LAND ACCESS STORIES: Yankee Flats Meats – Salmon Arm, BC

Posted by Kat Roger on July 18, 2024

ABOUT YANKEE FLATS MEATS

Yankee Flats Meats is owned and operated by two farming families, the Keenans and the McKnights, who were matched to each other through the B.C. Land Matching Program (BCLMP) in 2022. What started out as a land lease for the McKnights’ custom cut-and-wrap processing unit has blossomed into a remarkable business collaboration providing immeasurable benefit to food security and farmer livelihoods across the Okanagan and Shuswap.

Yankee Flats Meats specializes in high quality locally sourced, farm-to-table meats from family farms in the Okanagan and Shuswap that reflect the heart of their community. Their community-focused abattoir and cut-and-wrap facility are located in Salmon Arm, BC and they have a storefront for their fine meat products in Vernon, BC. Every beautiful cut of meat is processed by their team, maintaining transparency every step of the way. They take pride in supporting local farmers and delivering premium quality meats straight to each family’s table. Beyond their delicious cuts and their very own charcuterie meats, they offer a range of locally sourced products from other small businesses. At their farm shop, you can find locally sourced grocery staples, take and bake meals made with their meats, farm-fresh Keenan Family Farm eggs, tallow balms and soaps, artisanal gifts and more.

HOW YANKEE FLATS CAME TO BE

Lydia and Scott McKnight started farming in 2020 with two pigs and a handful of homesteading projects in the backyard of Scott’s parents’ property. Between the two of them, they had experience with nutrition and dietetics, vegetable farming and game hunting, and they wanted to take the next step towards farming as a business and a livelihood. They went from two pigs to 50 pigs by 2021, with the goal of scaling up as sustainably, ethically and locally as possible. As a hunter, Scott had a robust understanding of how to process the animals they were raising and retrofitted a shipping container for a micro cut and wrap facility in their little backyard farm. Given the lack of access to meat processing in the Okanagan and Shuswap and the incredible quality of Lydia and Scott’s work, their cut and wrap business was booming within the year, providing an essential service to local farmers. However, they were starting to realize that doing everything themselves was not going to be sustainable for their family. Between Lydia working full-time while co-owning the business, dreams of raising kids on the farm and suddenly facing the sale of Scott’s parents’ property, Lydia and Scott were not just figuring out how to keep up with their business, but also searching for a new home!

Lydia and Scott had connected with the BCLMP when they first started farming in 2020, but had not found the perfect land match while starting their farm on Scott’s parents’ land. By 2022, as they prepared to move off family land, Lydia and Scott were at a loss for what to do with their animals and their cut and wrap facility. They were considering selling everything while hoping that a leasing opportunity might come up before it was too late. Luck descended on the McKnights in the form of a phone call from livestock farmers James and Chelsea Keenan! The Keenans, in a tough spot themselves, reached out to the McKnights to inquire about processing their farm’s animals after yet another local butcher shut down. Both parties had one part of the puzzle but weren’t sure how to move forward with their businesses given the constraints they each faced.

James and Chelsea invited Lydia and Scott for coffee and started strategizing – what if they could each fill the gap in each other’s businesses? The Keenans could raise the animals and provide a location for the McKnights to operate their cut and wrap, while the McKnights could process all of the Keenans’ animals on-site. It seemed like the perfect fit, but without knowing each other previously, both parties were keen to take care and be methodical in developing an agreement and a subsequent business partnership. Since Lydia and Scott were already participating in the BCLMP, they suggested reaching out to Tessa, the regional land matcher at the time, to support them in fostering the conditions for a successful collaborative relationship. As much as they all trusted each other right away, they knew that they needed a facilitator and a written agreement in place to avoid conflict down the line. 

Tessa stepped up to the bat and helped develop a contract, liaising with a lawyer and supporting both parties to arrive at the appropriate leasing stipulations for their unique scenario. Lydia notes that the BCLMP’s support with creating a lawyer-reviewed agreement – removing the financial burden of accessing legal services with a quick turnaround time – allowed them to continue providing their essential services to farmers without pause. With Tessa’s support, the McKnights were able to seamlessly move their cut and wrap facility to the Keenans property on Yankee Flats Rd and their customers continued to access processing services without pause. Lydia and Scott themselves followed shortly after, moving just 15 minutes from the Keenans property, and their collaboration leapt into motion. The McKnights were processing the Keenans’ pigs while continuing custom work for other farmers, meaning they had assured suppliers and a stable location for their facility. The Keenans, in turn, had assured cut and wrap services for their animals, meaning the future of their business was secure. Things were moving smoothly and their collaboration was as mutually beneficial as it could be – or so they thought!

Just as the Keenans and the McKnights were getting on their feet with collaboratively raising and processing animals, they learned that a major abattoir in their region was shutting down. As another closure in a series of abattoir closures in the region, this was the final straw. While the Keenans and the McKnights were just starting to fill a major gap in the community for local food security – cut and wrap processing – another, scarier gap emerged. Without access to slaughter, neither the Keenans or McKnights, nor any of their clients and collaborators could run a sustainable business. They had watched so many of their friends leave the industry and sell all of their animals because there was nowhere to slaughter and certify. Wracking their brains about how to go on, the Keenans and the McKnights decided that it was time to get big or get out – they decided to build their own certified abattoir on the farm. Just barely incorporated as a business partnership, Yankee Flats Meats was about to become so much more than either family could have ever imagined.

At first, the Keenans and the McKnights considered working under a FarmGate+ license, only doing slaughter for the Keenans animals and a few other select producers. But as they assessed the situation around them, they realized there was an opportunity to provide the Okanagan, Thompson and Shuswap regions with a service that could mean lasting food security for decades to come. Having only met each other in 2022, by 2023, the Yankee Flats team was building a state-of-the-art provincially licensed abattoir. Through a combination of investors committed to local food security, close work with inspectors and the health authority and help from their friends and family, the Keenans and the McKnights built a gorgeous 8,000 sq. ft. abattoir and processing facility. Just to make things a little more exciting, Lydia and Scott also had a baby!

What started out as a cold call from the Keenans to the McKnights after a web search for processing services has turned into a beautiful collaboration which is not just reciprocal for the two families but also spreads benefits to farmers and community members all across the region. Through a combination of passion for community food security, ethical and sustainable farming, refusing to back down in the face of a challenge and the good sense to develop a strong agreement in the early days with the support of Young Agrarians, the Keenans and the McKnights have made Yankee Flats Meats a pillar of the region’s farming community.

SERVING A COMMUNITY NEED: WHY YANKEE FLATS

Yankee Flats Meats is committed to ethical and sustainable meat production from the best treated animals to the highest quality of slaughter and processing to being a great place to work. Now a team of six owners – the Keenans, the McKnights and Scott’s parents Teresa and Stuart – and a staff team of 10 people at the farm, abattoir and processing facility, Yankee Flats Meats is a community unto itself. Scott manages team members in the abattoir and cut floor while Lydia is in charge of marketing, administration and booking. Chelsea works on community outreach, manages orders and farmers markets and collaborates on programs like subsidized school lunch boxes with the local school district. James is the farm and maintenance manager, raising all of the farm’s pork while also managing all the contract farmers in addition to helping with slaughter. Scott’s parents, Teresa and Stuart, help with booking and managing the retail shop in Vernon (read more below!) in addition to working directly with lawyers and regulatory bodies.

At first, the team was just doing slaughter and processing for pork, lamb and chicken, but after another beef abattoir in their community closed, the Yankee Flats team stepped up once again and are now serving cattle farmers as well. In order to most effectively serve other local farmers, Yankee Flats does both custom processing and hires local farmers to raise meat for them to process. When they realized many farmers wanted to raise animals on a small scale, but did not want to deal with slaughter, processing and marketing, their role in the community became crystal clear. In the words of the Keenans and the McKnights:

“The farms partnered with Yankee Flats Meats don’t need to “get big or get out”. They can stay local and stay family-run. It’s better for farmers, and it’s better for the animals they care for.

It’s also better for our neighbours like you, who get to enjoy a variety of delicious, wholesome, meats from healthy animals who’ve been cared for by people you know and trust.

And it’s even a little better for our world, since our farmers don’t have to ship animals across the province and we sell our meats right here in the Shuswap, Thompson, and Okanagan. Our meats don’t travel farther than a pig could walk – although a bit farther than a chicken could fly.”

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YANKEE FLATS MEATS?

To further their commitment to community food security, the Keenans and the McKnights opened the Vernon Fine Meats & Farm Shop in the heart of downtown Vernon in March of 2024, where they sell their farm-fresh products in addition to products from farmers all throughout the region. You can find the Keenans’ eggs and handmade noodles along with locally-sourced honey, produce and coffee.

Moving forward, the team at Yankee Flats Meats want to continue to give back to their community. They aim to encourage and support new farmers, facilitate learning about self-sufficiency on the land and educate about local food security. Yankee Flats is excited to host several community events throughout the summer and they look forward to gathering farmers and consumers together on the farm in the coming months and years.

CONNECT WITH YANKEE FLATS:

Facebook: Yankee Flats Meats

Instagram: @yankeeflatsmeats

Website: Yankee Flats Meats

Visit the Vernon Fine Meats & Farm Shop at 2908 31st Ave in downtown Vernon, open 9am-5pm Tuesday to Friday!

CONNECT WITH OTHER YOUNG AGRARIANS:

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Got Land? Want Land?

Through the B.C. Land Matching Program, Young Agrarians offers support to farmers looking for land for their farm business, and landholders looking for farmers to farm their land. We’ve made more than 339 matches on over 12,301 acres to date! To learn about available land opportunities, and to learn about the B.C. Land Matching program in Okanagan-Thompson, please visit youngagrarians.org/land or contact the Okanagan-Thomspon Land Matcher, Haley Schonhofer, at haley@youngagrarians.org.

The B.C. Land Matching Program is funded in the Okanagan-Thompson by the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative, with additional support from the Real Estate Foundation of BC.