Welcome to the Ranch!

Learning how to cook grass fed beef takes practice. It really involves understanding time and temperature differences from traditional cooking. Against the advice of many, you do not have to treat grass fed beef with kid gloves nor do you have to marinate everything for 24 hours. We give our customers “6 Cooking Tips for Grass Fed Beef,” which comes from an article on this blog with the same title.

Still, I get questions specifically pertaining to grilling steaks. I found this short video with very simple instructions and ingredients from Whole Foods. I liked it because it was so simple and the video does not spend the whole time extolling all the virtues of eating grass fed beef.

Instead it focuses on the how-to of grilling grass fed steaks, which is what our customers want. They already know why they have purchased the grass fed beef. Take just over one minute to watch a tutorial showing you a simple method of grilling.

Recently I have been fielding many phone calls from customers and potential customers alike about genetically modified organisms(GMOs). These are crops, plants, and/or grasses that scientists have altered in the hopes of making the plant better, more disease resistant, etc. GMOs are relatively recent phenomena.

The first genetically modified crop was tobacco in 1982. In 1994, the United States allowed the sale of a genetically modified tomato. Since then more and more crops were genetically modified and now almost 16.56% of the United States agricultural lands are used producing GM crops.

The top ten most common GM crops today are salmon, animal feed, canola and cottonseed oil, golden rice, squash, tomato, corn, potato, sugar beets. As producers of grass fed beef, we took for granted that our cattle were raised without any GMOs, which fits into our all-natural as God intended philosophy.

To me that is what is worrisome about GMOs. God created everything and called it good. Now people are “improving” on His creation by altering the genetic makeup of plants and crops. There are countless websites on which you can read about the concerns of consuming GMOs. On the other hand, there are others that sing the praises. You have to do the research and decide for yourself. This article is not meant to be exhaustive on the topic.

Unfortunately scientists were not happy genetically altering only plants and crops. They are genetically modifying grasses. Alfalfa is one of top GM grasses as scientists seek to make this type of grass more pest resistant. This fact greatly concerns us and our customers because we do supplement with alfalfa. Alfalfa is so high in protein and nutritious, which is why we use it in our grass fed beef program. It will not grow in our climate; therefore, we buy it dehydrated in cube and pellet forms.

I have contacted the producers of our alfalfa in Colorado. Their alfalfa is non-GMO as are the block of producers in the area. Cross-contamination is a huge problem in keeping your crop pure. The company is diligently seeking ways to keep their alfalfa non-GMO as they know their product goes to natural or organic farms like our own. If their seed was ever compromised, she said they would announce it to their customers.

Then I began thinking about the rye and oats that we plant for winter grazing. I contacted that company as well and received the good news that the varieties we planted are non-GMO. We are relieved at the news.

It just goes to show that you have to stay informed and proactive. I would not have thought that grasses were not safe from genetic alteration or that alfalfa producers were struggling against companies like Monsanto. The introduction of GM alfalfa alone impacts natural or organic milk and/or beef producers as well as the natural or organic honey producers.

Some of you might not care about GMOs. Some of you might care so much about them that you get frustrated at the grocery store trying to make the right choices for your family. You have high ideals and don’t want to compromise them. Regardless of your opinion of GMO products, the fact is that the grass fed beef at Cross Creek Cattle Company is raised on non-GMO grasses.

If there is anything on earth that makes the hardest heart melt, it has to be the sight of baby animals. Regardless of the species, the sight of the very young makes people “oohh” and “ahhh.”

Baby calves are no exception. Our Beefmasters usually have long legs and big ears. They almost all look alike this year. Although, some have very distinct markings. On this Valentine’s Day, I am posting pictures taken of some of our calf crop. They are all about the same age, which is about two months old.

Please enjoy the photographs. And, Happy Valentine’s Day!

I was on a walk through the meadow pasture yesterday and noticed that the rye grass is already coming up. That was fast! I guess three inches of rain works miracles.

As we enjoy really cool mornings and evenings, I begin making soups, chili, and stews. Some of our customers do not order stew meat and some do. The ones who do usually struggle with how many pounds to request. It really depends on how often you want to make stew. Generally customers decide to ask for 6-8 pounds.

I wanted to post a beef stew recipe today that I use. It is grain and starch free, which many of our customers try to minimize in their diets. If you are not one of them, then feel free to add potatoes.

Grass Fed Beef Stew

2 lbs grass fed beef stew meat
2 lbs carrots, coarsely chopped
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, pressed
2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1/4 tsp thyme
1 lb green peas, frozen

Make sure that the stew meat is cut into bite sized pieces. In a large pot, brown the stew in a little olive oil over medium heat. Add the carrots, onions, garlic, and seasonings. Stir. Then add water to just cover the vegetables. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to simmer. Cover with the lid slightly ajar. Cook at least three hours. Add the frozen peas 15-20 minutes before you want to serve the stew.

Enjoy with grain free biscuits.

I was flipping through a book of my dad’s today. Someone gave him, Don’t Squat With Yer Spurs On!: A Cowboy’s Guide to Life by Texas Bix Bender. It is a small book packed with funny sayings and cowboy wisdom.

One quote in particular jumped out at me. “Always take a good look at what you’re about to eat. It’s not so important to know what it is, but it’s critical to know what it was” (pg. 80). I re-read it and really chewed on the truth in this statement.

Grass fed beef looks different out of the package. It is lean. The fat is yellowish in color. It is not like its grain fed counterpart proudly displayed in the grocery store refrigerated meat section. You will be able to see the difference; however, according to this saying, that is not what is important.

What is important is knowing from where the beef came. At Cross Creek Cattle Company, our calves are grazing grassy pastures in a herd. Their bodies are free from antibiotics and growth hormones. They have free access to fresh water. When we work them or move them to another pasture, it is done with low-stress methods.

In other words when you purchase grass fed beef from our ranch, the beef comes from animals that were raised the way God intended them to live: on pasture, on grass, and with a herd. As evident in this saying, old cowboys thought knowing from where you food came is critical. If I had to chose, the choice for grass fed beef is an easy decision to make.

As I help customers fill out his/her processing form for our grass fed beef, a very common question arises: “What are cutlets and what do you do with them?” Cutlets are thin-cuts of meat usually taken from the leg section. The processing plant tenderizes them. The cuts are about the size of the palm of my hand, if not a tad larger.

I like to use cutlets to make a version of a Southern favorite, chicken-fried steak. Since many people choose to purchase grass fed beef for healthy diet reasons, many customers eat few grains, if any. Diets like the Paleo Diet, GAPS, and/or Specific Carbohydrate Diet rely on grass fed meats, but no grains. Therefore, here is a delicious grain-free version of chicken-fried steak with gravy.

Since I cook for a small army daily and most people do not, I am cutting back my recipe to make it more standard. This recipe is written for 4 servings.

Breaded Beef Cutlets
1 pkg grass fed beef cutlets
1 clove garlic
2 eggs
1 cup blanched almond flour
salt and pepper to taste

Thaw out the cutlets and place in a plastic zip-closed bag. In a small bowl, beat the eggs and stir in one pressed garlic clove. Pour over the cutlets, seal bag, and refrigerate for six hours or overnight. This step allows the garlic to infuse the beef as well as let the eggs completely coat the cutlets.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking dish with olive oil. In a shallow dish like a pie plate, combine the almond flour with the seasonings. Dredge each cutlet in the flour mixture making sure that it is completely covered with the breading.

Place each breaded cutlet on the greased baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until done.

Flourless Gravy
1 cup of broth (beef, chicken, pork)
1/2 white onion

Before you start breading the cutlets, bring broth and onion to a gentle boil. Allow it to cook just above a simmer. When the cutlets are almost done, puree the onion with a handheld blender. Season with salt and pepper to your liking. The onion thickens the broth nicely without need for any flour. Serve on top of breaded cutlet.

I hope you enjoy this much healthier version of chicken-fried steak with grass fed cutlets. It is a grain-free recipe that is sure to make your family happy.

For any rancher, the summer is when you focus on storing up food for your cattle during the winter months. It is a time to make hay or purchase it.
Hay is simply dried grass that is baled either in rounds or in squares. During the winter when grass lies dormant, your cattle can still get the benefits of grass by eating hay. You simply cut the grass while it is at its peak, allow it to dry completely, and bale.
Hay requires a pasture of good grasses and dry weather. The last thing you want is for your cut grass to get rained on because the grass will mold. Hay making is farming; you are at the mercy of the weather.
We have not cut hay on our ranch for years. It has been more economical to purchase hay. However after last year’s drought and the fact that the price for hay soared to astronomical heights coupled with the fact that we have been greatly blessed with rain and grass this year, we decided to cut three hay fields on our new ranch.
Farming is always a gamble. You have to watch the weather, keep your eye on your fields, and act in faith. We have finished cutting the grass. It is drying out quickly in this summer heat. Tomorrow we will start baling the hay as long as the weather holds.
Hay is an important part of our grass fed business. It saved the ranch last year when our pastures burned up in the most severe drought on record. During even a mild winter, hay is a staple in our herd’s diet. Since we do not feed grain of any kind to our cattle, dried grasses are their food in the winter.
We are excited to be in this position. Making our own hay illustrates that we have turned a corner in a sense. This year has been completely different than last year. And for that, we are truly thankful.

Most of our customers order grass fed beef for health reasons. A doctor has recommended grass fed beef as an alternative source of protein for those with heart conditions. A mom has been reading into the health benefits of grass fed beef on her own. A vegetarian has chosen grass fed beef as a healthy option for her omnivorous children. Our customers might come from all different parts of Texas with completely different backgrounds, but the one thing they have in common is the desire to consume healthy, nutritious grass fed beef.

Many of the same health conscious people today are striving to live on the Primal or Paleo Diets. Both of these ways of eating encourage the consumption of grass fed meats. They also limit the consumption or even remove altogether eating starchy vegetables like potatoes. My family ate for an entire year on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet protocol, another healthy eating plan to heal one’s gut which also does not allow potatoes.

Beef and potatoes pair so well. At first it was hard, especially for my husband to not eat potatoes. You can only have so many grass fed hamburger patties with roasted vegetables before you want to expand your horizons. One of my husband’s favorite dinners is Super-Healthy Shepherd’s Pie.

Super-Healthy Shepherd’s Pie

2 pounds grass fed ground beef
1 sm onion
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp cumin
2 Tbsp lime juice, freshly squeezed
salt and pepper to taste
1 pound frozen peas
2 head of cauliflower, washed and cut into florets
1 stick of butter
1 1/2 cups Cheddar cheese, grated
parsley flakes

Steam the cauliflower florets until fork tender. It usually takes me about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile in a pan, saute the onions in the olive oil until they are soft and translucent. Then brown the ground beef. Add the seasonings and lime juice and allow to simmer until the cauliflower is ready.

When the cauliflower is fork tender, put the florets in a large mixing bowl. Add the stick of butter and puree using a hand-held blender. Then add salt and pepper to your liking and a bit of parsley flakes. Stir well.

In a 3 qt dish, build the first layer by placing the seasoned beef and onion mixture on the bottom. Pour the frozen peas over the beef to make the second layer. Spread the mashed cauliflower as your third layer. Then the grated cheese will be your last layer. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

This recipe serves our family of seven well. It can stand alone as a dish without sides or add a nice fresh salad or green beans.

This past week has been such a blessing to the ranch. Rain has been in the forecast almost every day and more importantly, it has actually rained. Good soaking rains, not just quick downpours that run off as fast as they fall, have seeped into our soil.

After a wet winter, we had our hopes up for a wet spring, too. Unfortunately that has not been the case until now. The temperatures have been very high for April and May. Last week it felt like summer with temperatures in the mid-90s. As a result, the winter grasses have gone to seed and died while the summer grasses have not had enough moisture to grow well. We were honestly becoming concerned for our grass fed business again.

We repaired a broken dam on a pond on our new property this winter. In an attempt to prevent erosion, my husband and I spent a day planting bermuda and bahia grass on the dam. This rainy weather came at a perfect time. We could not be more thankful.

If you want to learn to grow in your dependence on God, try making a living in agriculture. You realize real quick that you are not in control, but instead have to adapt to the environment you are given with full reliance on your Heavenly Father. Out of gratitude for His faithful provision throughout last year’s drought as well as the rains this winter and spring, Cross Creek Cattle Company wants to give glory to whom it is due. Thank you, God, for the rain, glorious rain.

When the owners of Cross Creek Cattle Company purchased additional land in order to expand our ranch and the provide room for business expansion, we knew the property would require many hours of physical labor in order to be ready for our herd.

Our primary concern is fencing. Without proper fencing, you cannot contain your cattle nor can you keep out neighboring herds. After years of neglect, the perimeter fencing was in bad repair. Trees had fallen in some places like a game of pick up sticks. My husband and some hired men worked long, hard days removing the trees and limbs, clearing the fence lines, and repairing the fences. In many places, it was easier to completely rebuild the fence from scratch.

I am pleased to announce that the perimeter fencing is complete. Our borders are secure. Now my husband’s focus has been the cross-fencing. Pasture rotation requires good cross-fencing whether it is a sturdy 5 string barbed wire fence or a fence made with hot-wire. My husband reports that the cross-fencing is now 95% done.

Unfortunately, this new property has a infestation of feral hogs. We have them on our home ranch, but not near to the extent of the new ranch. In some places, the hogs have disked up the earth. Weeds then come up instead of grass; therefore, the wild hogs are posing a threat to our livelihood in the grass fed beef business. Cattle have to have grass in order to survive without grain.

I have written before about this problem and how my husband built a hog trap. The trap has been very effective. In the last three weeks, we have killed 37 hogs. Monday alone we trapped and killed 21 wild hogs. Not only are we feeding the local community and filling our own freezers with wild pork, but we are making a small dent in the feral hog population.

Now that the pastures are being taken care of with the removal of wild hogs and with the sturdy fencing, our next concern is water. There are many lakes and ponds on the property. One pond’s dam had broken. It has since been repaired with a bulldozer. Now all the waterways are accessible and full to the brim thanks to all the rain we have been receiving.

The next project that my husband must tackle is repairing the existing cattle pens. Once we take our herd of mama cows and the bulls to the new ranch, we will have to have a way to work and pen them up. Our plan is to use our home ranch for the sole purpose of finishing out our grass fed beef.

We are not quite ready to move our main herd just yet, but we are laying the groundwork. When we do eventually move the herd, this will not affect our customers at all. The grass fed animals will still be at the home ranch and you will still pick up your orders from the home ranch as well.

We are so excited about the expansion of our ranch and of our business. As the demand for grass fed beef increases, we are trying to keep up with the demand. We thank our customers for making this possible.