We’re Farmers Too: Heritage Turkeys, Healthy Land & This Week’s South Route

Hello, CVM Family!

🚐 SOUTH ROUTE ONLY THIS WEEK

This week, we are traveling south only. Please place your order before the deadline and remember:

At checkout, click the “$5 Delivery” option to choose your preferred pickup location. We deliver to established pickup locations—not individual residences.

🦃 USDA WHOLE HERITAGE TURKEYS ARE HERE TO STAY!

We are excited to share that Creston Valley Meats is supplied with USDA-inspected whole heritage turkeys—and we plan to continue offering them!

What makes our poultry especially important to us is that we are not simply the processors—we are the farmers too.

We raise approximately 90% of the poultry used in our USDA-inspected inventory and pet food products. Our turkeys, chickens, quail, and guinea fowl are raised outdoors with room to range on healthy soil. We feed them clean, carefully selected feed that we feel comfortable serving to our own families and animals.

We know the hands that raise these birds because they are our hands.

Beautiful whole USDA-inspected chickens are available for human consumption this week, along with many new products recently added to our website. Be sure to look through the new inventory before placing your order!

🇺🇸 FARMERS NEED MORE CHOICES—NOT FEWER

Recent national conversations about helping ranchers sell more directly to consumers and reducing dependence on the country’s largest meatpacking companies raise an important question:

Why are America’s small USDA-inspected processing plants so often left out of this conversation?

Creston Valley Meats is not one of the “Big Four.” We are a small USDA-inspected plant working every day to keep food safe, preserve consumer choice, and give independent farmers a lawful path to bring the animals they raise to market.

Farmers should absolutely have more freedom and more market access—but selling meat to the public still requires proper inspection, sanitation, temperature control, documentation, testing, humane handling, and food-safety procedures.

The answer is not to eliminate responsible processing. The answer is to support more small, independent USDA plants like ours.

🥩 LET’S TALK HONESTLY ABOUT AGING BEEF

We also want to begin a deeper conversation about beef aging.

Aging beef can develop flavor and tenderness, but it must be performed under carefully controlled conditions. Temperature, airflow, humidity, sanitation, carcass condition, fat coverage, and aging time all matter. Aging also causes moisture loss and requires additional trimming, which means the customer receives less finished meat.

Not every carcass should be handled in exactly the same way. The animal’s breed, age, diet, fat coverage, health, and condition at harvest can all affect the processor’s recommendations.

Highly finished cattle may carry considerably more exterior fat, and longer aging can result in additional drying, trimming, and yield loss. Mold or spoilage is not something a processor can simply ignore to “save” a carcass. Food safety must come before tradition, appearance, or expected yield.

That is why farmers should have a direct relationship and an honest, ongoing conversation with their processor. Tell us how your animals were raised, what they were fed, what finished condition you are looking for, and what you expect from the aging process. In return, we will explain what we observe and what we believe is safest and most appropriate for that animal.

🌳 SILVOPASTURE: COULD TREES HELP BUILD BETTER PASTURES?

Silvopasture is the intentional integration of trees, shrubs, forage, and grazing animals on the same land.

When thoughtfully designed and properly managed, silvopasture may provide:

• Shade and shelter for livestock
• Greater plant and forage diversity
• Improved soil health and water retention
• Reduced erosion
• Better wildlife habitat
• Additional farm products and income opportunities
• More resilient grazing land during heat and drought

This does not mean randomly planting trees or turning livestock loose in unmanaged woodland. Tree species, livestock, soil, water, stocking density, and grazing rotations must all be considered.

Many open grazing areas once supported more trees, shrubs, and diverse plant life. Today, some ranchers depend heavily on grass pasture and grain finishing to bring cattle to the condition the marketplace expects. But what might become possible if we rebuilt more diversity into our grazing systems?

Could carefully managed trees and shrubs help the soil retain moisture? Could they provide shade, additional forage, and healthier, more resilient land? Could better rotational grazing allow farmers to produce more from the property they already have?

As a farmer, processor, and consumer, I would love to see more farmers and ranchers explore these questions and invest in practical, transparent agricultural science—science that can be tested on real farms, measured honestly, and used to improve animal welfare, soil health, food safety, and long-term farm viability.

We need farmers, processors, researchers, and consumers working together. Better food begins with healthier soil, responsible animal care, trustworthy processing, and an honest conversation about how our food is produced.

🐾 FEED REAL IS COMING!

The Feed Real event is getting closer, and we are excited to be part of it! We look forward to talking about real food, responsible sourcing, raw feeding, farming, and the important connection between healthy soil, healthy animals, and healthy families.

🛒 HAVE YOU SEEN WHAT’S NEW?

Visit our website to see our newest human-food and pet-food inventory, including our whole heritage turkeys, beautiful whole chickens, quail, guinea fowl, raw blends, treats, organs, bones, and other specialty products.

Don’t forget:

✅ We are going SOUTH ONLY this week.
✅ Order before the South Route deadline.
✅ At checkout, click “$5 Delivery.”
✅ Choose the pickup location that works best for you.

Thank you for supporting a small California farm and USDA-inspected processing plant. When you purchase from Creston Valley Meats, you are supporting the farmers, the processors, the animals, the land, and your right to know where your food comes from.

Grow Healthy. Feed Healthy. Live Healthy.

With gratitude,

Melanie
Creston Valley Meats
805-286-5651
crestonvalleymeats.com

Nourishing families. Fueling pets. Zero waste.