Meat processor and butcher shop to open in Central City

A full service butcher shop and meat processor is coming to the county, when Farmstead Butcher Block opens later this spring. Proprietors Carol Jo and Cliff Welch are eager to serve the community with something they saw a need for – fresh, locally sourced meat.

“When the covid thing hit, the meat flew off the shelves, and even now, it’s eight to 12 months before you can get an animal slaughtered. We just thought this is something we can do,” said Cliff. They began talking to people and formulating a plan.

“We want to make sure that we produce animals that are born, raised, harvested and consumed right here in Muhlenberg County,” Cliff said. The ultimate goal for the Welch’s is to serve the community, help local farmers and associated businesses, and provide reliable access to meat for the county. “With an end product of food, everybody has to have it, we can involve all of the people along the supply chain,” Carol Jo said.

The front portion of the building will be a butcher shop, open to the public soon. (Leader-News photo/Stacie Barton)

As plans come together, the butcher shop is slated to open in April. They hope to begin offering processing later this year.

The butcher shop will be a retail store, open to the public, at their location at 3060 Cleaton Road, which used to be Oxford Mining, in Central City. They plan on eventually carrying mostly local meat, but at the start will have to rely on some outside providers as they get their operation up and running. They will offer beef, pork, poultry, seafood and some produce too.

“If you’re on your way home from work, and you think, ‘Man, I’d like to have a steak for dinner,’ you can swing in here, grab a couple of ribeyes, and everything else you need to fix it up,” Cliff said.

The warehouse behind the retail shop will be a meat processing facility where they will be able to service large or small orders, from cattle farmers to local hunters. They will be able to break down meat into retail sizes, or custom cuts for individual customers. They will also take orders for quarter or half cows, for freezer beef. The meat processing operation will be USDA inspected, an important step, Cliff said.

The plant will eventually provide jobs for 15 people, including plant manager John Linton, of Central City. Linton has 40 years of experience in the industry, and will oversee operations.

The couple said they hope to move Muhlenberg County a step or two closer to being more self sufficient, a lifestyle choice they have made on a personal level. The Welch’s have been growing and harvesting their own food on a farm they bought a decade ago, on the southern end of the county.

Cliff and Carol Jo owned one of the largest landscaping firms in western Maryland, worked in construction and trucking as well, before selling it all and moving to the area. They live off the land now, raising their own chickens and turkeys, collecting eggs and growing their own vegetables. They’re not necessarily farmers, but as Carol Jo said, “We’re our own farmers. We’re self-sustaining.”

The passion the Welch’s have for providing locally raised food to the community is evident, whether it’s supporting farmers who raise the animals, customers looking for local alternatives, or hunters and small producers looking for custom processing.