Taylor Brink, a meat cutter at Island Grown Farmers Cooperative, removes the loin from a pig Wednesday at the co-op’s new processing facility west of Burlington. The meat processor recently added a retail store as part of an expansion at the Port of Skagit.

The new retail side of Island Grown Farmers Cooperative on Wednesday west of Burlington.

Different cuts of meat fill the refrigerators Wednesday at the new retail side of Island Grown Farmers Cooperative west of Burlington.

Taylor Brink, a meat cutter at Island Grown Farmers Cooperative, removes the loin from a pig Wednesday at the co-op’s new processing facility west of Burlington. The meat processor recently added a retail store as part of an expansion at the Port of Skagit.

The new retail side of Island Grown Farmers Cooperative on Wednesday west of Burlington.

Different cuts of meat fill the refrigerators Wednesday at the new retail side of Island Grown Farmers Cooperative west of Burlington.

The Island Grown Farmers Cooperative has another way to get locally raised meat to consumers.

The co-op, which boasts about 80 area farmers, has opened a retail store called Northwest Local Meats at its new processing facility west of Burlington.

The store sells beef, pork, lamb and goat cuts such as cube steaks, tenderloin steaks, sirloin steaks, pork breakfast sausage and pork chops.

Travis Stockstill works at the co-op’s processing facility and at the new retail storefront that opened March 1.

Stockstill said Northwest Local Meats buys meat from the co-op’s farm members by the animal and processes it at its facility.

Because the retail store is affiliated with the co-op, it has the ability to coordinate directly with the farmers when it needs to order more meat.

Northwest Local Meats gets creative with its cuts and processed meat because it buys entire animals from farmers, Stockstill said.

It works to find ways to utilize almost every portion of the animal, he said.

For example, there are only two flank steaks per cow that it buys, so it needs to market other parts of the cow by selling arm roasts or processing meat into ground beef.

Northwest Local Meats tells its customers about the farms the meat was raised on as a way to showcase the co-op’s growers, Stockstill said.

The co-op’s new processing plant at the Port of Skagit more than doubled the size of its old plant in Bow, which has allowed more space for equipment.

The expanded facility will allow additional farmer members to join the high-demand co-op, which is working through a list of potential new members, Stockstill said.

The crew is still getting used to the new facility, which they have been operating out of for about a month.

“It’s like cooking in someone else’s kitchen,” Stockstill said.

The co-op has dreams of purchasing a smoker and adding smoked and cured meats to the Northwest Local Meats store, he said.

Employees at the processing facility offer years of butcher experience, and Stockstill said he is excited for them to experiment with what are called nostalgia-style cuts.

— Reporter Maddie Smith 360-416-2139, msmith@skagitpublishing.com, Twitter: @Maddie_SVH

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West of Burlington? It's so vague. Drive to the water and take a left?

Maybe on Farm to Market Road it would be appropriate.

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