healthy and heavenly Avocado chocolate Mousse

I love chocolate.

It’s my treat at the end of hard working ranch day.

Or even a non hard working ranch day!

Pairs well with wine, my other love!

So when I started cleaning up my diet and eliminating soy/corn/GMO/vegetable oils, finding chocolate that didn’t contain these ingredients proved very difficult.

(Most chocolate candy are made with soy or sun lecithin (to stabilize it) and corn syrup for sweetness.)

I struggled with finding chocolate I could eat until I found Trader Joe’s Honey Mints, NOW DISCONTINUED!! I have no idea how I’m going to survive! They were fabulous! But the powers to be at Trader Joes discontinued it.

In a desperate search to have a life-giving chocolate treat, I came across Adriana, a fellow Brazilian (you knew I was raised in Brazil didn’t you), now living in Hawaii.

Adriana also struggled with food inflammations, so she started creating recipes with healthy ingredients, and she developed an ebook, Living Healthy with Chocolate.

I’m so glad she did! She’s saved my life!! I now can make my own chocolate treats to enjoy at the end of a ranch day!

I made her Avocado Chocolate Mousse! It’s fabulous! Probably more fabulous that Trader Joe’s discontinued Honey Mints!

It’s a super easy recipe to make, with healthy ingredients, and a real treat!

I put together a video of Adriana’s photo of the Avocado Chocolate Mousse, because I ate all I made before I remembered to take photos!

The recipe includes avocado, cocoa powder, cocoa butter, vanilla extract and honey for the mousse.

The cups are made by melting dark chocolate and lining silicone molds or small muffin cups with the melted chocolate.

For the actual recipe, order the ebook. It includes this recipe plus hundreds more.

Now that I have Adriana’s recipes, I’ll be a happy rancher all the time!!

How I keep my poultry protected from predators

The nite lites have drastically reduced predator caused losses!

They start blinking once it gets dark outside and resemble a pair of eyes moving around.

Easy to install (at predator level) and solar charged, they have lasted over 5 years and still going strong.

And reasonably priced too!

Do you know how to preserve your meat?

I raise meat, but in full disclosure, I don’t know how to preserve it except for freezing it!

Every time I loose power, my biggest concern is how to keep my freezers cold to protect the frozen meat.

So I’ve been researching how to preserve meat, ie how to extend the life and utility of meat.

In my quest, I found an ebook, The Carnivore’s Bible.

It caters to the off-grid, homesteader community, so together with details on how to preserve meat, it allso discusses preserving fruits and vegetables, milk, mushrooms, and recipes using the products you’ve preserved!

Benefits of Preserving your meat and other items

• You know the quality of the products

• You’ll have more nutrient dense food available to you than what you can find in the grocery store

• You’re not exposed to the current inflationary prices

• You’re not dependent on finding products on grocery store shelves (or not finding it on the shelves).

• Your food is not at risk if you have an extended power outage (and no access to a generator).

• You’ll be confident there are no preservatives or additives, as you will not have used them!

• There’s a huge sense of satisfaction in filling your pantry shelves with food you’ve prepared.

About the author

The author, James Cole, found himself stranded in a cabin during a snowy hike, and was carrying no food on him.

The cabin had a cellar and was filled with tons of preserved products, which sustained him until the cabin’s owner returned.

The author pursuaded the cabin owner to teach him how to preserve over the next few years, together with recipes on how to use the preserved food.

The result is the thick book of techniques and recipes.

“There are hundreds of survival manuals and food prepping books available. But none treats the subject of meat from A to Z. And it’s mind boggling... Because it’s one of the most widely available resources out there...

...Yes, meat is notoriously hard to preserve... But whether it’s pork, beef or chicken, squirrel, rabbit, venison, or bear... prepared the right way, it can last for 7 years.”

— James Cole

If you’re interested in your food and its quality, this book is a must on your bookshelf. Mine already has stains on the pages!

I highly recommend The Carnivore Bible!

Take control of your food by learning how to preserve and store the most important protein our bodies need!

10 Benefits of Consuming Broth Daily

Bone broth: the liquid left over after you simmer livestock bones in water, vegetables and spices over a period of time.

Great to sip on, to make a nourishing soup with, and to cook rice with.

Bone broth is one of world’s best sources of natural collagen, the protein found in vertebrae animals — in their bones, skin, cartilage, ligaments, tendons and bone marrow.

Additionally, one of the most valuable components of bone broth stock is gelatin.

According to Dr. Axe (if you haven’t heard about him you should- he healed his mother from cancer by changing her diet, https://www.draxe.com) there are at least 10 benefits to consuming broth daily:

10 Benefits of Consuming Broth Daily

• Good for the gut

  • There’s an endless list of substances we are consuming inadvertently that can cause damage to your gut.

    Between the pesticides in our food, overuse of antibiotics, and chemicals in processed foods, our gut is under attack more than ever.

    The gelatin found in bone broth fantastic for healing the gut.

    Gelatin heals the gut by repairing the intestinal lining and reducing inflammation caused by gut-related disease and food sensitivities.

• Overcome food intolerances and allergies

  • Studies show that gelatin is beneficial for restoring strength of the gut lining and fighting food sensitivities (such as to wheat or dairy). It also helps with the growth of probiotics (good bacteria) in the gut and supports healthy inflammation levels in the digestive tract.

• Improve joint health

  • As bone broth simmers, collagen from the animal parts leaches into the broth and becomes readily absorbable to help restore cartilage.

    Gelatin acts like a soft cushion between bones that helps them “glide” without friction.

    It also provides us with building blocks that are needed to form and maintain strong bones. This helps take pressure off of aging joints and supports healthy bone mineral density.

• Maintains healthy skin

  • Collagen helps form elastin and other compounds within skin that are responsible for maintaining skin’s youthful tone, texture and appearance.

    Collagen integrity is accredited with helping reduce the visible signs of wrinkles, decreasing puffiness and fighting various other signs of aging.

    Many people report a decrease in cellulite when consuming foods and supplements containing collagen, since cellulite forms due to a lack of connective tissue, allowing skin to lose its firm tone.

• Boost immune system

  • Leaky gut syndrome occurs when undigested particles from foods seep through tiny openings in the weakened intestinal lining and enter the bloodstream, where the immune system detects them and becomes hyperactive.

    This increases inflammation and leads to dysfunctions all over. The immune system releases high levels of antibodies that cause an autoimmune-like response and attack healthy tissue.

    Bone broth is one of the most beneficial foods to consume to restore gut health and therefore support immune system function and healthy inflammation response.

• Detoxifies

  • Today in the Western world, the average person is exposed to an assortment of environmental toxins, pesticides, artificial ingredients and chemicals of all sorts. While the human body has its own means of detoxifying itself from heavy metals and other toxic exposures, it often has a hard time keeping up when flooded with an overwhelming amount of chemicals.

    Bone broth is considered a powerful detoxification agent since it helps the digestive system expel waste and promotes the liver’s ability to remove toxins.

    It also helps maintain tissue integrity and improves the body’s use of antioxidants.

• Boosts brain health

  • Bone broth has several compounds that can improve your brain’s functioning and mood.

    It contains glycine, is one of the most important inhibitory neurotransmitters, which can help cognitive performance, regulates how your brain uses energy, and some studies even suggested that glycine can improve circulation in the brain.

    Bone broth also contains chondroitin, which can help with learning and memory.

• combats mental illness & helps you sleep

  • There’s evidence that the glycine found in broth is associated with relaxation and decreased anxiety.

    Studies have found that the use of glycine has helped treat obsessive-compulsive disorder in adults and reduce symptoms of schizophrenia.

    Depression is associated with decreased levels of glycine.

    Studies found that glycine supplementation can significantly improve the quality of your sleep.

• Protects the heart

  • Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. That’s why eating foods that improve your heart health is a surefire way to extend your lifespan.

    Studies indicate that glycine found in bone broth can significantly reduce the severity of heart attacks.

• promotes tissue regeneration

  • The cells and tissues in our bodies are constantly dying off as new cells take their place. But sometimes our bodies have a hard time keeping up with producing enough new tissues and cells.

    Glutathione is one of those tissue repair materials, and bone broth is full of it.

    So after your workout, drink some broth to aid in your recovery.

There’s 10 reasons why you should drink a cup of bone broth daily!

Don’t want to make your own broth, you can purchase bone broth from The Regen Ranch, using bones from the livestock raised on the ranch! I have 14 oz and 32 oz packages of frozen broth ready for you to sip on or use in your cooking.

Why you should brine your turkey

I first heard about brining your Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey from a fellow Weston A Price foundation member.

Before I heard about brining, I would cook my Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey and pray that it came out moist.

When I started brining my turkey ahead of cooking, it always came out super moist after I cooked it!

This was 11 years ago! I have brined my turkey ever since.

What is brining?

Brining is a method in which meat is placed in a mixture of water and salt (and other seasonings sometimes) for several hours before the meat is cooked.

Turkey is an ideal candidate for brining since it is pretty lean and therefore doesn’t have a lot of fat to keep the meat moist during cooking.

What does brining do?

Brining does several things to the meat.

• the salt seasons the meat from the inside out

• it helps break down muscle proteins which makes it more tender and helps in moisture absorption

• the water mixture helps keep the turkey moist while in the oven

If you’ve purchased a pasture raised turkey, you already have a head start on the flavor, but brining it will take it to the next level!

CAUTION: if you’ve purchased a turkey from a grocery store, you need to check that it hasn’t already been brined. Many turkeys are injected with a brine solution to add moisture, included Kosher turkeys. You will not want to brine it again as it’ll make it too salty to eat. Look for a turkey labeled as natural in the store.

What are the best turkey brine ingredients?

Salt is the foundational ingredient in the brine. I recommend Redmond’s Real Salt, as it’s from a prehistoric salt deposit close to the small town of Redmond in Utah, which is over 150 miles away from the Great Salt Lake.

Not all salt is created equally. If you are using kosher salt, you need to add twice as much as it is larger in crystal and lighter by volume.

Make sure you are not using salt with iodine as it will spoil the flavor.

To create a proper brine, you’ll need 1 cup of salt per gallon of water, which works out to 1 tablespoon of salt per cup of water.

While not necessary (but I prefer it), its a good idea to add something sweet to your brine. The sugar will offset the salt flavor and adds to the flavor of the turkey. Citrus, allspice, cane sugar, cloves are some options.

Dissolve the salt & sugar

It’s important that you dissolve the salt and sugar (if you are using it) into the water. Any crystals left over are going to float to the bottom of the container and just sit there and not penetrate the turkey.

To do this, boil some water and then add to the salt and sugar. You don’t need alot of water, you just want to dissolve the salt and sugar and make a concentrated brine (you’ll be adding more water which will dilute it).

Let the salt/sugar concentrate cool and then pour over turkey in the container.

Brine a thawed or frozen turkey?

So the first year I brined the turkey, I thawed it ahead of time and then brined the turkey for an hour per pound (ie for a 15 lb turkey, brine for 15 hours).

But the following year, I was pressed for time, so I placed a frozen turkey in the brine and let it brine for 48 hours. It worked fabulously.

The turkey actually thaws faster in the brine than in the fridge.

I’ve brined a frozen turkey for the last decade!

What container should the turkey be brined in?

It is important that you keep the turkey cold while in the brine.

You also need a large, nonreactive container, which can be plastic, glass or stainless steel.

• a large, food-safe sealable bag like Reynold’s Oven Roasting Bag for Turkeys or Ziploc’s XL Storage Bag

• a large stainless steel stockpot or large trash can or 5 gallon food grade bucket

• a large ice chest/cooler

I use a large ice chest/cooler. I leave it in the garage or porch (as long as the temps at night get cooler), and add ice as needed. It also means I’m not taking up space in the fridge!

You’ll need enough brine to completely submerge the turkey in the container.

rinse the turkey after brining

By the time your turkey has finished brining, a fairly good amount of salt has settled on the skin. If you were to pull the turkey out of the brine and start preparing it with your preferred method (smoker, oven, fryer, grilling), the flavor of the meat would be very salty.

This isn’t from the salt in the meat but from the salt on the meat!

This is why you must rinse the turkey thoroughly before you do anything with it.

Rinse the turkey well, then submerge it in cold water, making sure you rinse out the inside as well. Every surface needs to be rinsed!

CAUTION: you do not need to add any salt to this turkey when cooking it.

After you’ve brined the turkey, prepare as you would normally.

Brining is a great first step in enjoying a delicious turkey no matter if you roast, smoke, grill or fry it!

If you are using a spice rub, seasoning or stuffing on the turkey, do not use one with added salt. Your turkey will be too salty!

---

For my favorite brine recipe (the one I’ve used for 11 years) click here

it's time to order your 2021 holiday (that's thanksgiving and/or christmas) turkey

Pasture raised holiday turkeys!

They eat all the bugs and grass they want their entire lives, and are supplemented with a no soy/no corn/no GMO feed. So it's as clean as I can raise them!

Repeat customers tell me that this is the BEST turkey they've ever eaten!

Raised on open pasture after 4-5 weeks in the brooder at The Regen Ranch!

Average sizes from 13-20 lbs. Vacuum packed with giblets packed separately.

Price is $9.00/lb.

Turkeys available on a FIRST COME FIRST SERVE BASIS WITH DEPOSIT ONLY. We will not reserve a turkey without a deposit.

A non refundable deposit of $40 will secure your holiday turkey, and you pay the balance at the time of pickup of delivery. Balance will be actual weight x $9.00/lb less deposit. (ie for a 15 lb turkey, you'll pay a total $135, broken up into a $40 deposit and $95 at the time of pickup).

You can select to receive a chilled or frozen turkey. It is my personal preference to cook a chilled turkey- the meat is more moist!

If you want a chilled (not frozen turkey), you must select to pick up at The Regen Ranch Turkey Pickup Party on Saturday, November 20th from 1-4 pm. LIMITED QUANTITY, so make your reservation. (Write PARTY in Notes on your CART and select The Regen Ranch Store in CHECKOUT page under DELIVERY)

Thanksgiving is for celebrating and giving thanks, so at the Turkey Pickup Party, you can pick up your chilled turkey, enjoy local food and drinks and take a ranch tour, which will start at 3pm.

Anyone not picking up their turkey at the Turkey Pickup Party, will receive a frozen turkey.

You can pick up your frozen turkey at the following locations:

• The Regen Ranch Store (Thursday and Friday from 3-6pm after November 5th)

• Brazos Valley Farmers Market (November 6th)

• Palestine Farmers Market (November 13th)

• Heights Mercantile Farmers Market (November 14th)

• Memorial City Farmers Market (November 21st)

• Shipped to you (you pay actual shipping charge)

If you’d like to reserve a turkey for Christmas or New Years, make a note of it in Notes in the CART and your selected pickup location or shipping.

When ordering, select your pickup location in the CHECKOUT page (not in the CART) under the DELIVERY section.

Reminder: available turkeys are first come first served for chilled and frozen turkeys. I will not guarantee a specific size.

Free Shipping for orders over $150 does not apply to Holiday Turkeys.

introducing shipping & the ranch club

I have two confessions to make.

The first one is I hate shopping in stores. It overwhelms me. It exhausts me.

So when online shopping started, I found my solution.

Now I purchase almost everything online.

From chatting with friends, family and customers, I believe most everyone shops online. If they hadn’t been shopping online before the pandemic, they have started because of the lockdowns.

It’s so convenient.

You can shop from the comfort of your home, purchase exactly what you want, and have it show up at your door within a few days.

My second confession is that I bulk buy.

When I find something I like/love, I’ll buy more than one.

On many food items, buying in quantity saves money.

I have 5 gallon buckets of dried goods, 1/2 gallon jars of spices I use the most, and cases of wine (the best deal ever!)

When I moved out of the old ranch last year, the movers couldn’t believe how much I had stored in the pantry!

I really like knowing that I can go to my pantry and freezer and find what I’ll need.

So what do these two confessions have to do with the ranch?

If these are my preferences, I’m sure I have customers who also prefer to shop online and purchase bulk!

When I started selling at the Palestine Farmers Market, a new customer told me,

I order from Butcher Box, but would much prefer to order from you and support a local rancher!

Knowing there are families that want to support local farms, but also crave convenience, I starting thinking of how I could make shopping for meat more convenient. After lots of researching and talking with other farmers/ranchers on the many different ways to do this, I’m thrilled to make two announcements….

The Regen Ranch is shipping!

Effectively immediately, with a minimum order of $25, I will ship to delivery locations within the United States, except Washington, Oregon, Northern NY, Maine and Northern Idaho

1. Free shipping for orders over $150.

2. I will only be shipping orders on Tuesdays, so if you place an order on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday, your order will not be shipping until the following Tuesday.

3. You should expect your order to arrive within 2-3 days of shipping, ie arriving on Thursday or Friday, depending on your location.

The second exciting announcement is….

The Rancher’s Club

The Rancher’s Club is a meat subscription that takes the hassle out of shopping for meat. Choose to receive boxes of pasture raised, pasture finished, no chemical, no hormones, no antibiotic meat every 30, 60 or 90 days. You get priority in choosing your favorite cuts and receive added perks. Members are able to choose the size they want, pause the subscription if needed, or cancel anytime.

The Rancher’s Club will include beef, turkey and lamb (seasonally) cuts.

You will be guaranteed the following in every box:

• Ground

• Steaks

• Roasts

The Details

The Ranch Club works for you! 

• Choose your box size

• Choose how often you’d like your box delivered (every 30, 60 or 90 days)

• No obligations! Skip a month, pause, or cancel anytime prior to shipment

Ranch Club boxes are sent out each month during the same week you started your subscription. and include FREE or REDUCED SHIPPING.

Ships FREE to: Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana

$15 OFF shipping to all other destinations in continental U.S.

THREE SIZES

Small: 13-15lbs (1-2 people)
Medium: 18-20lbs (good for a family of 4)
Large: 28-30 lbs (larger families or good for every other month subscriptions)

PERKS FOR MEMBERS

• First choice of any new products or inventory

• Free recipes/menu ideas with each box

• Digital Ranch Club: in depth behind the scenes delivered via Stories on Instagram every Friday.

• Free admission to any ranch tour and 25% off any ranch event

• And more! (Still working on it…)

ENROLLMENT FOR THE RANCHER’S CLUB IS CURRENTLY OPEN!

Offering a limited number of openings for The Rancher's Club subscription, so hurry before it's too late!

Ready to be part of the Ranch Club?

why are there so many different beef roasts?

A little anatomy

Roasts are cut from the steer's chuck, or shoulder; the rib and loin areas; the round, or butt and back leg, and the brisket, or chest.

Generally, fattier roasts come from the animal's forequarter, or front end.

Or think of it this way: The most tender—and expensive—roasts come from the parts that move the least (think rib roast and tenderloin). Conversely, the tougher roasts that take best to braising come from the areas that get the most exercise, like the round. These might be considered less special-occasion but, they’re delicious and much more affordable.

Braising (from the French word braiser) is a combination-cooking method that uses both wet and dry heats: typically, the food is first sautéed or seared at a high temperature, then finished in a covered pot at a lower temperature while sitting in some amount of liquid.

a large animal allows for more cuts

A Dexter steer, once processed, will produce approximately 300 lbs of meat. As you can imagine, you can choose to cut that meat into many and assorted cuts.

It’s been interesting to realize the influence of culture on the cuts. The US has different cuts than what I grew up with in Argentina and Brasil, but that’s a topic for another post.

Roast roster

Here's a rundown of roasts and some of their aliases, going from a steer’s front to back.

Chuck roast. Also: pot roast, chuck roll. A budget cut from the shoulder, it has marbling throughout, making it ideal for one-pot cooking.

Arm roast. Also: clod roast, pot roast. The arm is leaner and a little less expensive than chuck. It is best braised.

Brisket. A Jewish holiday favorite from the breast area, it consists of the lean flat cut and the fatty point or deckle. It's usually the flat cut you're getting when you order brisket, but you can specify the point or the entire "packer's cut" brisket.

Rib roast. Also: standing rib roast, prime rib. Seven ribs make up a rib roast. What's called the large end of the rib roast (even though physically the ribs are smaller), closer to the chuck, is fattier; it gets leaner as you move toward the "small" (but actually larger) back end, which connects to the strip loin. One rib for every two people is plenty, so let your butcher know how many guests you're feeding and which end of the rib roast you prefer.

Strip loin roast. Also: top loin roast. A leaner roast from the same muscle as the rib roast, toward the animal's butt. This is where boneless New York strip steaks and bone-in Kansas City strip steaks are cut from.

Tenderloin. The most tender roast of all—it's under the spine— with almost no fat or flavor. It's tapered in shape, the middle being the "center cut." The labor involved and waste produced in trimming and tying a tenderloin drives up the price.

Top sirloin roast. Also: top butt. Cut from the hip bone, it’s lean but flavorful with some marbling. It’s not a super-cheap cut but still more affordable than the tenderloin. Its versatile as it can be cut into steaks or cooked in stew or stir-fry.

Tri-tip roast. This small triangular roast is taken from the top of the sirloin and has perfect marbling. It's one of my favorites, especially for smoking or grilling.

Top round roast. Also: inside round. A humble cut from the inside of the animal's back leg, similar to the top sirloin in fat and flavor. This is what's typically used for deli roast beef.

Bottom round roast. Also: rolled rump roast. Another budget cut from the outside of the back leg.

Eye of round roast. A circular, very lean roast from the bottom round. Like the other rump roasts, it’s best when roasted and thinly sliced; often used in pho and ramen.

Sirloin tip roast. Also: knuckle. A budget cut taken right off the knee. It’s similar to the top sirloin roast, lean but flavorful.

choose grass fed, grass finished roasts!

a dream come true!

Back in 1993, I realized that I had agrarian desires.

But I was a single parent of a toddler and just finished my undergrad degree which took me 10 years to complete (who said figuring out life was easy!).

Mentors and advisors encouraged me to pursue a corporate career (ie financial stability), cautioning me that you couldn’t make money in agriculture.

So I decided to get a master’s degree in Agricultural Economics, thereby blending my agrarian desires and the recommendation for financial stability.

My first job out of grad school was as a soybean purchaser for a soybean processing plant in Indiana, where I purchased soybeans from Neil Armstrong (the astronaut) and other farmers throughout Ohio, Illinois and Indiana.

Then I took a job in Argentina as a oilseed analyst for a sunflower processor.

Then I took a job as a oilseed trader for a trading company based out of Geneva, Switzerland. They eventually sent me back to Argentina to trade Argentine oilseeds.

But the economic and political situation in Argentina in 2000 was a little tenuous, so I looked for work in the United States.

I found an exciting job in Texas working in the oil and gas industry, and moved in March 2001.

My daughter’s only request when we moved was, “Mom, can we stay put for more than 2 years?”.

I figured I could kill two birds with one stone by purchasing some land to live on. Purchasing property would make it more difficult to be transient/mobile and honor my daughter’s request, and I would be able to pursue my agrarian desires.

So I built a house and commuted 45 minutes into Houston for my corporate job, and evenings and weekends were spent playing homesteader.

We built a chicken coop. We raised laying chickens. We raised meat chickens. We planted a garden. We tore down the chicken coop and built chicken tractors (moveable chicken coops). We purchased a dairy cow and learned to hand milk, and built a barn (daughter and I built it with the help of my Dad). We purchased a Haflinger (a pony sized draft horse) and learned how to harness and drive her. We made and applied compost tea.

At work, they would tease me about slaughtering my own chickens!

I can’t tell you how many times I sat down with my Excel spreadsheet trying to figure out how to quit my corporate job and homestead/farm/ranch fulltime.

But I couldn’t make the numbers work!

I also doubted whether I could make it work.

In hindsight, I didn’t have the confidence to make it work.

Then I started having health issues, and found that the food I was eating was making me sick.

So instead of driving hours to source what I needed to eat, I used my agrarian interest to raise my own food.

It became a necessity for my health.

Then I remarried and we moved to his family land.

Thinking my new husband was on board with my agrarian desires, I brought on sheep. Then turkeys. And then finally the Dexters.

I commuted 1 hour and 45 minutes to work and he stayed on the farm/ranch taking care of things.

We discussed doing this fulltime, but we couldn’t make the numbers work.

Then I took a course that completely change my worldview/mindset.

Holistic Management International offered a Beginning Farmer/Rancher course that helped me define what my goal was, taught me about soil and ecosystems, about livestock management, land management, financial management and business development and marketing.

I went back to the farm/ranch ready to put all of this into action.

I had been given enough knowledge to give me the confidence that I could do this!

I started selling at farmers markets and building a good customer base.

But, it turned out that this wasn’t my husband’s dream. He was supporting me in my desires but he wasn’t fulfilling his desires.

So we decided that we needed to pursue our own dreams.

I found a new ranch and moved all the animals, just as Covid-19 pandemic hit the US.

I was able to work from the ranch, while getting things organized on the ranch.

My meat sales during the pandemic grew exponentially, to the extent that I couldn’t keep meat in stock, and started planning for production growth.

As the nation started recovering from the pandemic and opening back up, I started commuting into the city for work part-time.

In conversations with many others who worked from home during Covid-19, many acknowledged an awareness of an improvement of their quality of life: more family time, less stress, healthier meals and other benefits.

I felt the same.

So with my increased confidence that I could make the numbers work, with increased meat and egg sales, and a desire for a better quality of life, I took a step towards making my dream come true.

As of April 30, 2021, I am now a full-time rancher!

It’s taken me 28 years to achieve my dream, but I know that every step I took throughout those 28 years has given me the knowledge and skills that I’ll need to realize my agrarian dream, and be successful!

I’ve also learned to that we all need a supportive community to achieve a dream, of which I’ve been blessed to have.

Not only do I have my super encouraging customers, but I have a fabulous supportive community within Holistic Management International’s Certified Educators and M5 Entrepreneurs!

With their support, I can achieve anything!!

So is this what they call a mid-life crisis?

Is gaining the confidence to be who you really are, or really want to be a mid-life crisis? If so, then I’m going through a mid-life crisis!

Is bucking the ‘norm’ or the ‘expectations’ mid-life crisis? If so, then I’m going through a mid-life crisis!

Is finally acknowledging and pursuing your passion mid-life crisis? If so, then I’m going through a mid-life crisis!

Is finding the courage to be who you really want to be or to pursue your passion mid-life crisis? If so, then I’m going through mid-life crisis!

A mid-life crisis shouldn’t and doesn’t have to be a negative event in one’s life. It’s the fulfillment of a dream!

I only hope you can realize your dream sooner than later!

why is the fat on my steak so yellow?

Cattle were the last livestock I brought onto the ranch.

I decided on Dexter cattle, because they were red and smaller in stature!

Despite their smaller stature, Dexters take at least 2 years on grass (I don’t use grain to finish them) to be ready to process into edible cuts.

In December 2020, I took my first steer to be processed.

Having done my research on processing beef, my main concern was how long to dry age the beef given the amount of fat on the animal. So the processor and I spent a few hours on the phone discussing the carcass’ fat.

The processor’s first comment was, “You’ve got some yellow fat on the animal! You must be grass fed all the way!”

How did she know that?

Fat color is a function of what kind of vitamins are present in the cow's diet.

In healthy cattle, yellow fat color occurs when cattle graze green pasture. This results from the ingestion and absorption of yellow pigments that are present in plants. These pigments have been identified as carotenoids, with beta-carotene being the major component responsible for fat color in cattle.

Look at the yellow fat!

Beta-carotene is a natural form of Vitamin A - an essential nutrient - which the body can convert to Vitamin A as needed. Beta-carotene is also an antioxidant, important for protecting the body against free-radicals. 

Beta-carotene is a naturally-occurring plant pigment. It is what gives many fruits and vegetables their orange or yellow color (like carrots, squash, pumpkins, and grapefruit). 

When cattle consume beta-carotene-rich foods, it is stored in their fat. And likewise, when we eat beta-carotene-rich foods (like carrots, pumpkins, or beef with beta-carotene stored in the fat) then we transfer that beta-carotene to our own body fat reserves.

Grass contains beta-carotene. Grain does not. 

Cattle finished on grain will not have much beta-carotene in their diet and consequently their fat will also be missing the wonderful yellowish color. The only grain that is an exception to this rule is corn, which contains some beta-carotene, so cattle finished on a high corn diet will also have somewhat yellowish fat, though still not as much as cattle finished on grass. 

So don't discount the yellowish color of grass fed fat - it's actually a sign that it is good for you!

And not only is it good for you, but it is also one of the contributing micro-nutrients that gives grass fed beef fat its superior flavor.

As most chefs will tell you, the primary source of flavor in all meat comes from the fat. It doesn't take much fat to add flavor, but without any fat, there is NO flavor.

Don’t you want to eat the tastiest beef you’ve ever had?

Eat grass fed, grass finished beef!

Why did we name the ranch, The Regen Ranch?

When I told my dad what I was going to name the new ranch, his only comment was, “People are going to mispronounce it, because I did!”.

He read the word ‘regen’ with a hard G rather than a soft G.

For those that don’t remember your phonetics:

Soft G examples: gym, giant,

Hard G examples: gap, gun

Regen is read with a soft G, and is short for regenerate.

Why did I choose Regen?

I went through a divorce early 2020 and had to restart many things in my life., including purchasing new land to ranch on.

I regenerated my life path!

Additionally, I strongly believe in using regenerative agricultural practices to heal the soil and thus the water, carbon/mineral, energy (think solar) and community dynamic (think microbes and critters) cycles.

Regenerative agricultural practices focus on working with nature, rather than against nature, and scientific data shows that these will do much to heal our current environmental and social issues.

So Regen is short for Regeneration!

I am regenerating my life and my land, the lives of our customers through our products!

I had to add the word ‘The’ because when I went looking for the website address, regenranch.com was already taken!

According to the dictionary, the word ‘the’ is “used to point forward to a following, qualifying, or defining clause or phrase”.

We are The Regen Ranch because we are pointing forward to a defining ranch!

So The Regen Ranch became the name because there’s only one Christine and the ranch is uniquely different because of who I am and what I do!

And now you know why I named the ranch as I did!

how covid-19 pandemic is changing the trends in nutrition

I sat down after dinner to read our local newspaper to stay informed of what’s going on around me.

We haven’t been able to get out on the town much since we moved to the new property, so the paper gives me insights into events, new businesses, deaths of people I don’t know, and every once in a while there’s a good article to read.

In yesterday’s paper, in the Farm & Ranch section, there was an article written by Texas A&M AgriLife.

As many of you know, we ranch the way we do because we healed our bodies of chronic illnesses by changing how and what we ate. We believe in nutrient dense food to heal your body.

The article states that '“consumers are understanding the connection between nutrition and wellness” because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

That statement captivated me, so I read the article, excited to read a likeminded piece in the local paper!

The three main points of the article were:

1. More people are cooking at home, because many restaurants have closed down

2. More people are aware of our ‘broken’ food chain, and many are paying more attention to quality

3. There is a greater focus on foods that support the immune system

Knowing from personal experience and from chatting with hundreds of customers over the last 4 years, it takes a critical moment for persons to change their perspective/paradigm.

For Megan and I, it was the unacceptable diagnosis that there was no cure and that we would be on medication all of our lives.

For some customers, it was due to fear of death from a drastic diagnosis.

For many customers, it was the eye opening diagnosis of the consequences of their menu choices.

But most people still don’t understand that we are what we eat (and some would state that we are what we digest), and what they eat is killing them.

I’ve long pondered what critical moment would open the eyes of the many, many people who still believe they can get a complete, nutritious meal at any of the fast food restaurants.

Covid-19 pandemic has made many change their perspective/paradigm about our food chain and the food we are eating.

I’ve seen it in our business. We have more new customers looking for local, clean (no soy/no corn/no GMO/antibiotics/hormones) meat.

My fellow ranchers and producers corroborate the increased customer base.

And we’re all planning on increased production to meet this new demand.

Because we know, that once a customer eats our meats and eggs, they taste the difference. They feel the difference.

Our tongue is the first indication on whether the food we’re eating is nutritious or not. The tongue recognizes the minerals and vitamins in the food and the taste buds signal that it tastes better! We’ve all tasted the difference between a store purchased tomato and a home grown tomato!

When a customer continues to eat clean meats, they report to have more energy, better sleep, less brain fog, less food cravings, and generally better health! It’s been scientifically proven.

And because of this, the customers think twice or three times before they go back to how they used to eat before.

The food found in the supermarket, fast food restaurants, and many chain restaurants is not food that will nourish your body by providing it with the minerals and vitamins is needs to stay healthy and keep your immunity strong.

Today, you’d need to eat 21 oranges to get the same nutritional value of an orange in 1950!

According to a report published in August 2020, 4.22 billion prescriptions were dispensed in the US in 2019. With a total population of 328 million people in the US, that means on a simple average, every American is taking approximately 13 prescriptions!!!

The same report states that the cost of the prescriptions is rising.

In 1965, 4% of the US population had a chronic disease. Today, 46% of our CHILDREN have a chronic disease.

The increase in the number of prescriptions needed and the rising prescription cost could all be reduced if more people would opt for nutrient dense foods and cook from scratch!

Instead of prescriptions, heal your body with real, clean food.

The Covid pandemic has hopefully steered the lives of many towards nutrient dense food and cooking from scratch that will lead to healthier bodies and better immune systems!

The Regen Ranch is here to support those who want a healthier body and life, as are many other regenerative ranchers!

Social Media- To Be or Not to Be?

Are you on Facebook?

Are you on Instagram?

If so, you’ll know that Facebook (FB) owns Instagram (IG), and as of December 20th, 2020, the rules and regulations have changed to give them more control of what material is shown, ie they are imposing censorship rights!

Several fellow ranchers/farmers have had posts banned, and accounts put into suspension, because they showed a photo of a real life ranch situation or shared an opinion about real food or meats that goes against the ‘propaganda’.

Luckily, I haven’t had any issues with any of my posts.

Likely because I use both applications to show my followers (and hopefully you’re a follower) what’s going on at the ranch- new lambs, meals we’re making, pretty sunsets, Megan working hard while I’m eating bonbons, that kind of stuff.

Do I like that they feel they have the right to censor what is being posted? No.

Do they have the right as a business (because they are a business) to implement their own rules and regulations? More than likely, but I’m not a lawyer and will defer to those that have more knowledge than I.

Many fellow ranchers/farmers have decided to abandon both applications and transition over to Parler, MeWe and other similar apps as a result of this censorship. I respect their decision, as they have the right to do as they believe is right for them.

Many fellow ranchers/farmers have decided to stay with both applications because those that need to hear/see what what we have to say are going to stay with Facebook and Instagram. I respect their commitment and decision as they have the right to decide as they did.

As for me, I just want to share snippets of our life on the ranch with those that support, encourage, want to learn, and recommend what we’re doing to heal our bodies and the land! Just as I enjoy living vicariously and learning from others who are further in their regenerative journey, I hope to be able to do the same with my followers.

And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been inspired by a photo or a FB or IG story when I’m stuck in my corporate office or feeling overwhelmed on the ranch!

So, if you don’t already, follow me on FB and/or IG.

You’ll get to see daily snippets of Megan and I on the ranch- the good, the not so good and the dirty!

And if perchance I happen to get censored on either application, you can always find me here on this blog.

I’ve made a commitment to post more on this blog in 2021.

No one can censor this blog! That’s my right!

If you’re not already, become a subscriber to our ranch community, and you’ll get an email with updates on the blog.

Fake Meat is NOT clean Meat

I was working on some marketing for the ranch and discussing our ranch ‘slogan’ with a trusted friend to have her help me fine tune it.

The slogan we have been using is:

Producing CLEAN Nutrient dense meats for a healthier you

My friend had me explain why I chose each of the words in the slogan. Here’s what I told her:

Producing- my daughter and I are raising livestock on our land

Clean- we don’t use any chemicals, hormones or antibiotics on the land or with the livestock

Nutrient dense- the food we eat needs to have the nutrients God intended them to have to nourish and support our bodies to be healthy and functioning properly

Healthier- there is much research that most of the chronic diseases many are experiencing now is due to the lack of nutrition in the foods humans are eating.

After hearing my explanation, she tasked me with doing a Google search for ‘clean meat’.

It turns out that the ‘industry’ is calling lab raised meat as clean meat!

This revelation floored me!

In my research, I found the following:

“Those of us who are advocates for tissue-engineered meat often cringe when we hear non-appetizing terms like ‘tissue-engineered’ and ‘lab-grown’ use to describe the product in media reports. We know that using phrases like these (or even worse, “frankenmeat”, “test tube meat”, and so on) will turn the public, media, and investors off the product before it even exists.”

https://www.gfi.org/the-naming-of-clean-meat

So the fake meat makers did a study and determined which words would be more receptive to the public, and determined that calling it ‘clean’ would make it appealing!

“The more we tissue engineering supporters use "clean meat" to refer to the product in press releases, speeches, websites, product packaging, and other public communications, the more likely we will be to overcome the early but critical hurdle of generating public support for a novel product.

So it’s a marketing scheme! Knowing that the public, media and investors would not be interested in lab meat, they have ‘decided’ to promote it as clean meat!

What is fake meat?

Lab meat, frankenmeat, tissue engineered, test tube, synthetic, cultured meat has been developed as a solution to the objection by animals rights people of the slaughter of livestock to produce the meat, to the poor conditions of CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) and associated environmental factors, and to the purported looming protein shortage as the world’s population grows.

A quick review of how lab meat is grown:

Lab meat is made by taking cells from a food animal and growing them in a mixture of vitamins, lipids, amino acids and growth hormones. The lab meat is then colored, ground, mixed with fats and shaped into burgers.

In a testimony at an US Food and Drug Administration meeting in 2018, senior scientist for Consumers Union, the advocacy division of Consumer Reports, stated that the vats of solution in which the lab meat is grown can become contaminated with disease-causing bacteria, viruses, fungi and mycoplasma.

So the fake meat grown in the lab can be exposed to the same disease-causing bacteria, viruses, fungi and mycoplasma as in the CAFO!

At this same meeting in 2018, evidence was presented that many companies use antibiotics, hormones, even blood products taken from fetal calves, at least during the first steps of the process, to get initial batches of cells to transition from life inside an animal to life inside a vial or dish.

So living, breathing livestock must be used in the first steps of the process to produce fake meat!

an argument against fake meat

Now, I’ll agree that animals raised in CAFO’s are living in horrible conditions, and causing much environmental damage.

But as Diana Rogers, RD. author and producer of the movie Sacred Cow, coined

Its not the cow, its the how

It’s not the cow that is causing the problems, it’s how humans have chosen to raise, produce and care for the cow.

For centuries nature took care of itself, until we as humans decided we knew better and imposed methods and practices that suited us.

We placed animals in CAFO’s because we feared that we couldn’t feed the growing population. We thought that by concentrating animals in a small lot, and feeding them grain (which is abundant because we now raise hectares and hectares of monocultures of soy, corn and wheat under government subsidies), keeping the animals healthy with antibiotics, and making them grow quicker with hormone supplements. All this to increase the production of meat.

What we didn’t understand when we started all of this, is that there are consequences to deviating away from the natural functions.

The concentration of animals in small lots causes:

• The grass to die out (the animals are made to eat grass, and will eat the grass until they cause it die out), called overgrazing.

• This causes bare ground, so there is no grass/plant to photosynthesize carbon dioxide into carbon (into the plant and soil to feed the plant and living organisms in the soil) and oxygen (into the atmosphere).

• The bare ground causes the water to run off because there is no grass to mitigate the force of the raindrop on the surface, therefore creating a ‘cap’ on the bare ground. This cap doesn’t allow the rainwater to infiltrate into the soil causing erosion as the water picks up loose soil as it travels downward to lower elevations.

• The bare ground’s inability to infiltrate the rainwater causes flooding. Healthy soil has the capability of holding a large volume of water. For every 1% increase in organic matter, the soil can hold 25,000 gallons of water per acre.

• Without water, the millions of living organisms in the soil and above the soil, cannot live.

• The lack of living grasses/plants on the soil coupled with the cap, means that the sun is ‘cooking’ the soil and killing any living organism in the soil. This converts the soil to just dirt.

What many don’t realize is that soil is just like a human body. There are millions of living organisms in the soil that need food and water just like a human body.

Many of our current agricultural practices do not promote healthy soils! Instead many are killing the living organisms.

If we work with nature, instead of against it, we will move toward healthy soils, which in turn supports healthy animals and nourishes healthy bodies!

As the infographic above from USDA states, healthy soil is key to feeding 9 billion people by 2050!

So instead of spending millions on developing fake meat, we should be re-learning how to work with nature instead of against nature, and put animals in their natural environment where they can thrive without any human intervention!

If a cow is allowed to eat grass, and their time on the pasture is managed so that the grass can recover before it’s eaten again, then we have:

• Ground that is covered with living grasses and/or trampled grasses that create a ground cover

• Grasses that are photosynthesizing carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbon, improving the carbon cycle

• The carbon is feeding the plant and the roots below ground which then feeds the living organisms in the soil

• Grasses and/or mulch that slows down the force of the rainwater, allowing the water to infiltrate into the soil, reducing flooding effects due to the improved water cycle

• The ground cover keeps the soil and living organisms from heating up and killing off plants and organisms.

• The improved carbon/mineral and water cycles then create an environment that allows the natural seed bed in the soil to germinate resulting in a diverse grass pasture

• The increased water holding capacity of the soil, the increased diversity in the grasses/forbs, the improved carbon/mineral and water cycles then allows the livestock producer to increase his animal production thereby increasing the volume of meat from the same pasture

• With improved mineral, water and biological cycles, the livestock and plants are being provided with the nutrients they need to be healthy, which in turn provides the nutrients to humans consuming the livestock and plants.

Regenerative agriculture attempts to replicate the natural functions and ecosystems compared to conventional agriculture where man has attempted to control/affect the natural functions and ecosystems.

which one do you want to consume?

troublesome information about thanksgiving turkeys found in stores and how to mitigate it

At a farmer’s market a few weeks ago, I had a conversation with some customers about knowing where our food comes from and it’s quality.

The husband used to be in transportation for supermarkets.

I was sharing with them how our Thanksgiving turkeys are processed the week before Thanksgiving and are never frozen to guarantee that you’re serving a fresh and nutritious turkey at your meal.

The husband shared that the supermarkets return the Thanksgiving turkeys that are not sold back to the warehouse freezer.

He also shared that he saw frozen turkeys that had lots of dust on them (implying that they had been in storage a long time)!

So I came home and did some research on the expiration labelling on frozen turkeys.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, the United States does not have a uniform system of coding expiration dates on food products. The federal government requires expiration dates only on baby foods and infant formula. Other dating on food products is voluntary, and this is one reason why manufacturers use different terms and why similar products from different manufacturers may have completely different variations for their own date qualifiers.

Source: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/

A brief overview of the terms used:

Sell By Date

This date tells the store how long to display the product for sale. You should buy the product before that date. You should always pay attention to the instructions on the package and use your best judgment about when to consume the product.

Best by Date

This date is recommended for best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date. These terms are typically used on products that lose flavor and texture well before they would be unsafe to eat, like chips and sodas.

Use by Date

This date is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. This date has been determined by the manufacturer of the product.

Expires on Date

This is the last date that a product can be used. These terms are commonly found on items that perish quickly, like milk and eggs. These are products that may go bad shortly after that date. Additionally, this term is also found on infant formula, which is one of the few items the federal government requires an expiration date on.

Use or Freeze By Date

Certain products can be frozen to prolong their life. This date indicates the last possible day to either prepare the product or freeze it. In most cases, items can be stored in a freezer for up to six months, then thawed in a refrigerator for two to three days and then prepared.

Closed or Coded Dates

“Closed dates” or “coded dates” are packing numbers for use by the manufacturer. These may be hard to decipher or may appear to be an arbitrary string of numbers and letters, as they are not typically intended to be used by consumers. Each manufacturer has its own system for coding packages with these, but sometimes these dates can give you additional information, such as when the product was made. Oftentimes, these codes are accompanied by one of the above date descriptions.

Two types of product dating may be shown on a product label. "Open Dating" is a calendar date applied to a food product by the manufacturer or retailer.  The calendar date provides consumers with information on the estimated period of time for which the product will be of best quality and to help the store determine how long to display the product for sale. “Closed Dating” is a code that consists of a series of letters and/or numbers applied by manufacturers to identify the date and time of production.

How are frozen turkeys’ expiration labelled?

Both Hormel’s brand Jennie-O and Butterball use ‘CODE DATES’.

Source: www.jennieo.com

Source: www.butterball.com

how long can you keep a frozen turkey?

It is safe to eat a turkey that has been kept in the freezer for a year - or even for several years.  As the U.S. Department of Agriculture points out, foods that are kept constantly frozen at 0°F or lower will keep safe indefinitely.

Source: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/

When it comes to quality, though, the story is different. Over time, all frozen foods will eventually start to go downhill when it comes to texture, flavor and taste.

Source: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/

how to mitigate the risk of serving an ‘old’ turkey for thanksgiving

You have two options to prevent serving an ‘old’ turkey for your Thanksgiving meal:

1. You can use the information explained in this post to verify that the frozen turkey you are purchasing at the grocery store is fresh by decoding the expiration labelling

2. You can purchase a fresh, chilled turkey from your local farmer/rancher

6 Healthy Benefits of Pastured Meats

There are six great reasons to eating pastured meats!

By pastured meats, we mean livestock that have been fed only grass and forage. No grain (a topic for another post).

The way cows, and any livestock, are fed can have a major effect on the nutrient composition of their meat.

Did you know that at 7-9 months, calves that have been getting milk from their mothers and been eating grass, are taken to large feedlots, called concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). There, the calves are kept in confined stalls, often with limited space.

They are rapidly fattened with grain-based feeds that are usually made from a base of soy or corn. Typically, their diet is also supplemented with small amounts of dried grass.

To maximize growth, the cows are often given drugs, such as antibiotics and growth hormones.

The cows live in these feedlots for a few months before being brought to a slaughterhouse.

“You are what you eat” applies to cows, and any livestock raised in CAFO’s.

Why would you want to eat the meat from an animal that has been eating grains it wasn’t designed for (another topic for another post), or given any antibiotics or growth hormones, when you can eat pasture raised meats with the following 6 health benefits?

reason #1

Pastured meats have 1/3 less fat than grain fed meat.

Grass-fed beef usually contains less total fat than grain-fed beef, which means that gram for gram, grass-fed beef contains fewer calories

reason #2

Pastured meats have 2-4 times more omega-3 fatty acids than grain fed meat.

Omega-3’s provide powerful health benefits for your body and brain, including:

1. fight depression and anxiety

2. improve eye health

3. promote brain health during pregnancy and early life

4. improve risk factors for heart disease

5. reduce symptoms of ADHD in children

6. reduce symptoms of metabolic syndrome (Metabolic syndrome is a collection of conditions. It includes central obesity — also known as belly fat — as well as high blood pressure, insulin resistance, high triglycerides and low “good” HDL cholesterol levels.

7. fight inflammation

8. fight autoimmune diseases

9. improve mental disorders

10. fight age-related mental decline and Alzheimer’s disease

11. help prevent cancer

12. reduce asthma in children

13. reduce fat in your liver

14. may improve bone and joint health

15. alleviate menstrual pain

16. may improve sleep

17. good for your skin

reason #3

Pastured meats have 2-5 times more CLA’s than grain fed meat

CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) are powerful polyunsaturated fatty acids we must obtain from our diets (such as a Paleo or ketogenic diet) that’s been shown to help fight cancer, discourage weight gain, reduce risk of heart disease and build muscle

reason #4

Pasture raised meats have 5 times higher vitamin E than grain fed meat.

Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant and will help repair damaged cells.

Vitamin E may help people with higher environmental or lifestyle risk factors:

• cigarette smoking

• exposure to air pollution

• high exposure to ultraviolet rays from sunlight

reason #5

About 80 percent of antibiotics sold in the United States go to livestock like cows so it’s not crazy to be worried about antibiotics in beef. Cows that aren’t grass-fed live on diets of grain and are typically given hormones to unnaturally increase their weight and hence yield more meat. With grass-fed cows, weight gain is not as high because they eat a healthier, lower-calorie diet.

The main reason farmers use more antibiotics is that as meat demand goes up, animals are confined to smaller and smaller spaces, and this greatly increases the spread of disease. The use of antibiotics in meat, particularly factory-farmed meats, contributes to antibiotic resistance in human, which is why it’s so important that you not only question what goes in your body, but what goes in the body of the animals you put on your dinner plate.

Feeding cattle grain makes their intestinal tracts much more acidic, and this promotes the growth of bacteria like E. coli, which can actually kill someone who eats undercooked beef like a rare hamburger. We can thank the commercial meat industry for this kind of scary beef, which is the product of feeding cows grain and keeping them in overcrowded, disease-ridden feed lots.

Antibiotic and hormone use in beef is significantly less likely with grass-fed versus grain-fed. If meat is organic and grass-fed, then the animal was not given antibiotics or hormones because organic cattle are fed organic feed and are not given antibiotics or hormones. For grass-fed cattle, antibiotics are typically not given, which is very different form the consistent and common use of antibiotics on feed-lot, grain-fed cows.

reason #6

Pastured meats taste better than grain fed meats!

Our tongues are an incredible member of our body! They are our first indicator to whether the food we’re eating is healthy or not.

Have you ever noticed the taste difference between a store purchased tomato and a home grown tomato? The home grown tomato tastes so much better right?

What your tongue is responding to is the nutrient density of the home grown tomato. Our tongues can taste the magnesium, potassium, selenium, calcium, and all the other minerals and nutrients the plant has picked up from the soil.

The same with a pasture raised animal versus a grain fed, CAFO animal.

Our tongues can distinguish the nutrient density of the food we eat by the taste!

Remember, ‘you are what you eat’.

If you want to be healthier, it’ll be important for you to start questioning what you’re feeding yourself.

Start with shopping at the farmer’s market. Ask the meat vendors how they raise their animals.

You should also ask the produce vendors how they raise their produce too!

You have a right to know what you’re eating!

Especially, if you want to live a healthier life!

Sources: www.draxe.com, www.healthline.com

super quick and easy sheet pan turkey fajitas

We LOVE fajitas! Its what we order when we go to Mexican restaurants.

As much as we love them, we have to confess that we had never made them at home.

With the recent Covid lock down, we’ve had to expand our cooking repertoire as we quickly got bored with our tried and true recipes.

When we found this recipe, it has quickly become our go-to recipe when we come in from the many projects on the ranch, and have no idea what to cook! (If you haven’t found the nom nom paleo website, you’re missing out!)

We have turkey in the freezers all the time (the BEST perk of raising them year round), so we switched the chicken for turkey breasts!

The longest time is slicing the turkey breast and peppers, and juicing the limes (we still have the antiquated hand juicer).

Once all of it is prepped, 20 minutes and you’ve got the tastiest turkey fajitas!

BUT, don’t forget the avocado crema. That completes the meal! We’ve been known to make double the recipe to use with chips.

The original recipe calls for placing the items on a rack in the sheet pan (as the photo above shows). We haven’t done that. We just use tin foil to cover the sheet pan, and the turkey and peppers always come out wonderfully.

Click here to print the recipe.

Adapted and photos from www.nomnompaleo.com

The MOST Celebrated Holiday of the Year - National Soil Health Day

Did you know today (June 23rd) is National Soil Health Day?

And its NOT the most celebrated holiday of the year. But it should be!

Did you know that there is actually a difference between soil and dirt? I didn't, at least not until I moved on to the ranch. I actually thought it was the same thing, just with a different name. Turns out, that's not the case!

In scientific terms:

Soil: The upper layer of the earth in which plants grow, a black or dark brown material typically consisting of a mixture of organic remains, clay, and rock particles.

Dirt: A substance, such as mud or dust that soils someone or something

A huge difference, huh? The main difference, which really blew my mind, is the fact that while dirt is dead, soil is considered to be ALIVE.

As the above infographic created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations presented in 2015, which they declared to be the Year of Soil Health, shows that SOIL IS AS ALIVE AS OUR BODIES ARE ALIVE!

Soil, that thing we walk on, we plant in and build on, is alive. It is alive because it is a macrocosm of life. There are billions of bacteria in a handful of healthy soil along with the occasional earthworm, nematode, grub, etc. Healthy soil is an entire ecosystem in itself with predators and prey, producers and consumers.

Our body, that thing that we use to walk with, to plant with, to build with, and to live in, is alive. It is alive because it is a macrocosm of life. There are billions of bacteria in a single drop of blood or perspiration. Our bodies are an entire ecosystem in itself.

Think of it this way:

Just like our bodies have bacteria, both good and bad, it’s all balanced. When things are out of balance, we get colds, flus and various health problems that let us know something isn’t right. The same goes for our soil! Things like bare ground, an abundance of weeds and erosion are a good clue that something is out of balance.

Why do we need healthy soil?

Soil feeds. When soil is at its best, it helps plants create more nutrients that our bodies need, like protein, calcium and magnesium.

Soil cleans.  Healthy, vibrant soil can help keep the environment cleaner and healthier. Nutrient-rich soil has a stable structure and when it is mismanaged, it loses the structure, causing dust clouds to form, increasing erosion.

Soil protects. When properly managed, soil protects plants from harm. Bacteria, fungi and other microbes living in healthy soil form a natural defense from pests and disease. Mismanaged soil has fewer microbes, putting plants at risk.

As the infographic shows above, the soil is as complex as a human body. If we don’t care for it, the soil will cease to function properly, and we will see the results manifest in a continually decreasing amount of healthy food, which will then result in more health problems.

Healthy soil is full of organisms that turn dead matter and minerals into vital plant nutrients. It acts much like the human digestive system that breaks down the food you eat into nutrients that nourish your body, and waste. Much of today’s soil quality is so poor, that the food being grown on that soil, is deficient in many of the nutrients our bodies need.

Soil quality is directly related to food quality.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Did you know that there are more living individual organisms in a tablespoon of soil than there are people on earth?

• Did you know that almost all of the antibiotics that we take to help is fight infections were obtained from soil microorganisms?

• Did you know that agriculture is the only essential industry on earth?

• Did you know that soil is a non-renewable natural resource?

This is why we try to be conscious of our soil's health. We don't use pesticides that would kill off any of the insects and bacteria that is needed to promote a healthy ecosystem above and below the surface.

This is why we are extremely careful about what we put into our body. We don’t eat anything that has been treated with any chemical, hormones, genetically modified organisms or preservative, or anything that is going to damage the healthy ecosystem in our bodies we are trying to build and maintain.

Our mission at The Regen Ranch is to have the healthiest soil we can possibly achieve, so that we can produce the healthiest, nutrient dense food we can possibly produce.

Happy National Soil Health Day!

Coming to you for the very first time,

Megan

AKA Christine’s Daughter

4 Simple Paleo Turkey Recipes

In this time of Covid-19, we’re all able to spend lots of time at home.

Being home all the time, also means that we’re having to cook 3 meals a day, 7 days a week

I don’t know about you, but after the first 2 weeks of being homebound, I got bored with my regular recipes.

So I went out looking for new recipes.

And given that I’ve got a freezer full of turkey cuts, I concentrated on turkey recipes.

Now most of you don’t think about cooking turkey unless its Thanksgiving time, but let me share with you that its a nice replacement to chicken!

Did you know that:

• turkey breast meat has just 1 less gram of protein than chicken breast meat per ounce

• turkey wing meat has the same amount of protein as chicken wing meat per ounce (although you get much more wing meat in a turkey wing!)

• turkey white meat is leaner and has fewer calories than chicken white meat

• dark meats in turkey and chicken have more fat than white meat in both

• dark meat cuts of chicken have slightly more fat and calories than dark meat cuts of turkey

During the ranch move, after the day of physical labor, we needed a solid meal, preferably easy, simple, and nourishing.

Some recipes met that criteria, others did not.

We’ve put together our 4 favorite recipes for you.

Click here to see the yummy recipes!

So, change up your menu planning or recipe rotation, and add in these easy and healthy turkey recipes!

You could teach your children/grandchildren what a meatloaf sandwich is!

I hadn’t had one in a long while, and it brought back lots of wonderful memories with my grandparents!

Or you could make some spicy turkey wings and organize a board game evening.

We’ve been playing a lot of gin rummy after dinner. It doesn’t take much brain energy, but its a nice diversion as we wind down after a day on the ranch.

Enjoy the recipes!

Fats: The Difference Between Healthy Fats and Bad Fats

Fats get a bad rap, and we’re told to avoid them and instead told to choose low-fat and non-fat foods!

The truth of it is that we need good fats for our bodies to function properly, and we need to eliminate the bad fats.

To understand what makes a good and healthy fat versus a bad fat, understanding what fats are is important.

What are Fats?

Fats are a class of organic substances that are not soluble in water. In simple terms, fatty acids are chains of carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms filling the available bonds. Fatty acids are classified into three categories:

Saturated Fatty Acids

• All available carbon bonds are occupied by a hydrogen atom.

• They are highly stable

• They don’t go rancid, even when heated for cooking purposes

• They form a solid or semisolid fat at room temperature

• They are found in animal fats and tropical oils

• Your body makes saturated fatty acids from carbohydrates

Monounsaturated Fatty Acids

• They have one double bond in the form of two carbon atoms double-bonded to each other, and lack two hydrogen atoms.

• Your body makes monounsaturated fatty acids from saturated fatty acids.

• Tend to be liquid at room temperature

• They are relatively stable

• They don’t go rancid and can be used for cooking purposes

• Most common monounsaturated fatty acid is oleic acid, the main component in oils from olive, almond, pecan, cashew, peanut and avocado.

Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids

• They have two or more pairs of double bonds, and lack four or more hydrogen atoms

• Omega-6 is a polyunsaturated fatty acid, as is Omega-3.

  • The omega number indicates the position of the first double bond.

• Your body cannot make these fatty acids and consequently are essential in our diet.

• They are liquid, even when refrigerated.

• They go rancid easily and must be treated with care.

• They should never be heated or used in cooking

All fats and oils, whether of animal or vegetable origin, are some combination of saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids.

The Dangers of Polyunsaturated Oils

In the United States, the public has been told that polyunsaturated oils are good for us and that the saturated fats cause cancer and heart disease, resulting in a fundamental change in the Western diet. Today, most of the fats in the diet are polyunsaturated from vegetable oils derived mostly from soy, as well as from corn, safflower and canola. At the turn of the century, most of the fats were saturated or monounsaturated, primarily from butter, lard, tallows, coconut oil and small amounts of olive oil.

Today’s diet contains as much as 30% of calories as polyunsaturated oils, and research indicates the actual amount is much higher. Our intake of polyunsaturates should not be greater than 4% of the caloric total.

According to Weston A Price Foundation,

“Excess consumption of polyunsaturated oils has been shown to contribute to a large number of disease conditions including increased cancer and heart disease; immune system dysfunction; damage to the liver, reproductive organs (sterility) and lungs; digestive disorders; depressed learning ability; impaired growth; and weight gain.

…New evidence links exposure to free radicals (key compounds found in rancid oils) with premature aging, with autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and with Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Alzheimer’s, and cataracts.

…Most polyunsaturates in commercial vegetable oils are in the form of double unsaturated omega-6 linoleic acid, with very little of the vital triple unsaturated omega-3 linolenic acid. Recent research has revealed that too much omega-6 in the diet creates an imbalance that can interfere with production of important prostaglandins. This disruption can result in increased tendency to form blood clots, inflammation, high blood pressure, irritation of the digestive tract, depressed immune function, sterility, cell proliferation, cancer and weight gain. …Deficiencies in omega-3 have been associated with asthma, heart disease and learning deficiencies.”

Benefits of Saturated Fats

Saturated fats play many important roles in our body chemistry:

• Saturated fats gives our cells necessary stiffness and integrity as they constitute at least 50% of the cell membranes

• For calcium to be effectively incorporated into the skeletal structure, at least 50% of the dietary fats should be saturated

• They lower Lp(a), a substance in the blood that indicates proneness to heart disease, and they also protect the liver from alcohol and other toxins, such as Tylenol

• They enhance the immune system

• They are needed for the proper utilization of essential fatty acids

• The fat around the heart is highly saturated, as the heart draws on this reserve of fat in times of stress

• Saturated fatty acids have important antimicrobial properties and protect us against harmful microorganisms in the digestive tract.

According to Weston A Price Foundation,

'“Saturated fats do not clog arteries or cause heart disease. In fact, the preferred food for the heart is saturated fat; and saturated fats lower a substance called Lp(a), which is a very accurate marker for proneness to heart disease.

Saturated fats play many important roles in the body chemistry. They strengthen the immune system and are involved in inter-cellular communication, which means they protect us against cancer. They help the receptors on our cell membranes work properly, including receptors for insulin, thereby protecting us against diabetes. The lungs cannot function without saturated fats, which is why children given butter and full-fat milk have much less asthma than children given reduced-fat milk and margarine. Saturated fats are also involved in kidney function and hormone production.

Saturated fats are required for the nervous system to function properly, and over half the fat in the brain is saturated. Saturated fats also help suppress inflammation. Finally, saturated animal fats carry the vital fat-soluble vitamins A, D and K2, which we we need in large amounts to be healthy.”

Which Fats to Use?

You’ll want to avoid the polyunsaturated oils:

• all hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils

• industrially processed liquid oils such as soy, corn, safflower, cottonseed and canola

• fats and oils (especially vegetable oils) heated to very high temperatures in processing and frying.

The best fats to use are:

For cooking:

• butter (from grass fed livestock)

• tallow and suet from beef and lamb (from grass fed livestock)

• lard from pigs (from pasture raised pigs)

• chicken, goose and duck fat (from pasture raised poultry)

• coconut, palm and palm kernel oils, and extra virgin olive oil

For salads:

• extra virgin olive oil

• expeller-expressed sesame and peanut oils

For fat-soluble vitamins

• cod liver oils (not farmed fish)

Eat More Saturated Fat!

We must eat more fat for our bodies to function as they were designed to do. Most people, especially infants and growing children, benefit from more fat in their diet than less. But the fats we eat must be chosen with care.

Avoid all processed foods containing hydrogenated fats and polyunsaturated oils, and instead use traditional vegetable oils like extra virgin olive oil, learn how to use coconut oil for baking, and with animal fats for occasional frying. Eat the fat with the grass fed steak for dinner, and add a slab of grass fed good quality butter with your fermented bread!

Source: Weston A Price Foundation