With BBQ lids cracking open on patios across the Island, there could be no better time for the opening of Meat Craft Island Butchery  in Nanaimo.

Locovores– those who try to eat locally – will be especially pleased. The ethos of Meat Craft is to provide local, ethically raised, non-medicated meat and poultry of the highest quality at reasonable prices.

A family-owned business, Meat Craft started out 18 months ago in Port Moody, sourcing, butchering and retailing meat exclusively from BC.

Craft Meat owners Kerry and Jamie Martini and Sean Austin all hail from the Island. Kelly and Jamie have returned to raise their family here and to open the Nanaimo Meat Craft shop.

“We aim to be as transparent as possible,” says Kerry. “When any meat arrives at our store, we want to be 100 percent sure where it comes from, and we need full assurances of clean feed and ethical treatment of all the animals we sell.”

The Nanaimo store offers as much Vancouver Island-raised meat from small-scale producers as can be found. If need be, Meat Craft brings in farm-raised meat from the rest of BC.

Shoppers can look forward to all manner of oven-ready delights, including house-smoked bacon and hand-crafted sausages made with local beer. “Sausages made with beer display the cereal and fruity ester flavours of beer,” says Kerry, “without leaving any overly bitter hop qualities.”

Several of the beers used in Meat Craft sausages come from Longwood Brewery. A fresh ginger root, dried apricot and local ground-pork sausage is made with Longwood’s Super G Ginseng Cream Ale. Add some quick-grilled bokchoy from the garden to accompany the BBQ’d sausage and a cold glass of the same beer. Voila, a quick,memorable and entertaining meal!

Other featured sausages include Longwood’s Berried Alive Raspberry Ale in a venison sausage with cranberry and rosemary. Then there’s a cheddar and stout sausage crafted with Longwood’s’Stoutnik.

To pair the sausage with the right beer, drop by Lucky’s Liquor after your Meat Craft stop. All the Longwood beers are available at Lucky’s.

In a nut shell, Craft Meat Island Butchery is offering farm-to-table convenience seven days a week. The store also

contains a small grocery element, featuring hard-to-find hand crafted sauces, ready to cook creations and condiments from BC artisans. “All our oven-ready foods are made from scratch in our kitchen,” says Kerry. “We love getting creative with meat and poultry stuffing for gourmet meal.

I can’t wait to load my BBQ with artisan sausages from Meat Craft, paired with great local Longwood beers!

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