Welcome to our farm! We are Matt and Jessica. We’re a fifth-generation cattle farm, and we enjoy everything related to cattle and beef.
On this little piece of the internet, you’ll find us sharing easy beef recipes, techniques on how to cook beef properly, and learn how to buy beef from your local farmer. You’ll also learn about our cattle herd and life on our farm.
We started Clover Meadows Beef in 2012, and our small farm-to-table business continues to grow and evolve. In order to understand where we are today, you have to know a little about our past. Here’s our story.
The Path That Led Us Here…
As the saying goes, opposites attract. That’s very true for us.
Matt is a fifth-generation cattle farmer. He grew up in the country and his town doesn’t have a stoplight. He bought his first cow when he was nine years old, and his cattle herd has been growing ever since.
Jessica grew up in a typical subdivision in a city. The only thing she knew about beef before dating and marrying Matt was how to order a steak from a restaurant menu.
If you eavesdropped on some of our earliest conversations while dating, you’d hear Jessica ask questions like…
- “If you buy a half a cow, do you get the front half or the back half?”
- “Making hay? That’s more than an old-fashioned saying? It’s something you really do?”
- “What’s the difference between all the beef cuts? Ground beef is easy to cook, but what about the others? How do I know which one to buy and how to cook it?”
These conversations made us both realize how differently we look at food. We both believe that consumers want to be smart about what they’re eating. Unfortunately, that can be hard to do if you don’t know a farmer or grow your own food.
About Clover Meadows Beef
We started Clover Meadows Beef in 2012 so that we could sell our farm’s beef to local customers in the St. Louis area. From the start, we were different from other farms for two big reasons.
First, we have a large, pasture-raised cattle herd. This made it possible for customers to choose if they wanted either grass-fed beef or grain-fed beef. Second, our pricing was all-inclusive. Our customers never had to deal with terms like “hanging weight” because we worked directly with a local USDA-certified meat processor, and delivered our beef to the customer.
As our farm’s reputation grew locally, customers often turned to us for advice on cooking beef. Questions like…
- “What tips do you have for grilling a steak?”
- “What’s your favorite beef rub?”
- “How do you make beef bone broth?”
- “How do you hide beef liver in food to get the nutrients, without the taste?”
- “How do you cook beef tongue?”
….caused us to add a recipe section to our site where we share our family’s favorite recipes.
Fast forward to today, and we’re still talking about our favorite beef recipes, cooking tips, and life on our farm. But there have been some changes along the way, too. In early-2024, we stopped selling beef directly from our farm. It was an extremely difficult decision to make because many of our customers became friends over the years. However, it was a necessary due to the current economy and busyness in our own lives. Believe it or not, we sold over 90,000 pounds of beef to hundreds of customers in the St. Louis, Missouri, area over 10 years. That’s over 200 cows!
Let’s Make It Simple!
Let’s face it. Buying and cooking beef can be intimidating (and expensive) – but it doesn’t have to be that way! If you hang out with us for a while, you won’t have a blank stare the next time you’re at a meat counter. You’ll also discover there’s much more out there than ground beef! Here’s a little of what you’ll learn:
- Gain confidence and expertise buying and cooking beef
- Discover new beef recipes using a variety of cuts of beef
- Learn how to substitute different beef cuts in your favorite recipes
- Create simple spice blends and sauces for restaurant-quality meals
- Learn how to purchase beef from your local farmer
Contact
There are many ways we can keep in touch. You can subscribe via email to have our weekly newsletter sent straight to your inbox for free. You can also email anytime at hello(at)clovermeadowsbeef.com. Please know that we are the ones who respond (we don’t have a team), so we do our best to get back to you quickly, but there may be a delay.
If you’re still curious about us, we’re very active in the agriculture community. Our farm was named the 2016 St. Louis County Farm Family and we received the Missouri Farm Innovation award at the 2019 Missouri Governor’s Conference on Agriculture. We’ve also been featured in media outlets like the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, KMOV, St. Louis Magazine, RFD TV’s This Week in Agribusiness, Kitchen Counter Podcast, and Missouri Beef Cattleman magazine, just to name a few.
When we’re not talking about beef, we’re a typical family — just like you! We have one daughter, she’s a rainbow baby and a huge gift from God. A typical day in our home is filled with as much laughter as possible and good food. We also like traveling, riding our bikes or four-wheeler, cheering for our favorite college teams (MU for Matt and KU for Jessica), and watching our favorite shows (RFDTV for Matt and HGTV for Jessica). And most importantly, we try to live as intentionally as possible following Jesus.
Thank you!
Thank you for visiting, and please don’t hesitate to ask us your beef questions! Every recipe you make, and every click, comment and rating support our farm and business. Your feedback is invaluable. If you’ve made something you’ve enjoyed, we would appreciate hearing about it in the comments. Thank you!
Matt & Jessica Hardecke
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