Last winter, while searching for a pastor to perform a marriage ceremony, I met Bruce Swan of Springfield. What I didn’t know was that he was also a knife-wielding man of the cloth. Literally.
Bruce and his wife, Debbie, own and operate Swan’s Custom Meat Cutting. After meeting the Swans, I couldn’t wait for hunting season. Not because I’m a hunter, but because I wanted to see what this meat-cutting business was all about.
On a rainy day during the first week of bear hunting season, I visited their shop and watched a three-person crew work like a well-oiled machine. The coffee was on, the mood was cordial and conversation carried on as the work continued.
As Bruce cut into a bear carcass on the table, he joked that although he couldn’t draw a good stick man, he could make beautiful-looking steaks and roasts. “I consider myself an artist,” he said.
Bruce has spent 50 years in the meat-cutting business. He grew up in Locke Mills in western Maine, where he worked at a local grocery store. Watching the men cut meat fascinated him, and the store owner suggested he attend meat-cutting school.
After graduating from high school in 1976, Bruce spent six months learning the trade. He studied at night and cut meat during the day. “Every day was class and I studied all night long and cut meat all day long. It was intense,” he recalled.
That morning, trucks rolled in and out of the shop, and four bears arrived. One hunter was especially excited about a bear he had shot using a new adaptive scope. The crew put down their knives, washed up, grabbed a camera and clipboard and gathered to congratulate him and take the order.
Meat cutting wasn’t Bruce’s only calling. He told me that meat cutting came first, his wife Debbie second and pastoring third — all of which remain his passions.
After graduating from Moody Bible School, Bruce became an elder at a church in Bethel, where he helped with youth ministries. He had once envisioned teaching history, but eventually found himself teaching the Bible.
Through Village Missions, an organization committed to helping rural churches survive and thrive, Bruce became the full-time minister at Springfield Community Chapel. He served there for 28 years before retiring.
Bruce and Debbie married in 1979 and built their home in her hometown of Hanover, where they raised a family. During my visit, I watched as she sliced bear meat for canning, her smile visible beneath the brim of her wide-brimmed hat.
The Swans built their meat-cutting business because Bruce’s ministry work didn’t provide a pension and the area needed a good meat-cutting service. Most of their customers are homesteaders and hunters.
Bruce considers meat cutting more precise than butchering, calling it both an art and a science. A self-described “meat-a-tarian,” he says rib-eye is his favorite cut. Every muscle has its own angle and shape, making it important to know how to separate the meat from the bone. An improper cut can send meat that could have become a better cut to the stew or burger pile.
Bruce also wants to pass his skills on to others. “A lot of meat cutters can’t take the meat off the bone and we can, so we try to pass the trade on to others,” he said. That’s why he and Debbie offer meat-cutting classes. Participants learn by working on a pig with Bruce’s guidance and receive handouts to use as references.
Marisa Friend of Prentiss took one of the classes and praised the instruction and reference materials. “It’s a huge amount of information if you are not used to processing your own meat,” she said.
Moose season puts the greatest strain on the business. Processing the large animals and keeping up with demand can mean working 16-hour days. The Swans run a small shop and are careful not to accept more work than they can handle, which sometimes means turning customers away.
Game Warden Tyler Leach has trusted the Swans with his own meat for years. He praised their clean facility, the quality of their work and their attention to proper handling, particularly with bear meat, which can become gamey if not handled well. Leach also works with the couple professionally: They process illegally killed deer for Hunters for the Hungry, which donates the meat to community food pantries.
Swan’s Custom Meat Cutting is the only state-inspected shop in Springfield, according to Bruce. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife advises moose permit winners to arrange for a meat cutter before the season, making a reliable processor an important part of planning a hunt.
I went looking for a pastor and ended up getting a firsthand look at a trade I knew little about. I was impressed by the skill involved in Bruce’s work and by the care he and Debbie put into running their operation.
A pastor may never really retire, and judging by the Swans’ dedication, these meat cutters don’t seem ready to, either.