Farm Fresh Meats

Erin Childress Salyers, “The Butcher’s Daughter” took over her dad’s business, Farm Fresh Meats in Robertsdale, Alabama, six years ago. She learned the restaurant trade in Tuscaloosa, Alabama as student, then manager of Buffalo Phil’s, one of the first - and best I might add - chicken wing places in the area. Her dad, Chuck Childress, is still around. It’s hard to walk away from something you started and have been a part of since 1976, forty-six years ago.

Erin calls this the “New Third Generation.” She and her husband, Adam Salyers, along with her brother, Chase Childress, and Adam’s brother, John Slayers, now operate Farm Fresh Meats, and it’s a treat just to go by and see all that they have to offer. What drives them is the customer engagement. They strive to make shopping there an experience, and I mean a great one.

With dad, Chuck, never far away, Erin had her work cut out for her. The butcher business wasn’t new to her, she had worked in the shop as a child before leaving for college and working in the restaurant business several years. But when dad called and said he was ready to turn Farm Fresh Meats over to the next generation, Erin answered the call.

First thing was to give the store a new facelift. Then she set out to expand the retail side of the store. She added new products and began marketing. On the second Tuesday each month, Erin can be seen on Studio 10 at 9:00 AM doing a cooking show and educating people on different cuts of meat. Erin would like to continue expanding Farm Fresh Meats footprint in Robertsdale.

In addition to offering the finest cuts of beef --choice to prime -- Farm Fresh Meats has specialty meats including fresh farm raised whole chickens, beef short ribs, and flank and skirt steak. They also have goat, lamb, rabbit, and homemade hogs head cheese. However, it’s the sausages that Erin is most proud of. Made in house, they offer 20 different kinds, but it’s the new Pineapple with Pepper Jack Cheese that is the most popular. She described it as sweet, salty, and creamy, yum!

On Fridays and Saturdays, they smoke a variety of different meats for convenient pick up. They have “Pig Wings” too. Erin calls them pig pops, made from the shank portion, but they have more meat than pork ribs. They also supply all the sausage for the Elberta Sausage Festival held twice a year on the last Saturday in March and the last Saturday in October. Farm Fresh Meats has been doing this since 1979, and last festival supplied over 10,000 pounds of fresh German sausage for the 20,000 to 25,000 attendees.

Farm Fresh Meats also processes lots of wild game brought in by hunters including deer, ram, bear, and even alligator. To keep things running smoothly, they keep special hours when wild game can be delivered so it doesn’t interfere with regular business hours.

Erin says “It’s all about the customer’s experience. We strive to be one on one with the folks that come here to shop.” It really is a fun place to shop and they have such an interesting and delicious array of meats, spices, and other specialty items. I picked up cut-to-order filets and stuffed baked potatoes for a family birthday dinner and ended up getting a dry rub seasoning that everyone agreed was the best they had ever had. Erin’s recommendation.

My first time at Farm Fresh Meats, my friend was returning a whole pig roast rack after a company party, and I was hooked. I consider each visit to Farm fresh Meats a field trip with a delicious ending!

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