A Customer's Request

Good Morning and hello from the farm,

Last weekend one of our Gulf Coast customers asked me to write and compare our farm with companies like ButcherBox.

My objective here is NOT to be critical of the ButcherBox (BB) model, but to simply provide information and my thoughts to help you make an informed decision.

While I have heard of BB I must admit that I did not know much about them. So, like you, I went to their website. They were founded in 2015 and are headquartered in Brighton, MA (Harvard Square). So, BB is NOT a farm nor do they own the land or animals. They are basically a sales and marketing company that buys meat for resale to consumers. Their staff all appear to be office staff which mean they outsource things like warehouse, packers, logistics, etc. Their niche is Free Shipping to your doorstep.

Since they are not farmers and they do not mention anything about the farms where the animals are raised, what they eat, land stewardship, etc. How do you know what you are really buying? How can you verify the beef is really grassfed & grass finished?

At Nature’s Gourmet Farm we own the land & animals. Customers are free to visit and see our animals, what they eat, and how we care for their health. Our website and newsletters regularly include photos, videos, and descriptions of farm activities. We believe you should not have to guess who or how your food was raised.

The next thing that caught my eye was their beef is imported! That really complicates “getting to know your farmer” and how your meat was really raised.

What about food safety? That is a really long supply chain for fresh meat to travel. I’m assuming (since the website does not say) that the beef are slaughtered overseas, cut and packaged in primal portions, shipped to the USA where it goes through a USDA plant for final cut, packaging, and freezing in a 3rd party warehouse that receives the orders – packs – and ships. Most likely the BB staff never see or handle the product.

We deliver our beef to the local processor and then about 18 days later we pickup and store in our freezer where Beth & I pack your orders and provide delivery to our customers.

One of the glaring things I did not see on the BB website was “Customer Testimonials”. So, I did a Google search to see if there were any customer Google reviews. I could not find any Google or Facebook Reviews. The only thing I found was a 3rd party named Influenster that appears to collect reviews from BB customers and had them listed as 3.6.

At Nature’s Gourmet Farm we work very hard to provide a quality product and exceptional customer service. Our homepage includes customer testimonials that were received and selected from our 80+ 5-Star Google reviews. We don’t want you to take our word so we offer social proof from satisfied customers.

Bottom line, local farms and businesses support the local communities they serve. And, when you chose to spend your hard earned money locally, you are investing in the future of your community – not some farm on another continent or business in a distant city. Customer support has helped our farm grow where we can offer more products and deliver to more locations. As more folks buy local then there will be more farms converting to our regenerative, direct marketing model which will bring in competition for processing cost - that will improve prices consumers pay.

Last Week I introduced you to our new pigs

This week, I tried to get a good picture of them enjoying the forage, but with all the rain it was not easy. The first thing they chose to eat was "Pig Weed".

I. Kellum recently left this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Google Review:

"All of your products have exceeded all my expectations of taste, quality. Thank you Ben and family as I know from being raised around farms it is hard work."