Going strong for five decades

Steve and Donnavon Eaker became key holders of Ellendale’s “Pete and Rube’s Market” on Feb. 3, 1973 and changed the name to Steve’s Meat Market. A year later, their daughter, Rachael Lee, named after her grandma in Bixby, was born.

 

Now 50 years old, Lee doesn’t look her age. She manages the shop by answering any questions her employees have while she keeps busy in the back with orders. Her cheerful smile lets everyone know about her easy-going, friendly personality. While it could be said she was born into the business, that is not the way she has always seen it.

 

While attending college, she believed she would promote sports for a living, but decided to step in “temporarily” when she saw her hard-working parents needed extra help. Her perspective changed when her father was diagnosed with cancer. In 2006, she took up his role as an owner and began running the business.

 

From the time Lee was ten years old, she bagged groceries with Michelle, her older sister. Back then, Steve’s Meat Market carried a wider selection of groceries, which included fruits, vegetables, canned goods, and cereal. As she and her sister grew older, they took on other responsibilities like stocking the shelves and running the till. By the time each of the sisters turned twelve, they knew how to package meats and work on orders.

 

“My parents had a vision of what could work for them,” Lee remembered. She went on to explain that, because the custom processing and slaughtering “fell to the wayside” in the 1980s, her parents had to decide what to do that would allow the business to continue. “[My dad] was really good at making sausages,” Lee added. “So in 1991, they went USDA.”

 

Around that time, Michelle graduated from high school and decided she didn’t want to work at the market anymore.

 

Lee said her parents worked as a team; Steve envisioned where his products could go, what he could do with them, and how he could sell them; Donnavon, Lee’s mom, sold the products. The next year, in 1992, Lee graduated from high school and went to college where she got a business degree. While Lee’s dad prepared the meat, she packaged and took care of orders with the other employees and her mom sold the meat.

 

But, Lee clarified, it wasn’t just the three of them.

 

“It takes everyone to work here in order to make this work,” she said.

 

In the years of packaging, Lee added, the process has changed a lot. When she started, she packaged with plastic and white wrapping until about high school when Cryovac became state of the art. The Cryovac system sucked the air out of the bags, enabling the meat in the packaging to stay fresher longer.

 

“The role of packaging keeps changing,” Lee noted. “Now you have more roll stock machines where you put it into pockets and the machine seals it as it keeps going on a rotation type of thing. So it’s a little bit more automated.”  

 

Steve’s Meat Market has distributors throughout the Cities area, northern and southern Minnesota, and in parts of Iowa. The business sells its meats to various stores, including some branches of the Hy-Vee brand.

 

“We probably try to do a little bit too much,” Lee admitted. “But we choose distributors who are a good fit for both sides.”

 

Her two sons, Daxter and Jared, are both heavily involved with basketball and baseball and play on the Pan, but both of them work at the shop, usually during the summers. Currently, Jared is a sophomore and Daxter is a senior in high school.

 

When The Pioneer asked Lee whether she thought either of her boys would take over the business, she shrugged and smiled. “You never know,” she said. “I never thought I would – I really didn’t. I just came back to help my parents out.”

 

Two years ago, Lee’s mom also got cancer and passed away, leaving Lee in charge of the business.

 

“It wasn’t like a ‘Yes, this is what I’m going to do for the rest of my life,’ but that’s what it sure turned into,” Lee said. “The thing is, when you’re born into a business, you’re born into a business and that’s all you know. You just go with it.”

 

Throughout the 50-year history, Steve’s Meat Market has a wide range of accomplishments.

-In October 1975, Steve’s Meat Market started processing venison, from a trim to a whole deer.

 

-In July 1976, Steve’s Meat Market attended the thirty-seventh annual convention of the American Association of Meat Processors in Minneapolis, where meat processors learned more about the industry and modern equipment.

 

-In September 1976, Steve’s Meat Market installed a gas powered smokehouse for better humidity and temperature control.

 

-In May 1978, Steve Eaker received the 1978 Ellendale-Geneva F.F.A. Honorary Chapter Award at the annual banquet held at the Ellendale Community Center for his continued work in the meat judging team.

 

-In May 1982, Steve and Donnavon Eaker entered their smoked meat products in the product show competition and received a reserve champion title in the miscellaneous specialties class.

 

-In July 1982, Steve and Donnavon Eaker were awarded the Steele County Friend of 4-H award.

 

Steve’s Meat Market also received numerous awards throughout the years:

 

-August/September 1986, Steve received a first place premium for summer sausage and a second place premium for ham at the Minnesota State Fair.

 

-On August 10, 1987 – Steve received a champion award for his smoked turkey entry in Louisville, Kentucky.

 

-In August/September 1987 – Steve received fourth place for a bacon entry and fifth place for his summer sausage entry at the Minnesota State Fair.

 

-On August 15, 1988 – Steve received two Grand Champions, two Reserve Grand Champions, and two Reserve Champions at the forty-ninth annual convention of the American Association of Meat Processors held in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

 

-August/September 1988: Steve received third place for his ham entry at the product show competition at the Minnesota State Fair.

 

-August/September 1989: Steve received two first place premium awards for his summer sausage and ham entries.

 

Throughout the years, Steve continued to win contests and entries for his meat products.

If anyone is interested, Steve’s Meat Market is looking for a full-time meat cutter and is willing to train any beginners who are hired.