Located in the heart of Wyoming farm and ranch county, the 1,280 acre Ridenour Ranch, owned by Cindy and Mike Ridenour, offers grass-fed beef, non-certified organic vegetables and “Love-Me-Tender” pork. To set their high-quality products apart, they sell their food products under the banner, Meadow Maid Foods, to reflect the care they take in growing or raising their food products more naturally.
Cindy began raising vegetables organically in 1984, and she and Mike started a backyard flock of chickens in 1991. Cindy eventually left her career as an applications chemist for a major scientific instrument firm to pursue farming full time, finding solace in farm life. Mike, too, left behind a marketing position with a scientific products company to try his hand as a cowboy, now managing a herd of up to 200 beef cattle and up to seven pigs each year. When asked about the “Love-Me-Tender” moniker for their pork, Cindy explains: “‘Love-Me-Tender’ pork means ‘love me until I’m tender.’ When pigs are raised on fresh air, fresh veggies, fine seed, with a pig wallow, room to root and roam, and the occasional scratch behind the ear, they produce high-quality, tender pork.”
“When we first started to consider downshifting, as we later found our move to be called, we explored various possibilities,” says Cindy. “Mike was drawn toward cattle and I was drawn toward organic market garden vegetables. Our goal is to produce and sell very high quality, highly nutritious, food.” Proximity to a viable market for their products led them to their farm, within a two hours drive of the northern Colorado and Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming markets.
The Ridenour Ranch now operates an approximately third-of-an-acre market garden, raises a small chicken flock for egg sales, and raises five to seven pigs from weanlings each summer. “These pigs live outdoors, with room to roam, and a water wallow to cool in,” comments Mike. “They readily consume garden waste.” In 2005, an unheated greenhouse for seedling production (including tree seedlings for a reforestation effort in progress on their property) and winter crop production will be added, incorporating ideas shared in Eliot Coleman’s Four Season Harvest.
It’s the grass-fed beef production, however, that’s Ridenour Ranch’s profit center. “We raise the beef from start to finish, and market the final product,” says Mike. “Our herd of Herefords, Angus, and Black Baldies graze on the irrigated and dryland pastures year round. We only supplement their grazing with hay when absolutely necessary. Cows calve late, from mid May through June, which reduces their dietary needs during the harsh winter months. The minimal winter feed means that yearling heifers do not cycle during winter, and cows will wean their own calves.” As confirmation of the success of their approach, Cindy adds, “Healthy cattle on good soil should not be bothered by pests.”
Dispelling the widespread belief regarding the importance of science in agriculture, Cindy adds: “Although we’re chemists, we do not believe that better food comes through chemistry. Our food is best produced in harmony with nature, rather than through control. We seek to farm and ranch from that perspective. The more we learn, the more we appreciate the beautiful intricacies of nature, and the less we feel we should intervene.”
“When our soil is alive and balanced, and our pastures, gardens and animals are healthy, then our farm and ranch products will be superior, and our work will be minimized,” chimes in Mike. “Not coincidentally, food produced by natural methods has the potential to be more flavorful and nutritional than food produced on sterile soils using chemical inputs.”
Perhaps unique among farming operations, Ridenour Ranch is actually one business unit of a two business operation. Ridenour Ranch produces food products and related, but separate, Meadow Maid Foods, LLC purchases ranch products then markets and sells those products. “The businesses of food production and food sales are very different,” explains Mike. “We find that it makes good business sense for us to separate those businesses legally and financially.”
Meadow Maid Foods, LLC sells fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers and pastured beef and pork at the Torrington and Cheyenne farmers’ markets, by mail order with orders taken through the Internet, directly to a grocer and caterer, and through various other direct sales channels, avoiding most middlemen.
“The Cheyenne farmers’ market customers are much more receptive to organic products, less price sensitive, and more adventurous,” comments Cindy. “However, the Cheyenne market opens mid-afternoon. Many customers miss the best selections because they’re working. This year, I will try to develop a share and delivery service in hopes of attracting the younger and busier generation in Torrington and Cheyenne, modifying the CSA concept to fit my own needs and perceived needs of my customers.”
“When we first decided to control our price by selling direct, we thought that we would sell sides and split sides of beef,” admits Mike. “We have found that people do not own freezers to hold split sides and sides of beef, do not wish to purchase them, and furthermore, do not think that they consume that much beef. Or, they only wish to consume steaks and burgers. In order to transition from selling sides of beef to selling cuts and bundles, we had to establish a great working relationship with our processor, solve issues of packaging, transportation, and storage, and identify and meet a variety of legal and food-safety requirements.”
Meadow Maid Foods has also moved into value-added products, offering grass-fed beef jerky. Their jerky meat — available in regular, teriyaki and spicy styles — is ground, combined with seasonings, formed into strips, and cured to create a consistently chewy, tasty jerky that can be kept safely at room temperature.
Over the years, Ridenour Ranch — and Meadow Maid Foods, LLC — has come to manage every phase of production, marketing, sales, and distribution of their varied products. “A family already involved in farming should carefully consider the additional duties and schedules imposed by marketing and sales,” cautions Mike. “While direct sales may be immune to some fluctuations in the commodity markets, this form of marketing adds additional risks in the form of liability, investment, and market management.”
“But pasture raised livestock consists of old-fashioned practices and true organic practices are based on time-honored methods and nature,” concludes Cindy, somewhat humble about what she and her husband have accomplished. “We try to mimic nature. After all, deer don’t calve in January. Why should our cows?”