A Family Philosophy  

This article is presented in partnership with Hermann Wurst Haus.

With consumers returning to the days when planting a garden, baking bread, and buying meat from a local farmer or butcher were the norms, Hermann Wurst Haus in downtown Hermann provides an easy way to achieve one of these endeavors. At Hermann Wurst Haus, the farm-to-table philosophy has long been a part of the process for owners Mike and Lynette Sloan. 

Mike’s career began as a youth at his parents meat processing business in Swiss, Missouri. This is where he perfected his skills and recipes, and worked his way to become the president and operating manager of his family’s business, Swiss Meats & Sausage Company. 

In 2011, Mike and Lynette ventured out on their own, purchasing and old auto parts store in downtown Hermann and launching the Hermann Wurst Haus where they handcraft sausages and bratwursts in-house. Together, they have more than seventy years of experience in the meat processing business and produce more than sixty-two varieties of smoked sausages and bratwursts. Three-time hall of famer, Wurstmeister Mike has won more than five hundred international, national, state, and regional awards, including fourteen best of show honors and twenty-nine international awards from the German Butcher’s Association in Frankfurt, Germany. 

Hermann Wurst Haus works with local farmers for all of the beef and pork that comes through the door at Mike’s meat processing business, Central Missouri Meat and Sausage Company, in nearby Fulton. Pork and beef is butchered, processed, and sold as sausages, bacon, select cuts, and quarters, halves, or whole animal at Hermann Wurst Haus or Central Missouri Meat and Sausage Company and shipped via phone or website orders.

“By purchasing beef or pork from a local farmer or meat processor, you are buying the entire half or quarter of the same great quality,” Mike says. “At some grocery stores, you are buying parts from different animals and not all are created equal. Plus, support of local farmers and food chain businesses are more important now than ever.”

The team provides the entire link between the farmer and the customer and shortens the farm-to-table chain. Both facilities are also helping out area farmers by processing their meat for area grocers or farmers markets during the COVID-19 pandemic due to some of the challenges it has presented logistically in the supply chain.

Hermann Wurst Haus has shipped meat products to Florida, Washington, and many destinations in between. In addition, customers have made the drive to pick up their order, Mike says, some traveling as far as six hours one way. No matter how far a customer may travel, he recommends making a trip of it, staying overnight in the Hermann area, and taking in the sights at the historic town on the Missouri River before you pick up your order and head home.