A Butcher’s Tale

Croftburn Market was created as a butcher shop and more. The idea was to provide high quality local meats and foods to the people in the Culpeper area. Located about 75 southwest of Washington, DC, Croftburn Market recognized that people want to know what they are eating and to support local farmers.

Having grown up on a cattle farm, I knew what good beef tasted like. My family, like many in the area, raised Black Angus beef cattle and sheep, as well as a lot of hay and corn.  This high quality local beef wasn’t available in any of the local stores. The only way one could get local beef was to buy a whole beef and have it custom processed, or to buy frozen beef from coolers at Farmers Markets. Recognizing that most people do not want to buy hundreds of pounds of beef that could go bad if the electricity went off, and the cooler alternative wasn’t an option, I decided that this area needed an old time butcher shop where one could purchase high quality beef. A proper butcher shop where one could get fresh local beef, cut to order. One could get a steak cut to one’s thickness specification, and a roast cut to the size one wanted. One could get hamburger that was freshly ground daily, which has an entirely different taste from commercial hamburger.

I wanted to provide local food that tastes like real food.

I also began to make various sausages and had a great time exploring various recipes. Again, I wanted to make high quality products that tasted like real food. We currently hand-craft a wide variety of pork and chicken sausages as well as various smoked and air-dried sausages.

In addition to the individual cuts of meat and sausages, Croftburn Market also offers other local foods, including pastured eggs, honey, greens, milk, bread and bakery items, as well as a selection of local wine and beer.

People are coming to Croftburn Market from all around the Washington metropolitan area. The word is definitely out about the high quality meats, sausages and charcuterie at Croftburn Market. Each day we welcome our regular customers as well as new customers.

Share the word with your friends, family and colleagues! Come visit us.

Andrew Campbell