 Josh Applestone slices organic, grass-fed beef at Fleisher's Meats in Kingston. |
From behind a glass case displaying freshly cut meats, Joshua Applestone is explaining how he gave up his vegan diet and became a butcher. Contrary to my own recent experiment with the 100 percent animal-product-free lifestyle—which I gave up after five minutes due to an uncontrollable urge for cheese—Joshua was vegan for 17 years. "As I got older my body started to change. I found I couldn't eat enough avocados and beans to meet my protein requirements," he said.
Not that becoming a butcher was the thought that immediately followed his decision to add meat back into his diet. About a year and a half ago, Joshua and his wife, Jessica, were brainstorming on what to do with their lives. At the time they both worked at New World Home Cooking in Saugerties (Joshua as a chef, Jessica as a server). And while they loved food, they didn't love the demanding hours of restaurant work. At the same time, Jessica had been looking for the healthiest, most humane and sustainable meat sources for her personal consumption.
They wanted nothing to do with purchasing meat from other butchers and supporting the current system of factory farming, which involves feedlots, overcrowding, antibiotics, growth hormones, steroids, pesticides, stun guns, and fields of manure. Fish didn't appeal either, due to the problems associated with fish farms. With her disgust towards commercial farms paired with suspicions of the misleading nature of food labels, Jessica realized the safest route would be to buy directly from local farmers she and Joshua met and trusted.
"But I didn't want to buy an entire steer, or even half a steer. It's too much meat for one person to deal with," says Jessica. She thought, "It would be great if someone opened a grass-fed, organic butcher shop." It occurred to her that she probably wasn't alone, and one day while walking with Joshua through uptown Kingston they saw a for-rent notice on a storefront. They decided to take a risk.
When they told the building's owner what kind of store they wanted to open, he told them they were crazy. However, when the owner told his wife about the nutty kids with the big ideas she responded with enthusiasm. She told him, "That's a great idea. That will work."
As for Joshua, he remained vegetarian for his first seven months as a butcher before being around all that meat finally got to him. "After my first 40 pounds of bacon I was hooked," he says.
The bacon that seduced the vegan is, of course, not an average slab of meat. It came from Berkshire pigs that lived the kind of life pigs are meant to live—rooting around in the soil and giving themselves cooling mud baths in the summer. The organic meat is preserved nitrate-free with sea salt and honey. If you've never cooked his bacon, Joshua will give you instructions as he wraps a pound in crisp brown paper: "Don't overdo it. Cook it clear, not crunchy." (Although if your husband insists on ignoring that fine advice and cooking it as stiff as he has always cooked it, the bacon is still exquisite.)
The benefits of pastured, organic meats go far beyond the taste. Studies have shown the meat to be leaner, and the remaining fat is full of beneficial elements. Whole milks, cheeses, and butter from grazing cows have a much higher amount of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which has shown anti-carcinogenic properties in animal studies. The absence of hormones, steroids, and antibiotics is equally compelling.
 Jessica Applestone weighs sausage. |
The Applestones visit the farms they purchase from to witness the farming practices and the environment. Joshua explains how he uses his eyes and ears: "Unhappy animals moo and oink. I listen for peace and quiet." Joshua also regularly visits slaughterhouses. He doesn't enjoy it, but he feels it is his duty: "They are beautiful creatures. If you like dogs and cats, why wouldn't you like pigs and cows?" He thinks for a moment and then adds, "Well, pigs are kind of nasty. Pigs will eat you."
When the Applestones find a farm that produces meat that reaches their standards and passes their taste test, they buy all they can get. "I will buy entire farms," says Joshua as he cuts a steak for the display case. Although, in such instances, the farms are small, sometimes fewer than 20 animals.
Later that morning, a customer requests a hinged leg of lamb. To prepare this, Joshua cuts the bone free but leaves it in place. The meat is bound in twine to be cooked whole. Prior to serving, the bone will be easily pulled away.
Watching Joshua hoist an entire lamb onto his shoulders and transport it from the cooler to the band saw is an impressive sight. He flips the lamb with ease and runs it through the spinning blade. Out slide loin chops, ribs, and legs of lamb. He learned to cut meat by observing other butchers.
The sight of an entire animal being cut into pieces produces different responses from different people. The first time I saw it I was rather shocked; in small pieces, meat seems so much less animal-like. Another young couple watched as Joshua used his saw and a knife to pare away at the lamb. The man bounced a toddler on his shoulder while his wife whispered into her husband's ear and squeezed the child's toes. "Give us one too," the man finally said, with a French accent. "But leave the bone in. We will cook it over a fire."
Later, I asked Joshua if it bothered him to cut meat.
"No," Joshua answered without pause. "I love anatomy."
Shoppers who make their weekly pilgrimage to Fleisher's come because they are political, concerned about their health, or are foodies who want the best-tasting products available. Many combine all three traits.
"We feel blessed that these people care about what we eat, because we do," says Sandra Zuccala, an Olivebridge resident. "I read that commercial pigs eat garbage and now the FDA says the garbage has to be cooked. I love pork, but I don't love pork from pigs like that. These pigs have eaten apples."
For me, eating meat is a new experience. I dream of what I want to eat in the days ahead and I drive weekly to Fleisher's on Friday or Saturday. I think of my friend in Italy who shops for fresh food every day. I feel Italian. I feel French. I feel smart and healthy and politically active.
 Josh Applestone displaying his wares. |
Eating all parts of an animal is a crucial element to the sustainable movement. It saddens and angers Joshua to waste any piece, and he has more T-bone and porterhouse customers than he knows what to do with. "There is no bacon pig that is all belly," says Joshua. He loves a customer willing to experiment with fresh hams and shoulders and unusual cuts. He says the customers who really know what's going on walk in with a different attitude. They ask, "What do I want?"
While most of the Applestones' business is wholesale to upscale restaurants in Manhattan and the Hudson Valley, the retail interest is growing. As a movement, desire for meats from animals that lived stress-free lives is gaining momentum. When Fleisher's first opened, Joshua says they sold half a steer a week. Now they sell three. The next plan is an expansion. By November 1, Fleisher's Meats will be in a new storefront on Wall Street, around the corner from their current location. The store will be twice the size and the Applestones will be working with Michael Siegel and Barbara Caldwell of Farm and Granary to create a full-service gourmet market. It will be styled after the Union Square Market that Jessica loved so much when she lived in Manhattan. It will stock pastured meats, milk, yogurt, cheese, and eggs; plus olives, sauerkrauts, and organic and non-organic produce obtained from local, sustainable sources. In winter, look for onions, potatoes, and fresh stir-fry mixes grown in greenhouse tunnels that warm and protect the earth even in cold weather. For customers who order on time, the November special is three different kinds of natural and organic Thanksgiving turkeys—including the heritage-variety Bourbon Red from a farm in Delaware County.
As for the new decor, if Joshua gets his way he will line the new butcher case with grinning pigs' heads. Jessica says that's not happening. They will, however, have organic chickens turning on a rotisserie in the front window.