Local dreams of being champ

LIME SPRINGS - The estimated population of the United States is over 330 million people. That’s a pretty big number. 

But even more amazing is the fact that only one person out of those 330,335,317 individuals was supposed to compete under the World Champion Butcher Apprentice & Young Butcher category at the World Butchers’ Challenge this fall and is a native of this area! Unfortunately, the contest is postponed due to COVID-19.

That person is a former resident of Lime Springs and 2008 graduate of Crestwood High School — Tucker Speer.

He got his start just down the road at Fareway’s meat department in Cresco. “I started at the meat counter there when I turned 18. I learned the basics of being a butcher, starting washing dishes. I worked my way through the positions, always learning and always following my heart. I pushed myself forward.

“I was hired by Mike Engleman, when he was the market manager. I love my Cresco Fareway family. I was often late to school because I was working there. Bob Murphy had to deal with a lot of phone calls from the office about it.”

He went off to Hawkeye Community College but couldn’t get butchering out of his mind. He enrolled in Fareway’s Management Training program. “I received a lot of great foundational knowledge on teamwork and cutting/ product basics that made me very successful as I developed my career.”

According to thebutchersguild.org website, Speer said, “Striving to learn more sent me on a journey seeking knowledge. This took me across Iowa and Minnesota to Tennessee and Kentucky. Each stop along the way was learning a lesson.”

Speer ended up working for Porter Road Butcher at Princeton, Ky. His boss was involved in competitions, which just fueled Speer’s fire.

His mom, Tammie (Robbie) Kappes of Dexter, Minn., said, “A year ago, he went to a competition in Sacramento, Calif. and was named in the top two. He never even told us he was going!” Also supporting him in this area are his dad, Brian (Kate) Speer of Cresco, and grandparents, Bill and Vernelle Nicoll of Chester and Tillie Speer of LeRoy, Minn. 

Speer found out in early 2020 he was the top individual in the United States. He will join six others who are part of the Butchers of America team. They, along with 15 other world-wide teams, will be competing for the World Butchers’ Challenge in September.

Speer was flying out to Sacramento 2-3 times a month to prepare and practice with everyone. That gets expensive, but Kappes said, “He’s following his passion. It’s good to follow your dream.”

Growing up, Speer said he was instilled with the values of the American Midwest. “Performing farm work as a child with a team of mules and feeding livestock by hand taught me many lessons of animal husbandry.”

“I always say, ‘A lot of love goes into the daily rituals tending livestock.’”

The butcher adds, “Following my passion has led me down the path of knowledge of whole animal butchery, connecting the farmer to the chef.

“We all have our place and our purpose. For each season there is a harvest, and for every harvest there is a new flavor to explore. Focusing on our world’s organic symbiotic nature to impart these flavors utilizing the whole animal properly is a matter of respect to the life that was given. I know nothing more beautiful or fulfilling.”

There is a GoFundMe page for donations to the team at www.gofundme.com/butchers-of-america-team-usa-2020.

According to worldbutcherschallenge.com, recognizing that the future of our industry is in the hands of the next generation, the World Butchers’ Challenge has proudly introduced the World Champion Butcher Apprentice & Young Butcher competition. 

Speer was to enter both individual contests. Young Butcher contestants must be under 31 years of age, and entrants into the Butcher Apprentice category must still be working through their trade apprenticeship at the time of competing. Modeled on the World Butchers’ Challenge, both groups of butchers have just two hours and 15 minutes to break down a range of primal cuts into a display of pre-determined products and their own creations. 

If nothing else, the postponement will give Speer additional time to perfect his techniques for when the competition finally takes place.