Justine Fulton who is better known as 'Rack of Glam' on social media, is pretty new to the butchery industry. Having entered as a novice, she has worked her way up and has found her dream career. In this episode she talks about challenging stereotypes, skills and the need to support local businesses like your butchers in order for them to thrive.
Justine Fulton who is better known as 'Rack of Glam' on social media, is pretty new to the butchery industry. Having entered as a novice, she has worked her way up and has found her dream career. In this episode she talks about challenging stereotypes, skills and the need to support local businesses like your butchers in order for them to thrive.
You're listening to the Farmers Guardian podcast. Head over to social media and search for watches and you'll find thousands of accounts dedicated to this traditional craft. You'll also find Justine Fulton, aka Rock of Glam, a female butcher, on a mission to show that butchery is for everyone. In this episode of The Farmer's Guardian podcast, I catch a scene to talk about her passion for the industry. I have one. I'm here with Justine Fulton, aka Glam, the Female Butcher. If you follow her on Instagram, it's great to have you. Justine. We've been wanting to chat for ages, so it's nice to actually be able to do this. But just for anybody who doesn't follow you and doesn't know anything about what you do, do you want to just tell people a little bit about your background? Because obviously you're not from some farming or from, you know, like a long line of butchers or anything like that yet. Course. But yeah, first, thanks for having me on. I'm very excited. So yeah, not from a butchery background or a farming background. I grew up in Bacup, which is kind of like semi-rural. It's a small town in Rossendale, Lancashire. Don't if people know what that is, but it's surrounded by hills and shapes. That's probably the only closest link I've got. And a few friends at farms and my dad and my stepmom, they've got a small Holden, but my mum was a landlady so I spent most of my years growing up in pubs. So yeah, I didn't really have any links to it and then I think the first year I started working and in Butcher the guy was like, have you done anything like this before? And I was like, No, this is all brand new to me. So basically learning everything from from the start. What did you actually want to be when you were young going, Well, you know, what do you want to be when you when you grow up? Because you know, when you say you started the book in the butchers, was that just kind of a, you know, like a weekend job that we all have and when we're younger, is that how it began? No, I started in the butchery when I was it was like during lockdown. So it was like 2019. Okay. So not long ago. No, probably about three years ago. And so I was working in social housing and it just got really stressful. I think doing that job anyway was really stressful. But then in COVID and lockdown, it just got too much. So then with that job, I was just putting everything into it and I wasn't really looking after myself. And I just took a step back because I wrote I need to really evaluate my life. So then I finished doing that, and during that time, my husband set up a meat box delivery company and and where we were getting the meat from a disaster, if that. And then I part time work just to just the summer to keep me going and pay the bills until I decided what I wanted to do with my life. And then it kind of just spiraled from there. And I'm still I'm still being a butcher. That's incredible. I really didn't realize that it was such a short time ago, actually. I thought you'd been doing this for much longer, and it was like, Yeah, but you must be so, you know, fallen in love with it straight away. What is it that you like about it? What was it that kind of I know hooked you in? I don't know. At the start, I think because I was working in a stressful environment, I think at the start it was just nice to go in and do the job and then leave and not have anything to do later on. When you're at home, you just leave your job at the door and then as you start getting into it and learning all the different things and everything that happens in the Butcher, it's just, yeah, it's just fascinating and it's such a craft and such a skill. So just being able to watch the butcher's work was, yeah, it was really fascinating for me. So then I was, I was determined to learn that. And especially with these different stereotypes and people, some people just didn't see women doing that job. And so for me as well, it was more of a prove Ephram wrong. Like, well, if you say I can't do it, then I'm going to do it anyway. Yeah, I mean, absolutely. Have you on social media so that's great to see. And that kind of leads me to my next question really, which is, you know, there are more women in farming and in the industry, you know, more than ever. Do you almost see yourself as sort of a role model or an example to other women, and especially young women who might be thinking about careers and what they can do because there's so much stigma about the farming industry and then, you know, you could kind of use your story as such positive example of what opportunities are. Yeah, I always think that way of like butcher or butchers, this gets for me as well. It gets such a bad rep, especially these days, it seems. I don't know, like a bit of a dirty word, but it's not, I think. And I think the butchers that are doing it right and getting it getting the meat from the farmers instead of anything that was intensive. And if it's done right, then it could be beneficial to the environment. With good animal welfare standards as well. So I think, yeah, it's getting a bad rep, but me being on Instagram trying to prove that is a good thing that we are doing and trying to promote good meeting and good farming methods. And yeah, you don't have to be so much meat. You can just eat better, eat less, but eat better. I'd always think I'd always love to someone to watch my Instagram and go, yeah, I want to be a butcher. But if my main thing was someone to be interested in meat or learning about where it comes from or the process that goes into it, then that would be happy with that. Just before we go on social media, just out of interest, did you watch your training being like, have you just trained on the job or have you been able to go on any courses or anything like that? So when I first started doing the butchery, I signed up to an apprenticeship. So I was with me Ipswich, and it's just been a bit of a complicated journey. I feel like my personality trait is being an apprentice because I'm like the longest apprentice go and I should have passed. I should have passed ages ago, but because I move butchery and then they when I moved to a different butchers, he saw me. It was a his training provider and then he left. So then I tried to go back and then it just got really complicated. So then I kind of gave up and I was just what I was going to learn from the block, which most of it is doing from that. And then I thought, Well, I need a qualification. So then I signed up with Cross Bear and then it's normally about a year if you kind of knuckle down and get it done. I think because I've been doing it for a while anyway, it didn't take that long for me to get things done. But yeah, I've been almost at about 12 to 18 months to do the apprenticeship and you do all the theory side of it as well. And then I had my exam on the 23rd of October just gone, so I'm sweating for my results. So we'll see. Hopefully I'll pass. Fingers crossed. I'm sure after all this time you will have done because you obviously work incredibly hard and you so almost like you were meant to do this. I was really like this. I've had so many jobs in my life and normally I like have a do it for you and then I get bored. So then for me, I've been doing this long, longer than a year. So maybe it's it maybe it's for me, this job. Yeah. I mean, kind of social media obviously. And you've got, well, nearly 5000 followers and so like I said before, it's a very traditional and very traditional career. But just looking actually about, you know, how many butchers are on social media, there's absolutely loads with humongous followings. And and I can't put this any other way, but, you know, a lot of the pictures are just like slabs of meat and thousands of followers on these accounts, you know, including yourself. So there's definitely an interest there. Isn't that a lot? Well, what is it? Do you think, that people are interested in? Do you think there's like a rise since COVID as well, perhaps trying to get a little bit closer to that supply chain? Yeah, definitely. It's weird that it's a weird call on Instagram, which is I don't think people understand like I did. And when I first started doing it and I was like started following people on Instagram and then you get kind of like in a rabbit hole. I was like, This is mad. Like, this is weird. It's like, brilliant, always such like a really good community on there. But yeah, it is just slabs and slabs of meat. But for yeah, I feel like people, I think my, like our generation is more interested in how things are farmed and where it comes from. And I think you can see it in customers when they come in. You get a lot of old generation coming in with no what they want and it's all very like your standard minced chicken fillets, you know, basic stuff. But when you speak to like younger customers, they're interested in different cooks or different breeds of animals. And I think it just stems a lot from cooking programs and chefs talking about these different kind of cooks and and a lot of the older customers go mad because lamb breast used to be really cheap, used to give it away for free. We like skirt as well. Customers go mad like, I used to get this for free. But then because people it's in demand, you can put the price up and people would pay for it. That turn of time as well. It's almost like you kind of, you know, it's come back full circle. That is intense. So people actually care about farming, knowing about it and knowing about that connection, number one, is that something you enjoy? Because you know, it's so customer facing being a butcher and a number two, I am just in touch that what we were talking about before in terms of careers, you know, that whole kind of story of selling your produce and what the raw meat box is. You want to set up your own business or marketing. There's so much opportunity in our industry because everybody has a story in our industry and that's what we need to sell. Yeah, definitely. I feel like that's when I sell by Instagram. It wasn't I don't really know why I set it up. I just kind of set it up to follow the butchers and stop posting meat and my own personal account. But then, yeah, I kind of just like started documenting my own journey for myself, but then it kind of took off and then started doing videos and I kind of is really fun doing then things like sometimes when you're having a, a rubbish day like, I was going to video this and then your editing got loads. It's yeah, it's really fun. I do enjoy it, but yeah, and then just kind of being that woman. People don't see a woman being a butcher. So seeing that on Instagram, people might think, Ooh, that's interesting. You've got a lot of questions either some people, the customers all through social media. Yeah, I've got a few messages on Instagram customers. You still trying to break the stereotype of women in mate? Like it's not too bad when I'm on my own, but if my manager's there, if a customer is asking me a question and I'll answer it, they'll always be looking over to my manager to kind of like get reassurance. Yeah, yeah. It's kind of annoying sometimes, but I think if you just confident, then and he know he's noticed it now as well. So he always keeps his head down because I, you don't need to ask me like you've answered the question. So yeah that's good that, that, that kind of support is there for you as well. I hear this quite a lot in terms of, you know, especially if you are maybe working out on an actual farm and, you know, some I recall something comes on that, you know, I have heard that they will ask for the farmer and, you know, you kind of like I am the farmer. Yeah, but we have moved on a lot. Will. Obviously, it's really important to put yourself in front of people who are outside the industry. So and I was reading while I was listening to Zoe Zoe's book, The Chief Shepherdess, and then she said she had an instance where someone came and asked her for the farmer and she was like, I don't get annoyed by it. And I was, I get really annoyed by it kind of made sense. I it's not, it's not their fault because I always thought growing up, you have these ideas, these perception that butchers are men. So when you see a woman, you just think, she doesn't know what she's doing. So yeah, doing this job is doing that, being a butcher, but then also trying changing people's perspectives and their ideas that what a butcher should be in terms of, you know, like why you worked and things, because obviously you've worked in different environments now. So if I'm correct, you work in a farm shop now. Yeah. Yes. And whereas before you were working in Manchester. Yeah. Is that right? So obviously they're quite different environments in terms of the customers that you serve and things like that and is there an appetite from like people who live in a more open environment to know about their food? Because I imagine it's quite a different customer base from the farm shop, for example, you would probably go to the farm shop either because you live close by, you know, the family, or if on a day out. Yeah, yeah. You can tell the different different types of customers that come into the shop and you can see the preferences as well, because the first shop I worked at was in Bolton and they were obsessed with pork around there. But then when I worked in Knutsford, now they want it's gone up a little bit like the interest, but at the store no one would really want pork. And so it's yeah, you can see differences and a lot of people in Knutsford don't want that. And then the people in Manchester and Bolton wanted for. So I think it does depend on the person, but I think like I said before, in the urban areas, you've obviously got a lot of young, younger people there. And the one in Manchester, it was mainly steaks like we sold so much steak meal. Okay? And then a lot of people come in at the farm. So I was quite quiet in the week. But in the weekend, people coming in for joints or chicken and then bits of stuff that prepare themselves for the rest of the week. And do you just out of interest, just, you know, you kind of talk about people's jobs and then you're doing it all day and then you go home. But do you still enjoy cooking and things like that? Are you like a foodie when you when you get home, you just like, I've had enough now. It going to be okay. I can cook, but I've never well, can I cook when I do cook? Apparently it's it's all right, but never I've never been like a keen cook. And that's the thing. When I started being a butcher, people start asking me for cooking advice. I'm like, Well, I need to be a chef on a butcher. I'm like, No, the notes on my phone of like, how to cook this thing. And then soon was like, Well, how do I cook this now? Just give me one second and I'll just feel like I've got a real good deal. I'll bring the meat home and my husband's really good cook, So then he'll do all the cooking and then I'll wash up. But I think at the end of the day, I'm not sure. Yeah, I've, I've never, I've cooked but yeah, it's not, I do enjoy it but if he's really good at it what's the point of me doing it. And you know, that's the first part of the process. He's after the second team work. Yeah. Sometimes when you're at work all day and then you're dealing with food or even, like, washing up a cleaning when I go home. So I can't be. And so just in general, you know, what is it that you what do you love about your job? Because obviously you never thought you'd be doing this. What is it that you love day in, day out, about going to work and being a butcher? It's really creative. I love being creative. The creative side of it with the meat or with the Instagram, with the videos. I do really enjoyed that. And then most recently, like I love learning about like where the animals come from, how it's reared, how it's processed, feel up, quite looking at blemishes because we get all our animals from farm, which is part of the farm shop, so we can drive into work and see all the sheep or the cows at the side of the road. And then they always move them around in the different barns and sometimes extreme lambing. Or you can just see them grow up. And then when then they come in to us. And I think that's understanding that cycle. That's how it is. And a lot of customers don't understand that. Like kids come in, they don't realize that chicken is like chicken nuggets or like pig is a sausage. It's made like people just don't see that process. And I think that's another way I wanted to do it is for people to appreciate where the food comes from and the process that goes into it. So easy to go to the supermarket and pick it up from the shelf and then that's it. But then you need to appreciate how it's been farmed, how it's been processed, how it's been butchered, and then you really appreciate the food that you're eating. But I'm just learning about the farm inside of it. That's what I've really enjoyed. I feel like a lot of people just go even like the cooking route or the farming route, and I've really enjoyed that. That side of it trying to be sustainable and ethical and that kind of side of the book. Trace what I enjoy the most, I think I think there's something so nice as well about the fact that it's such a communal thing to do. Go to a butchers to get, you know, part of your shopping list, because I think farming is probably quite unique in the fact that we still have our core rural communities. It's still quite a neighborly industry, if that makes sense. I'm actually going to shop into a supermarket and you know, it's a so lonely experience is what it is. But to go into a butcher shop, it feels quite rooted and old fashioned. You get to tell someone you kind of know what you're buying and then you come out almost feeling it's almost like a step back in time. But I stepped back in time feeling sorry, if that makes sense. Yeah, and people want that. Like people always. People love the idea of having the high street with your butcher and your baker bickering the candlestick maker. But if people don't use it, then it's going to be it's going to go off because people can't you can't expect the shop to be there if no one's going into it. But it's you don't get that 1 to 1 experience. When you go to a supermarket, they can go in and you'd be like, Where's this come from? But it might have a nice farm name on the meat, but it's probably not even from an actual farm and you don't know what breed it is, where it's coming from, what it's been fed and how to cook it. And it's just nice to have that that personal touch and it's not that expensive. I think everyone thinks that butchers are really expensive, but when you compare it, it might be a couple of quick more, but you paying for that quality and if you eat less, you'll make up for that when you spend your money on that nice piece of meat And you obviously don't get Justine's personal cooking note that she got meat within a phone. No, thank you. Completely. Right. And I think there's loads of strings that come off as well, which is a whole other conversation. But, you know, jobs in the community and those ties back to local abattoirs and then further in that those ties back to local farms. So I think what you're doing on Instagram is great and like I said, it's I followed you for quite a while now, so it's nice to see and and hear your story and actually how you really enjoying it and what you get from it because there's careers wise, there's loads of opportunities for that, anybody out there inside and outside the farming industry. So my last question is about my favorite thing in the world, which is Christmas and Christmas is coming. So as a butcher, what will it be for you for Christmas dinner? And what's your favorite thing about Christmas dinner in butchers? Worst time of year. Yeah, I me like, but I didn't expect it to be like Christmas. It's like I've got a love hate relationship with Christmas. Like you get that you get a boost from it, but you dread it. I think you dread it all year. And then when it comes, it's hard work. But then when that last award has been picked up and went through it, you do get a boost from it. So it is enjoyable. But also for Christmas. Yeah, actually I, I have so much meat. Last year I've just took, I just went to town, but this year I'm probably just going to get a rib, a beef rib, a beef and a gammon. My husband does a really nice gammon with cork glazed. nice. Yeah. Yeah. Last year I went, I got like a sirloin roast, I got a cap on, I got a gammon, a got about a million pigs in blankets. That was good to me. It's just you and me. We rib beef. I think this year is going to be on the Christmas table. Do people is Turkey still living or are people looking at alternative joints and meats for Christmas? People normally stick with turkey. Yeah, they want to just get a full turkey. Maybe they'll get like a turkey crown, but it's only for sandwiches. I when people speak to me, they were like, we're only getting it up some. We just the next day. So we do go through a lot of ribs, a beef or sirloin. I think that's beef's getting very popular at Christmas. What are you going to have for Christmas dinner and turkey for those I always go to. I'm really selfish at Christmas, like I hate being anywhere else other than my parents house, but it will be Turkey wherever we go. And but my dad always makes this and then cold. So simple sausage pie. So if I say sausage, me my straight. it's so good, honestly, to know when you you know, that's that's always the thing that I'm going to associate with Christmas is the food. Like, that's, that's all I want is just amazing. Any little sausage made with salt and pepper and lemon juice and then you like slices, couple of lemons and pops and on top and then roast. And then that's Christmas for me in a dish. Yeah. Justification for anybody thinking of, you know, is this the career for me. What would you say to those those people particularly maybe women who might be on the fence about doing something like this? What's your advice? Definitely try it. Like I tried it and it's got me hooked like a drug and yeah, just give it a go. Even if you do a couple of days in the butchery, if you work a really good one, you'll have a really good time, You'll have a good laugh and you get lots of meat. At the end of the day, whether you're learning a new skill and you learn learning a craft and it's quite sad that it could be this craft could be dying out. And even if you know a woman or just a young person, just a young person coming into this industry, it's yeah, it's a good a good thing to do. So yeah, just try out and then you'll you'll definitely love it. It's hard like it's hard work, but yeah, I love it. Farming is full of diverse careers and people, so hopefully this podcast with Justine will inspire you to delve a little deeper into aquaculture and what it can offer. It might also encourages all to have a little closer look at where our food comes from. That's it for me this week, but the Farm Scotland podcast will be back again next week and you can also head to your favorite podcast platform to check out all the other episodes from the Farmers Guardian podcast.