Black River Meat Market offers wide selection

BY SHAWNA KONIECZNY

THE STAR NEWS

In February 2021, Black River Meat Market opened at 849 N. 8th St. in Medford, offering a wide variety of meats, dairy products, and more. The store acts as an extension of Black River Meats, a meat processing plant located in Withee.

Black River Meats was founded by brothers Luke, Titus, and Ben Kottke. They then saw an opportunity to expand their business by opening a store in Medford. “Luke saw this cabin for rent and thought it would be a good place to put a meat market,” said Amber LaValley.

LaValley and her grandmother, Edna Dunston, are co-owners of Black River Meat Market, along with Luke and Titus Kottke. LaValley is a family friend of the Kottke’s and the office manager for Black River Meats, LLC. LaValley explained that despite business slowing down during the summer months, the store has seen a lot of customers.

The store offers a wide range of different types of meats as well as other products. They sell beef, pork, chicken, elk, and rabbit, all of which is processed at their plant in Withee. “Beef is definitely our top selling item. We get a lot of compliments from it,” said LaValley. “We actually do sell a lot of rabbit.” They receive grass-fed beef from A& J Cattle and their rabbit is raised by rabbit breeders in the area.

Black River Meat Market gets their chicken from Ninepatch Dairy in Athens. “They only raise their chickens in the summer months so they’re 100% fed off the pasture. They have really nice quality animals,” said LaValley. They also get elk from Geiss Meat Services out of Merrill.

Recently, the store has also started selling salmon in the store and are working to add a small amount of fish products to their selection. “We’d like to get lamb and bison in here eventually,” said LaValley. They are aim-