Join our Butcher Shop team in 2024!

We work with the beautiful animals raised here at Mace Chasm Farm. The quality of the food we prepare and the connection to the farm in this small, vertically integrated operation are unique.

We are looking for one more part-time or full-time person to join  the team in our on-farm, nose-to-tail Butcher Shop. A full time role is available, or a part-time role at 2-3 days/week.

Typically there are 3-4 Butchers at work in the shop Tuesday through Friday. On chicken harvest days (every other Tuesday from June through October - 10 to 12 days total) there are 5 of us. The start of the week is steady breaking of whole carcasses, while later in the week we transition to the multitasking work of the finish processing of our many products.

We work a 9 hour day, with a 45 minute lunch break  (home-cooked team lunch is offered Tues-Fri from the farm kitchen). We operate year-round, though we schedule some breaks during the quieter winter months. Our busiest months are June-September. Our minimum commitment for this job is May through December.

A typical week in the shop looks like:

• Monday the rail is loaded up by the farm team! Maybe a steer and 4-5 pigs. The shop team is off on Mondays.
• Shop team starts breaking on Tuesday morning! Often pigs first, so that the curing and sausage or salami making can begin as the beef is being broken.
• Wednesday is a breaking day! When pigs are done, some of us move on to breaking beef and some to Finished cuts are packed as we work.
• On Thursday we may be finishing up any last subprimals, rubbing bacon and hams, weighing sausage trim, making spice kits, harvesting herbs for sausages, brining pastrami, preparing everything needed for various grinds, getting a broth going, and setting up meats to braise overnight.
• On Fridays we smoke bacon and ham, chop fresh herbs for sausages, get everything ground, and spend most of the afternoon linking sausages to pack, along with cuts and grinds. Everything goes to market tomorrow! Equipment gets a nice end-of-the-week cleaning.
• Court heads to market with all of this great stuff on Saturday morning! One or two butchers are in the shop slicing/packing smoked meats, jarring broth, making pate, cleaning equipment, and putting the shop to sleep for the weekend.
• Sunday Asa heads to market with more of this great food! The shop team is off. Much food has been sold. It all begins again on Tuesday!

What we are looking for

• Strong work ethic & ability to multitask
• Enthusiasm for Butchery & Small Ag
• Good communication skills & ease around problem solving
• Attention to detail in all aspects of this work - from cutting and handling to seasoning, packaging, cleaning, food safety standards, personal safety, and organization within the shop.
• Comfort in a fast-paced work environment
• Inclination to make improvements where you see a need & ability to follow through.
• Willingness to offer occasional customer service. There is a small Farm Store connected to our processing space, which we keep nicely stocked. It's a self-serve store, but we check in with customers to help them find what they're looking for, as needed.
• Ability to lift 60 lb lugs, move carcasses with a teammate, and ask for help when needed!

Skills

If you are skilled in the arts of meat processing, that is wonderful! You will appreciate the quality of meat on the rail here, and the opportunity to plan and create an amazing spread of products each week, adding your own favorites to the menu, if you'd like.

If you have only basic knife skills but know that you like this work and want to possess these skills, we are willing to train you. You would learn from us as we work together, at a speed determined by your grasp on each process, as we move at a production pace. Happy to talk with you about what you could expect, and our many experiences with training folks here.

Butchers who… also grow trees?

Yes - it's true - we grow wholesale, grafted tree nursery stock! It's a new project here. If you would like to be part of the tree grafting team at the farm, you can bring your knife skills on over to the greenhouse during the window in March and April for bench grafting.

Happy to answer your questions about this job and workplace! Just email us.