Meat’ the new owners at Cudlin’s

On Oct. 1 of this year, John Cochran and Timothy Mason became the official new owners of the iconic Cudlin’s Meat Market in Newfield.

After Joe Cudlin had run the meat processing and butcher shop for decades, he handed it down to his daughter and son-in-law, Linda and Vinny DiStefano, who ran it for two more decades before putting it up for sale.

Upon hearing that the store was up for sale, Cochran and Mason started dreaming of taking it over and began the process of purchasing the business in 2021. Falling short on receiving the loans and funding for the full amount of the purchase price, Cochran and Mason set up a GoFundMe page that reached three times more than the amount sought in record time.

“People stepped up and came through with the GoFundMe, and we reached over $6,000 with that,” Mason said. “Our goal was $2,000! We also received donations outside of that. Some people weren’t comfortable with donating online or felt shy and came directly to us to contribute.”

Hailing from New Jersey, Mason arrived in Ithaca nine years ago to take a job as a butcher with The Piggery, a butcher’s market in Ithaca where he met fellow butcher Cochran, and a friendship was born. Sharing an appreciation for ethical animal processing, Cochran and Mason became interested in someday becoming partners and starting their own butcher shop.

Eventually, The Piggery was sold and later temporarily closed. Cochran and Mason wanted to continue with their mutual passion for ethically slaughtered, processed and prepared meats. Having fallen in love with the region, Mason decided to make Tompkins County his home, and along with Freeville native Cochran, a plan to own their own processing plant and butcher shop was born.

“We are currently grandfathered in with certification hazard analysis and critical control points [HACCP] plan in effect,” Cochran explained. “It’s like a blueprint for what can and should happen with USDA protocols. We’re about a week and a half out from officially having our USDA certification.”

When fully certified, the shop will be able to legally sell certified meat to the public. Cochran and Mason plan on offering pork, lamb, goat and frozen chicken. All meats aside from poultry will be slaughtered, processed and packaged for retail sale at the business location.

“Poultry processing is a whole different procedure than what we butcher now,” Mason said. “Although we don’t offer it, we want to have chicken available to our customers to go along with the rest. Currently, we have customers that will bring in their own animals for processing as well as local farms all over the region. We’ve had a positive response so far and have already started seeing repeat customers.”

Cochran explained that they have “stringent guidelines about how the animals are dispatched and processed.”

“We have a policy that all animals being dispatched here have to be able to walk into our building,” he said. “First of all, there’s only two of us, so it’s not feasible for us to try and lift and maneuver a disabled or injured cow or pig or whatnot. Further, we see no need for the animal to be dispatched in a stressful environment.”

Cochran used an example of a customer who had brought in a cow for processing.

“Recently, we had a cow that came in to take ‘the walk,’” he said. “That is when an animal is put down and then prepared for processing. It took the cow about an hour and a half to wander down the hall and into the area where it would be dispatched with a bolt gun. We stroked the cow’s head and made sure it was peaceful and happy and then dispatched it in the forehead between its eyes with the bolt gun, which has a flat, slug bolt. It is immediate and painless. We believe in the ethical processing of animals and we don’t deal with animals in distress or who have been abused or mishandled. We don’t rush the animal, and we keep it a peaceful process.”

Unlike a lot of larger-scale butchers, Cochran and Mason pride themselves on being communicative and hands-on with their customers. Their goal is to fill the refrigerator and freezers with their customers’ meat choices and preferred cuts exactly as they want them.

“We love what we do!” Mason said. “We are constantly surprised at the amount of customers we get that have never been given choices about their own animals they’ve raised to butcher. They are the customers and they deserve to get exactly what they want since they’re paying for it.”

Cochran explained their pricing policies.

“Pricing for processing, cutting and wrapping varies depending on the customer’s animal and what their preferences are,” Cochran said. “Certain animals, there will be a straight fee for kill, cut and wrap processing. Other animals vary in price because some customers want a little of everything, and that way, they can get whatever they want.”

Receiving an outpouring of support and positivity from Newfield and the surrounding region, Cochran and Mason feel confident in their new endeavor. The level of support they’ve received has prompted them to install a 40-foot drop container for deer processing in the near future that will be separate from their current facility.

“Deer have to be processed separately and differently than the rest of the animals,” Cochran explained. “Growing up with hunting, animal processing, meat packaging and such, I am excited about the drop container for deer processing. I grew up doing this stuff and I love it. I was heartbroken when The Piggery [temporarily] closed, and when I saw this opportunity, I thought, ‘I want to do this for the rest of my life. This is it. I’m all in!’”

Visit Cudlin’s Meat Market at 8 Cox Rd.

Newfield Notes is published weekly in Tompkins Weekly. Submit story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com.

In Brief:

Artist’s Talk with Treacy Ziegler

Treacy Ziegler will give an Artist Talk on Nov. 18 at 6:30 p.m. (in-person and Zoom) at the Newfield Public Library, 198 Main St.

Ziegler has been an exhibiting visual artist presenting her work in galleries and museums throughout the United States and Canada. She works in the mediums of printmaking, painting and sculpture.

In her artist’s talk, Ziegler will give a slide presentation of her work in these three mediums focusing on the art of monoprints, landscape and interior paintings, and bronze and paper cast sculpture. Ziegler utilizes a range of metaphors in her artwork, ranging from isolated landscapes and nonpeopled interiors to the animal imagery that is the primary focus of her sculptures.

Email newfieldlibrary@gmail.com if you would like the Zoom link. Read more at treacyzieglerfineart.com.

The talk is made possible in part with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, administered by the Community Arts Partnership.

Book sale

The Newfield Public Library, 198 Main St., will be holding a book sale Nov. 20 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. There will be a large selection of books, DVDs, classics, fiction, children’s literature, reference materials and more. Learn more at newfieldpubliclibrary.org.

Craft fair

The Newfield Lions Holiday Craft Fair is Nov. 20 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Newfield Fire Company, 77 Main St. Come to visit your neighbors and support your community. Refreshments will be available. Email Linda Rumsey-Ebert, Lions president, at ljlampman@aol.com with any questions.