"Meat" Your Farmer: Two Events to Connect Farmers and the Community in Cattaraugus and Chautauqua Counties

Two events to be hosted: 

Cattaraugus County: Saturday, November 5th, 1pm - 3pm at the CCE Cattaraugus located at 28 Parkside Drive, Ellicottville, NY 14731

Chautauqua County: Wednesday, November 9th, 6pm - 8pm at the Fluvanna Volunteer Fire Department located at 3536 Fluvanna Ave, Jamestown, NY 14701 

Farmers are invited to join either or both events. You do not have to be from the host county to participate! 

Background:

The idea to promote local community meat purchasing in Erie and Cattaraugus counties came to us from successful events that have been held regionally in the past and from local farmer requests. CCE-Chautauqua hosted the most recent "Meat" Your Farmer event in the SWNY region (2019), which drew in 90 local consumers to learn about purchasing meats directly from the farm and featured 30 farmers and their families. The farming communities in Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, and Erie Counties are active with CCE, and farmers have requested we host a program like CCE-Chautauqua's again. We are excited to announce that we are hosting two of these events this fall!

The Event:

Two in-person events will be hosted by CCE to connect the community with their local livestock farmers. All farmers willing to travel to the event locations are invited to share their story and products that they have for sale in the style of a pop-up farmer's market. We anticipate that we will have between 15-30 farms attending. Participating farmers will need to have created a profile on www.meatsuite.com, for which assistance through the SWNY Dairy, Livestock, and Field Crops Team can be provided. Meatsuite.com is a bulk meat directory to allow farmers and consumers across NYS to connect.

As part of this event, we are looking to provide the community with a tasting of dishes featuring locally raised meats. Our goal is to utilize the less popular cuts to show that they're just as good as the popular ones! Recipe cards from the events' tastings will be provided to the community using these underutilized cuts so that people can make the same dishes at home.

Participating farms can choose to pay their booth fee (two $25 gift certificates to their farm) with meat, which our caterer partner will prepare into appetizer-sized portions. The caterer will prepare 100 portions per event. If you choose to donate meat, we will place a chafing dish containing your product at your booth to directly connect the public with the farmer who produced the meat.

We are looking for the following per event:

• Beef (2 farms)
• Pork (2 farms)
• Lamb (1 farm)
• Goat (1 farm)
• Chicken (1 farm)

In addition to the organic interface of farmers and the community, we will offer a formal program to the public about purchasing meat directly from local farms and have a local farmer speak on what the process of purchasing bulk meat looks like. This will include topics such as how to fill out cut sheets and what to expect for yields from both the live animal and hanging weight. We are excited to have Shining Star Cattle Company's Ann Phillips and Tyler Strub, who is Co-Director for NYBPA Region 1, to be speaking to the public from the farmer perspective. Amy Barkley will be speaking more broadly to bulk meat purchasing, trends in the meat industry, and the options available for those looking to buy meats from local farms. We also will have a panel of livestock farmers who will provide answers to audience questions as part of the formal program.

For questions, comments, and/or to register, please contact Amy Barkley (amb544@cornell.edu or (716) 640-0844 for the Cattaraugus County event, or Lisa Kempisty (ljk4@cornell.edu or (716) 664-9502 ext 203) for the Chautauqua County Event.

We are looking forward to seeing you there!