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Where's The Beef? Try Ovoka Farm in Paris
Where's The Beef? Try Ovoka Farm in Paris
By M.J. McAteer
As drivers barrel east down the mountain on Route 50 heading toward Paris and Upperville beyond, for a brief moment on their descent at Ashby Gap, they can get a glimpse of what surely is one of the prettiest views in all Virginia.
Stretched out below is a landscape that looks like some peaceful realm in a fairy tale, and, in the foreground, as though ordered up to provide perspective, is the 700-acre Ovoka Farm, its precipitous pastures speckled with bulky, black cattle.
Back in the 1730s, Ovoka took up a lot more of that view. It started as a 3,000-acre land grant, and, some 30 years later, its borders would be surveyed by George Washington, who slept there, too, of course. The property has always been called Ovoka, said co-owner Karen Way. Some say the name means “everrunning water.”
Formerly a Chicago real estate attorney, Way and her husband, entrepreneur Guy Morgan, acquired the property in 2012, when he had family moving back to the area. Morgan’s grandparents had lived in Wildcat Hollow on the other side of the mountain from Ovoka when he was a kid, so he knew the farm well.
Ovoka was in need of immediate TLC when they bought it. They fixed fences and pastures, renovated and greatly enlarged the stately manor house and rebuilt the cabin where Washington allegedly slept. They dubbed it the BunkHouse.
The couple got into the cattle business, too, by importing 125 Wagyu embryos from Japan, which they then had implanted into surrogate Angus mothers. That allowed the farm to breed its own Wagyu bulls and start raising the exotic and expensive breed, which is prized for the uber-tenderness and tastiness of its meat.
The high price of Wagyu beef, however, makes it a niche market that caters to deep pockets and special occasions, so about 275 of the farm’s 350 head of cattle are now F1s—half Wagyu, half Angus. They still produce meat that is exceptionally tender and flavorful but much it’s more affordable than the pure Wagyu. For example, Ovoka recently had five pounds of F1 steaks and a pound of F1 ground beef on sale for $100.
Ovoka’s beef business was struggling, though, so Way took direct charge of the operation in 2020, and, with the help of chief operating officer Jessica Morton, opened up a farm store and started selling at farmer’s markets, such as EatLoco at One Loudoun and Brambleton.
Ovoka beef now can be found on line and on the menus of some of the best eateries around, including The Inn at Little Washington, Field & Main in Marshall, and Harrimans at the Salamander Resort in Middleburg. The Ashby Inn, just a short jog down the road from the farm, serves the farm’s beef, as well.
All of Ovoka’s cattle, including two pet Highland cows named Ginger and Mary Ann after characters on “Gilligan’s Island,” are raised sustainably, without hormones and are free-range, having their grass diet supplemented by allnatural non-GMO grain. Good stewardship of its animals is a priority for Way and her farm manager, Roy Lambert.
Good stewardship also is expensive, no matter the price point of the end product, and Ovoka’s cattle business was not turning out to be profitable enough to sustain itself.
“We were dying,” she said.
And so, a couple years back, she turned to agri-tourism, a decision that has saved her cattle’s bacon.
Ovoka began renting out its seven-bedroom manor house and the BunkHouse to overnight guests, who can use the farm’s swimming pool and basketball court or get an aerobic workout on its five miles of hiking trails.
It initiated tours and tastings, along with food pairings with the likes of distiller Catoctin Creek from Purcellville and Three Fox Vineyard and Brewery in Delaplane and private five-course dinners that feature the culinary skills of local chefs. All turned out to be popular.
The stunning beauty of the property also has made what Way calls “celebration tours” into another source of income for the farm.
These celebration tours can include major events, such as a 200-person wedding last summer, and most include a wagon ride up to the top of Ovoka’s loftiest pasture. There, visitors can savor--more safely and for longer--the rustic perfection of the scene that they saw so fleetingly from the highway.
Ovoka Farm, 750 Gap Run Road., Paris, VA. 20130. https://www.ovokafarm.com.
