2017 Brown's Ranch Interns

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May 2, 2017

Spring is in full swing and we welcomed two interns to help us out throughout the growing season. They went through a rigorous application process and came out on top! We love the opportunity to help young people gain practical ranching experience and bring new minds into the agricultural industry. We have asked them to introduce themselves to our customers in this blog. Without further ado, meet our interns: Kase Wheatley and Jazmin Jordan!

Kase Wheatley

I grew up in LA suburban-sprawl between some freeways, a power plant, a military base, and a horse-racing track. During college, I experienced open space which opened my mind; I learned about the disparity between how I thought the world ought to be and how the world actually is. Agriculture touches everyone and everything; it seems like we ought to to do it in a way that doesn't just sustain the damage and devastation we've inflicted upon the Earth but actively regenerates it. Rather than selectively poisoning the ground I choose to selectively promote life. As Pardot Kynes, the first Planetologist of Dune, said "Life improves a system's capacity to sustain life. Life--all life--is in the service of life."

Jazmin Jordan

I grew up in Southern California, loving the sunshine but always having the itch to live out in the country and work on a ranch. I studied Animal Science at the University of California, Davis, hoping someday to make it through vet school and become a veterinarian. However, agriculture proved to be a big part of the Animal Science curriculum and fascinated me with the many processes, methods and outlooks different producers have for making our food. One day, one of my professors showed me a video of Gabe Brown speaking and that was when I knew it was something that I wanted to be a part of. After spending some time traveling the U.S. and working in a vet clinic, I applied to Brown's Ranch and was accepted! Aside from the ranch, I really enjoy playing ultimate frisbee, reading, and [when I'm in California] going to the beach.

Pasture Raised Pork Lard vs. Crisco

I have to admit, I was one of those kids who was raised on margarine. I was raised on the belief that using animal intestines for sausage casings was disgusting and I needed to make sure the frijoles at the Mexican restaurants were lard free because lard will make me fat and shouldn’t be eaten. As a kid, you don’t really question these things, you just accept them as your parents instruct you to and carry on. Well, things started to change for me when I came to Brown’s Ranch and heard a different story for the first time. It is actually honoring the animal to use every part of it, including the intestines and all. Why wouldn’t you want to use as much of the animal as possible if the rest of it is being used already? Also, I learned that how the animal was raised also plays a huge part in the nutritional value of the meat. Grassfed beef is completely different from grain fed in so many more ways than I could ever imagine. The same goes for pork raised on pasture and everything else we grow on our farm. Here’s the link to a blog that Paul wrote about the pigs on pasture a few years ago that you might find entertaining. If you want to read about our fatty acid profile testing as well, you can follow this link. As we head into the holiday baking season, I wanted to share a quick comparison of our pastured pork lard to Crisco, the most commonly used vegetable shortening in baking. If you think about it, soybean oil and palm oil are naturally liquid at room temperature. That's why they're called oils. So why is Crisco a solid at room temp? Well it's because of the hydrogenation that's done which creates trans fats that are completely unnatural and something that our bodies don't know what to do with; causing inflammation. *More about TBHQ: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved TBHQ as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS). However, some research suggests that long-term exposure to high doses of TBHQ can have negative health effects, including: Cytotoxic effects Genotoxic effects Carcinogenic effects Mutagenic effects **Source for this: https://www.nourishedwithnatur... Will you stand with us to create a Crisco free holiday season this year? Order your Pastured Pork Lard instead! Completely rendered and ready to use. Just keep it in the fridge for convenient usage. Sidenote: Refried beans made with lard are THE BEST. Traditional Mexican cuisine typically still uses pork lard because of its high smoke point, superior texture and flavor, and overall superior versatility to any other cooking oil.

2017 Brown's Ranch Interns

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