Michelle Stinson and her husband Jamie, current owners of Stinson’s Country Style Meats, started the company with Michelle’s parents, David and Kathy, in 2018 doing deer processing. In 2020, they opened their retail store and began slaughtering animals for others.
They had opened the business, knowing there was a demand in the area for it. Ledebuhrs in Winona had closed with Jamie losing his job there and there were no processing businesses in Rushford or La Crescent. The business took off much better than they expected. They thought the four of them would be able to handle the workload, but soon they had to hire three more employees. Today, they have six full time employees, six part time and are looking for more qualified employees.
Both Michelle and Kathy are fully involved with the business. Michelle does it all alongside Jamie – slaughtering, cutting, processing bacon and sausages, wrapping and sales; she’s been doing it for almost 16 years.
Michelle came to Stinson’s Meats with a lot of previous work experience. In high school she worked for farmers, she worked for the school district in Winona with middle schoolers, she then went to Pete’s Meats in Lewiston, from there she went to Festival Foods and then Sam’s Club; in addition she earned her CDL and drove a cement truck! Michelle’s the one who moves trucks when needed at the business!
When asked which of her previous experiences prepared her the most for their business, Michelle declared, “All of them!” And added that the guys that work at Stinson’s also help immensely.” Some of them have worked in the meat industry for 40 years.
Her advice? “Listen to your older generations! If you listen, they’ll teach you. There are a lot of things that will be gone, when they are gone!”
Michelle loves all aspects of the business. She loves to cook and make things. “If you enjoy what you do, you’ll never work a day!” is Michelle’s motto.
Michelle and Jamie and their four children live on a 150-acre hobby farm where they raise beef, have horses and sometimes sheep and chickens. The entire family enjoys riding horses for relaxation.
Kathy does everything at Stinson’s Meats except slaughter and trimming meat. She runs the retail, makes sausage, ham and bacon and wraps the meats. In addition, as grandma, she’s ready to pick up and leave when she’s needed to cover childcare for the grandkids.
Kathy and her husband David had a dairy farm for 20 years. Kathy worked as a paraprofessional at Winona Senior High for 18 years. “This is easier than that!” She exclaimed with a laugh. Kathy also has two handicapped children to take care of at home. In her spare time she enjoys intricate quilting and teaching her grandchildren how to sew and quilt.
Kathy likes working with customers and spending time with the family at work. As “Grandma on Demand,” Kathy enjoys taking off to care for the grandkids as needed.
The entire family helps out at Stinson’s meats. Fifteen-year-old Cedric helps slaughter; 13-year-old Chloey helps package and in the retail shop; she’s also learning to debone meats. Five-year-old Finley helps whenever – she doesn’t mind the slaughter process. Ellie May, the two-year-old, steals snack sticks and helps whenever she can! Michelle’s aunt, Linda Moor, serves customers at the retail shop; she’s very used to retail since she and her husband ran the Moldenhauer Store in Nodine for many years.
Stinson’s Meats went from slaughtering eight beef a week to now doing 16, 18 and sometimes 20. On average, they slaughter 15 hogs every two weeks. Hogs take two weeks to process due to the smoking involved. Michelle shared that they hang beef for 14 days before cutting it; this makes the meat more tender and gives it a better flavor.
They butcher beef, hogs and lambs for local farmers; in addition they purchase and sell quarters of beef at the retail shop. At one time, they also took on a goat to butcher; the pygmy goat escaped and it took them two weeks to catch it! As a result, they decided not to do goats. Kathy added, “The market isn’t that great for goats around here anyway.”
All of the processing is done on site. Stinson’s can house up to 60 animals before processing. Michelle’s father had helped redesign the former car wash building so that the animals move forward in the process without ever backtracking to an area. A system of rails and hooks allow the easy movement of the hanging animals. In this way, they avoid contamination; inspectors have sent other processors to their building to learn how to create such a setup for themselves. The coolers could handle up to 65 or 70 animals if full. The business could double in size before any additions would be needed.
The most popular items in the retail shop are summer sausage, bacon, hot dogs, ring bologna, snack sticks and brats. New products that have been introduced at the shop are dill pickle snack sticks which taste like dill pickles without the crunch and cranberry cheddar sausage. They carry six varieties of brats.
Sauces made by Rosie Buegge are popular with the customers; the shop also carries eggs from local suppliers and cheese.
Unusual requests from customers have included the school district requesting eyeballs and uteruses for the biology class, turkey gizzards, pig’s feet, pork brains and blood for blood sausage and dog training.
What sets Stinson’s Country Style Meats apart from their competition are the sausage flavors, the fact that beef is hung a full two weeks before cutting, the customer service and the expert knowledge the staff has about meats and the cuts.
Stinson’s would like to see a restaurant in town to complement their business. They are willing to work with other businesses in town; currently they work with the school. The school purchases meat and Stinson’s processes it.
They also would like to get the Federal inspection passed so their meats could be sold across the United States. The inspector is there every Tuesday and Thursday as they work toward that. When they pass that Federal inspection, they will be able to sell their products to Jamie’s cousin’s business, Kick Ass Jerky.
Stinson Meats has a Facebook page (Stinson’s Country Style Meats) and a web page (www.stinsonscountrystylemeats.com/). The goal for Stinson’s Meats is to “keep it growing and keep it going!” With energetic women like Michelle and Kathy involved, it seems that Stinson’s Country Style Mats will be successful in reaching that goal!
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