Kids Always Know

There’s no fooling a six-year-old when it comes to food.

We have more than a few customers who shop regularly at Homestead because their kids insist on it.

Before I opened the shop, I was a stay-at-home dad. There was a steady stream of children coming through the house with my daughter and son. When I was learning to create sausages and charcuterie, they were my first test subjects. 

As you know, kids are brutal. They either eat something with total abandon or leave it on the plate. If they don’t like what’s in front of them, they won’t give you polite half-truths or gentle encouragement. So when you get an enthusiastic thumbs up from a fourth-grader with mustard on their chin, you know you’ve done something right.

That early experience stuck with me, and I still trust kids’ palates. One day at the shop, I offered a six-year-old boy a sample of our ham. The boy’s dad immediately responded that his son doesn't like ham. But the boy, having already tasted it, turned to his father and said, “Daddy, I like ham now.”

This happens a lot with our deli turkey, too. It’s made from whole turkey breast from Slagel Farms, no added hormones, brined and roasted right here in the shop. It’s not overly salty or processed like what you’d find in a supermarket case, and kids taste the difference. More times than I can count, I’ve heard parents say, “It’s the only turkey my kid will eat,” or “my daughter always asks if it’s from your shop. 

Kids know. They just do.

And it’s not only about flavor. Kids are also some of my most curious customers. They love to watch us break down beef or pork at the shop. There's a quiet curiosity, a kind of reverence. I think they understand instinctively that meat doesn’t just magically appear in little trays. They want to know where it comes from. That’s part of why I started the shop in the first place, because I believe we shouldn’t be so far removed from the animals that nourish us. (I wrote a little more about that in The Ultimate Gift and How It Keeps Giving).

If one of your kids has a favorite thing from the shop, feel free to tell me next time you stop in. I’d love to hear about it.

Homestead Meats is Evanston’s first locally sourced butcher shop, handcrafting unique fresh meats, deli meats, sausages, and other charcuterie. All fresh meats and eggs are sourced from family-owned Midwestern farms that raise their livestock in open pastures, without hormones or GMO feed.