Pay Once and Place Orders All Year
Save 15% + Free Home Delivery
Farm Family
Homesteader
City Slicker
Flexible, Recurring Payments Every Three Months
Save 10% + Free Home Delivery
Farm Family
Homesteader
City Slicker
Flexible, Recurring Payments Every Month
Save 5% + Free Home Delivery
Farm Family
Homesteader
City Slicker
Order What You Want
Only When You Want It
Member Benefits
- Exclusive access to a wide variety better meat all year long
- Free home delivery (for yearly, quarterly, and monthly members living within 10 miles from downtown)
- 5% discount on purchases from our farm stand in Cedar Grove
- Daytime, anytime access to our farm to visit animals, hike trails, have a picnic
- Discounted rates for reservations, events, and workshops, and glamping/camping sites (coming summer 2021)
- Monthly newsletter with meal ideas and inspiration from the farm
We are currently offering free home delivery to the following towns in the Triangle that are within about 10 miles from town center. There are a few exceptions: for example, if several members live in the same neighborhood that is farther than 10 miles from town center, we will likely offer free home delivery.
If you’re farther out and still want to join, we can usually match you with a “buddy” closer in or arrange for you to pick up your share at our farm in Cedar Grove.
General Questions
Short answer, sort of. Our values are more aligned with Community Supported Agriculture.
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It’s a concept that originated in the 80’s as a way for a community to support a farmer at the beginning of the season (when the expenses and risk are high, but sales are low). In return for their support (or loan/subscription to the farm) each member of a CSA receives a share of the harvest throughout the season.
We find CSA to be a bit cumbersome to explain, especially for the uninitiated. It’s much easier to explain a subscription-based membership.
Our mission is to build community and awareness about social justice and ecological conservation by bringing people closer to where their food comes from. In this way (we hope!) our monthly membership is much more than a meat delivery service but rather a community of members who care for the health of the earth and the well-being of the farmers who grow their food.
Short answer, sort of. Our values are more aligned with Community Supported Agriculture.
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It’s a concept that originated in the 80’s as a way for a community to support a farmer at the beginning of the season (when the expenses and risk are high, but sales are low). In return for their support (or loan/subscription to the farm) each member of a CSA receives a share of the harvest throughout the season.
We find CSA to be a bit cumbersome to explain, especially for the uninitiated. It’s much easier to explain a subscription-based membership.
Our mission is to build community and awareness about social justice and ecological conservation by bringing people closer to where their food comes from. In this way (we hope!) our meat membership is much more than a meat delivery service but rather a community of members who care for the health of the earth, their local economy, and the well-being of the farmers who grow their food.
No! We currently sell our meat via a farm stand that is a joint venture between a few other farms in Cedar Grove.
The farm stand is self-serve and located at Botanist & Barrel on NC Hwy 86 N in Cedar Grove.
We offer several different payment plans: Yearly, Quarterly, Monthly, and Occasional.
Your membership begins as soon as you submit your membership registration and payment automatically recurs based on the plan you signed up for until you request to stall/stop payment.
You will receive the next newsletter/link to our online store in our cycle, which could be up to 1.5 weeks depending on where we are in the cycle. The order/distribution cycle typically runs twice each month.
One week we are sending out a newsletter. The following week we are distributing orders.
If you would like to stall or cancel your subscription at the end of a payment cycle, send us an email at edensmeats@gmail.com and we will take care of it for you.
We will consider cancellation requests in the middle of a payment cycle, but in general we ask for members to continue with the payment plan they signed up for. We have tried to incentivize a longer term commitment with discounted rates for Yearly, Quarterly, and Monthly payment plans because this helps us with cash-flow and planning.
Short answer, yes.
There are three options:
- We can try to match you up with a buddy–someone you see regularly, or another member who lives close to you inside of the free delivery zone.
- We will deliver to your home for a $10 fee
- You can pick up at our farm in Cedar Grove for free.
No problem! The plans that we advertise are $50 (City Slicker), $100 (Homesteader), and $200 (Farm Family).
If, for example, you want to sign up for a plan that is $150, you simply need to sign up for both the $50 (City Slicker) and a $100 (Homesteader).
Feel free to mix and match any of the plans to arrive at the value you think best fits your household. If you have any trouble figuring out how to do this on your end, don’t hesitate to reach out and we can help you sign up for the right plan for you. edensmeats@gmail.com
No! The great thing about our meat membership is that it is totally flexible. If you’re out of town a lot one month, or your freezer is filling up with meat, you can skip as many newsletters as you want.
We will continue to add credit to our online store for the payment plan that you signed up for. When you’re ready to order again simply wait for our next newsletter, click on the link to our online store, and place an order. You will see your store credit start to draw down as you order.
Order and Distribution Process
Step 1: Receive our invitation to create a profile with Local Line by adding your own username and password.
Step 2: Click on the link to our store in this newsletter and start shopping. You should see that we have pre-loaded the store with a credit that corresponds with your membership share (i.e. Homesteader $100, Farm Family $200, etc.) Reminder: Our store will close at 8am on Monday morning.
You can organize the way that you peruse the offerings in the store catalog but selecting the categories on the side
Step 3: As you shop, your store credit should draw down. Just as before, the prices listed are estimates and your final order will be based on exact weights. Instead of keeping a tab, we will send you an invoice link with any overages that can be easily paid with a credit card as soon as you receive it.
Extra Notes About the New Ordering System:
Here are a few notes about the new ordering system based on some questions I’ve been fielding since we sent out the new order form.
1.) We will send out the order form twice a month with a newsletter.
2.) If you have a Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly payment plan, we will load your store credit with the value of your share and payment plan. We will only load your credit once a month…at the beginning of the month.
3.) You can place an order whenever you want —twice in a month or zero times in a month. Just know that we ask each order to be at least $50 whenever you do order (to make the home delivery cost-effective on our end) We will keep adding a store credit to your account each month (and your card will continue getting charged) until you tell us to pause or stop
As you can see, we are now offering some more perishable items, like veggies, which is partly why we’re delivering more frequently. Some members have told us that their freezers were getting full at the end of a year. Now you can use your credit to buy meal bundles, or just fruits and veggies, if you are stocked up on meat for a while. Or, you can let your credit build up until you are ready to order again.
4.) Your credit dollars go further on a monthly (5% off), quarterly (10% off), or yearly (15% off) payment plan which provides some incentive to commit more $$$ if you think you’ll spend more than $50 on the regular (payment in advance always helps us with cash flow and budgeting). But it’s totally fine to just pay any overages that might occur each month.
5.) Some folks have asked questions about the delivery drop down in the checkout process. Everyone is either receiving a home delivery or picking up at the farm, and the store checkout should be set-up so that you see one of those options when you are completing your order.
Our newsletter (which contains a link to our updated online store) goes out the Thursday before delivery week. We will close our online store on Monday at 8am and will not accept orders after that time to ensure that we can promptly pack and deliver orders.
Chapel Hill/ Carrboro/ Hillsborough
home delivery on Tuesday between 1-9pm
6/22, 7/6, 7/20, 8/3, 8/17, 8/31, 9/14, 9/28, 10/12, 10/26, 11/9, 11/23, 12/7, 12/21
Durham
home delivery on Wednesday between 1-9pm
6/23, 7/7, 7/21, 8/4, 8/18, 9/1, 9/15, 9/29, 10/13, 10/27, 11/10, 11/24, 12/8, 12/22
Raleigh
home delivery on Thursday between 1-9pm
6/24, 7/8, 7/22, 8/5, 8/19, 9/2, 9/16, 9/30, 10/14, 10/28, 11/11, 11/25, 12/9, 12/23
Winston-Salem
home delivery on Friday between 1-9pm
6/25, 7/9, 7/23, 8/6, 8/20, 9/3, 9/17, 10/1, 10/15, 10/29, 11/12, 11/26, 12/10, 12/23
We use an app called Routific which helps us optimize our delivery route and communicate with members. You will receive three text messages on distribution day.
1.) We send the first message in the morning to remind folks that its their distribution day and to please leave a cooler out for us.
2.) You will receive the second message approximately 30 minutes before your order is delivered.
3.) Your final message will be automatically generated when we complete your delivery.
No problem! There are several options:
- Wait, and place an order with the next newsletter that goes out and when you’re back in town.
- Ask a neighbor or house sitter to pick up your order and put it in the freezer for you.
- Pick up your order at our farm store in Cedar Grove on another day.
Short answer, no.
Because many cuts of meat have variable weights our order form is designed to calculate the average weight of each cut. Therefore, the total value of your order is an estimate: we won’t know the exact value until we pack your order and add up the exact weights.
Under: When the actual value of your order is less than the estimated value (i.e. your plan is $200, but the actual weights only add up to $175) we adjust your order after packing it and add store credit to your account for your next order.
Under: When the actual value of your order is more than the estimated value (i.e. your plan is $50 but the actual weights add up to a $75 order) we will adjust your order after packing it and send you an invoice through our online store (using Square) which can be easily paid with a credit card.
Farming Practices
We believe that it is possible for everyone to eat better meat, and we’ve worked hard to remove as many hurdles to make that possible. Let’s face it, not everyone can wake up early on a Saturday morning to make it to a farmer’s market, or fight through rush hour traffic to make it to a pick-up site, or lay out a large amount of cash all at once.
Here’s where we refuse to comprise: price and commitment.
Price: We have priced everything on our order form such that the farmers can make a decent living doing the hard work of raising happy animals. Raising animals on pasture requires a lot of work and a unique set of skills: moving fences, managing nutrition, keeping animals happy and healthy in inclimate weather and so much more.
If you’re interested in learning more about the true cost of meat. Check out these references.
Breaking Down the Costs of Pastured Poultry, Center for Environmental Farming Systems
Commitment: Agriculture, particularly animal agriculture, requires a significant upfront investment. All of the infrastructure, materials, feed, animals, and labor has to be paid for before there is a pack of pork chops to deliver.
A year-long commitment from our members makes farm planning and liquidity (or cash flow) so much better for us. This is why we ask all of our members to sign a pledge that they’ll stick it out for at least a year (and we hope for a lifetime!)
The word organic is pretty loaded these days. Most folks use it as short-hand for anything other than conventional feedlots
Certified Organic is an official USDA designation, and only those who follow the regulatory guidelines and are regularly inspected can claim to be Certified Organic. We are not a part of this program and therefore we cannot claim to be Certified Organic.
That said, we believe that our animal husbandry practices go well beyond what is required to be Certified Organic. Our animals have 24/7 access to woodland and pasture forage from the time they are old enough to withstand the outdoor elements (chicks 3 weeks; turkeys 5 weeks; pigs 8 weeks).
We let our animals graze and forage for as much of their nutrition as they can in our pasture and woodland areas, and we supplement the rest with non-GMO feed from a local mill, whey from Boxcarr Cheese, and waste fruit and vegetable from chemical-free neighboring farms.
Here are a couple of resources from NC Choices to help you understand what labels mean.
Detailed Instructions
Step 1: Select a Share Size and Payment Plan
– Choose from the options listed on our Plans page and fill out the sign-up form for the share size and payment plan you choose.
Step 2: Pay for Your Share
These are the methods of payment.
Credit Card (preferred): Pay Yearly, Quarterly, or Monthly (fees apply) or select Occasional and only pay via invoice when you place an order (delivery fees apply).
Note: Recurring charges will continue until you ask us to stop/stall payment.
Check(s): Pay Yearly, Quarterly, or Monthly in full or with post-dated checks. There are instructions in the sign-up form about how to pay with a check or post-dated checks.
Note: There is no check option for our Occasional payment plan.
– Follow instructions on the sign-up form for paying with a card or check.
Step 3: Register Your Account in Our Online Store
– We will start the registration process by creating a customer profile for you in our online store.
– We will load the online store with a credit for the plan you signed up for ($50, $100, or $200).
Note: If you signed up for an “Occasional” plan, you won’t see a store credit because you are not paying in advance. You will receive a digital invoice for your full order after delivery.
– You’ll receive an email inviting you to finish the registration process by creating a username and password.
Note: Our online store is only open twice a month, so it is likely that when you register you will only be able to peruse the store, not place an order. You can only place an order when we open the store and invite you to place an order via our newsletter. More about that in step 4.
Step 4: Place an Order
– Once your registration is complete, you will receive a newsletter from us which contains snapshots from the farm, meal inspirations, and other info, plus a link to our online store. Good stuff, so please open and read it 🙂
Note: We send the newsletter out every other week, so depending on when you sign up for a meat membership plan, it may be over a week before you receive it. Don’t worry; it’s coming soon, and we’ll send you a text message to make sure you didn’t miss it in a spam folder.
– Our online store will close on Monday at 8am of delivery week. We will not accept any orders after the store is closed to ensure that we have enough time to procure good meat/produce from the neighboring farms that we partner with, and pack orders.
– You don’t need to place an order every time our order form goes out. If you don’t place an order, your store credit will remain until the next newsletter goes out.
– If you’re ready to place an order, select the items that are available on the form. If you have store credit, you will see the credit draw down as you add items to your cart.
Note: We our proud of the consistent variety that we are able to offer in our online store. That said, our inventory fluctuates based on many factors: time of year, when animals reach a harvestable weight, processing availability.
As a meat member, you will always have priority access to what we have available—just don’t be alarmed if you’re used to ordering something and suddenly don’t see it available in the store. We usually restock within 30 days.
Note: Some cuts are variable-weighted meaning that the price will vary depending on the exact weight. To account for this, we have listed the average weight of each cut. We will adjust the order form to reflect the exact weights after we pack and deliver your order.
If your actual order total is greater than the average order you place, we will send you a digital invoice that can easily be paid through our online store using a credit card.
If your actual order total is less than the average order you placed, store credit will be applied and carry over to your next order.
Step 5: Receive Your Order
Here’s our current delivery schedule:
Tuesdays (1-9pm): Hillsborough, Carrboro, Chapel Hill
Thursdays (1-9pm): Durham, Raleigh
Fridays (1-9pm): Winston-Salem
– You will receive three text messages on delivery day.
- One in the morning to remind you to leave out a cooler for us
- When we are 30 minutes away
- To confirm delivery
– Please leave a cooler out for us and be prepared to claim your order shortly after it is delivered. We welcome any of our recycled egg cartons (only ours, please).
Note: We ensure that all meat is frozen, and that perishable items like eggs, produce, and cheese are kept at a safe temperature when they are transferred to your cooler. All items should remain fresh and/or frozen, respectively, for at least two hours after delivery. Per our member covenant, you are responsible for your order as soon as it is delivered.
Step 6: Pay for Any Order Overages
– After we add up the exact weights and deliver your order, we will adjust your order form and send you a digital invoice for any overages. You can easily pay that invoice online through the online store.
Once again, if the exact weight of your order is less than the amount you order, a credit will be applied for the balance and carryover to your next order.
For Meat Curious Trials Only
– Once you’ve had a couple of weeks to try out the items in your first order, we will reach out to you about signing up for a full membership.
– If you decide that our meat membership is a good fit, simply indicate which share size you want (City Slicker $50, Homesteader $100, Farm Family $200) and which payment plan (Yearly 15% discount, Quarterly 10% discount, Monthly 5% discount, or Occasional).
You can either send us an email and we will complete the sign-up process for you with the info we have securely stored in Braintree Payments, or you can re-visit our plans page to sign-up for a full membership plan.
Step 7: Reap the Benefits of Your Meat Membership
– Cook delicious meals!
– Check out our social media feeds on Facebook and Instragram for farm updates and meal inspirations.
– Visit our farm anytime during daylight hours to enjoy meeting the animals, hiking our trails, or whatever. As a meat member, our farm is your farm! Please text ahead.
Note: Perusing our online store is a great way to get a sense of what we have available and the average price per item. But you will need to subscribe to one of our membership plans to place an order: it is not open to the general public.
You will need to create a username and password to gain access to our store catalog even if you are just a prospective member who wants to peruse it. Sorry, this is a security measure implemented by the online store platform we use.
If you don’t want to create a username and password to view our store, we recommend clicking the Beef, Pork, Chicken, Duck, Lamb, Eggs & Cheese tabs on the banner at the top of our website. Though prices are not listed, these pages have images and descriptions of the collection of cuts that we keep inventory of.
