The Beef Shop in Rochester Wa

It's finally June!  The earliest of the spring greens have gone to flower, the storage crops are just about gone, and the farmers are eagerly awaiting the sunshine that will bring this year's planting to harvest.  So what are we to do? Let's show our appreciation for Tracy Smaciarz, owner of the one and only USDA certified meat shop in SW Washington; Heritage Meats.

To say that Tracy Smaciarz is busy is understating the amount of dedication and focus that it takes to run an upstanding meat processing operation in this day and age. What Heritage Meats is to Tracy is just that, his heritage. He was raised in Olympia by his father who started the business while simultaneously working in the meat dept at Safeway. Tracy grew up assisting him, learning the trade. At one point he hated it, as any kid might, but in 1996 he decided to put his reservations aside and take over the business from his retiring father.

At that time the meat industry was undergoing big changes.  There was an industry overhaul that took the butcher out of store altogether. In your average grocery store the meat you find is now processed and sometimes packaged at a central packaging plant, and then shipped in.  Meat found in those places often comes from a centralized meat growing operation, where the animals are raised in deplorable conditions on feed lots, eating GMO corn and soy to fatten them up.  This meat is marbled with cholesterol laden fats and sometimes loaded with residual chemicals and antibiotics.

Heritage is a complete opposite. One of the few remaining butcher shops of its kind, they specialize in pastured raised, grass fed, and organic meat from local farms.   Tracy believes in quality, not quantity and explains that it is much more than just bringing in an animal, and cutting it into pieces.

You have to have an understanding of the animals' full life in order to know what you are getting and then be able to transmute that into a product that appeals to potential buyers. For example, people are becoming more aware of the health benefits of grass fed beef. Everybody wants grass fed beef, but did you know that not all grass is created equally? Or that an animal that is grazing on grass will change during different times of the year as the grass changes. During spring grasses are sweet which will flavor the meat differently than say, late summer, when the grass has dried out. Not to mention grass is seasonal so in winter time the animals subsist on hay as well as grass because that is what they have to work with. Grass throughout the state will have different tastes based on where it is growing. It is not just cut and dry, you have to consider the breeds, feeds, and living conditions.  It truly is an art.

Tracy has perfected his skill by working with craftsman throughout Washington. He knows what it takes to raise healthy, grass fed animals and only sources from farms that are doing it right.  Each one has been well researched and, in several cases, he has worked extensively with them. Specific to OLF the meat is coming from predominately two places, Jerry Foster's ranch in Lewis County, and the Hawley Ranch in Oregon. They supply beef and hogs, and then lamb respectively. Mr. Foster has no business name, no website, and cannot be reached by phone at this time. And why, you may ask. Well it is because he is harvesting his own hay right now, on top of all the regular work he is doing taking care of his 600 head of cattle, and is too busy to take calls, of course! Tracy explained to me in my lesson about local meat that the best ranchers, and the ones that are truly doing it right, are the ones that grow their own hay. This is the most sustainable way to do things and gives the farmer full control of what their herd is eating.  It also reduces the carbon footprint by sourcing the feed from right there on the farm.

According to Tracy, Hawley Ranch is the only place in the Pacific NW that raises top quality and healthy lamb all year round.  Tracy has searched long and hard to find the right farm and stands behind the quality and care of lambs produced there.  This is the kind of dedication that makes Tracy special.  Not only has he created a brand and a label that can be trusted, he goes out to each ranch and speaks to the rancher. He buys the best meat available and brings it in to his shop then translates it into artisan crafted cuts of decadent healthful meat.  And for for Tracy, that is only the beginning.

Heritage is also USDA inspected; a rigorous detailed process that leaves no stone unturned in making sure the quality and cleanliness are held to standard.  This makes it all that much harder to produce meat and still be a viable business, but for Heritage it has been worth the extra effort and helped him find more venues to offer his products.

 When asked how business is today, he says he can't complain. He is hopeful for more volume in the future and we look forward helping by offering a wide selection of his meats at Olympia Local Foods...

GET HERITAGE MEATS NOW AT
OLYMPIALOCALFOODS.COM

 

Thank You for your business

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