It’s not every day I see a shopping cart piled with pig carcasses rolling along a sidewalk. They are heading for Fleisher’s Grass-fed & Organic Meats, a unique butcher shop with a national reputation in the uptown district of Kingston. The wonderful aroma coming from the braces of roast chickens on the rotisserie in the front window of Fleisher’s would be reason enough to head for this plucky, but slightly down-at-the-heels Hudson River town. In fact, customers are already waiting for the “ding” that means the chickens are ready.

I follow the pigs over the black and white floor tiles, past butcher-owner Josh Applestone, who is busy taking apart the lamb carcass (head on) stretched out on his block. Although he had been a vegan for 17 years when he and wife Jessica (herself a former vegetarian) opened the store, Josh’s heritage of kosher butchering—his grandfather and great grandfather were butchers—seems to express itself in his grace and focus. He bends and dances with the leg he’s preparing, working out the large bone so the meat lies flat. Then he moves to the Hobart saw, slices the rib cage in half, and sets aside the lamb kidneys. The piles of bone, fat, and scraps are scooped up to make stock or to sell.

It’s already unusual enough to see a whole animal being custom cut; most meat in supermarkets and other butcher shops is sold in plastic wrap or boxes even if it’s cut in-store. What distinguishes Fleisher’s further is that these animals come to the store from within a 20-mile radius and are pastured only, raised by a select group of livestock farmers that Josh and Jessica have developed relationships with over the years. “It’s a true art,” says Jessica. “Not only caring for the animals, but also tending the grass they eat to produce a consistent product.” After four and a half years in business, the couple has become the go-to source for area chefs looking for the best, the greenest, and the cleanest locally-raised meats.

“Josh was a chef, and he likes [chefs],” says Stephen Browning, chef at Flatbush Farm in Brooklyn. “Nobody can touch their pigs. I order a half a pig every week and Josh helps me use all of it, head cheese to trotters.” Browning serves charcuterie platters with head cheese terrine, and house-cured eye of beef round. Because Josh deals in whole animals, he’s committed to training chefs to butcher and to make good use of less popular cuts.

“Literally no one else does this,” Jessica says. She’s referring to sourcing and custom-cutting pastured meats from the whole animal. “Josh educates people…aggressively. If they are concerned about cost, he tells them they don’t have to eat a lot of meat. He suggests alternate cuts that people aren’t familiar with.” It takes about eight months to train a chef or would-be butcher with his economical, no-waste approach to the whole animal. Chefs also have to become accustomed to preparing and presenting the different taste and texture of grass-fed meats. “Our waiters tell customers where the meat comes from,” Browning says.

Spencer Mass, chef at the Country Inn in Krumville, was one of the first believers in Fleisher’s. “We read about them, and we were on the phone the next day,” Mass says. “Their products are amazing, and we trust them. They take care of all our sourcing headaches. And we can get hard-to-find cuts like lamb necks or pork trotters from them that just become by-products in commercial factories.”

The national foodie press was thrilled to discover them as well. Fleisher’s has been featured in nearly every major gourmet magazine; in 2007, they were named by Food & Wine as “one of the country’s great new butcher shops,” and in 2008, they made Saveur magazine’s top 100 list.

“We were unbelievably arrogant when we started. We knew nothing. We were so blessed to be part of a supportive community up here,” says Jessica, holding the newest Applestone, 3-month-old Isaiah, in her arms. “We didn’t even think about wholesale originally, but now the wholesale supports the retail.” In fact, the couple just closed an additional Rhinebeck storefront, and are replacing it with a home delivery service to New York City that will start in late November.

Even if the animals are eating grass, higher operating costs are taking a toll on everyone, including the animal producers. Despite increasing locavore and health awareness, “Slaughterhouses are critical to further growth,” says Jessica. “Our closest slaughterhouse (Meiller’s in Pine Plains) is booking a year ahead, and can only process about 20 beef a week.”

Carbonnade Recipe

Spencer Mass, Country Inn | 1380 County Road 2, Olivebridge, NY 1246 | (845) 657-8956 “This is our take on the traditional Belgian beef stew made with beer; a signature dish at The Country Inn after the first frost, and we use Fleisher’s beef to make it. You could use any stewing cut, but this is especially good with shoulder that has a lot of connective tissue.”

—Spencer Mass, chef at the Country Inn in Krumville

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs beef stew meat, cut into 2-3 inch chunks
• 1/2 cup flour
• 4 large onions, peeled and diced
• 2 ribs celery, preferably with leaves, chopped
• 6 large carrots, peeled and bias sliced into 3/4 inch pieces
• 2 heads garlic—one peeled and sliced; the other trimmed, with stem end sliced off
• 1.5 qts dark beer, preferably a Belgian Ale
• 1.5 qts rich beef stock
• 1 tbsp blackstrap molasses
• Coarse salt
• Significant amount of freshly ground pepper
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 2-3 tsps herbes de Provence
• 6-8 dry porcini mushrooms, crumbled
• Bouquet garni with parsley, marjoram, thyme, tied with string
• 4-6 tbsps cooking oil

Method:

Toss the meat in the flour. Heat oil in an eight-quart Dutch oven or casserole and brown the meat in batches. Toss browned meat in salt and pepper after it is out of the pan. Fry half the sliced onions and sliced garlic in the same oil until they begin to brown just a bit Deglaze the pan with beer, carefully scraping all the brown bits off the bottom. Add the meat and the rest of the ingredients back to the pot. Bury the bouquet garni and the garlic head. Bring to just a simmer on the stove and place in a slow oven (250-275 degrees) for four hours. Check meat for tenderness and taste for salt. Skim surface fat. Serves 4-6.

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