Black Earth Meats Retail Store Opens

The Conscious Carnivore, a new butcher shop from Black Earth Meats, is now open at Shorewood Village Shopping Center on University Avenue.

The retail space will sell beef, pork, lamb and goat—all from Black Earth Meats—plus poultry and seafood.

“Short of on-farm processing, this is as tight as you can get on the food chain,” said managing member Bartlett Durand in a statement. “We are as interested in the connection of the people as we are of the environmental impact of shortening the supply chain.”

The Conscious Carnivore also sells cheese and other accoutrements, plus local sodas, beer, wine and coffee by the glass. 

“We have places for people to sit down, hang out, read and learn more about what we’re doing,” says Durand. 

The new shop will also offer butchery classes and demonstrations, with hopes to expand outside of just butchery to other aspects of farming and production in the future.

The Conscious Carnivore is the first retail-only store in Madison for Black Earth Meats, which works with small family farms in Wisconsin to produce organic, grass-fed meats for local restaurants and consumers.