This week, we’re doing a little bit of a Marketing takeover! My name’s Trisha, I’m the marketing manager here at Lepp Farm Market, and as someone who didn’t grow up with a farming background, I wanted to share what I learned and some pretty cool photos I got to take this past week at the ranch.
We got the pleasure of staying at the Fossen Bar 7 Ranch in Rock Creek, where we grow our Black Angus Triple A beef. Fossen Bar 7 Ranch is family-owned by Doug and Erika Fossen, with their two daughters, Jade and Reine. The ranch focuses on responsible land management and animal care, which has helped them earn recognition for environmental stewardship by winning the BCCA Ranch Sustainability Award in 2022. If you want to learn more about the Fossen family and our beef, read our blog post here.
First up: the drive! From Lepp Farm Market to Rock Creek is about 4 hours through the dry land of Southern Interior BC. We enjoyed wide fields, mountain views, and cattle lessons with Jason. I know a lot about our beef, specifically what happens once it reaches the market, but not as much about the actual process of raising them.
Lesson one: ranching is not like you see in the movies. Rugged terrain, significant weather changes, and mountains make navigation difficult. Much of the ranch life is herding cattle, finding cattle, feeding them, and making sure they’re staying healthy and uninjured.
Lesson two: the difference between a cow, steer and heifer (yes, there’s a difference). A cow is a mature female that has given birth, a heifer is a young female that has never had a calf, and a steer is a castrated male raised primarily for high-quality meat. There’s your fun fact for the day.
Once we arrived, it was straight to work. This was a pretty cool opportunity to photograph new recipes, old recipes, and products (stay tuned!). We started out with a Southwestern Steak Salad – this has been on our website for years, but desperately needed some new photos!
After that, we set out on the ranch. First, we went to visit the calf cow pairs (Mama and baby), and, naturally, we couldn’t get close. Cows are very protective of their young, which was really sweet to witness. After that, we went to visit the steers. If you’ve never been intimidated before, try standing in a field with 50 steers staring at you. But, they’re actually just big puppies who try to lick you and climb in your car.
While we were there, we interviewed Jade Fossen, who had recently graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a degree in animal sciences. Her knowledge of animals, sustainability, and ranching life is truly unmatched, and we all learned a lot. The interviews will be posted this summer over on our socials, and I’m really excited for you all to see them! We also butchered some primals, showing you how we cut three different cuts of steak – right where our steak comes from!
Over the next two days, we followed Jade and Reine around as they fed, watered, and herded cows; fixed fences; did tractor work; tended to an unfortunately injured horse (on the farm, it happens); and tried to tag a young calf (in case you were unaware, cows are very fast runners). Jade and Reine are two incredibly well-spoken, well-educated and strong women. It was truly inspiring to watch them work.
Most of all, I took away an even greater appreciation for where my food comes from. I am always proud of where I work, but it was especially evident that weekend when I got to see firsthand all the hard work it takes to run a ranch. It’s truly an honour that I get to share the stories of local BC farmers who don’t have a full marketing team behind them.
So next time you purchase beef, say a thanks to the farmers who put in hours of hard work so you can enjoy the meat on your dinner plate!
