1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,280 Hey Vancouverans, on this episode I talked to Eric Thompson of Great Mous Regenerative 2 00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:09,280 Farm. 3 00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:15,280 We talk about the local food scene, what regenerative farming is, the difference between grain fed 4 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:18,680 and grass fed beef and food as an investment. 5 00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:24,280 I think it's a really interesting look into what's going on right now in the local food 6 00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:28,600 scene in Vancouver as far as regenerative farming and sustainable food. 7 00:00:28,600 --> 00:00:34,400 But stick around till the end where I'll have a link to get $50 off your reservation 8 00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:37,480 for a quarter of beef at Great Mous Farms. 9 00:00:37,480 --> 00:00:41,480 So enjoy. 10 00:00:41,480 --> 00:00:44,800 Hello and welcome to the Spotlight Vancouver podcast. 11 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:51,000 I am your host Doug Varinas, licensed real estate agent in Vancouver, Washington and 12 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:52,000 beyond. 13 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:57,120 Today I'm super pleased to be with my guest Eric Thompson. 14 00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:05,560 He is the owner, curator, maestro of Great Mous Regenerative Farm out in Rainier, Oregon. 15 00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:07,000 Eric, welcome to the show. 16 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:08,800 Thanks for being here. 17 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:12,080 Thanks Doug, glad to be here to kind of talk about our farm a little bit. 18 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:17,240 We make it out to Vancouver all the time so we consider that part of our territory there. 19 00:01:17,240 --> 00:01:18,680 Yeah, thanks. 20 00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:24,040 And I do want to say in full disclosure, this will be my third season getting your delicious 21 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:25,040 beef. 22 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:29,840 I'm a customer and a fan and I'm happy to have you today because I feel like there's 23 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:32,120 a lot to talk about. 24 00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:40,320 And I wanted to start by getting what your journey has been like to get where you are, 25 00:01:40,320 --> 00:01:41,800 to regenerative farming. 26 00:01:41,800 --> 00:01:44,920 How did you become a regenerative farmer? 27 00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:47,720 Well, that's a good question to start. 28 00:01:47,720 --> 00:01:52,840 So I guess my history with the farm goes back a long way because I actually took over my 29 00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:55,920 grandparents' farm when they passed away. 30 00:01:55,920 --> 00:02:02,240 But about 15 years ago, I bought the farm out of the estate and while I was working a 31 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:09,080 day job, that was my weekend farming that I did from Seattle, making a two and a half 32 00:02:09,080 --> 00:02:13,160 hour drive down on most weekends and kind of keeping the farm going. 33 00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:18,400 But it was a cattle farm for quite a while on about a hundred acres down in Rainier, 34 00:02:18,400 --> 00:02:21,640 so a good amount of land and a few houses down there. 35 00:02:21,640 --> 00:02:26,600 But I wanted to keep it going and keeping it going as a productive cattle farm made 36 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:27,600 a lot of sense. 37 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:33,880 So the way we've been developing it is trying to get a model of beef that a weekend basically 38 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:38,680 birth the beef on the farm and then raise them up into finished beef. 39 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:45,720 And my ideal model is selling as quarters of beef that gets it direct from the producer 40 00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:46,840 to the consumer. 41 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:49,160 And I think that has a lot of benefits in itself. 42 00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:54,480 I can try to keep my cost down quite a bit while having the best kind of beef, controlling 43 00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:55,680 the whole operation. 44 00:02:55,680 --> 00:03:01,720 The grass-fed beef is the main way we do it and we cut all of our own hay during the 45 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:04,120 summer so we can feed during the winter. 46 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:09,600 So we really try to scale our operation to the size of the farm and the resources that 47 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:15,480 we have, not have to use a lot of outside resources and just produce the best healthy 48 00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:19,240 beef we can, which comes from the healthy cows. 49 00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:21,400 Yeah. 50 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:27,120 When you took over the farm, are you using, were there regenerative farming practices 51 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:28,880 being used at the time? 52 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:35,200 And I guess for our listeners and including myself, what is regenerative farming? 53 00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:41,520 Well, so yeah, to kind of frame regenerative farming, I think a lot of times that goes 54 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:47,000 beyond what an organic farm would be, which is just trying to get productivity out of 55 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:52,640 the farm, but we really try to invest in the farm and make the soil and the systems better 56 00:03:52,640 --> 00:03:54,160 and better over time. 57 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:59,920 I consider my work on the farm is investing in the future of the farm and everything that 58 00:03:59,920 --> 00:04:04,800 I do should make a more productive and more bountiful farm over time. 59 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:11,080 Use very organic practices, but we're also, as a beef farm, we're not doing just beef. 60 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:16,200 We're really doing a whole, I guess you could call it a large homestead kind of farm where 61 00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:19,080 we have farm scale composting. 62 00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:22,800 We plant a lot of trees and grow those trees. 63 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:26,480 And really our first priority is food for family. 64 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:33,120 So we're also doing some pigs and chickens and greenhouse production of vegetables and 65 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:36,560 squash and things like that on the farm. 66 00:04:36,560 --> 00:04:42,560 It just happens, being as big as it is 100 acres, we have a surplus somewhere. 67 00:04:42,560 --> 00:04:49,320 So we channel a lot of our surplus into beef and the beef grazing the natural pastures 68 00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:54,760 is really how we improve a lot of our soil health and keep that going. 69 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:59,760 And we integrate those in with the tree systems and some of the other systems to basically 70 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:03,400 use nature as the improvement in the land. 71 00:05:03,400 --> 00:05:11,680 Yeah, when I visited your farm, I felt incredibly ignorant and it was definitely a time where 72 00:05:11,680 --> 00:05:16,560 I felt really removed from food production and right. 73 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:21,160 And to be honest, like the natural order of things because when you walked me through 74 00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:31,120 your farm, it had layers and layers and through time, the way you thought about how you organize 75 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:37,040 things and the systems involved not only were stacked on top of each other, they had an 76 00:05:37,040 --> 00:05:42,400 element of time and longevity and scale that I was blown away by. 77 00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:45,920 Like I was kind of slack jawed the entire time I was there as you were going through 78 00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:53,560 this because I have no, I have little, I'm a city kid and I have little experience with 79 00:05:53,560 --> 00:05:55,760 food production other than like my own. 80 00:05:55,760 --> 00:05:58,560 Like I've raised chickens and I have more experience than a lot of people. 81 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:02,360 Like I've raised chickens, I've grown my own vegetables on a small scale. 82 00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:03,360 Where do you start? 83 00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:08,720 Like how does your mind work and how do you get that sort of knowledge and training to 84 00:06:08,720 --> 00:06:09,720 do that? 85 00:06:09,720 --> 00:06:13,880 Were you, did you always have it or did you get some kind of education or schooling? 86 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:14,880 How do you do that? 87 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:15,880 It was mind blowing. 88 00:06:15,880 --> 00:06:20,440 Well, I think a lot of regenerative farming is a community and looking at what other people 89 00:06:20,440 --> 00:06:22,880 in the field are doing and how they're doing it. 90 00:06:22,880 --> 00:06:28,240 But when it comes down to it, what applies to your own property and your own land is 91 00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:29,720 the most important part. 92 00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:36,640 And just having a connection with the land is the main thing and being able to daily 93 00:06:36,640 --> 00:06:42,840 go out on the farm and see what's going on and plan through design wise, kind of what 94 00:06:42,840 --> 00:06:47,280 can be done through the next year to really encourage the things that are working on the 95 00:06:47,280 --> 00:06:52,080 farm and move away from things that don't work as well and just try to improve it over 96 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:53,080 time. 97 00:06:53,080 --> 00:06:57,880 So nothing's ever perfect and nothing's ever beautiful, but like a lot of trades, you're 98 00:06:57,880 --> 00:07:03,680 learning more all the time and there's always kind of another step that you can take things. 99 00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:09,240 When you have a regenerative farm, it's going to be something that's not necessarily your 100 00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:16,080 picturesque farm with the barn and the chicken and the cow like on the labels of industrial 101 00:07:16,080 --> 00:07:17,160 products. 102 00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:21,680 But if you've seen industrial farms, that's definitely the opposite of what we want to 103 00:07:21,680 --> 00:07:28,320 get to where an industrial farm is trying to maximize productivity with minimum costs. 104 00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:35,600 So feeding the cheapest possible feed in order to get pounds of production out and just trying 105 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:37,800 to treat that as a factory. 106 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:39,000 We don't really do that. 107 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:44,840 We try to do things in a more efficient way with nature, not necessarily with the dollars 108 00:07:44,840 --> 00:07:51,560 of soybean feed going in and that led us to a lot of the things like grass fed and grass 109 00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:58,440 finished beef production, but the beef's purpose on the land is really maintaining and healing 110 00:07:58,440 --> 00:08:00,400 and fertilizing the land. 111 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:06,520 So we're not trying to push that production model beyond what the kind of natural ecosystem 112 00:08:06,520 --> 00:08:07,840 would prefer for that. 113 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:09,800 So it's guided by nature. 114 00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:10,800 That makes it kind of easy. 115 00:08:10,800 --> 00:08:11,800 It's all solar payout. 116 00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:12,800 Yeah. 117 00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:13,800 Oh, nice. 118 00:08:13,800 --> 00:08:20,880 I think there's a misconception or a view out there, especially with beef, in that beef 119 00:08:20,880 --> 00:08:23,680 and regenerative don't go together. 120 00:08:23,680 --> 00:08:28,360 I think there's a feeling out there or some kind of, I don't know if it's a misnomer, 121 00:08:28,360 --> 00:08:34,520 but I think people associate cows and cattle and they hear not sustainable or environmentally 122 00:08:34,520 --> 00:08:35,520 harmful. 123 00:08:35,520 --> 00:08:43,760 I hear that a lot in mainstream media, especially with beef, like donate beef for, it's kind 124 00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:45,760 of an anti-beef sentiment. 125 00:08:45,760 --> 00:08:52,800 Can you speak to that and what's the state of regenerative farming in the area and what 126 00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:55,720 are some of those misconceptions about raising cattle? 127 00:08:55,720 --> 00:08:56,720 Yeah. 128 00:08:56,720 --> 00:08:58,560 Well, definitely. 129 00:08:58,560 --> 00:09:04,200 I would agree there are problems with beef on your typical industrial lots. 130 00:09:04,200 --> 00:09:11,520 So I mean, a lot of people would see beef in a feedlot where you have hundreds and hundreds 131 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:19,120 of beef just being fed grain and being transported in for all the food to feed them and trying 132 00:09:19,120 --> 00:09:26,520 to get as many beef raised up per acre as possible, which of course creates a pretty 133 00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:29,120 destructive habitat. 134 00:09:29,120 --> 00:09:33,400 The places where all this food is being raised is kind of the same. 135 00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:40,640 It's pesticide-laden lands that are just stripped every year without really good maintenance 136 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:43,160 of the soil and the soil biology. 137 00:09:43,160 --> 00:09:49,040 But it turns out if you don't try to stretch your production so much and raise the beef, 138 00:09:49,040 --> 00:09:53,200 how they're naturally meant to be raised, nature already has all this figured out as 139 00:09:53,200 --> 00:09:57,880 far as what a good recipe is and how to build soil and maintain soil. 140 00:09:57,880 --> 00:10:00,560 So it's just tapping into that. 141 00:10:00,560 --> 00:10:07,160 These systems that have already evolved over thousands of years in order to just control 142 00:10:07,160 --> 00:10:08,640 that a little more. 143 00:10:08,640 --> 00:10:14,520 So that's where we have some control over where the cows are and how long they are on 144 00:10:14,520 --> 00:10:20,960 a paddock and we shift them between eight or 10 different paddocks throughout the year 145 00:10:20,960 --> 00:10:27,040 and then just manage the grazing rather than trying to get as many cows on there as possible. 146 00:10:27,040 --> 00:10:28,540 Right. 147 00:10:28,540 --> 00:10:34,680 It seems like it's a scale issue and industrial farming trying to just overuse the land. 148 00:10:34,680 --> 00:10:35,680 Yeah. 149 00:10:35,680 --> 00:10:42,400 I mean, that takes some management and it has to be a little bit open-ended. 150 00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:45,080 Some years are easier than the others. 151 00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:50,160 So maybe one year and four, I might need to buy in a little bit of feed if I'm a little 152 00:10:50,160 --> 00:10:53,240 short because of the weather or because of some other things. 153 00:10:53,240 --> 00:10:59,960 But we try to keep a good managed amount that we can harvest all of our own feed so we know 154 00:10:59,960 --> 00:11:04,400 the source and we know it's organic and then we feed that through the winter and that works 155 00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:05,400 pretty good. 156 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:10,600 So the cows are right now, they have a feeding barn where they're out on about 20 acres 157 00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:14,520 of pasture during the winter, but they also have a big feeding barn that they come in 158 00:11:14,520 --> 00:11:17,040 to stock up before every evening. 159 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:22,000 So we're doing about 4,000 bales of hay per year to feed them through the winter. 160 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:23,000 Oh, wow. 161 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:24,000 Wow. 162 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:25,000 That's a lot. 163 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:27,400 How many head do you have on your farm? 164 00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:32,920 So we raise all of our beef from birth to butcher on the farm. 165 00:11:32,920 --> 00:11:38,120 So our main herd is going to have a certain number of mama cows and then all of their 166 00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:40,640 babies would be raised up. 167 00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:47,640 So right now we have 27 mama cows and two bulls, so an older bull and a younger bull 168 00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:48,800 that are with those. 169 00:11:48,800 --> 00:11:51,320 But then they're all raised as a big family. 170 00:11:51,320 --> 00:11:53,680 We never separate the beef out. 171 00:11:53,680 --> 00:11:58,840 Mama's from babies or anything like that to try to get them back into, to say, perfect 172 00:11:58,840 --> 00:12:01,080 weaning condition or anything like that. 173 00:12:01,080 --> 00:12:03,200 Because turns out the animals don't like that. 174 00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:09,200 So we try to adapt our practices to what the animals really prefer and that keeps them 175 00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:11,720 stress free and pretty happy. 176 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:19,960 Overall we have babies that are raised up for two to three years until their finished 177 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:23,160 beef to be sold in quarters. 178 00:12:23,160 --> 00:12:26,440 So total number we're up close to 100. 179 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:27,960 We're being... 180 00:12:27,960 --> 00:12:28,960 Oh, wow. 181 00:12:28,960 --> 00:12:33,160 Probably 90 to 100 at any time there. 182 00:12:33,160 --> 00:12:34,240 Okay. 183 00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:35,240 Are you... 184 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:39,280 I guess you run a business but the production can be... 185 00:12:39,280 --> 00:12:44,320 Is limited by the resources in the land via those regenerative farming principles. 186 00:12:44,320 --> 00:12:52,520 So I mean, it's a model where I guess you don't want to do too well in a certain year. 187 00:12:52,520 --> 00:12:57,400 You're not trying to get the most amount of customers possible. 188 00:12:57,400 --> 00:12:58,400 Is that correct? 189 00:12:58,400 --> 00:13:03,880 I think the best way to describe it, I mean all of our processes are really family first 190 00:13:03,880 --> 00:13:05,920 and investing in the farm first. 191 00:13:05,920 --> 00:13:09,840 And then when it comes to beef, that's one of our main surpluses. 192 00:13:09,840 --> 00:13:16,440 So we'll be butchering around 25 beef a year, which is a lot more than we need for our family 193 00:13:16,440 --> 00:13:17,640 and extended family. 194 00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:21,120 So that's one of the main things that we're selling off the farm. 195 00:13:21,120 --> 00:13:27,280 And beef is one of the things that's a lot harder for most homestead farmers on two 196 00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:32,160 or three acres to do by themselves or do well or efficiently by themselves. 197 00:13:32,160 --> 00:13:36,920 I think if we can do 25 beef a year, we're at a pretty good scale to take care of the 198 00:13:36,920 --> 00:13:42,840 beef and maintain the pastures and do the feeding in the winter and invest in the equipment 199 00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:45,880 to do the hay and those kind of things. 200 00:13:45,880 --> 00:13:48,720 So I think that part works pretty well. 201 00:13:48,720 --> 00:13:54,800 We scale to that and then as a business, we're really just looking at getting some income 202 00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:57,560 from the surpluses that we have. 203 00:13:57,560 --> 00:13:58,800 Yeah. 204 00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:06,040 I think there's a lot of terms that people might be confused with with regards to, you 205 00:14:06,040 --> 00:14:12,280 know, there's grass fed, grass finished, grass fed, grain finished, pasture raised. 206 00:14:12,280 --> 00:14:18,600 Like there's a whole litany of terms that are used with beef production. 207 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:24,200 What specifically can you go through the differences of that for the audience who may be like, 208 00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:28,240 I don't know, I hear all these terms and I'm not sure what they mean. 209 00:14:28,240 --> 00:14:29,240 Yeah. 210 00:14:29,240 --> 00:14:36,800 And some of the confusion comes from the industrial farms that say their animals are grass fed. 211 00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:43,320 I mean, the truth is that most any of the cow and calf operations raising a calf up 212 00:14:43,320 --> 00:14:48,880 to a year old are done on grass and there's an important reason for that, that just a 213 00:14:48,880 --> 00:14:55,720 grain diet is very destructive for an animal's digestive system. 214 00:14:55,720 --> 00:14:58,480 They're not meant to live on grain long term. 215 00:14:58,480 --> 00:15:01,680 It just happens to be something that fattens them up. 216 00:15:01,680 --> 00:15:08,680 So when you put say some beef on a feedlot with grain, they'll get unnaturally fat, you 217 00:15:08,680 --> 00:15:13,480 know, more like your industrial chickens that are unnaturally fat because of genetics and 218 00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:15,120 feed and everything like that. 219 00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:22,600 But they'll be unnaturally fat and that actually changes the whole microbiome in the intestine, 220 00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:26,360 changes the pH and it's just not a natural thing for the beef. 221 00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:32,800 It's actually activating a starvation response in the beef that they have developed to go 222 00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:40,720 through lean times in the grass, but it supercharges that and activates their fat and they can 223 00:15:40,720 --> 00:15:46,400 digest the grain, but long term it damages their digestive system. 224 00:15:46,400 --> 00:15:52,600 So that's something they can't do long term and your dairy cows and mama cows for beef 225 00:15:52,600 --> 00:15:55,760 cattle can't really handle that year after year. 226 00:15:55,760 --> 00:16:01,680 Getting to grass finished is something where they're eating all grass all the time and 227 00:16:01,680 --> 00:16:05,560 you know, that includes some forbs and also things. 228 00:16:05,560 --> 00:16:12,080 So some clovers and fruits and things like that, but it definitely doesn't have most 229 00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:17,480 of their calories coming from grain and grain products, which is not a natural system. 230 00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:22,240 So the grass finished, you'll get a different beef out of it. 231 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:28,800 It's probably not as efficient economically since our country right now is set up to produce 232 00:16:28,800 --> 00:16:34,520 cheap grain for feeding livestock on small acres, but it produces a much more natural 233 00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:40,760 and healthy beef and the healthy beef comes from having healthy animals that are eating 234 00:16:40,760 --> 00:16:41,760 it. 235 00:16:41,760 --> 00:16:47,160 I mean, this is the way beef are meant to be ranged from thousands of years ago on the 236 00:16:47,160 --> 00:16:51,440 savannas and plains where they're grazing and moving themselves. 237 00:16:51,440 --> 00:16:56,920 All we're doing is taking that natural process and controlling that a little more with our 238 00:16:56,920 --> 00:16:59,520 fences and paddocks on the farm itself. 239 00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:04,760 Yeah, how does that difference affect the end product? 240 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:08,960 Like the composition of the meat, the texture, the taste? 241 00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:09,960 Right. 242 00:17:09,960 --> 00:17:15,040 Well, I think I would say grass fed beef is always going to be less fatty. 243 00:17:15,040 --> 00:17:21,520 So I guess you could compare that to a natural classic chicken like an egg laying chicken 244 00:17:21,520 --> 00:17:26,720 versus your over fattened broilers that you get nowadays in a store. 245 00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:34,440 But the same kind of thing is the meat is going to be leaner and more flavorful in the 246 00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:35,440 meat itself. 247 00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:42,280 And if you just compare it to say your grocery store bulk processed meat, it's going to have 248 00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:44,560 a much darker red color. 249 00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:49,760 And that's usually a pretty good indicator of nutrition and flavor in the meat. 250 00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:56,600 Having less water in the meat, all of our meat is dry aged after it's butchered, which 251 00:17:56,600 --> 00:18:02,680 is another good process, which takes some of the water out, but goes a long way to making 252 00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:07,600 a fairly tender cut, even if you don't have too much fat all the way through it. 253 00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:12,800 Yeah, like I said in the beginning, I'm a customer going on three seasons now and it's 254 00:18:12,800 --> 00:18:15,560 certainly a delicious product that I enjoy. 255 00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:20,800 Did coming from a factory beef model, that's my experience, it did take me a little while 256 00:18:20,800 --> 00:18:27,600 to get used to cooking it, I think, because I do it like fast, like higher temp and quicker. 257 00:18:27,600 --> 00:18:31,600 And so that kind of sears the outside and then leaves the inside, you know, I mean, 258 00:18:31,600 --> 00:18:36,400 I'm sure we've all kicked the steak there, but I tend to go really high heat and then 259 00:18:36,400 --> 00:18:38,920 on both sides and then I just, that's it. 260 00:18:38,920 --> 00:18:40,520 And it's been amazing. 261 00:18:40,520 --> 00:18:43,920 But it took me a little while because you don't, the fat content is not as much, the 262 00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:45,800 flavor is there certainly. 263 00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:48,800 But it took me a little while to get the cooking down. 264 00:18:48,800 --> 00:18:53,200 Yeah, I've heard that before. 265 00:18:53,200 --> 00:18:56,760 It's a little more difficult for me because being my grandparents' farm, this is the 266 00:18:56,760 --> 00:18:58,040 beef I grew up with. 267 00:18:58,040 --> 00:19:02,880 So it's the main thing that I'm used to and I haven't always just avoided grocery store 268 00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:07,400 beef because it didn't seem quite right and restaurant beef much the same. 269 00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:13,920 But a lot of people will say that just the cooking method is different and getting used 270 00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:19,280 to that is what it takes using lower temperatures and slower cooks. 271 00:19:19,280 --> 00:19:25,120 But recently a lot of people have gotten into sous-vide cooking for especially their steaks 272 00:19:25,120 --> 00:19:31,200 and the sous-vide helps keep the moisture in and then just do a controlled sear at the 273 00:19:31,200 --> 00:19:34,680 end to whatever doneness you like your steak. 274 00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:39,360 So I think that's been helpful for a lot of people no matter what kind of steak you do. 275 00:19:39,360 --> 00:19:40,360 Yeah. 276 00:19:40,360 --> 00:19:46,080 It's either I do it really slow, low and slow depending on the cut or like the steaks out 277 00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:49,360 like I said I do them hotter and faster and that seems to work. 278 00:19:49,360 --> 00:19:51,320 And yeah, it's been amazing. 279 00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:56,680 In general, I'm wondering what you're plugged into the community of regenerative farmers. 280 00:19:56,680 --> 00:20:00,240 I know you have some neighbors who are doing some similar stuff. 281 00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:05,400 What's the state of regenerative farming in this area and are you seeing an increased 282 00:20:05,400 --> 00:20:11,840 interest in this style of farming and consumers like myself who are searching for a beef that 283 00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:18,960 is or any animal that is raised more humanely and on less antibiotics and grain? 284 00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:19,960 Yeah. 285 00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:20,960 Well, I think so. 286 00:20:20,960 --> 00:20:27,080 I think one key point for a lot of people is realizing the connection between food and 287 00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:34,000 health which is really critical and really a lot of people in their life need to get 288 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:39,120 to their first health crisis which usually happens when they're 40 or 50 years old to 289 00:20:39,120 --> 00:20:46,080 really realize that connection and what they're putting in their body has a huge impact on 290 00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:47,520 their health. 291 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:54,040 But we are seeing more and more young people getting this connection and managing what 292 00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:57,840 they eat and how they eat as they go along. 293 00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:02,200 People who are older who are trying to take better care of their health start to get into 294 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:06,640 this piece by piece and realize that a lot of things in our food system are just not 295 00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:13,560 set up to provide optimal health for people and they're seeking out not just beef but 296 00:21:13,560 --> 00:21:19,760 a lot of other products getting to a naturally grown, more natural solution which makes a 297 00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:25,080 huge impact on health, digestive health and overall skin health, heart health, everything 298 00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:26,080 in that. 299 00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:27,440 And I think that's really important. 300 00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:33,160 We try to do that in our family and we talk about a lot of that with our customers and 301 00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:39,000 how they can go one step further and one step further to improving health through food. 302 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:40,500 Yeah. 303 00:21:40,500 --> 00:21:47,640 I've recently kind of changed my outlook on this because I've come from a kind of like 304 00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:49,560 let's save on groceries. 305 00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:54,760 I'm trying to save money and cut down expenses and let's buy cheap food. 306 00:21:54,760 --> 00:22:00,120 And I've totally changed that fairly recently because I look at food now as an investment 307 00:22:00,120 --> 00:22:05,840 and investment in my health, an investment in the community for smaller scale producers 308 00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:07,840 and it's changed quite a bit. 309 00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:13,440 I've moved to a more meat forward diet, clean meat locally raised and I'm feeling a lot 310 00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:16,240 better and I'm having like less heartburn. 311 00:22:16,240 --> 00:22:19,160 This is just all anecdotal for me. 312 00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:22,280 Yeah, less heartburn, less bloated. 313 00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:27,160 So since I've gone to a more meat forward and less grains, less simple carbohydrates, 314 00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:32,400 less bloat, less heartburn, more energy and so yeah, I agree. 315 00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:39,120 I guess the problem or the challenge is for that scale and that if everybody started doing 316 00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:46,080 that you could run into some production problems because then the strain on you and your farm, 317 00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:51,520 I mean you would just cap your number of customers but I don't know if there's enough local producers 318 00:22:51,520 --> 00:22:58,120 to meet that demand if everybody started wanting locally grown healthy beef. 319 00:22:58,120 --> 00:22:59,360 That's the challenge I think. 320 00:22:59,360 --> 00:23:03,720 Yeah, it could be. 321 00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:10,280 There are pundits out there who will say that, oh, you can never do enough natural food to 322 00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:17,960 feed the world which is really a myth when you look at how much space it actually takes 323 00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:25,440 to produce the industrial food and how much you're degrading land over time. 324 00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:31,680 That's just not a smart investment but things that take a generation to degrade aren't always 325 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:36,040 a big consideration for people even though they really should be. 326 00:23:36,040 --> 00:23:41,120 We're trying to get our species to live on this planet for many, many generations so 327 00:23:41,120 --> 00:23:46,120 trying to look at the future of the land and improve the productivity of the land I think 328 00:23:46,120 --> 00:23:47,760 goes a long way. 329 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:53,800 But it does take some work and design on the farmers part to really design how to integrate 330 00:23:53,800 --> 00:24:00,080 systems in an efficient way and make the best use of the land and the resources that you 331 00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:07,960 have but we really try to follow that wherever we can and not overuse or anything like that 332 00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:14,600 but it's amazing what natural produce if you give it a chance and set things up to succeed. 333 00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:21,720 Yeah, and certainly your farm is emblematic of that because like I said, there's so many 334 00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:28,400 layers of complexity and thought that went into how you are designing it and everything 335 00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:32,800 fits together in harmony. 336 00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:38,000 The degree that I just, it was like playing chess over a long period of time and making 337 00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:44,400 these moves, it was really cool to see and I was just so blown away on my visit to your 338 00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:50,040 farm about the complexity and you're just looking at a landscape and you don't even 339 00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:54,680 see it unless you know and you kind of you're tuned into it. 340 00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:57,840 So it was a pleasure seeing what you're doing out there. 341 00:24:57,840 --> 00:25:04,280 Yeah, and I think a lot of that goes to just the design of the farm and managing how things 342 00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:05,720 are done over time. 343 00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:11,640 Trying to do, apply labor on the farm at the right time has a lot of savings for itself 344 00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:17,960 and design is critical so basically looking at what your land can provide and designing 345 00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:24,880 systems to channel nature, creating the abundance instead of just trying to control what's on 346 00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:30,080 the land every point through the year and trying to enforce your own will on it. 347 00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:35,720 So if you channel nature into it, that's a strong power into creating the most productivity. 348 00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:39,280 We believe that and we design for that every day. 349 00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:44,560 Yeah, it's incredible and it really comes through in the product at the end of the day. 350 00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:48,080 You can actually taste that amount of thought and care. 351 00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:52,640 So I want to thank you for what you're doing out there and thank you for being on the show 352 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:53,640 today. 353 00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:54,640 It's been a pleasure. 354 00:25:54,640 --> 00:26:02,080 Yeah, that's great and I think, yeah, your perspective is good because you actually came 355 00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:08,640 out to visit the farm in becoming a customer and I think that gives you another perspective 356 00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:13,440 on what the farm is and what's important in the farm and you just think if you could do 357 00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:18,240 that with everything that you have in your food chain and things like that, it would 358 00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:26,040 probably make kind of equal impact on, well, just what am I getting right now and how should 359 00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:27,440 this be? 360 00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:33,560 I think that drives a lot of people into finding more local sources or doing a little bit of 361 00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:35,120 homesteading on themselves. 362 00:26:35,120 --> 00:26:39,360 That's one thing that we try to get into. 363 00:26:39,360 --> 00:26:43,360 I deliver a lot of beef through the area and we deliver through Vancouver with a lot of 364 00:26:43,360 --> 00:26:49,760 customers there but I also try to get into encouraging people in their own mini homesteading 365 00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:55,320 wherever they can of whether it's animal systems or tree systems or berries or things like 366 00:26:55,320 --> 00:27:00,800 that starting to get some of your own food going and some of your own self-sufficiency. 367 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:02,800 I think that's really important. 368 00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:21,440 Definitely, definitely. 369 00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:26,400 Am producing some of your own products, yeah. 370 00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:28,400 Yep. 371 00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:43,620 All right. 372 00:27:43,620 --> 00:27:48,280 Okay. 373 00:27:48,280 --> 00:28:05,740 Yeah, I should probably kind of introduce how we sell most of our beef on the website 374 00:28:05,740 --> 00:28:11,540 because we do reservations on the website and we're selling our beef from June through 375 00:28:11,540 --> 00:28:17,500 December every year pretty evenly through the year and we put our whole year's reservation 376 00:28:17,500 --> 00:28:19,500 out in advance. 377 00:28:19,500 --> 00:28:24,120 Just got that out recently on the website of our June through December schedule and 378 00:28:24,120 --> 00:28:25,960 we have reservations. 379 00:28:25,960 --> 00:28:30,680 You can make a reservation for a quarter or a half of a beef wherever it makes sense. 380 00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:36,360 And then right now through the end of January we typically have $50 off a reservation which 381 00:28:36,360 --> 00:28:42,720 is a good promotion to get planning on the customer side and on our side of when the 382 00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:43,880 beef is coming in. 383 00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:47,120 Yeah, you never know when you're going to be listening to the podcast. 384 00:28:47,120 --> 00:28:51,000 So if you're listening to this podcast a little bit later and think you missed it, you can 385 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:55,960 email me for a coupon code through the end of February and I'll be able to send that 386 00:28:55,960 --> 00:28:56,960 out. 387 00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:58,480 We'll still be able to get you some beef. 388 00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:03,080 Yeah, hopefully you can put a link to the website on there and people can look at that 389 00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:09,080 because it has a lot more description of our farm and a full description of our care practices 390 00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:14,000 and what is grass-fed beef in more detail than what I talked through. 391 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:17,320 And you can always talk with the farmer themselves. 392 00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:19,720 So I think we field all kinds of questions. 393 00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:24,160 So I've probably heard almost all of it at this point, but we really try to make sure 394 00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:25,160 to match up. 395 00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:45,520 Get the beef to the customer with really what they like and how they expect it. 396 00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:46,520 Well thanks a lot Doug. 397 00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:52,000 I'm enjoying the show with your other guests too. 398 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:56,680 All right, thanks.