When Eater unveiled its up to date “Finest Burgers in Nashville” record, a outstanding 25 p.c of the featured institutions owed their standout beef to Bear Creek Farm in Thompson Station. This determine might have been even larger if house owners LeeAnn and Invoice Cherry have been inclined — or in a position — to provide their beef to extra of town’s prime burger spots.
In beef manufacturing, the aim is usually to attenuate floor meat gross sales in favor of higher-priced primal cuts like rib loins, strip loins and tenderloins. Consequently, the identical cattle that present distinctive floor beef for burgers at Grillshack, Redheaded Stranger, Courageous Fool and Joyland additionally present up on the menus of Nashville’s premier fine-dining eating places.
Certainly, the all-natural, grass-fed and grain-finished Angus that yields a $190 ribeye at Husk may additionally be a part of the meatloaf at Arnold’s Nation Kitchen. “About 10 years in the past, I began utilizing their floor beef for meatloaf,” Arnold’s Kahlil Arnold recollects. “The meat I used to be getting from Sysco was like mush in comparison with the bottom beef that I used to be getting from Invoice and LeeAnn — freshly floor and filled with recent meat and fats. It was lovely.”
The Cherrys strategically choose their restaurant companions, meticulously balancing steak and floor meat gross sales by primarily pre-allocating components of every animal. “If we are able to promote the 200 kilos of burger from a steer, we are able to harvest that steer,” says LeeAnn. “Then we’ve two extra rib loins, two extra strip loins and two extra flats.” These prime cuts are integral to dishes at acclaimed eateries like Audrey, Pelican & Pig, Rolf and Daughters and Dangerous Concept. However Bear Creek meats additionally elevate on a regular basis favorites, from the sausage gravy at Biscuit Love and the sausage, egg and cheese sandwich at Egghill to the chopped-steak sandwich at East Aspect Banh Mi and the Cobb salad at Radish.
What makes Bear Creek Farm’s meat so magical? The journey started in 2007, when a extreme drought pressured Invoice Cherry to promote the herd he co-managed along with his father. Rebuilding from this monetary setback, he and LeeAnn dedicated to a extra sustainable operation. They drilled wells to make sure a constant freshwater provide throughout their 2,000-acre farm, the place their cattle and hogs roam.
Bear Creek Farm
The cattle graze on rotated pastures or eat hay grown on web site, guaranteeing a secure meals provide managed by the Cherrys; grain is launched solely within the last few months. A pivotal transfer got here in 2012 when the Cherrys bought their very own USDA meat-processing facility in Chapel Hill, Tenn., making certain humane and sanitary dealing with of the animals they painstakingly raised. “Some name it vertical integration, however my children say that Mother is a management freak,” jokes LeeAnn.
Bear Creek Farm is a real household enterprise. The Cherrys’ daughter, Paige Alden, manages the Chapel Hill facility, whereas twin sons Alex and Grant McKenzie oversee farming and enterprise operations. Members of the family have additionally pitched in with deliveries, staffed farmers market stalls and even cooked burgers at a Bonnaroo concession tent.
This hands-on philosophy extends from breeding to reap. The processing facility options particular pens, designed by a colleague of famend animal welfare professional Temple Grandin, to make sure probably the most humane therapy throughout the animals’ last moments. This unstressed life and loss of life minimizes cortisol launch throughout harvest — cortisol is a steroid hormone that meals scientists have discovered can negatively have an effect on meat high quality and tenderness.
“It’s important to perceive the immense love and work invested over three years to convey a beef to that time,” says LeeAnn. “You have to respect that and guarantee a humane ending is completed appropriately.”
Bear Creek Farm
Chef Colby Rasavong of Dangerous Concept attests to this dedication. “I’ve labored with Invoice and LeeAnn since my early days at Husk, round 2013,” he says. “Their dedication to the very best high quality over amount is what attracts many cooks like myself to their product.”
Bear Creek’s success is constructed on relationships — between the farmers and their land and animals, between ranchers and processors and between producers and cooks. Not simply anybody can order from the Cherrys. LeeAnn seeks “care and respect right through, from the farm to the plate.”
The Cherrys usually invite restaurant employees to the farm to witness the care offered to their herd of roughly 800 cattle. Understanding how coveted Bear Creek beef is, cooks develop into extra versatile with their orders, recognizing they will’t at all times get particular cuts on demand.
“It’s about how we finest make the most of the animal,” LeeAnn says. “That’s the character of {our relationships}. A chef would possibly ask for strips. If we don’t have them, they could say, ‘You already know, I’ll take flat iron, or I could make tri-tips.’ That’s how this will all work.”
Bryan Lee Weaver, chef-owner of Redheaded Stranger, gladly adapts to safe Bear Creek beef for his acclaimed Hatch chile burger. “I’d moderately take away an merchandise from the menu than sacrifice the standard we get from LeeAnn and Invoice,” says Weaver. “Realizing their meticulous course of and that they’ve their very own processing facility means rather a lot. I grapple with the ethics of utilizing animals — and visiting the farm, studying their course of and assembly their household and canine helps to see the care they soak up being accountable, superb people.”
Whereas the Cherrys and their clientele would welcome enlargement past their typical harvest of round 10 steers per week, they’re dedicated to not overcrowding their pastures. The demand far outstrips present provide.
“We are able to’t sustain with all the brand new eating places,” LeeAnn admits. “We solely have so many animals. One of many largest obstacles for farmers now could be Tennessee’s speedy lack of farmland. We’re attempting to amass extra land as a result of that’s how we are able to develop. It’s very tough for farmers in Center Tennessee.”
Sometimes, Bear Creek can accommodate a brand new buyer or supply a brand new lower, usually when a restaurant modifications a seasonal merchandise or, regrettably, closes. That is how Chef Rasavong lastly secured Bear Creek strip steak for Dangerous Concept.
Bear Creek Farm
“There’s solely a lot of every cow accessible weekly,” Rasavong says. “I by no means deliberate to serve a steak at Dangerous Concept as a result of we by no means had entry to primals like strip or rib loin. It didn’t make sense. However when LeeAnn instructed me strips turned accessible, I jumped on the probability. It would by no means go away our menu whereas I’m in cost, as a result of I wouldn’t know once they’d be accessible once more if I gave them up!”
Past these intricate negotiations with restaurant companions, the Cherrys have cultivated different distribution channels. They promote on to the general public by way of their farm retailer, the Franklin Farmers Market and Inexperienced Door Gourmand. Nashville’s Naked Bones Butcher and Principal Avenue Meats in Chattanooga buy a number of entire animals at a time to interrupt down for retail sale. Naked Bones additionally options Bear Creek beef in its famend burger, and Principal Avenue Meats proprietor Erik Niel showcases the Cherrys’ merchandise at his eating places Simple Bistro and Little Coyote in Chattanooga.
A partnership with Evans Meats and Seafood, a family-run enterprise in Birmingham, Ala., has streamlined out-of-state deliveries, however the Cherrys nonetheless personally ship to every Nashville buyer. LeeAnn’s dedication to requirements is such that she as soon as needed to “hearth” a buyer after an unsettling supply expertise.
“I walked into this one kitchen and had a nasty feeling,” she says. “I knew instantly it wasn’t going to work. I wasn’t snug leaving the meat there; it felt like dropping your child off at a day care you simply don’t belief.”
At Bear Creek Farm, household, relationships and a profound respect for the animals information the operation. The Cherrys set excessive requirements for themselves and their prospects. As chef Erik Niel aptly places it, “Shopping for a pork rib loin from LeeAnn Cherry is tougher than discovering a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle!”
However for individuals who succeed, the result’s unquestionably well worth the effort.
