CLARION CO., Pa. (EYT) — Clarion Farms Beef, Clarion County’s most recognizable name in locally sourced beef products, is continuing to expand to new markets throughout the region.

(PICTURED ABOVE: John-Scott Port, of Clarion Farms Beef.)

Clarion Farms Beef’s newest market is an expansion to a new drop off point for orders at Core Goods, Oil City’s fresh and bulk goods market, located at 219 Seneca Street, Oil City. Oil City area customers will be able to place orders for fresh, local, grass-fed beef to be picked up at Core Goods during a monthly drop-off event.

According to John-Scott Port, of Clarion Farms Beef, they had been doing a drop off point at the Oil City YMCA, and a customer there approached him and suggested he consider adding another drop off point at Core Goods.

John-Scott Port, of Clarion Farms Beef

“I think Oil City has a lot of potential, so I’d been thinking about something more there already,” Port told exploreClarion.com.

“Then, I went and checked out Core Goods and saw the cool things they have going on there.”

Port noted that while the drop off at the YMCA did well and would continue, it didn’t allow the kind of growth that is possible with a place like Core Goods.

“We have some good customers at the YMCA, but we noticed after a time that the audience there is static. It’s just YMCA members.”

Core Goods, on the other hand, gives Clarion Farms the opportunity to reach even more people in the Oil City area.

The same customer who approached Port also spoke to Ashley Sheffer, the owner of Core Goods, and suggested she reach out to Port. Sheffer and Port then began discussing the idea, and soon came to an agreement.

“We really encourage people to think locally,” Sheffer noted.

“When it comes to the food you eat, it’s so important. When you get something from farther away, you don’t know how it’s grown or how the animals treated. But, you can go to one of these farms and see the animals living happily in their fields.”

Sheffer said that Core Goods started working with several other local farms, as a drop off point for meat orders, shortly after they first opened.

They started out with pork and chicken from Gruber Farms in Shippenville and lamb from Baytree Farms near Emlenton, so adding beef from Clarion Farms was a logical next step.

“The whole concept is, while we don’t have the space or the freezers to stock meats, and our meals tend to be mostly vegetarian, some of our customers were looking for local pasture raised meat. So, while we don’t sell it, we are a location for them to meet the farmers and buy meat from them,” Sheffer said.

According to Sheffer, giving people a chance to meet the people producing their food is also part of the experience.

“It’s a neat opportunity because you’re not just going to a store to buy meat, you’re meeting the person who raised the animals.”

Port noted that those relationships between the producers and the customers are also really important.

“I think the biggest thing is that when you know the person raising your food, and that person knows you, it creates a healthy dependency,” he noted.

“We don’t like to think about dependency, but this makes for a good process. The farmer depends on the customers’ support, and we know these people, so it encourages us to do an even better job and hold ourselves to a really high standard.

“It also brings people back to dependence on the local land, which is something that is almost totally gone now, and that lack of dependence leads to neglect. We have a lot of neglected land in the community, and the best way to make people see the value in that land is to create that dependence. We want to create a mutual, healthy dependence that strengthens our community together.”

According to Port, Core Goods is just one of the many venues Clarion Farms Beef has expanded to include over the years. Port said their market in Pittsburgh is going strong with a booth they set up at 2216 Penn Avenue, beside Bar Marco, every Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to noon.

Along with their drop-off point at the Oil City YMCA, they also have a drop off point at Indiana High School, where they drop off orders from staff members after school on the fourth Thursday of each month.

While their market is continuing to expand, Port also noted that the Beef Barn in Clarion remains their main location.

“It has been really well supported by the town and community for a long time, and we are eternally grateful for that.”