Traditional Butcher Shops or Fresh From the Farm in the Baltimore, Maryland area

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wildwes

Newbie
Original poster
May 17, 2011
11
10
Baltimore, Maryland
I was wondering if anyone from the Baltimore, Maryland and surrounding area knew of any traditional butcher shops or farms I can get fresh cuts of meat from.  I really would like to support local farms and don't mind paying a little extra for the meat as long as the quality is there.  Any help from any member would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
I know I can try google but Im not trying to drive all over town. I was just hoping someone in the area had experience at a market or farm like this, where I can get fresh cuts of meat, and could tell me if they thought the service, meat quality, and staff were good or bad. Also if the establishment had different meat then the regular.(I.E. venison)

thanks
 
I know I can try google but Im not trying to drive all over town. I was just hoping someone in the area had experience at a market or farm like this, where I can get fresh cuts of meat, and could tell me if they thought the service, meat quality, and staff were good or bad. Also if the establishment had different meat then the regular.(I.E. venison)

thanks
I don't know about other areas, but I live in an area that may have the most butcher shops per square mile than any other part of the world, and none of them sell Venison. Only a few of them will even process deer & other wild game for you, but none of them will sell it. I'm sure it is due to rules set forth to keep wild meat from tainting other meats.

Good luck on your search---There should be a number of guys on here who can help you.

Bear

On Edit: It has been brought to my attention that maybe in Asia, there are more meat markets than in SouthEast PA. I guess I should have specified small country type family butcher shops, which is what I think of when I hear "Traditional Butcher Shops" mentioned, like WildWes asked about. Also, as far as I know, none of the ones I referred to do any butchering of either dogs or cats. I'm talking about when you ask the young lady or young man if they have any more Ribeyes than you see in the glass showcase, they yell, "Dad, any more Ribeyes?" And Mom is usually holding down the cash register. My kind of butcher shop!

We have a hard time finding a place to go to eat good smoked meat (except at home), but it's not for lack of butcher shops.
 
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I support local as much as possible but I live right outside of DC not Baltimore. In the somewhat Baltimore area there is JW Treuth & Sons ( http://www.jwtreuth.com/ ) which has a nice selection of meat. As far as local I use farmers markets but also use Roseda Farm ( http://roseda.com/ ) for my beef, I live next to a store that stocks it and will special order for certain cuts but I believe Roseda has a store in Baltimore but I am not sure. As far as Venison you have to go out to where the hunters are and normally there is a random store that will sell it but I haven't been out there in a while (Garrett county). Pork, I haven't found a good butcher so I just buy the regular store stuff. There is an Amish market in Laurel ( http://www.burtonsvilledutchmarket.com/ ) that is opened on the weekends (they drive down from PA). I went to the old location for years and they have great quality meats and more. A good place to check out is http://www.localharvest.org/ which will help you connect with local farms through stores or co-ops. If all else fails your local farmers market should be able to help you find something. I wish I could find an old fashioned butcher that has everything. I remember growing up here you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a butcher shop or a seafood market. Now its a lot of work to find quality food but it is out there. Good luck!
 
Im in Lexington,ky.....NO shops it seems. there is one, but they are god awful in price. i expect to pay a little more, but not 3.99/lb  for a shoulder.

you can thank the big chains for that.....krogers, walmart....the fresh local places cant survive. it would probably be a good business to open, maybe a restaurant and a butcher shop....
 
Yeah big business is the real problem, they beat down local farmers until they either quit or start working for them. In the past couple of years a lot of chefs I know have been interested in farm to table which I have always tried to do. Now I am seeing the movement getting bigger so there are a lot of co-ops and farms selling direct now. Problem is it does cost a lot more money but I do know the quality is much much better then what the big stores sell. Especially when it comes to free range, grass fed, no hormone type of stuff. The flavor will beat out any injected corn fed animal. That's why I search these places out but at the same time I am not anywhere close to rich so I can't always afford the finer meats in life, thank you seasoning and sauces like A1 which could make a shoe taste good. I also only eat fish I catch or I know is wild caught since they are pumping those with corn now too. Again try http://www.localharvest.org/ to find a co-op in your respected parts of the country. For those of you that don't know what a co-op is, basically it's a group of people who like meat, you all pay x amount of $$ and buy directly from the farm. It tends to be a pick up every 3-6 months so you need a lot of storage for the meat but you get great local product at a much cheaper price then in a store (your essentially getting the wholesale price). I want to join a co-op but I don't have a giant freezer to put all of the meat in. In my area there are more stores stocking local and more farms selling direct then there were 3 years ago. Most of the reason is because of chefs like my friends that only use local quality ingredients in their restaurants which has now gotten the average consumer wanting more, so the demand is rising. Maybe I should go back to culinary school and take more of the meat cutting classes and open my own shop. Hmmmmmm.......not a bad idea.
 
Home grown cow dot com lists small farm meat producers of all kinds.  You certainly can find anything you're looking for there and unlike some other directories, they facilitate your order directly with the farmer.  You can find Wagyu beef, grass-fed everything, or something local to your area...anything you want.  Happy eating!
 
I know this thread is a bit old but just in case the link below is where I go for all of my cooking needs:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/j-w-treuth-and-sons-catonsville

Some reason right now google has the homepage marked as having maleware not sure if that is true or not but didn't provide direct linky to the home page. I did call them and let them know so hopefully they can get that fixed.
 
You can not sell venison meat in MD. It is illegal. As for butcher shops, they can choose to butcher venison or beef or both. Not much money in venison butchering in comparison to beef. It is illegal to sell meat by the pound that has not been USDA or state inspected and weighed on an inspected scale. If you are looking for rabbit meat, that is available several places. I don't see much in the stores but there are a lot of farms such as mine that will sell rabbits processed. The legalities of it are I can sell you the rabbit at a head price and process it for you for free. I can not sell by the pound and I do not need to be inspected to conduct such a sale. If I sell at a farmer's market I am required to be in the MD program and be inspected. Back to the beef, many farms will sell you a 1/4 1/2 or whole beef. Usually the 1/4 & 1/2s are split sides. This means you get some front and back portions cause no one wants just the front shoulder. Most of this is what's called freezer beef. It is pre-frozen so you can take it home and throw it in your freezer without blowing the freezer up or taking 3 wks to freeze the meat. This option will give you many different cuts than most stores sell. Most butcher shops offer different options for cuts. You can request 1/2in 1in or whatever thickness steaks you want. The MD Dept of Ag has a listing of local Maryland farms what products they offer and where you can find them (if they attend farmer's markets etc. It also will give information if they delivery or ship to your door etc. http://mda.maryland.gov/maryland_products/Pages/maryland_products.aspx
 
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