Where’s The Beef? From Pasture to Plate… The Oconee Chop Shop is the place to be!
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Kim Paisley-Jones
Breeze-Courier Writer
OCONEE, Ill. — “Where’s the Beef?” That commonly used catch phrase generated in 1984 for a Wendy’s commercial. In today’s society, where people can purchase box meat from Amazon, or some other mail-order company, many people want to get back to the way our grandparents did things; the good ole’ fashioned way of raising your own food.
Rod and Melinda Sarver of Oconee understand that way of life. They are the owners of the Oconee Chop Shop, a USDA Inspected butcher shop that has a family friendly atmosphere and great tasting beef. Located in the old Farmer’s Cafe on US Hwy. 51 in Oconee, the Sarver’s have approximately 85 head of cattle that they grow and maintain on their family farm.
“Our cows eat grass and hay and are supplemented to non-gmo grain. We let them graze in the pasture until they are about 750-800 pounds and then we put them in the feed lot to eat non-gmo grain and hay until we are ready to take them for butchering,” said Rod Sarver.
Rod began his career as a cattleman as a child. This way of life has been in his family for a long time. “My great-grand dad was a vet. My family raised a lot of dairy cows back then; in the early 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. They quit the dairy cows in the 70’s and went to beef cows. We ran Angus and Simmental’s for years. We also had registered Charolais’s. I’m a firm believer that you are what you eat, so we try to keep our cows as healthy as we can. We give them non-gmo grains and no growth hormones. I get our grain from Steve Beyers, a local farmer, and they have used non-gmo grain forever. Plus, they’re just good farmers,” said Sarver.
The way of our ancestors
“We always butchered at home, so I’ve always kind of enjoyed that. You’re the one that took care of it (the cow). You’re the one who fed it, and loved it. Everything was up to your standards. I like that idea of it and I think, in my opinion, a lot of people don’t know what the taste of that good beef is because everything is processed today and you don’t know what’s in it. We do know what’s in it, because we fed them and took care of them,” said Sarver.
Why a butcher shop?
“We mainly started doing it because I don’t like to sell or buy to a sale barn because they can dictate the price to you. We raise them and then you don’t necessarily get what the cow is worth when you sell to a sale barn. It’s very disheartening after you’ve put in so much of your time, blood, sweat and tears raising them,. We’re not a kill facility. We take them usually to Moweaqua for that, and then finish hanging them out here in Oconee. We then do the custom butchering work; like if someone wants a 1/4, 1/2 or whole beef. Sometimes, people will bring their own beef here and we’ll finish them out,” said Sarver.
How do you determine the cost per lb.?
“It’s determined 100% by the market price. We follow the markets for sure. If they go up, we go up. If they go down, we go down. To me, that’s the only honest, fair way to be. That’s one thing that we strive on is honesty and good customer service,” said Sarver.
Opening Day
“We opened the store front on January 14, 2023. This was the old Farmer’s Cafe restaurant. My aunt and uncle owned it back in the ’70’s. My grandma Sarver, when they retired from the dairy, started working here and did so for 25 years. It set vacant for about 20 years before we bought it” said Sarver. Wife Melanie said “We gutted it and started all over. I want it to be warm and inviting when you walk in. We still have the processing room and everything is nicely contained; the packaging is presentable and we feel we have a nice place to come and buy locally grown beef, pork and chicken. Our opening day was such a great day. We had this place packed with people and they were lined up all the way outside most of the day! We were just tickled pink to see so many people. We went through three whole beef cows and 5 hogs that day alone. It was crazy!,” said Sarver.
Butchering is a
dying art
“Being a butcher is a dying art these days. You can either go to a trade school and learn it, or you are taught it by growing up on the farm and doing it yourselves. We were taught by our parents and grandparents. You can go to school, or you can get under somebody’s wing. The people we have here pretty much learned by being an apprentice to someone else. It’s an art to be passed down, for sure,” said Sarver.
Good moral values
“We try to teach our kids that they need to love the animals we have. We tell them we have to make sure they (the animals) get fed before we do. We can always go inside and get a drink of water or a slice of bread to eat. But those animals depend upon us to feed them and make them as comfortable as they can be. We have a responsibility to love them and care for them because they are God’s creatures, too. When kids are raised in that atmosphere, they got more compassion for their friends and other people in the world,” said Sarver. Rod and Melinda are the parents of daughter Laura, age 14, son Rye age 6 and older daughter Kristin Cervi, her husband and their two children.
Other things to buy:
“We also have a really nice line of sauces sell such as Spirit of Lou BBQ Sauce, spaghetti sauce, local honey, kitchen towels, fresh eggs from Lewis Farms, Taste of the Hill salad dressings, Wisconsin cheese and more. In addition, our daughter has her locally raised chicken’s for sale through the Cervi Poultry Farm,” said Melinda Sarver.
“We also have a Loyalty Card Program. For every $30 purchase, you will receive one punch on your card. Once you fill up your card with 10 punches, you will receive 15% off of your 10th purchase, excluding any custom beef, hog or deer orders,” said Melinda.
“We will also process deer this fall. The deer need to be gutted first before someone brings it to us, then we will finish the rest. We will save the hides and sell them later. We try to utilize all of what the Good Lord gave ya,” said Sarver.
From the pasture
to the plate
You can visit the Oconee Chop Shop Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. They are located at 109 US Hwy 51, Oconee. Call 217-539-0003 for any questions, or visit their Facebook page. You can also email them at oconeechopshop@gmail.com.
I promise you, it is worth the little drive to get there!