Guest post from Mr HP!
While visiting Tucson a few weeks ago, my brother took me to St. Philip’s Plaza Farmers Market where I ran into one of the proprietors of San Rafael Valley Grass-Fed Beef.
Upon seeing his sign, I decided to make some small talk.
“You mean you don’t torture your cows?”
“No, we treat all of our cattle humanely.”
“But, don’t tortured cows taste better?”
He took the joke and we spoke about their ranch a little bit. They keep around 200 head of cattle on about 7,000 acres of land in Patagonia, Tucson, a beautiful (and temperate, thanks to the elevation) part of Arizona about a 75 minute drive south of Tucson. (Incidentally, Patagonia is a short drive from Sonoita, home to outstanding vineyards producing some fairly drinkable wine; all in all, well worth a visit.)
Sonoita, Arizona Wine Country
In addition to enjoying beautiful scenery, San Rafael Valley Grass-Fed Beef’s Angus-Hereford cattle are on a diet of 100% grass, and are spared hormones, feed lots, big corn, antibiotics and pesticides.
Unfortunately, it was my last day in Tucson so I didn’t get to taste any of the beef, but I agree from past experience that grass-fed, humanely raised cows taste better. It’s good for soul. And possibly the brain, heart, immune system, etc.
Edited 11/6 to correct the size of the ranch and the number of resident cattle.
Great trivia bit from Ms. Sidney Spencer, owner of The Ranch: “The San Rafael Valley is one of the last ‘intact short-grass prairies’ in America and the headwaters of the Santa Cruz River….completely undeveloped and the location for 1953 film Oklahoma.”