Ann Schmidt's entry into chicken farming came inconspicuously enough. Now, four years later, Schmidt and her husband, Fred, sell about 1,000 chickens a year from High Meadow Farm in Franklin. Spurred by an interest in learning more about selling the birds, Schmidt said she decided to attend a meat-marketing seminar at The Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown on Tuesday. As far as the product, it's great.
People love it.
But restaurants are picky, fast-moving businesses that want fresh, commercially packaged prime cuts, he said. Frozen meats are not as valuable, and few of the 110 restaurants he works with want to do their own butchering, said Dacey, who owns Village Seafood Wholesale Inc. in Bloomville. Many of the farmers assembled were interested in what Dacey and the other marketing speakers had to say. Martha Goodsell, another of the speakers, explained her own approach to selling to restaurants. Although many of these restaurants do their own butchering, Goodsell said she has been aggressive in finding places to sell the less-valuable animal cuts.