Cascun Farm sales skyrocket

The chickens have come home to roost. — Robert Southey

GREENE — Southey’s idiom appeared in 1810 on the title page of his poem “The Curse of Kehama.” His meaning was that curses are like chickens; they always come home to roost. Translation: your bad deeds always catch up with you. Don’t tell that to Andrea and Don Cascun (kas-KOON): their chickens are a blessing.

“Don came home one day with 100 chicks,” says Andrea Cascun, co-owner with her husband Don of Cascun Farm, Inc. “His idea was to raise the chicks and process the chickens for sale. The purpose was to help pay the taxes on the 125-acre farm owned by Don’s parents and to fund the farming lifestyle we both loved. Our sales in the first year of business (2012) were $50,000. The next year our sales grew 777 percent and then doubled in 2014 and again in 2015.”

Both Cascuns had grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great grandparents who operated dairy farms. “Farming is in our blood,” Andrea Cascun continues. “We are also committed to natural food which involves minimal processing, contains no artificial additives, no growth hormones or anti-biotics, natural feed (no animal bi-products), free-range for the animals, and humane slaughtering. To us, natural food is locally sourced to guarantee freshness. Don’s 100 chicks soon grew to 5,000 chickens, and our … [enterprise] expanded to include raising turkeys, goats, rabbits, and lambs. To handle the [explosive] growth, we built a processing facility in a barn on the farm. Cascun Farm also sourced beef, pork, and even quail and squab from regional farmers to complement their own products. In April 2013, we created a d/b/a and opened The Butcher Block and Farm Market. It served as an outlet for our poultry and meats. Last year, we set up a second corporation called The Butcher, the Baker, and the Sandwich Maker, Inc. and rebranded the business. In December, we reopened as a deli/bakery/butcher shop, located on the main street in Greene.”

OJT Training
The Cascuns learned to raise poultry through on-the-job-training. “In the beginning, it was all trial and error,” reflects Cascun. “The process sounds easy: buy the chicks, feed them for eight weeks, harvest and package them, and sell the product. We set up brooder boxes to keep the chicks warm and kept the water, starter-feed, and bedding clean. Every evening, the family would round up the wandering chickens and drive them into hoop houses. We learned to cover the openings with wire to prevent predators, especially the neighborhood owls, from enjoying … [our bounty]. We also learned that nature has a way of interfering with the best plans. One day, a sudden storm came up and drenched our brood before we could get them to shelter. That night we lost 750 to pneumonia.”

The two-person start-up company now employs 17 people: five on the farm and 10 at the deli/café store plus Don and Andrea. In 2015, the couple processed more than 50,000 pounds of meat and poultry, including some animals from area farmers. They have successfully parlayed the original $50,000 in sales to an estimated $1.5 million-plus (consolidated figures) in 2015 (CNYBJ estimate).

National trends
The Cascuns are riding a national wave of consumer demand for natural and locally produced food. According to a 2014 Consumer Reports study, 66 percent of consumers are checking to see whether their food is locally produced, and 59 percent want to know whether it’s natural. Seventy-five percent of consumers also expect that their meat and poultry will be raised humanely. A 2014 study by the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) identified several macro trends in eating and shopping, including consumers’ higher expectations from their food and the companies providing it, a decrease in loyalty to just one food vendor, and a greater involvement by the consumer in the foods they purchase. FMI also noted the growth of consumer attitudes in support of wellness and a marked trend to divide retail spending among grocers in different categories. The study highlighted changes in consumer eating habits to reflect a move away from planned eating to a more spontaneous, same-day consumption. Finally, the study showed that food retailers are best positioned to leverage consumer trust around health and wellness.

“To be successful as a business, we recognized the need to find buyers who appreciated the quality of our products and who would pay a premium price,” says Andrea Cascun. “At first, Don’s dad, who had a business in New York City, went directly to certain buyers there. Our breakthrough came when we contacted FarmersWeb, an online business that puts farms, food hubs, and local artisans in touch with wholesale buyers, such as restaurants, schools, caterers, country clubs, hotels, corporate kitchens, retail stores, and more. FarmersWeb also acts as a sales agent by accepting online orders and as an administrator that creates packing slips, processes and tracks orders, issues invoices, and processes payments. The buyers benefit from immediate access to local products, and the sellers can identify the current demand in real time for their products among a number of buyers. FarmersWeb is free for buyers, and the producers pay a fee depending on the level of services chosen.”

While FarmersWeb has proven an invaluable marketing tool for the Cascuns, they find no substitute for building personal relations. “This is a business based on trust,” intones Cascun. “We don’t rely on distributors to sell our products; we want to know exactly what a chef or buyer wants and we want to control the process to ensure quality, packaging, and timely delivery. Don is in New York City every week meeting with our established … [clientele] and introducing Cascun Farm to new buyers. We currently deliver three times a week to the city and bring back fresh bagels, pastries, cakes, rolls, and lox from Brooklyn suppliers for our café. For us to compete against the many, large meat purveyors, we have to be sure we have the products our customers want when they want them. We accept special orders that may be small or need special cutting and packaging. You want French-cut chicken breasts, blends of ground beef, prepared chicken stock? We can do that … You have to be right with every order; considering the competition, you usually don’t get a second chance. If it means busting your rear-end and staying up until 2 a.m. to complete an order or delivering on a holiday, that’s what we do. We don’t say no. This is a long-term proposition for us: we plan to grow with our customers.”

Future growth plans
The Cascuns are on track to sustain their hyper-growth. “Interest in specialty poultry production is growing in the U.S., but there are few processing facilities that provide poultry-processing services to independent producers,” notes Cascun. “Our focus now is to widen our distribution by obtaining certification to cut and process meats to ship across state lines and to cut and package red meat for wholesale. This requires a processing plant with at least 7,500 square feet, which we hope to find by late spring or early summer. We project in phase-one of the operation to hire 10 people and an additional 15 people in phase-two. Then our geographic markets will reach not just to New York City but also to Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, and the Greater New York metro area outside the state. We know the demand is there because many of our current customers who have operations in those markets have asked us to expand.”

Finding a processing plant is just one project on the Cascuns’ to-do list. “The reception of our deli/bakery/butcher shop has been tremendous,” opines Cascun. “Our customers love the concept of combining a farm, butcher shop, deli, and café where they get fresh, natural meats cut to their particular request. The bagels, which are hand-rolled, kettle-boiled, baked fresh every morning in our bakery, and contain only natural ingredients, are the best bagels I have ever tasted … Our deli/cafe is currently open for breakfast and lunch, and we are extending the hours to include dinner. If you like options such as soups made from scratch, hand-cut fries, burgers fresh from our butcher shop, our special herbed mayonnaise, and Don’s house-made brisket braised in wine, The Butcher, the Baker, and the Sandwich Maker should be your destination. Because of our success with the model in Greene, we plan to open another outlet in Ithaca, where the customers truly appreciate natural foods and the city has asked us to come.”

The Cascuns have also generated a catering business, which has the potential to expand, and they dream of opening a charcuterie to age and dry-cure sausage, ham, patés, and other cooked meats. Currently, Cascun Farm acts as a distributor for small, local farmers selling their honey, maple syrup, and cheeses. Growth plans also call for creating a food hub to bring the area’s small farmers together with buyers. Most of all, Don and Andrea want to own their own farm. “Don is the dreamer in the family, and I am the realist,” explains Andrea. “We have to be careful that our growth is not so fast that we can’t control it. That’s why the processing plant is receiving all of our attention now: Without the certification and the right facility we can’t move ahead.”

One of the Cascuns biggest roadblocks to expanding is the lack of skilled labor in the area. “Ours is a fluctuating market depending on the season,” laments Cascun. “Our goal is to maintain our employment year-round, and we pay well to attract good employees. Working in our deli/bakery/butcher shop is not a glamorous job, but it is demanding because there is little room for error. We need to find people who are willing to work, pay attention to detail, and are eager to learn. We spend a lot of time recruiting the right people and teaching them how to do the job.” The Cascuns have also been supported in their growth by professional service-providers including Citizens Bank for financial needs, Levene, Gouldin & Thompson for legal matters, and Vieira & Associates for accounting.

Andrea Cascun grew up in Pine Bush, a hamlet in Orange County. Don Cascun was born in the Republic of Malta, and moved with his family at the age of five to Astoria, Queens. The two met in Orange County, where they were attending college. Andrea studied graphic design, communications, and advertising/marketing. Following graduation, she worked at a local Ethan Allen furniture store doing in-home design. The couple moved to Chenango County a decade ago, where Andrea opened a dog-grooming business in 2006 and Don studied to be a nurse. The couple has three children ages 12, 10, and five.

Nothing seems to daunt the Cascuns. Despite all the regulatory oversight in the food business, the challenge of finding employees, fierce competition, the pressure to find investment capital, and demanding customers, they are forging ahead with their plans to grow the business at an exponential rate.