Our Story...

Iron to Iron Butchery is a small-scale, family owned and operated, custom meat processing facility located in Tower, Minnesota. Our butchering journey began when we (Jacob and Rebekah) made the decision to buy a small farm in northern Iowa in 2018. Desiring a more self-sufficient lifestyle, we knew we wanted to raise and butcher our livestock ourselves, but didn't know anything about how to to do it. We owe the success of our first butchering endeavor to the Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery. We had this book open, reading step-by-step directions, as we harvested our meat rabbits for the first time. We cooked the fresh meat in our kitchen and said to each other "This feels like what we should be doing". We felt excited to learn more about how to raise, harvest, and prepare our own food.

After this, Jacob went on to get more experience in meat processing. His grandpa owned a successful butcher shop in Minnesota for many years, and although his grandpa had passed away, the new owner of the shop was a family friend who taught Jacob how to butcher pigs. He then got a job at a custom meat processing facility in Iowa where he butchered beef, pork, goat, and sheep daily for 3 years. Once we moved to Northern Minnesota he worked at F&D Meats, which gave him more experience in making specialty meat products. But we find that the experiences we have had at home, on our farm, and experimenting with recipes in our kitchen, have been most valuable. Our family loves farming together, and we love cooking together. Butchering is just the necessary part that happens between farming and cooking, and we are happy to do it so we can make sure that it's done right. And finally, in our inspected facility that we built with the help of family and friends, we are excited to make sure that it's done right for our community too.

"Just as iron sharpens iron, so one friend sharpens another."

Our Goal...

Is to be a source of help and encouragement to our community. The only reason that we are where we are today is because we have stumbled upon many incredibly helpful people along the way. Although we still don't have all the answers, we hope to be one of those helpful people for anyone else who is looking for a simpler and more self-sufficient lifestyle. If that's you, please feel free to reach out with questions. We are happy to help.