Deep Gratitude
08 April 2023
NeverStill, Oregon
It has been a whirlwind of a strange week. Two minutes after posting the story of our plight regarding the Magic Meat Truck blowing its engine last Sunday afternoon, the orders, responses and emails came flowing in. We have been humbled, overwhelmed and touched by the outpouring of generosity. The beauty and kindness of folks reaching out and offering their direct support and kindness in the time of need is profound and humbling. From the depths of our hearts we express our deepest gratitude to you all.
We have been scrambling to fulfill online orders all week.
I can’t express to you what a strange feeling it has been to not be carefully and rapidly loading our truck for market on a Friday night, driving across the bridge from our Neverstill ranch into the dark mountain roads on a Saturday morning and seeing you all at our PopUp locations on the Magic Meat Truck over the weekend.
It has been a rapid and massive paradigm shift for us. Our business model has been nearly 100% focused on selling our magnificent selection of artisan meats and foods in person. Although we maintain an online store and shipping station, until now we have experienced very limited volume. That all changed this week. Rose and I have been operating at full sprint, fulfilling a veritable flood of orders. It has been a time of quiet reflection and gratitude for Rose and I as we have spent each day in our “ChopShop” production facility, reading the names of our dear friends, customers and supporters from order tickets, carefully packing their thoughtful selections into insulated shipping cartons, and delivering them to the UPS hub in Portland each evening.
Recycled and re-usable shipping materials
Those of you whom have received your orders this week have noticed the quality and abundantly over-sized nature of the shipping materials we have utilized. Fortunately, we have been stockpiling these used materials in a storage room on the farm for several years in anticipation of a situation such as this. Rest assured that all of this packaging is recycled and re-used and on its third or fourth “cycle”.
Return your shipping cartons by the following method:
You will receive a return shipping label via email
Please include: box, insulated insert, bubble wrap, “popcorn”, clean empty egg cartons and ice packs.
Tape the shipping carton securely closed
Print the return label and afix it to the box
Request a pick up from UPS, or drop at a UPS shipping station
Thank you for your support and understanding as we refine this process.
Update on the Magic Meat Truck.
The diagnosis provided by Pro Automotive in Scappoose revealed that the engine would need to be replaced under warranty. This bright bit of news in an otherwise dreary outlook means that the repairs will need to be performed by a Ford dealership. Hence, we were required to tow the truck once again. After wrangling with various tow companies, the kind folks at Gerlock’s towing successfully transported the crippled unit to Northside Ford in Portland. At this point the diagnosis phase continues and an engine is being sourced from somewhere in the country. We are now relegated to a helpless state of waiting and hope to obtain further status early next week.
In the meantime, we continue to be reliant on you, our customers, to purchase weekly meat and cheese supplies from our online store.
We frequently update our online offerings with a current inventory of fresh product. Scrambling to keep up with the incredible volume of orders has required us to make new and fresh product throughout the week. We welcome this dynamic as it allows us to get the freshest possible products into your hands rapidly. We appreciate your patience as we strategize how to replace our physical presence at regional PopUp locations.
Rose and I have taken extra care to produce some delightful products for you to order this week.
Rose has truly reached the pinnacle of perfection with her magnificent duck liver pâté. Studded with bright green pistachios, layered with herb and cognac marinated duck livers and carefully surrounded by coarsley minced duck breast, the salubrious loaf is carefully baked in a bain marie and chilled. Enjoy with George’s mustard and a spicy green salad. George harvested another round of plump, fatty farm ducks to keep up with the demand. We have a vast array of fresh and cooked duck products for your selection, including duck roulades, duck legs, duck rillettes, duck confit and duck fat. We have also smoked a lovely array of smoked ham hocks, sausages, bacon, pork loin and gorgeous ham for roasting. In addition, our broad selection of fresh cuts of beef, pork and lamb are available. Finally, please enjoy our expanding online selection of cheese, salumeria and charcuterie, including sliced salami, prosciutto di parma, jamon serrano, mortadella, both local and French Raclette, triple crémes, double crémes and bleus.
Thank you all for your rapid responses and immense generosity. Please continue to support our family farm business in the following ways as we navigate this difficult crisis:
I. Order from our Online Store.
You may create an account and browse our store selection here:
