A bus from South Stokes High School sits in front of Mitchell’s Butchery. Inside the shop, a group of students crowd around the butcher table behind the meat coolers. Before them lies the culmination of their class project: half of a pig carcass.

Most of the kids are dressed in jeans and boots. A few live on nearby farms. Some are on the livestock show team. Still others are part of Future Farmers of America (FFA). By now, they’re used to working with animals. All eyes are on Head Butcher Zev Flinchum as he begins cutting up the pork.

Zev Flinchum. photograph by Stacey Van Berkel

“Where does the loin come off?” Sawyer Ferguson, the agriculture teacher and FFA adviser, asks the group as Flinchum points out the muscle that runs from one end of the pork to the other. “The back,” a few students answer. “Very good,” Ferguson responds with a smile.

Carl Mitchell, chief of operations, walks over to join the conversation. “This is my favorite cut of meat right here,” he says, motioning to the tenderloin, a small, narrow muscle that’s located at the back of the pork loin. Carl participates in the rest of the demonstration, pointing out different parts of the pork as Flinchum finishes his cuts.

At the front of Mitchell’s Butchery, behind the cash register, a sign displays the four core principles of the business. “Put on an interactive show” is No. 2. Here, education is key. The Mitchells — Carl and his wife, Kristi — opened their Walnut Cove storefront in September 2024 with the goal of selling quality meat to as many people as possible. It’s not a revolutionary concept. It’s reminiscent of how things used to be, when the local butcher knew to set aside an especially tender roast for a loyal customer’s Sunday supper. But now, local butchers are few and far between. Today, Carl says, “the average person is four generations removed from the farm.”

At Mitchell’s Chop Shop in King — a smaller retail outpost that opened in January — customers pick up quality cuts. photograph by Stacey Van Berkel

At Mitchell’s, the couple connects their customers with local farmers. On a cooler of chicken, a sign reads, “Where does our chicken come from?” The answer: Wayne Farms in Dobson, where the birds eat a vegetarian diet and aren’t raised on antibiotics. Similar signage hangs near other products like cheese, milk, and honey. Carl and Kristi highlight a sort of “farmer on tap” each week: Today, the beef in the display case comes from Farmstead On A Hill in Lawsonville.

By championing small farmers who raise meat with care and attention to detail, the couple bridges the distance most of us have from the land. Building that bridge takes a lot of work and knowledge — and the Mitchells’ stores are just one aspect. Among the others are their meat processing plant and 260-acre beef farm.

• • •

Stokes County is a network of hills and hollers scattered around the higher peaks of the Sauratown Mountains. The Mitchells’ farm, located about 10 minutes west of their Walnut Cove butchery in a community called Germanton, is laid out in much the same way. Carl and Kristi’s home sits off a narrow dirt road near the entrance to their property. Their Great Dane, Thor; German Shepherd, Hazel; and mutt, Motor, circle the couple, barking as they head out the dirt-smeared front door and get into the family’s red pickup. The Mitchells’ nearly 80 Angus cattle are spread throughout their land and Carl’s parents’ adjacent property.

Farming family land is a way of life that not many people can relate to anymore. But the experience has given the Mitchells confidence and pride in their community.

The Mitchells’ pasture-raised Angus bulls are a docile breed. Because the family works with the animals often, they have low stress levels when harvested, which makes for tender meat. photograph by Stacey Van Berkel

Not too far from their house, Carl points out the first herd. A group of calves flick their tails and point their damp noses toward the ground. “We haven’t bought a cow since 1992,” he says. “We’ve raised every single cow that’s here.”

In 1976, Carl’s father, Johnny, bought 40 acres to grow tobacco. Johnny worked as a mailman, and his wife, Sue, taught home economics at South Stokes High School. The sale of tobacco paid for Carl’s college education — he studied zoology at NC State — and helped the family expand the property to its current 260 acres. After Carl left for school, the Mitchells stopped growing tobacco and transitioned to raising and selling cattle.

And even though Carl was always working cattle, a desire to serve others led him to another full-time job: teaching. That’s how he met Kristi in 2006. She was teaching seventh-grade math at The Academy at Lincoln in Greensboro; he was teaching seventh-grade science. “I met her in August,” Carl says. “We were dating in September, and we were married in July.” Kristi, who grew up in the suburbs in Ohio, never imagined that her adult life would revolve around farm chores. “This was completely new to me,” she says, “but dating Carl means you’re dating the farm, too.”

Kristi and Carl Mitchell (right) run their Stokes County farm and butchery with the help of their children (left), Annie and Caleb — and their calf-size Great Dane, Thor. photograph by Stacey Van Berkel

Driving around the Mitchells’ land doesn’t feel like taking a tour of the stereotypical wide-open cattle pasture. It’s hilly and bumpy, and there are trees that frame the horizon. This region of North Carolina — the northwestern Piedmont up through the Appalachians — is the best place to raise livestock, Carl says. The diversity of grass, amount of rainfall, and climate create ideal conditions for cattle. In places like Montana, it can take a farmer 10 acres to raise one cow. “Here, we can do it on an acre and a half to two acres per cow,” Carl says.

A smaller farm also means the couple can take care of their entire herd with the help of their two children — Caleb, 15, and Annie, 13. “I don’t know how I would be able to raise kids without a farm,” Carl says. “All the lessons you learn. The farm has never been a question of ‘are we or aren’t we going to do it.’”

After spending about a decade teaching, Carl took over as Stokes County’s livestock cooperative extension agent in 2016. That position allowed him to stay on top of the latest research in his field, while also forming and fostering relationships with local cattle farmers and understanding their needs. Not long after, Carl and Kristi got their meat handler’s license and started selling meat from their garage.

The Mitchells sell filet mignon, sirloin steaks, rib eyes, and tomahawk rib eyes from their farm at their butcher shops. photograph by Stacey Van Berkel

And as the couple began formulating ideas about what the future could hold, they got wind that Mitchell’s Meat Processing — the local slaughterhouse, run by a different set of Mitchells with no relation — was going to close. Carl turned to Kristi and said, “What if we do this?” In 2018, Kristi bought the plant. A few years later, the couple found a storefront in Walnut Cove where they could sell their meat to customers.

This past January, they opened another butcher shop in King, and thanks to a $3.1 million grant that Carl received from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the couple was able to buy land nearby to build another meat processing plant. They hope to open the plant sometime in the next year or two. Their intent is to give North Carolina meat farmers another place to sell their products, which will help teach more people about the benefits of supporting local agriculture.

• • •

For the Mitchells, splitting their time between the farm, the meat processing plant, and their storefronts isn’t just executing a business plan. It’s preserving a way of life. “We need to have farms that are profitable in order to keep them,” Carl says.

In October, after Hurricane Helene ravaged western North Carolina, Carl drove to Bat Cave to donate two 800-pound loads of meat. He connected with an apple farmer there who’d lost everything in the storm. “In the middle of harvest season, the place is absolutely devastated,” Carl says. “And who’s cleaning up the roads? It’s the farmers, because they’re able. If farms don’t survive, we will lose our culture. We’ll lose our community.”

After driving around the Mitchell’s farm, it’s time for the couple to stop by the Walnut Cove shop and check in with their staff. Carl pulls out of their property and onto NC Highway 8. As he drives, Carl reflects on springtime at the farm. An ideal day is a day when nothing breaks. That’s rare. But on a perfect day, he likes to stand in the pasture and spend time with his cows. To look up at the sky and out on his land, and to give silent thanks for a community and livelihood that have taught him every life lesson.

Mitchell’s Butchery
2678 NC Highway 89 East
Walnut Cove, NC 27052
(336) 591-1052
mitchellsbutcherync.com

Mitchell’s Chop Shop
127 South Main Street
King, NC 27021
(336) 937-6328