meat Delivery Solution
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We all want to be more proactive when it comes to sourcing our food. We'd like to know that it's healthy, tasty, hormone-free, GMO-free, and sustainable. But, when it comes to buying meat, we’re faced with a lot of choices and conflicting claims. Standing in a grocery store, trying to make heads or tails of the labels and acronyms is time-consuming and, quite frankly, a little overwhelming. What if there is an easier alternative? What if we could get the highest quality, hormone-free meats directly to our doorsteps - straight from a local Texas farm?
Enter 1915 Farm: a beautiful place, owned by two millennials who ditched the rat race and became first-generation, sustainable meat farmers. Let's discover how Tanner and Catherine Klemcke, a young couple who previously worked in pharmaceuticals and oil/gas, go about running a transparent, meat-delivery service in Meyersville, Texas.
Against All Odds
Catherine & Tanner's adventure began when they saw a property listing that stated "Land, Free House" and thought it sounded like a pretty good deal. They wanted to get out of the city and decided to buy the 57 acres and renovate the homestead on it. It's an interesting choice for two twenty-somethings with blossoming careers in the city. Needless to say, their families were confused. But Catherine and Tanner soldiered on - off the beaten path - and once their farmhouse and lands were looking good they became interested in growing and maintaining their own food.
They also began uncovering truths about the food system. As Tanner puts it, "We saw a problem with our food system and wanted to disassociate ourselves with it. It started like most small, sustainable farms do – with the interest in feeding ourselves the best we could. It quickly evolved into much more than that, and the outline of a viable business became visible very early on. With the local and sustainable food movements growing, and the power of social media to tell a story, we took a big leap and went all in only 1.5 years into the venture and haven’t looked back."
A Labour of Love
Farming is intrinsically about sustaining land, family, and community. For the Klemckes this is especially true. They feel truly blessed to be able to work from home, with each other, doing something that they believe is great for the community and the world, and see the positive effects it has on their customers. "One of the things we love the most about farming is that there really isn’t a ‘typical day’. Every day starts with good intentions to keep to a structure, but you just never know what mother nature or the animals are going to throw at you," says Tanner.
On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays Catherine and Tanner are scheduled to pack and ship their meats across the state. There is always a need to take care of the animals, feed them, and move them around to fresh pastures. Aside from that, there are daily chores and all the projects you might expect on a farm. Fencing, customer interaction, and so on. Roughly 70% of Catherine's time is spent on marketing and engaging with their customers. Around 70% of Tanner's time is spent taking care of animals, fixing things, and driving to and from processing appointments.
Safe Delivery
The couple are hardworking, with a strong moral compass, and an obvious passion for ensuring a great final product. 1915 Farm runs a closed-loop production and processing system. Tanner explains that "..a unique aspect of this system is that everything we raise, process, package and ship can be tracked and accounted for by us every step of the way - from our fields to our customers’ front doors." They ship out the meats in insulated boxes with dry ice to ensure it stays frozen for up to 3 days in transit.
They've taken extra precautions as a result of COVID19 and put specific processes in place, in addition to following the guidelines set out by the CDC. There is always a focus on health and safety and they disinfect work stations after every round of boxes that are packaged. They've also suspended their popular 'Return the Box' program for the foreseeable future. The program allowed customers to send their boxes back to the farm to be recycled in return for a discount on future meat purchases.
"As far as social distancing goes, well it’s pretty much baked into the job description when you live 20 miles from the nearest town and already go to town once a week at most!" they happily agree.
Grassroots Meat Club
In addition to selling different cuts of beef, pork, chicken, dry-aged wagyu, and healthy food options for pets, 1915 Farm runs a subscription-based, meat-delivery service. Subscribing is the most convenient, practical way to consistently get a variety box of their premium meats delivered to your door. You can choose a box that best suits your cooking style. They contain 14-16 Ibs of grass-fed and finished beef, pasture-raised heritage pork, pasture-raised chicken, and dry-aged wagyu beef.
Customers can sign up and select the frequency with which they would like to receive boxes - anywhere from every 1 week to every 8 weeks - and the subscription can be postponed or canceled at any time. It's their most popular product and the delivery includes a monthly newsletter with recipes. Browsing through the comments section on their Facebook, you'll find that their customers appreciate this personalized touch.
"It really fits the busy families that value where their food comes from, but don’t want to go through the tiring process of picking out individual cuts of meat every time they shop. We focus on making it as convenient, and personal as possible. We are always taking new subscriptions and new customers can sign up via our website," says Catherine.
Changing the Stereotypes
After interviewing Catherine and Tanner, it's pretty obvious that there are fantastic alternatives to industrial meat production. And... that not all farmers have grey hair. They make farming seem enjoyable and rewarding. So, do they have some ideas about how the market for sustainable food can be improved?
"In our opinion there has never been a better time to be a producer of sustainable food. One of the fires that keeps us going is the feedback we receive from customers and followers of our social media accounts. Transparency is the most important thing to us, which is why we show everything that goes on out here to our followers online. People want to be connected with their food, and if you tell a story that people resonate with, be transparent in what you do and offer a great product on top of that, the possibilities are endless."
For now, Catherine and Tanner's vision for the future is to keep scaling up. In their words, "We never wanted this to be a small side hustle, which is why we dove in headfirst from the beginning. Our goal is to feed as many families as possible and continue to do it in a way that positively impacts the animals and the environment."
1915 Farm is a testimony to the magic that happens when sustainability meets optimism - and they're saving us time sourcing quality, humanely-raised meat.
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