LANCASTER, Ky. (LEX 18) — The Marksbury Farm Market opened in 2010 with a business that could process meat from 8 animals weekly. Now, they’re up to as many as 200 daily.
“We believe the meat world is a dying world as far as the craft of cutting meat,” said co-founder Leonard Harrison.
In just 14 years in business, Harrison and his staff of more than 100 employees have perfected the craft, earning trust along the way and expanding their client roster beyond Kentucky’s borders.
“They entrust us with that very important part of their life, and then we take pride in taking care of that animal and delivering to its final destination,” Harrison said from the Market’s dining room, where farm-to-table lunches are offered Mondays through Fridays.
“We have good lunches here and we enjoy people coming in,” he added, before saying tours of the processing plant are available as well.
It is a meat and pork processing plant, so if you visit, you will see a side of the industry that isn’t necessarily palatable to everyone. But if it has to be done, Leonard is proud that his operation is doing it the right way and doing right by the farmers who bring their cattle here while ensuring their customers are not only receiving top-quality meat and pork but also buying exactly what they paid for.
“We know how much time they put into their craft,” Harrison said of the farmers while explaining why his team is entirely devoted to delivering top-notch service.
Already a large Garrard County employer, Harrison said he’ll be adding about 40-50 more employees by the end of the year to accommodate their facility’s expansion. It’s becoming a very large operation, with cattle coming in from North and South Carolina, Florida, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Still, Leonard won’t ever allow it to get so big that the original mission gets lost.
“We talk about the three things that are important to us: our employees, our farmers, and our community,” he explained. “If we’re not impacting our community, then we’re not doing our jobs,” he said.
