Alex Pope, the owner of the butcher shop Local Pig inside City Market, says November is the busiest time of year for his store.
"We have been preparing for Thanksgiving, basically, since the day after Labor Day," Pope says, although he starts ordering turkeys as early as January.
Kurt McDonald is the manager at Fritz's Smoked Meats on State Line Road. He calls this time of year "wall-to-wall turkeys," and expects to sell around 4,500 birds this year.
"It is nothing but smoking several hundred turkeys every night, trying to keep up for all of our wonderful customers," McDonald says.
Joe Bichelmeyer has been the co-owner of Bichelmeyer Meats in Kansas City, Kansas, since taking over the business from his parents in the 1970s. In addition to smoking turkey and ham for Thanksgiving, his business stays busy year-round harvesting their own meat.
Bichelmeyer says that control over production allows them to supply many of Kansas City's barbecue institutions, including the annual American Royal competition.
"We work with Kansas City's barbecue society and individual barbecuers to supply them with quality," Bichelmeyer says. "We have the variety of products that a lot of these people can't find in other places."
Shannon Carpenter, who wrote a guide to the metro's butcher shops for KCUR's Adventure! newsletter, says Kansas City's history as a cattle hub and barbecue destination makes a thriving meat industry "part of who we are."
Carpenter says a good butcher should be a guide for cooks. "It starts with people," he says, "before meat."
- Alex Pope, Owner of the Local Pig
- Kurt McDonald, Manager of Fritz's Smoked Meats
- Joe Bichelmeyer, Co-owner of Bichelmeyer Meats
- Shannon Carpenter, KCUR Adventure! contributor
