When Santa goes looking for a last-minute stocking stuffer or a charcuterie platter for the elves’ holiday party, you may find him perusing the selection at Southpaw Meat Market in Windham, Maine.
The market, tucked in a strip mall 12 miles northwest of Portland, is a warm, welcoming space that exemplifies the opportunities for smaller processors to diversify and move beyond simply harvesting animals and packaging meat.
Beef tallow is only the latest stop on the trail that Stagecoach Meats in Wiggins, CO, has traveled over the past half-decade.
The journey began in 2020, when Kris and Jessica Musgrave and their friends Stacy and Travis Cowan purchased a custom exempt plant in the small northeastern Colorado town to process cattle that the Musgraves raised on their nearby ranch. As the Covid-19 pandemic-related disruption swept through the beef industry, the four soon recognized the need for a USDA-inspected facility in their area.
