© 2012 Upper Dry Creek Ranch Contact Us
54746 Upper Dry Creek Road Weston, OR 97886 (541)938-6262
100% Certified Grassfed Lamb and Beef
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All our lambs and calves are born and raised on our family ranch in Eastern Oregon. None of our animals are purchased from an outside source.
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They are raised completely free of antibiotics and growth hormones.
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Cosner livestock are raised on 100% Certified Organic range pasture, local organic or low spray alfalfa pasture and local hay.
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All animals are carefully and quietly handled using low stress techniques.
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Our pastures are regularly rotated to protect the forage plants from overgrazing as well as provide a fresh source of nutritious feed for both cows and ewes.
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Our lambs and beeves are finished only on forage. Grain is not part of their diet.
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When ready for harvest, all animals are carefully transported to our USDA inspected processing plant where attention is given to every detail.
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After dry aging for a minimum of 10 days for lambs and 15 or more days for beef, this lean meat is cut to our specifications, wrapped and immediately frozen to seal in freshness and assure consistent premium quality.
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By purchasing our meat products, you are supporting wholesome food production, sustainable farming practices, humane animal husbandry, economically viable farming and family friendly agriculture. Your support allows us to continue to do the work that we not only do best but love to do. We truly appreciate it. Please tell your friends about what we offer.
Sincerely,
Robert & Cheryl Cosner and Family
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Meet Our
Partner
Creature Feature: Meet Bart
In the last installment of this newsletter, we introduced our readers to Sam, one
of our livestock guardian dogs. In this issue, we are going to introduce you to
our alpaca/llama hybrid who is affectionately known as “Black Bart.”
Bart, also known as Barty, was a gift and though the familiar adage goes “you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” he has been a tremendous asset to our guardian team. By their nature, llamas and alpacas do not like canines, such as dogs and coyotes. This can be precarious with the guard dogs but both species learn to appreciate one another and there is tolerance in the pastures. Bart is particularly useful when we pasture areas that are populated with houses and strange dogs that would could drive our dog guardians to distraction. Bart is mild mannered and sweet. He hums or bleats when he is upset. Though he has never offered to spit at his humans, he is known to stomp his feet and spit at the guard dogs when he thinks they are misbehaving. He is very protective of his sheep. When we arrived to check lambs last winter, we saw Bart at the opposite corner of the field by himself staring over the fence. As we got a closer look, we realized just across the fence in the neighboring field was a coyote looking for a way to get in with the lambs. Bart stood sentry until the coyote moved on and then returned to the rest of the flock.
Bart is a good match for the sheep since he eats the same grass and alfalfa as they do and has the added bonus of wonderful wool for spinning.
Order Your Grassfed Beef Now !
Congratulations to Chef Hannah McDonald for celebrating her one year anniversary as one of our fine restaurant partners. Chef Hannah serves Upper Dry Creek Lamb from her French kitchen at 4 East Main Street in Walla Walla, WA. For reservations, call (509)529-2011.
For other fine eateries serving Upper Dry Creek lamb and beef, please check Our Partners page.
Comfort Food with Upper Dry Creek Lamb
With the cool temperatures and blustery weather, savory foods form the centerpiece
for our winter meals. Lamb shoulder steaks are not only delicious and flavorful but
a good value, particularly for families.
This simple but robust recipe makes a hearty meal that will warm you to the bone. Source: Sheep Hollow Recipes
BRAISED LAMB SHOULDER STEAKS
4 Upper Dry Creek Ranch Bone in Lamb shoulder steaks
2 tbsp. high quality olive oil
1 medium onion, thin sliced
8 cloves of garlic, thin sliced
1 carrot, sliced
1/2 green pepper, chopped finely
1 can of stewed tomatoes
¼ cup of red wine
1 teaspoon of basil
1 tablespoon of rosemary
Salt and pepper to taste
Season lamb steaks with salt and pepper, brown in large skillet or dutch oven over mediumheat in the olive oil. Cook for 10 minutes, turning steaks frequently. Remove steaks from pan, add a little olive oil if necessary and sauté onion, garlic, carrot and green pepper, stirring constantly until the onion is yellow and soft. Add wine to deglaze, reduce by half, add tomatoes and season with basil and rosemary. Add steaks, heat mixture to a simmer, cover and braise at low heat, maintaining barely a simmer for 45-60 minutes, turn lamb steaks frequently.
Serve with garlic potatoes or rigatoni tossed in olive oil and fresh grated parmesan cheese and steamed green beans or brussel sprouts.
Grass, dirt and animal digestion were the topics of discussion at a gathering for chefs and food professionals hosted by Upper Dry Creek Ranch this summer on a warm evening in June.
The American Cul
inary
Federation’s Northwest W
ine Country Chapter met at the ranch
for their June monthly business meeting where
AFC Meeting and Tour
Food Alliance Certification
We are excited to announce the receipt of our Food Alliance certification for Grassfed Beef and Grassfed Lamb as of October 2010. We believe this certification endorses our sustainability practices and provides a third party endorsement of our efforts.
Food Alliance certified producers are held to a high standard of
excellence. The following serve as Food Alliance’s definition of sustainability in food and farming, and the overarching framework of the certification program.
- Protect, conserve and enhance soil, water, wildlife habitat and biodiversity.
- Conserve energy, reduce and recycle waste.
- Reduce use of pesticides and other toxic or hazardous materials.
- Maintain transparent and traceable supply chains.
- Support safe and fair working conditions.
- Guarantee product integrity, no genetically engineered or artificial ingredients.
- Insure healthy, humane animal treatment with no growth hormones or non-therapeutic antibiotics.
- Continually improve practices.
Our certification is based on a thorough on site inspection by a third party evaluator. The results of this inspection are then submitted to Food Alliance for further evaluation and final certification approval. Unlike our organic certification with Oregon Tilth, which is done annually, our Food Alliance certification is reevaluated every three years.
Our Grassfed label insures that your lamb or beef has received no grain or grain additives of any kind during its life. This label allows feeding of only forage and selected vegetable byproducts to market animals destined for slaughter. Since breeding stock are
used for reproduction only, they are allowed a wider range of feeds that fall outside the forage requirements.
Food Alliance’s third party endorsement is intended to give you additional confidence that we are doing all that we can to provide you with healthy, sustainably raised food.
"It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a different opinion." William Ralph Inge, English author. (1860-1954)
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participants were treated to a ranch tour and a wine and lamb dinner prepared by Wildhorse resort.
During the ranch tour, Robert and Cheryl shared with the audience how the nutrition of certain grasses affects animal health and growth. They also explained their land management practices including how they manage water and grazing to introduce new plants and increase others in their pastures for their sheep and cattle. All of this is achieved with timed grazing.
The Cosners also discussed the details of how they produce their grass-fed lamb and beef which was recently certified by Food Alliance as sustainably raised. Both lambs and cattle have access to pasture year ‘round. Lambs are part of a program that benefits local hay growers by grazing alfalfa aftermath in winter. All animals are humanely handled and carefully transported to an artisianal meat processor that dry ages both lamb and beef for optimum tenderness and flavor.
Order Your Grassfed Beef Now!
We are currently taking orders of whole, half, split half and various beef packages for our Certified Grassfed Angus beef. For pricing and details on placing your order, visit our Order Beef page by clicking here.
After the tour, guests enjoyed lamb ribs in rootbeer sauce with quinoa and fresh asparagus. Walla Walla winery Woodward Canyon paired its widely acclaimed red wines with the meal.
The Cosners plan to host tours for other interested groups in 2012.
It’s the beef time of the year here at the ranch. The steers have been on irrigated grass pasture all summer where they are growing delicious steaks, roasts and ground beef for you to enjoy.
All of our Black Angus cattle are born here at the ranch and raised on a forage diet of grass. When these cattle reach optimum size and finish, they are quietly transported to our USDA facility where they are dry aged for 15+ days, cut, wrapped and frozen in vacuum sealed or double white wrapped packages to seal in freshness. To learn more about our beef and place your order, check out our Buy Beef page on this site.
Upper Dry Creek Ranch Accepted
As Conservation Stewardship Participant
In addition to creating monitoring sites to check plant diversity, the Cosners installed “little critter” escape ramps in all of watering troughs as well as regularly monitoring and record the grazing and reproduction of their livestock.
The Conservation Stewardship Program rewards farms and ranches for their current good conservation practices and offers financial incentives for continued improvements.
As a reward for their current conservation practices and an encouragement to continue to improve wildlife habitat, protect waterways and carefully manage native plant species, the Cosner’s were awarded a five year USDA Conservation Stewardship Program contract in spring of 2011. Robert and Cheryl Cosner, owners of Upper Dry Creek Ranch were one of only six farms and ranches selected for this program in Umatilla County, Oregon.
