ABP TRENDING
MOBILE BUTCHER by Derek Sample
Derek@ABPmag.com
It’s 6am Saturday morning and Sal Cardoza is waiting for me at the back entrance to a small farm nestled among the rolling hills of Yucaipa, CA, 70 miles east of Los Angeles along the infamous I-10 fwy. The reason I‘m here is because Mobile Butchers are all the trend lately since commercial operations are closing because of Covid-19 outbreaks. This has been consistently in the news over the last few months and ranch owners are unsure how to bring their livestock to market. So with that in mind, I did some research and yesterday I happened upon Sal‘s Facebook page. Here is a guy who has a small standard practice in the slaughter business and he‘s a very busy guy. Oh, and also has great facebook reviews to boot. To put it simply, his industry is on fire. Demand for mobile butchers, USDA approved and not, has skyrocketed. Good reefer trucks have become scarce now too even with the higher costs of mobile startups. The old law of demand is showing its teeth again... Fortunately Sal, with his years of experience, is kind of a legend around these parts. From what I can tell so far, it‘s at least because he‘s punctual. I pull onto the dirt road behind Sal and I am overwhelmed by the size of his F550 14
photos by Derek Sample
truck and the huge lift boom periscoping above the tree line. After a brief introduction with the owner and his spirited steer, Sal gets down to business. While loading his .22, his sleepyeyed son jumps out of the cab and starts his own support shift of sterilization, winch tests and arranging the reefer‘s interior for the incoming ton of freshly cut American Beef Producer
meat. 3 minutes later and it’s a go. The steer is down, the knives are out and it’s business as usual for SoCal Mobile Butchering. As the muscle memory of Sal‘s butcher routine kicks in, his face crinkles a bit and his character starts to show. Now it‘s story time. His delight in sharing experiences in this industry is engaging. Laughter is good medicine this morning and I find October 2020
