Left: The Reckamps all natural
pork is sold in whole, halves and
individual cuts. FCS Financial’s
Stacy Ward works with Gene (l)
and Dave (center) Reckamp,
who have been FCS Financial
customers for about 20 years.
Below: Gene Reckamp got his
start in the produce business on
his family’s 20-acre truck farm
in nearby Florissant. Today, the
Reckamps raise about 25 acres of
vegetables in addition to natural
pork, free-range eggs, corn and
soybeans on their farm near
Wright City.
“I never knew what brats were growing up,” Dave
says. “We never had that option.”
At their processor’s urging, the Reckamps began
offering customers a brat. Other flavors of the nowpopular cut followed, and today the business sells about
50 pounds a week of a bacon-cheddar brat featuring
bacon ends from their own pork.
BUILDING LIFETIME RELATIONSHIPS
Perhaps it was their long-time friendship with FCS
Financial customer Jim Zerr that brought the Reckamps
to the cooperative. Regardless, the 20-year relationship
between the Reckamps and FCS Financial has served
each entity well.
According to FCS Financial’s Stacy Ward, “Their
operation helps (FCS Financial) stay diversified. It’s
nice to have another product to work with in addition
to the more traditional operations.”
Ward is also complimentary of the Reckamp’s
ability to manage their operation through multiple
generations.
Side-by-side, the Reckamps work long, hard
hours to ensure the fruits of their labor deliver happy
customers.
They admit to not always agreeing, and as Marylin
says, “If something doesn’t work, we don’t do it again.”
While this family rich in German heritage jumped
at value-added agriculture at a time when value-added
wasn’t cool, their leap of faith brought with it a customer
10
HEARTBEAT | FALL 2015
following that mirrors the phrase from the movies,
“Build it and they will come.”
“It’s got to be good,” Marylin says of their products.
“And, the customers know that after all these years, we
won’t sell them anything bad.”