We, here at Marx Foods, get some pretty enviable perks. We get to bring our dogs to the office (If we have them. I do not, but I am allowed a fish), we get paid to try lots of gourmet foods, and (if we are very good) we get to have a weekend getaway at Eaton Season Ranch, home to Eaton Natural Beef. And guess what! I was awarded such an honor and I am here to share the awesomeness of it all. So here we go:
The drive to Eaton Season Ranch was a good transitory exercise to prepare my fiancé and me to exit the city and enter the beautiful farm country of Eastern Washington. After going over the mountains, through some snow, and across a desert, we reached the promised land! All around us were rolling hills of grains and greenery with cows happily grazing among them and a few farmhouses scattered across the landscape. It was truly a sight to behold. My crappy camera didn’t do it justice.
Nestled in Wawawai Canyon is the ranch for Eaton Natural Beef. They have about 300 cows that wander and graze throughout their 3,000 acre ranch. These are some seriously lucky cows. The epitome of what grass-fed beef should be. They are able to eat what they want, socialize freely, and just be cows! They live in a natural, low-stress environment. They do not receive growth hormones and if a cow gets sick and needs antibiotics, it is marked on its ear tag and the Eatons won’t sell its meat.
(If you pull out your magnifying glass, you can see the cows grazing away and ignoring my fiancé while he tried to ‘moo’ at them.)
Upon our arrival we were heartily welcomed by the Eatons and their dog Teko. They directed us the cabin where we would be staying for the weekend. Inside it we found an array of local treats from a bottle of wine from the neighboring organic winery to handmade soap from a local artisan. And finally the coup de grâce: beef jerky from the Eaton’s grass-fed beef, which we tore into like impatient children on Christmas Day.
Once we settled in, we set out to find some cows. But we didn’t need to go far. We just stepped outside of the cabin and there were about 15 of them just hanging out and grabbing some water. However, they weren’t as curious about us as we were about them and they quickly moved on.
The next morning we were up bright and early. After a hearty pancake breakfast, we were off and hiking. There was a hill that we noticed upon arrival that seemed to be challenging us simply with its presence. We thought it was important to conquer this hill and conquer is what we did.
(See our awesome tick-prevention strategy!)
Well, maybe ‘conquer’ isn’t the right word. After much complaining to each other about how big the hill was, and how out of shape we were (*whine* “My ankles hurt.”), etc. it felt like the hill was doing more conquering than we were. But we reached the top. And it was worth it. It was like being on top of the world. And I must say that I was proud of myself. I handled the thousands of insects that were curious about us with nothing but grace and poise. Well, sort of, if by ‘grace and poise’ you think of cowering behind Geoff , then yes that is what I did. But of course after about 15 minutes of admiring the beautiful landscape we got bored and started the climb back down. (Hey, we’re city people with limited attention spans. But we’re learning!)
We were also fortunate enough to attend a catered fundraiser they were having for a local agriculture program. The chef who made the food said that he often had his culinary students do a blind taste test of all the commercial grades of beef as well as the Eaton’s grass-fed beef. He said that the results of the most recent taste test voted the Eaton’s beef as better tasting that even Prime Grade beef. After we chowed down on our food, we could see why. It was heavenly. And in case you were wondering, I had no moral quarries whatsoever with eating cows that had probably munched on the very grass I was sitting on. In fact, I thought it was great! The shortest food chain ever!
While that glorious meal was delicious and the scenery unbeatable, these were not my favorite part of our weekend at the ranch. By FAR the best part for me was when I got to feed the baby calf. He was so cute I thought about taking him home when no one was looking, but my fiancé said that he wouldn’t fit in the car.
It was a good trip. I’d be glad to go again. There was much to be explored that I did not explore. Many questions about ranching and animals that did not get answered. I will simply have to go back I think. And next time I’ll bring a bigger car to fit that calf into!