Core Goods & Clarion Farms Beef Collaborating to Offer More Local Product Options

| December 6, 2019

OIL CITY, Pa. (EYT) – After just over a year in business Core Goods, Oil City’s fresh and bulk goods market, is still continuing to expand the local product options for customers.

According to owner Ashley Sheffer, Clarion Farms Beef is the newest product available through Core Goods.

While the business doesn’t have Clarion Farms Beef products for sale on a regular basis, they have an agreement with Clarion Farms to be a drop off point for those who wish to order fresh, local, grass-fed beef.

Core Goods

Sheffer noted that Core Goods started working with several local farms as a drop off point for meat orders shortly after they first opened.

“The whole concept is, while we don’t have the space or the freezers to stock meats, and our meals tend to be mostly vegetarian, some of our customers were looking for local pasture raised meat, so while we don’t sell it, we are a location for them to meet the farmers and buy meat from them,” Sheffer told exploreVenango.com</strong>.

They started out with pork and chicken from Gruber Farms in Shippenville and lamb from Baytree Farms near Emlenton, and only recently added Clarion Farms Beef as another product available by order.

According to Sheffer, a customer came to her and noted that Clarion Farms Beef took orders and had a drop off point at the Oil City YMCA, and said she believed Core Goods would be an ideal place for another drop off point.

John-Scott Port, of Clarion Farms Beef, said the same customer approached him at the Oil City YMCA and suggested he reach out to Sheffer, as well.

John-Scott Port, of Clarion Farms Beef

“I think Oil City has a lot of potential, so I’d been thinking about something more there already,” Port said.

“Then, I went and checked out Core Goods and saw the cool things they have going on there.”

Sheffer and Port then began discussing the idea, and soon came to an agreement.

“We really encourage people to think locally,” Sheffer noted.

“When it comes to the food you eat it’s so important. When you get something from farther away, you don’t know how its grown or how the animals treated. But, you can go to one of these farms and see the animals living happily in their fields.”

According to Sheffer, giving people a chance to meet the people producing their food is also part of the experience.

“It’s a neat opportunity, because you’re not just going to a store to buy meat, you’re meeting the person who raised the animals.”

Port noted that those relationships between the producers and the customers are also really important.

“I think the biggest thing is that when you know the person raising your food, and that person knows you, it creates a healthy dependency,” he noted.

“We don’t like to think about dependency, but this makes for a good process. The farmer depends on the customers’ support, and we know these people, so it encourages us to do an even better job and hold ourselves to a really high standard.

“It also brings people back to dependence on the local land, which is something that is almost totally gone now, and that lack of dependence leads to neglect. We have a lot of neglected land in the community, and the best way to make people see the value in that land is to create that dependence. We want to create a mutual, healthy dependence that strengthens our community together.”

Currently, pasture-raised meat is available once a month at Core Goods. Those interested can get a list of products available at the store and contact the farms directly to place their orders.


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