A day in the life of Justine Fulton
Hello. My name is Justine, and I am a butcher at the Butchers Blade in Sandbach. I have been a butcher for over three years and have worked in various shops. My day-to-day life varies throughout the week. When I am not at work, I am at the University of Leeds studying for my MSc in Sustainable Food Systems, which aims to equip me with the skills to use a holistic system-thinking approach to understand, evaluate, and deconstruct the food system's complexity.
When I am working, I generally get up around 5:30 am. I usually need 15 minutes to sit with a coffee and wake up. I walk my two collies and get home to make poached eggs on toast. As someone with ADHD, a protein breakfast is a must to take with my medication. It usually takes me around 45-50 minutes to get to work; finding good butchers to work nearby is difficult, so I'm used to the drive. I get to work around 7:50 am and treat me and Lee (the boss) to a coffee. Every day is different, and depending on what day it is, it depends on what tasks need to be done. We open at 8:00 am and start setting up for the day, organising the counter for our customers with all the meaty goodness and making it look pretty (this is one of my favorite jobs).
On Tuesdays, we often do all the butchery prep ready for the week. Beef, lamb, pork, sometimes goat or venison if we are feeling fancy. We work on full-body carcasses, breaking down the animals into primal and then onto specific cuts we think are the most popular with customers. Any trim bits go to diced meat, burgers, mince, and kebabs. I spend a lot of time chatting with customers, helping them select different cuts and providing recommendations or just having a lil gossip. My favorite bit is discussing sustainability and farming with our customers, sometimes teaching them the importance of local meats and their benefits to the climate. Recently, more people have become keen on discussing different breeds and where their meat comes from, so talking about it with them is fun. Other jobs in the butchery on other days include sausage making, ready meal preparations, burger pressing, kebab making, cleaning, drinking coffee, and lots of LOLs.
Cleaning down is important, mainly because we are clean freaks, but a lot of meaty mess can be made throughout the day. We pack everything and store it in the fridge, ready for tomorrow. We wash down the machines and equipment used, sanitise worktops, and then scrape the block (this is excellent for an arm workout). We close the shop at 4:00 pm, and then I set off home, often sticking on a podcast about farming, meat, or the food system. When I get home, I love discussing my day and expressing gratitude for everything I’ve done or learned. I also really do appreciate the skills, knowledge, and dedication involved in the profession I have, and I love being part of this industry.
Justine x