One family’s decision to eat clean turns into a prosperous business supported by the local community.

One family’s decision to eat clean turns into a prosperous business supported by the local community.

“We started through changing the way we eat, we wanted to eat clean. We wanted to get back to what we did when I was a kid, raise our own meat. We started doing this on our own, and it turns out there was a demand for local, drug-free beef,” explained Matt Hamilton of Local Yocal in McKinney Texas.

After his family’s decision to eat clean, Hamilton started marketing his beef at farmer’s markets and quickly ran into the issue that they are only seasonal events. After brainstorming, he bought the location the shop is in now and turned it into a meat market that also sells various items customers can find in farmer’s markets.

The company has been supplying beef and other artisanal products to the community for almost seven years, said Hamilton.

“The grass-fed beef is going to feature high quality and lot of fat, we have an all natural Angus beef and we have Waygu, which is our biggest seller,” explained Hamilton.

Waygu is known for it the high levels of marbling, with high levels of Omega 3 fat, which they have genetically. They also have very fine muscle fibers, which results in a very tinder steak that is very heart healthy.

During the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, the family ran into Circle J Fire Pits in the exhibit hall and created a partnership.

“It was our first full year open, we had been at it long enough that we were completely out on gas grills, we were using some different charcoal grills and saw Circle J and thought it was a great grill for what we needed,” explained Hamilton.

From there, the shop had a few grills made for them to use during their Steak 101 class. During the class, patrons learn about the beef industry and learn the different types of steaks, the different types of cuts and how to grill them.

“At the end of the day, when they go home, they think ‘we can buy the steak, buy the seasonings, but we are not getting the same experience without that grill.’ The answer is you cannot beat cooking over a live flame,” said Hamilton.

The featured grill at Local Yocal has burned over 6,000 pounds of charcoal and over 15,000 pounds of meat since 2013 and is still cooking like it did since the day they bought it.