The Who

If you’re new here, welcome! We wanted to introduce ourselves and what drives us. 

We are a family run business and wholly committed to regenerating ecology and producing healthy, tasty beef. We came to this work because we love the natural world and we believe that properly managed herbivores are one of the best tools for healing the land. We began our careers in gardening and permaculture, but found a strong pull to garden on a larger scale than backyards. How do we tend the hills around us? We learned about regenerative agriculture, holistic management and how oak savanna's thrive with specific herbivory. Bringing our children along with us on this journey, and working with the wonderful team we have, makes the "work" of it all a bit brighter.

Byron began his journey and interest in agriculture when he sustained an injury playing college football and began deeply reading books about the state of the environment. When he was on a documentary film crew filming farms, he decided he needed to be on the other side of that camera and get his hands in the soil. He absorbed everything he could about gardening, building soil, and the network of relationships that go into tending land. 

Alessa was born and raised in Point Reyes, a town surrounded by thoughtful food production and agriculture. Her childhood included 4-H, gardening with her mom, and riding horses through the national parkland. Her early adulthood included working for The Nature Conservancy restoring prairie land, and meeting Byron at a Permaculture course and program in Bolinas. 

It was during this Permaculture program where we met, and were introduced to cattle being a powerful tool that could be used to garden on a much larger scale. From there we were supported by a number of incredible people. We are ever grateful for the folks who took a chance on us greenhorns and hired us to manage their ranch and CSA over 15 years ago. Through that experience we saw first hand the power of livestock to restore land. Through working with Tara Firma Farms, Marin Sun Farms and Mindful Meats we learned more about the industry as a whole. 

Books, teachers, programs, peers and first hand experience (mistakes included) continue to guide our thinking and progress our work.

Since 2013 Byron has been regeneratively managing land and cattle for the non-profit Sonoma Mountain Institute where he has been able to live his creative vision of broad acre grassland restoration. This provides so much meaning and purpose to our family and we are grateful.

We started Grounded Grassfed in 2017 to be able to raise high-quality beef we feel good about feeding to our family and friends. We hope you'll enjoy it as much as we do. It's an honor to be able to feed our community. 

Thanks for reading and we look forward to getting to know each of you especially during our ranch tours and pick up days.

All our best,

Byron, Alessa and the Grounded Grassfed Team