Florida Fresh Meat Company
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When Jan Costa started coming to the Haile Farmers Market in 2010, he had one freezer, one pickup truck, and one whole steer. “That’s how I started this whole company,” Jan said. “I had a stepstool-- I had to climb in and out of the truck, my knees were killing me."
Jan is the owner of the Florida Fresh Meat Company based in Ocala. He works with farms that sustain themselves and that no chemical fertilizers. Livestock is grazed on planted grass like legumes, clover, peanut, and finished on citrus pulp, and all the meat is from within 100 miles of Ocala. “Some are my cattle, but we’re involved in a family of farms in North Central Florida from Okeechobee to Starke,” Jan said. He partners with eight farms that raise all pastured animals, with no pesticides, fertilizer or hormones.
Though he started with beef, Jan started looking for sources of pork and lamb. “I realized that what was needed was a one stop protein shop,” Jan said. And now the Florida Fresh Meat company sells lamb, pork, beef, goat, chicken, duck, rabbit, gator and eggs.