By Michelle M. Sharp, Founder and Content Creator of Meet the Minnesota Makers
| WHO: | MTRY & Co | ||
| BUSINESS TYPE: | Family Livestock Farms | ||
| SIGNATURE PRODUCTS: | Bacon, Beef, Chicken and Pork Specialty Boxes | ||
| WHERE:
IN-PERSON: WEBSITE: |
Based in Mankato, Representing statewide farms, Shipping nationally
Pop up store in Mankato |
The Drager Family is always up for an adventure. For many years that meant organizing the family for trips across the United States and seeing who would triumph at the spirited family 
cooking competitions at their group gatherings.
This joy of gathering around good food inspired them to found The Meatery MN, now rebranded as MTRY & Co, LLC, in 2022.
A FAMILY ADVENTURE
The Drager Family is a multi-generational crew operating a livestock and crop farm that calls Minnesota Lake, MN home. Their experience with the meat packer shutdowns and grocery supply chain shortages during the Covid pandemic inspired them to create a new way to connect consumers and producers.
The MTRY & Co’s online marketplace, based in Mankato, offers beef, chicken and pork specialty boxes along with local cheese, spice rubs, and bacon socks that are shipped directly from the producer farms in sustainable packaging. All the meat and cheese has been raised and processed locally, largely in Minnesota. Shipping of frozen products is available nationwide.
Through the collaboration of diverse farms throughout the state, everyone saves on shipping and administrative costs. This leaves the producers more space to focus on their animals, their farms, their livelihoods.
Colette Drager, one of the 11 cofounders, shares, “All the people involved in the MTRY & Co bring me so much joy. Our family works so well together. I love getting to know the producers and our consumers and then connecting them.”
FARM TO TABLE EXPERIENCES
The MTRY & Co’s mission is simple, “It’s all about bringing the delicious world of small producers directly to you, making the farm-to-table experience accessible and delightful for everyone, 
and connecting an inspired community with access to top quality small producers,” explains Colette. “Our online marketplace looks to make it as easy as possible for people to connect with quality food that supports local producers.”
“We want to make eating locally manageable for everyone along the supply chain. How can we make it easily accessible for consumers—both in terms of accessing these products and feeling confident in how to prepare and enjoy a wide range of specialty cuts?,” explains Mackenzie Drager when asked about how the MTRY & Co’s mission has evolved since its founding three years ago. “We also have to help these small farmers get the word out about what they’re doing and why it matters. We help make those connections.”
The Drager Family’s favorite way to get to know their producers are on site visits with the people and tasting the products themselves. “Trying new recipes, just experimenting with the same kind of meat through different forms of preparation is really the MTRY in a nutshell,” smiles MacKenzie. “We have some tried and true methods, but you rarely see the same meal twice with our crew.”
“The men in our family love their smokers, their grills, really all the gadgets,” adds Jodie, MacKenzie’s Mom and Colette’s sister-in-law. “They are our product testers for our research and development. The women in our family are the movers and shakers who have shaped the organization of the business.
CELEBRATING FAMILY FARMS
Starting from a “let’s figure it out together as we go” mentality is how the family navigated the world of USDA regulations, food safe shipping (involving BluTooth thermometers and compostable packaging), and how to best create a community among their producers and their consumers. “We come from a farm family,” reflects MacKenzie. “We understand the blood, sweat, and tears that go into raising these animals to certain standards. There’s a lot of pride and a lot of time that goes into it.”
Every producer within the MTRY network is unique. These are family farms. These families and their stories are the cornerstone of the MTRY mission. States Jodie, “Everything that the producer shops sell is raised and processed here in the U.S. Before it enters our marketplace, our family has tried every cut, every flavored beef stick. The quality is there because of the work these families put into their animals.”
The MTRY wants their customers to love every box. We take the vetting process very seriously,” says Jodie. “A key value point is that when you order a box from us, you know that it will be good. We want our customers to have choices that represent the range of production methods that our local farmers follow.”
LAYING A SOLID FOUNDATION WITH RBIL
The MTRY & Co is a graduate of the 2023 cohort of the Rural Business Innovation Lab. Established in 2022 by Community and Economic Development 
Associates (CEDA) RBIL is a cohort-based, entrepreneurial program that reverses the narrative of rural decline. Each cohort builds a peer network dense with ideas, expertise, and resources that help rural small businesses start and scale their work within their communities. Working in both Minnesota and Wisconsin, RBIL supports rural businesses in their growth to become sustainable drivers of economic health.
As a young small business, sometimes it’s hard to know what resources you even need. The RBIL coaches were key in making both the suggestions and the connections to form a solid foundation. The MTRY credits their confidence moving into their recent rebrand to the lessons learned working with the coaches from RBIL.
Being a part of the cohort and continuing to be engaged with the program aligns with the MTRY’s mission of community engagement. Whether it’s coordinating fundraisers for local groups or supplying the bacon for the Mankato Marathon, the RBIL cohort experience helped build the connections and resources to make these steps possible.
“I don’t think we realized that these connections, the people we’d get to meet, would be such a big part of starting a business,” reflects MacKenzie. “There are so many positive things about starting a business. We’re grateful that the resources from RBIL help us build a stronger base.”
GET IN TOUCH
Explore the producer collections and sign up for the MTRY’s newsletter at https://mtryco.com.
Follow The MTRY & Co on Facebook and Instagram.
Find MTRY’s network of producers in a growing number of service channels. You’ll see their work featured in regional food venues, gifting and retail.
For the 21st version of the meat raffle, consider a fundraising campaign through the MTRY.
Contact Cameron Payne cameron.payne@cedausa.com at RBIL to learn more about the program. Visit 
https://www.cedausa.com/ruralinnovation/ for a program overview.
Follow @ruralbusinessinnovationlab on Instagram
Follow CEDA on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Visit meettheminnesotamakers.com or follow @meettheminnesotamakers on Facebook and Instagram as well as Ambit and LinkedIn to discover the small business owners that make Minnesota an amazing place to be! Meet the Minnesota Makers is a news site that connects you to the local food, farms, artists and artisans that make Minnesota thrive.
