Dane Buy Local Member Directory » General » Local Choice Marketing

Local Choice Marketing, LLC is the marketing arm for Otter Creek Organic Farm, and provides marketing and consulting services to other local food businesses, most notably Black Earth Meat Market, LLC.

 

Otter Creek Organic Farm is the 2008 Organic Farm of the Year, and is based just outside Spring Green, Wisconsin.  The farm is visited by over 1000 people each year to learn about the intensive “biological farming” system used on the farm.  In 2006, the farm began making a non-pasteurized cheddar cheese marketed by season.  Because the seasons change so dramatically in Wisconsin, everything in the cows’ diet and environment changes which creates a different flavor in the cheeses made each season.

 

Black Earth Meats is the sole remaining abattoir in Dane County.  Black Earth Meats has transitioned from a traditional “country cutter” to a local meat purveyor to area restaurants and groceries.  Black Earth Meats is committed to servicing the local farming community with custom processing of beef, hogs, lambs and goats, and also offers a full service retail case and a buyers' club for direct sales to consumers at wholesale prices.  

Local Choice is committed to recreating the local food chain, bringing consumers and farmers together in mutual support to strengthen the local food system, our community, and the greater sustainability movement.

 

Otter Creek’s cheeses are a clear example of how a simple product can convey the connection between the farmer’s choices and what the consumer is tasting.  Higher quality, clean products which change by the season.  It is a mission statement encapsulated in each package.

 

Black Earth Meats sources ALL of its meat from local producers, and are trying to reconnect Dane county consumers with the farmers in this area. The concept of anonymous meat is abhorrent to Black Earth Meats, and they want to recreate the farm-to-plate relationship that used to exist in this region. Black Earth Meats is constantly looking for new members of our buyers' club, as well as new partnerships with food service kitchens, restaurants and groceries.

Local Choice Marketing, LLC was formed in 2006 to bring the Otter Creek cheeses to life.  Since that foundation, the principal Bartlett Durand has engaged in numerous panels, presentations, workshops, and consulting to raise the overall awareness of local foods and to help other companies create unique and special local products.

 

Completely renovated in 2008, Black Earth Meats has sprung into the forefront of the local foods movement by offering USDA-inspected, certified organic (and certified Humane) meats to the greater Southern Wisconsin region.  Black Earth Meats pairs modern processing standards with old world pride.