About a decade ago, John and Holly Arbuckle started a business selling packaged meat sticks as a way to support their farm in Missouri.
They soon relocated their farm to the midcoast town of Newcastle, where they’ve continued to develop and grow their line of sticks made from pasture-raised pork under the brand name Singing Pastures.
Their success — which has included $2.8 million in total sales and placement of their products in retailers such as Hannaford, Sprouts markets and the online Misfits Markets — has demonstrated how smaller-scale producers are responding to growing national demand for more responsible alternatives to processed foods.
In this case, Singing Pastures is an alternative to dried and smoked meat products such as Slim Jim. According to the Arbuckles, more of that demand may now be coming from outside the male demographic that those companies have traditionally marketed to.
“Meat sticks are taking off right now, and they’re growing so rapidly, and I think a big part of that is because women are eating meat sticks,” Holly Arbuckle said. “Historically, meat sticks were kind of macho.”
To that end, the Arbuckles have recently won $30,000 from two different business competitions — $25,000 from Greenlight Maine and $5,000 from the Naturally New England Pitch Slam Competition — for their efforts to reach that larger national customer base.
The awards have recognized a rebranding effort by the company that, starting around Aug. 21, will include the release of a new recipe and packaging for its meat sticks.
The new recipe will feature a new grass-fed beef stick, which will replace one of the three pork sticks already available. And, grass-fed beef bone broth will be added to provide collagen, which is a vitamin that many take to help with hair, skin and nail growth.
The packaging will be full of bright colors and designs as well. Arbuckle said the addition of the colorful packaging and the collagen is so her meat sticks appeal to millennial and Gen-Z women.
Within the next year, Arbuckle said she’s also hoping to slowly grow the company’s staff from its four current family employees. And, starting in September, the Scarborough Costco will start offering samples of Singing Pastures’ meat sticks.
Arbuckle said she plans to put the prize money from the recent business competitions toward a new website made by Pulp and Wire, a marketing company in Portland.
“We have to have a website that’s nationally competitive. We’re not just billing ourselves as the family farm anymore,” Arbuckle said. “We want to be able to look professional and big and be able to compete against Chomps and some of the other big brands.”
Jules Walkup is a Report for America corps member. Additional support for this reporting is provided by BDN readers.
