Our Story

In 2010, Paul Brown came home from college inspired. 

He'd just read a bunch of Joel Salatin's books. He was ready to take his dad Gabe Brown's ranch into the next generation.

He wondered, we have a ranch close to the city, why not grow more than just beef? Why not supply the local community with a bunch of different animal-based foods? Can we make the soil even better by increasing biodiversity?

So Paul took a leap and started raising more animals.

He got his first 75 Leghorn laying hens and built his first chicken trailer. He started selling eggs out of the back of a pickup truck, connected with a CSA in Bismarck, and got started! In 2013, Paul added another animal into the mix - sheep. And then in 2014, pigs were added. At this point, there was a pretty good amount of customers!

In 2017, Paul decided to take the business out of the digital stone age (they were operating off Google Forms) and built a website!

Everything has just grown since then. More customers, more animals, more biodiversity, a bigger variety of foods, and better soil. Yea, Paul probably said yes to too many things 😊

In the summers of 2017 and 2018, Jazmin lived on the ranch as an intern. Paul and Jazmin jived and kept in touch over the years. In 2021, Jazmin came back for a long stay. At this point, Paul and Jazmin knew that it was kinda meant to be.

Jazmin moved to the ranch in April 2021. Paul and Jazmin got engaged on May 8, 2022 and were married on September 3, 2023. 

Now, Paul and Jazmin are growing the ranch together.

Meet Our Team

History of Brown’s Ranch

1953: Paul's grandparents and great uncles bought the land together. The 3 families moved from their hometown of Glen Ullin, ND and started farming together on their own. In the 1970's, one of the great uncles sold their land but Paul's grandparents and uncle Dan continued farming; with Shelly's help.

1981: Paul's mom, Shelly, married a city boy - Gabe, who grew up in Bismarck. Why? Because she wanted to get off a farm. But then guess what? Gabe decided he wanted to be a farmer!

1991: Gabe and Shelly moved back, bought the property, and started the ranch. They started to slowly transform it into what it is today.

1993: Dad got a no-till drill in hopes of healing the heavily tilled land. After that, he had 4 straight years of crop failure. 2 years were lost to hail, and 2 years were lost to drought. He almost didn't think the ranch would make it. Money was so tight that they couldn't afford fertilizer or any other input. That’s why he started innovating out of necessity; using cover crops and minimizing inputs, meanwhile learning everything he could to naturally maintain and restore the property. Year after year, he improved the soil and finally the land became productive again.

2017: Paul started taking over the ranch.

2023: Parents moved off the ranch, and Paul and Jazmin moved into the main house!