Our priority is nature, which then yields the best tasting, most tender, most nutrient-dense products possible.
**Weekly Fresh, Never-Frozen Bison will resume Aug. 2020**
Since day one, our focus has been to do whatever it took to provide you, our customer, with the absolute best possible service. One of the service elements we've poured oodles of time, energy, and effort into is providing year-round, premium, fresh-cut, never-frozen, 100% grass fed & finished bison. One way that we feel we're maturing as a company is that we're brutally honest with ourselves, often to a painful level. Our filter for every decision we make around here is;
"Is this how nature intended it to be?"
That's a hard question to be asking yourself because it ALWAYS forces you to take the more difficult option. (If you've been alive for any period of time you've likely noticed that the easy decision is almost never the right one.) That said, our year-round, fresh-cut service has been in the cross hairs of heavy discussion and debate over the past couple of years. We always knew the right choice in the back of our minds regarding fresh 365 days/yr, but our heart toward serving every desire our customers had always trumped what we knew was the pinnacle of the best by the land, the animal, and ultimately, for us as consumers (yes, we love our meats too!).
Nature operates in cycles...
Spring is calving season.
Summer is growing season.
Autumn is fattening/harvesting season.
Winter is resting season.
Nowadays, we know there is a scientifically-backed purpose for every season. Autumn is harvest season because the animals are at their peak health, therefore peak nutritional density which affects taste, overall eating experience, and our body's biological satiating response that says; "Ooohhhhh that's good."
Our ancestors had no way to "prove" how or why they did what they did, when they did, was correct or appropriate other than the fact that it just felt right. The meat tasted better and was more filling at certain times of year. Artificial feeding systems (such as feedlots) have since allowed humans to recreate that "autumn effect" which has numbed us as consumers to the sheer luxury of being able to peruse a fresh meat case morning, noon, and night, 365 days a year. That's not how nature intended it and, as science has now proven, it's not the best way from an animal, land, or human health perspective.
Nature does provide "prime" meat harvesting windows of opportunity outside of the typical late-summer to mid-winter harvest window (Such as a fall-born bull that hits maturity in late spring vs late fall. Or the rare female that, for one reason or another, is not capable of breeding, allowing them to hold unusual fat stores year round as her hormones are telling her to prepare for a calf that they don't know she can't conceive.) but it's not enough to build a steady supply chain around what the modern grocery store has come to expect.
Harvesting animals, raised as nature intended, outside of their "prime" ("Prime" refers to the condition an animal when it reaches a certain level of maturity paired with optimal health which then also begins building fat reserves within the body.) short-changes that animal's potential contribution as well as the consumer's potential benefit. Think of a flower... "Prime" would refer to an animal being at "peak bloom", like a flower; beautiful, crisp, in all it's glory. But, if you pick that flower too early, you've done the flower and yourself a disservice. Pick it too late, and you've missed your window of opportunity to capture it's greatest contribution and it's wilting.
Our responsibility to you and the animal is to pick every "flower" in full bloom.
Though difficult to say, our responsibility to remain within nature's intricately designed cycles must take precedent over our desire to bring fresh, never-frozen cuts to market 365 days per year. Our "fresh" season is coming to a close. March 8th will be the last week to order fresh, never-frozen until the 2020 harvest season kicks off in late August. "Fresh Season" will run from some time in August through about the beginning of March each year. As we continue to grow, the opportunity to offer occasional fresh, never-frozen during our off season from those rare, outlying opportunities I mentioned earlier should also expand. If you have ordered fresh, never-frozen bison from us in the past, we have you on a special mailing list that we'll use to notify you of sporadic opportunities throughout the off-season to buy fresh as they arise. Will our super fresh, custom-cut bison be available year round again in the future? We like to think so but it's going to take time to develop quality ranches in other parts of the country that have different seasonal growing cycles and are able to meet the standard of quality we've become known for.
Thank you for your understanding, your patience, and your loyal support as we continue to grow together in our understanding of balancing nature's way in a modern economy. Our #1 goal is to provide you the most tender, nourishing, delicious, satisfying meats on the planet.
On a Journey with You,
- Mary & the Northstar Tribe
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