Front Burner: Tendergrass Farms links producers, consumers
John William Houston of Floyd County helps to raise pigs for Tendergrass Farms. Photo by Rebecca Barnett l The Roanoke Times.
FLOYD COUNTY — My visit to a farm last week inspired the same sentimental feelings those trips always do.
As I scratched a pig’s back and laughed at the ornery turkeys pecking a hole in a feed bag, I thought about how neat it would be to live on a farm.
But then I yanked my thoughts back to reality, because I know farming is one of the most difficult, dangerous and least profitable jobs — especially livestock farming, which brings with it prohibitive processing laws and high feed costs.
That reality gives me great respect for what Floyd County resident David Maren is trying to do with Tendergrass Farms, a new online store that sells grass-fed Virginia meat and ships it all over the country.
“What Tendergrass Farms is offering is convenience for both sides,” said Maren, 23. “We’re trying to do the legwork so it isn’t hard to be the farmer or hard to be the consumer.”
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October 31, 2012 - 12:48 PM
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A reader named Anne asked this question on another blog entry: “What is going on with Sweet Providence? We stopped by a few Saturdays and it looked like it was closing or remodeling.”
Anne, the Sweet Providence farm market on U.S. 220 has been closed for some time, in part to direct more energy toward Tendergrass Farms. But the Houston family is still farming, and their products are being distributed in a variety of other places. David Maren, the Houstons’ son-in-law, said they plan to open the market temporarily around Christmas to sell Christmas trees and other goodies.
This was a great article. David called me last week and sent me info about the turkeys they’re selling because I was on the list last year. Great turkey!
I am surprised they buy from Polyface…I was there once a few years back and to me the prices were a little stunning. Is Tendergrass going to look into selling meat in bulk? The pastured pork I picked up last week ended up coming in at about $3.75/lb, which is a big screaming bargain when you look at the meat sold piecemeal. Although, having a 100/lbs of meat dropped shipped to your front porch cold-packed might be prohibitively expensive.
Beautiful job, Lindsey (and Rebecca)! You did a great job of telling out story.
It would be interesting to see if the targeted market were narrowed, how the price would lower, in both shipping expense and the expense of the meat.
Instead of a national range, where you compete against several hundreds of other like-priced competitors, focus on a regional basis. Ship only to the Carolinas, Tennessee, the Virginias, Maryland & Delaware. Ship from Floyd, and reduce freight costs.
Also, factor in sales pricing at local Farmers’ Markets and co-ops to lessen your average sales price.
I just think a key is in narrowing the gap in pricing between grocery store factory meat and pasture raised meat.
Crooked Road -
Sorry for the delayed response here. Thanks for your comments.
We actually did try focusing on the east coast alone for some time but as we looked at our vision to create a marketplace that would sustain a growing number of family farms across our region we realized that the advantages to ‘going coast to coast’ were undeniable.
Your idea of narrowing the price gap between traditional ‘big food’ brands and family farmed grass fed meats is interesting. Our main goal here at Tendergrass is to sustain small family farms – economically speaking. This means, of course, that we have to make it possible for someone raising a few hundred pigs to make a living when the average industrial hog farmer raises tens of thousands of pigs. This means that we must pay more per hog/chicken/cow/turkey which is then passed on the the customer. This is part of our foundational vision to keep family farmers farming.
We’ve found that the very things that bring prices down (mass production, chemical additives, lower quality control, etc.)are the very things that our customers are wanting to avoid by purchasing our meats. So, in short, if we did the things that are necessary to bring prices down, suddenly we’d have no customers!
As they say, “You get what you pay for.”
David, I understand the desire to keep the small farms profitable. I also understand the desire to maintain the level of quality.
I think you mis-worded your response though, and I’ll explain why I think that. There are multiple ways to lower costs without lowering quality. Logistical costs are the primary target. Changing the paradigm about how you ‘go to market’ is another.
To use an extreme example – If you’re selling grass-fed beef, whatever the cut, for $10/lb, and the grocery stores are selling factory raised beef for $5/lb, you have drastically minimized your customer base. If you can find a way to sell it for $7/lb, then you’ve got a much larger customer pool from which to draw.
You already know all this, I’m sure, but I think we can agree that the majority of people will default to the EZ Button of grocery store factory beef. If you make it more easy & cost beneficial to experiment on some pasture raised beef, then you widely expand your opportunities.
Artisanal farms don’t have a desire to become 1000-acre ‘open air factories’, we understand that. But if you’ve got a 50-acre farm that provides you a comfortable existence, then that’s the target goal. By really focusing on the marketing & logistics, that is much easier to accomplish.
I support the concept to the extent that I buy no meat of any kind except from pasture raised sources. I’m a firm believer. I just know there is a huge opportunity for growth.
Good luck in your endeavor!