Visiting the Farm Store in Vilas
The whole argument for buying from a farm is that you can check. Here is what checking actually looks like.
We are at 1699 Linville Creek Road in Vilas, about ten minutes from Boone. The store is open Wednesday to Saturday, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
Finding it
Look for the red Shipley Farms sign and the 1699 mailbox on Linville Creek Road. Satellite navigation does get people close, but the mailbox is the reliable landmark.
What is actually there
A working farm store rather than a showroom. The beef is cut and packed here, so what you see in the cases came off this operation rather than arriving on a truck. You can buy individual cuts, boxes, or collect a share you reserved earlier.
We are a cattle farm with a store, not a butcher counter. Things are cut and packed ahead rather than to order, which is worth knowing before you drive over expecting someone to break down a side while you wait.
Why coming matters more than anything we could write
“Well, first of all, if you have a chance, go see it. And we underestimate our instincts and we've gotten so separated from farms and where our food comes from.”
Gray Shipley
That is the whole case for buying this way. Every claim on this website is one you could check in person, and very little beef sold in this country can be checked at all.
“And so the local food system, one, allows you to know directly where your food's coming from. And two, it's consistently raised and handled and invested in and cared for more responsibly than the industrial system ever could.”
Gray Shipley
Bring a cooler
Especially in summer, and especially if you are collecting anything large. Everything is sold frozen or chilled and you will want it to stay that way on the drive home.
If you cannot get here
The Boone and Blowing Rock pick-up points run on set days, and we ship. Both are in pick-up, delivery or shipping.
“When people come to the farm, I got a friend from college who visited the farm, known him for 25 years. And he told me that now I get it. Just seeing it and getting to understand and experience the place gives people, I think, a lifetime connection that they want to share with others.”
Gray Shipley
Chuck eye, boxed. Cheap enough to test what we do.
View ProductCan I visit the farm, and what is the farm store like?
Yes. Wednesday to Saturday, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, at 1699 Linville Creek Road in Vilas.
- Cold Food Storage Chart, FoodSafety.gov
- Refrigeration & Food Safety, USDA FSIS
Food-safety temperatures and storage times on this page are cited to the agencies above rather than to us.
Written at Shipley Farms in Vilas, North Carolina: a family cattle farm raising and dry-aging beef in the Appalachian Mountains, now in its fifth generation. No shortcuts since 1872.
Every quote on this page is Gray Shipley talking, the man who runs this farm. We sat down with him, turned on a recorder, and kept his own words. Hesitations are trimmed so they read on the page. Nothing else is added or reworded, except where Gray revised his own words in review.
Nobody knows this beef better than we do. On food safety we leave it to USDA FSIS and FoodSafety.gov, and we have linked their pages above. Reviewed 3 October 2026.
Shipley Farms
Stories, recipes and news from Shipley Farms.