Rooted in Community: Scenes From Our Ranch Tour
- Apr 2
- 2 min read
The crunch of the car tires making their way up the driveway, the anticipation of the day while anything is still possible, coffee in our mugs, potential energy brimming. We greeted the ranch tour participants and oriented them to the day. The sky was a particular bright blue, the birds and butterflies busy with work as we made our way up the road to our first stop at the old bay tree on Sonoma Mountain Institute. This bay tree is over 100 years old. Sharing the land with the community, with the jackrabbits and white tailed deer, neighbors and school children, all brings us joy and purpose. Being able to feed families on top of that is the extra cherry on top.
Aaron gathered the children and asked them to spot differences in two handfuls of soil. Their answers and observations were impressive. We compared soil and plants we were seeing with things most of us have relationships with like compost and gardening. Cattle are inherent gardeners. Their natural mowing, compost and nitrogen applications, with hooves working like gentle trowels tamping in seeds, compost and providing the restorative disturbance that is needed for savannas to thrive - is far more efficient than a human could be over thousands of acres. The cattle in combination with our variety of tools like actual compost applications, targeted goat grazing rotations, prescribed fire, and observation by us and 3rd party biologists, are how we tend to the land with our partner Sonoma Mountain Institute. We do all this in concert with mother nature we are following her lead as these hills have co-evolved with large herbivores over thousands of years.
As we got closer to visiting the cattle, we took some time in silence, tuning into our senses and sinking into the land. After a few minutes even the children settled. Nestling into crooks in a bay tree, between wild strawberry plants and under the live oak tree branches. With this slower, more intentional reverence we wandered towards the cattle. Cattle, as prey animals, are highly sensitive. It’s almost as if they can sense your thoughts. We use low-stress livestock handling every time we are around the cattle. Witnessing how a group of 60 people could move towards cattle and not send them running to the hills was a testament to everyone’s reduced concentric ring of energy. Taking that moment to quiet our minds and bodies before moving into the cattle’s space is a part of how we dance with these animals every day.
Our hearts are full from sharing the land with our school community. Many of these same families will be filling their freezers with our beef this summer. Continuing the connection to place. When you take home a beef share from us, you are connecting to this place. To the people, tree frogs, badgers and bobcats, the cattle and wildflowers. At pick up day we will take you up the hill on this tour and share the space with you. Followed by a picnic in the oak trees. Connecting, asking questions, sharing, being. This is what fuels us. Connecting with you and the land. Join us.
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