From The Ashes O THEIR RANCH BRINGS LIFE TO CHARRED LAND
ver the last year and a half, I have become intimately involved with how farmers and ranchers work to rejuvenate land burned by fire. My partner, Jarrod McBride, bought a 10-acre ranch bounded by Mountain Ranch, Railroad Flat and Mokelumne Hill in Calaveras County that had been devastated by the Butte Fire in 2015. He calls the land Pasture Works. While many are scared off by these charred areas, we were attracted to Pasture Works because we saw enormous potential in the less expensive mountainous terrain and felt that once land burns, it will not catch fire for quite some time. When we started visiting the ranch on weekends from our house in Midtown, our five chickens and two ducks rode with us in a large dog crate. Peeper frogs sang from ponds below. Crickets churned out their chorus and burned pines stood as sentinels of future rejuvenation.
GM By Gabrielle Myers Farm to Fork
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The “ladies,” as we call the birds, responded to the rich soil and tasty grasses, producing multi-colored eggs with bright, reddish-orange yolks and firm whites. When I met Jarrod several years ago, I was moved by his excitement as he talked about his youth on the Central Coast living on a ranch with cattle, pigs, sheep and hay. He loved caring for animals, especially his dogs. His devotion to ranch life, deep passion for animal welfare and technical knowledge from years spent studying electrical and security systems drive his work on the ranch. Soon after moving to Pasture Works, Jarrod ordered meat birds and practiced incubating dozens of our little ladies’ offspring in the small cabin. We studied YouTube videos by Joel Salatin, Greg Judy and Justin Rhodes, and learned how to raise and butcher birds. In the fall, we practiced our skills on 15 Cornish Cross and 15 Red Broiler chickens, five Kaki Campbell and five Rouen ducks, plus two turkeys. Jarrod purchased five sheep and moved them around the land several times a day. We learned how to slaughter the sheep and get them packed at a local butcher shop with USDA certification. Now the three remaining ewes are open grazers, running to meet us as we descend the front porch, hovering
around at the storage sheds for grain snacks. Last week we brought a ram to the ranch to create a self-sustaining flock. Our two Kunekune pigs, Thelma and Louise, enjoy a large rotating pasture. Their noses and hooves aerate the soil. Their grunts fill our mornings as we meet them with supplemental feed and hellos. Living fulltime at Pasture Works, I see little transformations in the land. I sense the forests healing themselves and how the animals’ grazing allows for more water retention in our pastures, their waste like golden nuggets to the Gold Country’s charred lands.
Jarrod McBride
