How We Do Things
Only the Best Meat
Our animals are raised as kindly and humanely as we possibly can, knowing that their purpose is to feed us. While we raise a large percentage of our meat ourselves, we do co-produce with a select number of local ranches. These are people that we have known for a long time and raise their animals in the same fashion as we do. All of our animals are raised on pasture, within the confines of what is best for the animal. For instance, all our beef is grass fed and grass finished. From the time they are born they are raised by their mother as long as possible and when they self-wean, they are eating Certified Organic pasture. On the other side of the coin are our pastured meat birds. We raise Cornish Cross chickens, which we receive from the hatchery at 2-3 days old. They are raised in a temperature controlled brood room for the first 10-14 days. They are then moved to the transition pens outside. These are covered pens, also with heat lamps, that allow the birds adjust to the outdoor climate while their feathers are coming in. At four weeks they are moved to our "tractors". These are 10'x15' mesh covered pens that the chickens live in out in the fields. Meat birds are not built to roam freely, as our layers do. These tractors get moved daily so the chickens always have access to fresh pasture and all that the soil provides. At the same time, they keep the birds within easy reach of fresh water and the all-natural mash that we feed them.
All our animals are required to be slaughtered in a USDA inspected facility. This means that our lambs go to Occidental, our beef and hogs go to Petaluma, and our chickens have to be hauled to Stockton. While we would love to be able to harvest our animals here on the farm, and still be able to provide fresh meat to our customers, it is currently against the law. We are looking into a mobile USDA inspected slaughter facility in Sonoma County, but that is a ways off. In the mean time, our commitment to our customers is that we are doing everything within our power to ensure that the meat you are purchasing from us to feed your family is as healthy and humanley processed as possible.
