It might sound like a joke — a meatless meat market — but the ones laughing are the people who came up with the idea.
The brother-and-sister team of Aubry and Kale Walch have just wrapped up a super-successful Kickstarter campaign and are preparing to open a vegan butcher shop, the Herbivorous Butcher, in Minneapolis. In the process, they've also become foodie rock stars.
"The press we've been getting is amazing," said Kale Walch, who's been getting requests for interviews from all over the world. "They've heard of us in Europe! I still can't believe that people in the United States have heard of us."
One reason for the interest is that their vegan butcher shop will be the first of its kind anywhere. That, and the fact that when people hear about it, their first reaction is to think they're being punked.
"But then they try it," Walch said, "and we walk them through the ingredients and explain how it's the nutritional equivalent of meat, along with the texture and flavor. Then they understand."
What many vegetarians want is something that looks like meat, tastes like meat, acts like meat when you stick it in a burger or put it on a grill — but isn't meat. That's what the Walches have figured out how to provide. They combine ingredients like yeast, soy and miso in recipes they've spent three years perfecting.
They started selling their non-meat meat over the summer at the Minneapolis Farmers Market. Now they've moved to the Linden Hills Winter Market, which is held at Sunnyside Gardens, 3723 W. 44th St., Minneapolis. They will be there the next three Sundays, starting at 9 a.m., but their repeat customers know to arrive early because supply doesn't come close to demand.
"We've sold out every weekend since we started," Walch said. "In fact, we usually sell out by 11 a.m."
