I'll start with what happened at the end of my visit to Redmond Smokehouse, because it sets the stage for this review. A man, who seemed to be a farmer, offered to help me navigate the stairs leading down from the retail store to my car. (I have MS and difficulty with stair navigation goes with the territory.) That started a conversation and he said he was there to drop off a pig for butchering and the animal was inside the Redmond Smokehouse being disassembled into edible parts "as we spoke". His daughter used her high school graduation gifts of cash to purchase two cows and a pig, all of which were then raised for purposes of being able to have them slaughtered and sold. The investment, he said, was delivering a good return to help pay her college tuition.
His comments made me reflect on what a local newspaper writer wrote about Redmond Smokehouse earlier this year. He said independent meat processors, like the Smokehouse, "...are the ones keeping the mystery out of meat." Ain't it the truth! Because independent processors know who they are sourcing their meat from.
For example, we were introduced to Redmond Smokehouse's products, and how they source the pigs they use to turn into bacon, ham and sausages, at a local Farmer's market. A Smokehouse employee had bacon to sell and could share that the source of some of it was produced from local 4H raised pigs. It was among the leanest, best bacon we have ever had and we said we needed go to Redmond to check out the Smokehouse's retail sales area in person someday. Yesterday was that day.
This is an unusual place for me to review, because my husband and I most often prefer to eat a plant and fish based diet. We stopped eating beef over twenty years ago due to concerns about both the cruelty of feed lot husbandry and health concerns about processing. We found it was much easier to find sources of humanely raised lamb, poultry and pigs where we then lived then. Although we have easy access to humanely raised beef now, we've lost our desire to eat it. But we still eat pork and lamb and poultry, being mindful of when we eat other animals of choosing purveyors (be they retail or restaurants) that in turn have relied on suppliers where we feel some confidence in the husbandry and quality of processing. Like Redmond Smokehouse.
In addition to on site smokehouses producing bacon, ham and sausages, the Redmond Smokehouse is also a full service retail butcher shop, a wholesaler to local restaurants, a processor of animals to return to farmers, a processor of (clean) game brought in by hunters, and operator of freezer storage meat lockers.
We expected the retail sales area to be rustic, tucked in an old part of Redmond adjacent to railroad tracks, and it was. We also expected a bigger selection of fresh pork, but most of the products in the fresh meat case were beef. The sales woman said most of pork products like bacon and house made sausages (over a dozen kinds) are frozen immediately after production. (Sausage can be purchased fresh in orders of 15 pounds or more.) We noted the large freezer case had a broad number of pork choices and poultry choices and a more limited selection of lamb and even goat products.
The current owner, Ben Moore, took over the business from his parents so the quality control and pride in producing excellent products are part of the fabric of the business from way back. Award certificates posted on the walls are testimony to recognition.
We bought ham and served it to guests at dinner last night. We all agreed it was possibly the best ham we have ever eaten. And when I asked the butcher behind the counter at Redmond Smokehouse if the pigs from which the smoked hams were made this season were local, he could tell me that they were not from the Redmond area, but from Eastern Oregon and a specific part of Washington state. I wonder how the butcher at the meat counter of a big commercial grocer might answer that question.about the hams for sale there.
For people in central Oregon, the Redmond Smokehouse offers some great products. And a visit there also helps underscore that it is true that getting meat to the table is a messy thing. If we all realized more what goes in to getting the animal to our plates, we might be more mindful of how much of it we eat and how our choices for where we spend our food dollars impact the production end too, including how animals are cared for during their lifetimes. Everything is connected to everything else.
If you want to read more about Redmond Smokehouse, that great article from an April edition of a local paper is at this URL: . http://www.tsweekly.com/chow/dining/keeping-the-meat-market-alive-kicking-it-old-school-with-redmond-smokehouse.html The Redmond Smokehouse can be found on Facebook. read more