THE FARMS

Left Bank buys whole animals that have been lovingly, ethically raised by our partner farms. We take pride in using every part of the animal—a style of butchery known as nose-to-tail. Below you can get to know the farmers we work with. They are our business partners, our friends, our neighbors and our inspiration.

PORK

CANE CREEK FARM

Saxapahaw, NC

Eliza MacLean raises a variety of pigs on her farm, which is a combination of beautiful pasture and woods. The pigs feed on a diet of nuts, grubs, roots, and vegetation, along with a feed high in barley, which results in world-class pork.

Cane Creek’s breeds include Gloucestershire Old Spots, Farmer’s Hybrids, and her very own Crossabaw breed – a mix of the Farmer’s Hybrids and Ossabaw Island Hogs. Eliza’s farming practices differ from those of large-scale counterparts in almost every way. Her animals are rotated continuously through pastures and woods. This is an ethical way to raise livestock and minimizes the need to medicate them, which helps assure healthy animals. Healthy animals lead to healthy food for our customers, food which happens to have incredible flavor.

BEEF & LAMB

Our cows from Alamance County farms are raised entirely on pasture and live to be over two years old. This time on lush grass gives our beef great flavor and a level of marbling not often found on grass-fed beef. We then hang our beef for two weeks, which tenderizes the meat and concentrates the flavor. (The industrial beef industry does not do this because of the loss of “water weight.”) When cows arrive at the shop, they have hung for 14 to 30 days. We do not “dry age” in the shop but our beef has already aged in a meaningful way at the abattoir.

No animal benefits from good butchery more than the cow. With “seam butchery”, we pull out individual muscle groups. When we sell these as steaks and roasts, we can find you the right cut at the right price, and give you the right instruction to make a great meal.

Learn more about our beef farmers, and what makes them and their meat stand out above the rest, below.

BRAEBURN FARM

Snow Camp, NC

It’s tough to single out what makes Braeburn Farm so special. Braeburn raises a line of Red Devon cattle that were found in a corner of New Zealand and never placed on a grain diet. Many of the cows are now a Red Devon-Red Angus cross, which we find to be the optimal animal for flavor and pasture adaptability. The farm is also committed to innovative grazing techniques which minimize imputes from fossil fuels, helps withstand drought, promotes native wildlife, and sequesters carbon. Charles “Doc” Sydnor is forever the academic and his commitment to better grazing practices serves as a model for small-scale farming while producing some of the tastiest grass-fed beef.

What’s the difference between grass-fed and grass-finished? There is a lot of confusion surrounding grass-fed beef, mainly because it’s not a USDA-regulated term. In 2016, the Agricultural Marketing Service, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, dropped grass-fed as an official term, leaving things more open to interpretation. With the removal of the USDA term, almost any beef product could be labeled grass-fed. Most cattle raised by responsible farms graze in open pastures throughout the warmer months. However, it’s pretty difficult to allow animals to roam freely in the winter, when snow covers the ground. During these colder months, most cattle eat corn-and-soy based feed. But, since they ate grass for part of (or for the majority) of the year, they could be labeled grass-fed. In these cases, there is not much of a difference between grain-fed beef raised by a responsible farmer, and grass-fed beef. Our cows are raised entirely on grass, never eating grain of any kind.

Visit Braeburn Online

RANDLEMAN

Alamance County, NC

Randleman Farm is our newest farm partner, a welcome addition to the collective of farmers raising animals holistically in our county. Chad and Stephanie Randleman, along with Chad’s daughters Madison and Trinity, raise beef cattle, lamb and pigs on a combination of owned and leased land in Northern Alamance and Southern Caswell counties. They have a remarkable operation, rotating animals through pasture and woodlands and planting annual crops and grasses. Their animals are on pasture all day, and given supplemental feed consisting of hay, corn, and oats, all of which is grown and milled on farm. Our customers have been thrilled with the quality of the beef, lamb and pork from Randleman.

POULTRY

LITTLE WAY FARM | Chicken

Siler City, NC

Run by a small family in Siler City, Little Way Farm focuses on regenerative agriculture and hospitality. Along with two long-term residents, Joe, Michelle, and their children steward the land by rotationally grazing their livestock and developing silvopasture. Their pastured poultry arrives at the farm as day-old chicks, and the birds spend the rest of their lives out on pasture. At eight weeks of age, their meat chickens are harvested on site, by hand. And the farm is more than just an agricultural endeavor - it's a community space that Joe and Michelle open up as a house of hospitality to long-term residents and to temporary guests.

We'll be bringing in batches of chicken from Little Way Farm throughout the year, and working to keep these well-raised birds as affordable as possible. We've just gotten our first batch in, and we're selling them as whole & half chickens, as well as broken down into bone-in pieces (leg quarters, bone-in breasts, and wings).

JOYCE FARMS | Ducks, Poulet Rouge, Turkey & Assorted Poultry

Winston Salem, NC

We also stock whole ducks and Poulet Rouge chickens from Joyce Farms. We can also source other types of fowl from them if you let us know your request. Their Naked Duck is tender and succulent, with a delicate flavor and genetics that trace back to China’s Ming Dynasty. The Poulet Rouge, a slower-growing heritage breed, is the only authentic genetic line of chicken from the French Label Rouge program here in the U.S. Consistently moist and always delicious, Joyce Farms’ Naked Duck and Poulet Rouge birds are raised with nothing added EVER. That means no growth stimulants, no hormones, no antibiotics or other drugs, no pesticides, and no preservatives EVER.

“We specialize in unique heritage breed meat and poultry and in pioneering a shift to environmentally friendly regenerative farming practices for meat production.”

— Joyce Farms

SEAFOOD

LOCALS SEAFOOD

Raleigh, NC

Their mission is simple: sell North Carolina seafood to North Carolinians. We stock their shrimp, scallops and assorted fish (all frozen). Find out more about Locals!