Grrls Meat Camp TEXT | Kate de Camont PHOTOGRAPHY | Gina Weathersby
“Inspire, instruct,
and initiate a sisterhoood of farmers, butchers, cooks, and teachers, giving voice to women working with food, animals, and meat.
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G
rrls Meat Camp was born nearly full-blown, like that smart Greek Grrl Athena, from the energy of several women who passed through my doors at Camont- Camas Davis, Sarah Wong, Cathy Barrow, Sarah King, Kari Underly. I embraced the idea that there were other women like me, working with meat and animalsraising, slaughtering, butchering and cooking. So in 2011, I invited a group of 12 women to Camont, my home and culinary retreat in Southwest France, gave the gathering a catchy name, and Grrls Meat Camp began.
BEEF
INSPIRE What would happen when they all arrived? Why were the menfolk nervous, dubious and scoffed at the idea? What would really happen when a group of women get together and talk meat? Like the guys, I was expecting a round of boy-bashing. And deservedly so. After all it is a ‘Real Man’s’ world-the slaughtering, butchery, and flinging of carcasses around a bloody room; the Freudian comparing of sausage lengths and hardness; the geeky discussion of tricked out curing cabinets like garage-bound hot-rods. But what happened instead was a thoughtful, soulful, and inspiring discussions of the nuts and bolts of running a food business, nurturing animals that you know you would kill and then eat, and a celebration of good work shared with kindred spirits.
INSTRUCT I had begun my own work with my French farmer/butchers, the Chapolard family, over twenty years ago. I learned about whole carcass cooking, then charcuterie, and finally, like a carbon steel knife, I was drawn to the elegant magnet of seam butchery. I began to teach French farmstead Butchery & Charcuterie to eager students. The first paying student was a women, Camas Davis, and if you google Camas and her Portland Meat Collective, the over 11,000 links will give you an idea of how much impact she’s had in the short ensuing 5 years since she came to Camont. What started with a tentative former vegetarian writer and editor, inspired me to continue to teach and build my school program around the basics of butchery and charcuterie. Now, five years on, I am creating an online course to spread the instruction and inspiration farther.
Grrls Meat Campers from the workshop held at Tricia Houston’s Napoleon Ridge Farm, in rural Kentucky.
INITIATE A SISTERHOOD Farm grrls, butcher grrls and chef grrls all are looking for the same thingsome honest instruction, some supporting mentorship, and a network of resources that help establish a place in the larger picture. Girls Meat Camp is just beginning. We are meeting again in the time-honored ‘Camp Rendezvous’ tradition, this time on Quillisascut Farm in Eastern Washington, to establish a directing body for the future. Oh, and we’ll butchery some goat meat, transform some pork into paté and hams, and tell our stories. Girls Meat Camper Gina Weathersby took these great photographs at a workshop with Kari Underly and me on a women owned farm - Napoleon Ridge Farm - in rural Kentucky. They show the diversity of why we came together. When women teach each other, share their knowledge and the experience, lend support, and work collectively, magic happens. All we ask our Grrls Meat Campers to do is “step over the cutting edge” and join us.
DUCK
Girls Meat Camp is a place to ask those questions that seemed too stupid to ask, share the triumphs of learning a new knot, and talk long into the night about your crazy idea for a new business. Camaraderie and sharing are the passwords to understanding; a boning knife in hand while telling a story makes a punctuation mark; a plate of home cured charcuterie passed in delicious anticipation is all the reward necessary. Now that Grrls Meat Camp has over 500 members, I can take a deep breath and know that it will continue down the good food path. All I ask our Grrls Meat Campers to do is “step over the cutting edge� and join me in that journey. q Kate Hill