I am a CA NPIP-certified & tested farm and ship poultry / game birds to most states!

Pricing for 2025 Peanut Berkshire & Olive Oil Steer shares will be posted asap!

Notice to all customers: Share reservations are typically in February/March and are processed sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas. You will need to pick up your share at Leon’s Custom Meat Cutting in Riverside, CA. No shipping is available at this time. 

Mission:

Jamie’s mission is to produce the most unusually extraordinary, exceptional-quality meats though thoughtful, humane treatment of animals fed unique and carefully selected fodder, inspired by “de bellota” Spanish hogs and Japanese olive oil wagyu.

We promote sustainable farming methods and realize the best solution isn’t always the obvious one. We will never stop experimenting and loving every day of it!

What is humane?

In my opinion an animal is humanely raised if it has plenty of space to exhibit natural behavior and well as friends and/or family for constant company and companionship.

It is very impotent that all animals are raised without worry, stress or pain from the moment they arrive on our farm until they are butchered.

The “recipe” starts at the farm.

Someone can learn the ideal way to prepare something… but once preparation is consistently near-perfect the flavor, texture and wholesomeness of a recipe is remarkably limited by its ingredients.

 

Peanut-Finished Berkshire

Oh boy do I love pork. Pork done right is the tastiest animal.

So how does one raise the “best-tasting” pork?

To start, I had to find out what I liked and then learn from the best. After all “the best” is subjective…

After thousands of pork tastings I can say I am quite fond of Spanish ” De Bellota” and peanut-finished pork and find nothing else to be comparable.

After reading every published article I could find on a hogs diet and meat quality, as well as plenty on husbandry and processing I picked up a spectrality finished whole Berkshire hog carcass from a small farm, which I insisted on cutting and wrapping myself. It took 3 days but I learned a great deal about how a hog goes together.

In my opinion Berkshire (Karabuta) hogs have the best genetic potential for such a project. After some searching I found a local breeder of Berkshire hogs from a favorable bloodline. With the housing ready and four new, lively piglets the experiment was ready to begin!

 

 

How can I make something the absolute best it can possibly be?

My best pork chop recipe starts with the piglet. It’s raised with littermates and/or similar aged friends so they keep each other company. They all have comfortable shelter, dry clean bedding, access to the outdoors, fresh air and a wallow to help keep them cool and protected from the sun (it’s also fun to play in the wallow and refreshing to get sprayed with cool water!)

It is very important that all animals are raised without worry, stress or pain from the moment they arrive until they are butchered.

They are fed only the best of the best, which in the world of meat animals is as unique as it is costly. It is a little bit disconcerting to walk into a local grocery store and be able to purchase “natural pork” for less than what it costs us just in feed to raise a hog. That doesn’t even include shelter, fencing, butchering…and our time to clean their pens, groom and feed twice daily!

Perfection comes with a price…and a lot of time and hard work!

But the finial product is remarkable, and unlike anything I have found anywhere else.

Twice a day they’re given local porter brewers grains as well as a vitamin & mineral-balanced finisher. During this time they are brushed & groomed regularly and offered free-choice fresh, green alfalfa, hay & sprouted wheatgrass and/or barley (yes, you heard me right!)

Finishing starts about two months before slaughter. I will start to add peanuts to their diet and offer regular “massages” (brushing and grooming, similar to the Wagyu cattle produced in Kobe, Japan) About a month before slaughter their diet is more than 50% whole peanuts.

Unlike all meat sold in California stores and markets, these animals are humanely dispatched on the farm while eating something awesome (like an apple-boysenberry Julian pie, what was used for these particular hogs)

Although many consider this a myth I can say from experience an animal that is stressed before slaughter will not produce to it’s potential. With the few USDA slaughtering facilities there is often a long journey where animals are known to loose significant market weight from stress, hunger & dehydration. They are crowded, terrified and likely even more so when they enter a facility of crying animals that smells like blood. If I am going to eat meat I want to be able to face my food. It is only fair to do everything I can to make sure they’re happy and content the entirety of their lives.

I don’t think there had been a single animal I have slaughtered that didn’t make a deep connection with. I become quite fond of these intelligent animals during their time here, especially during their scratch & groom time. Although it’s hard for me to eat something that is essentially my pet at least I have a helluva lot of respect for my food, I know it lived a happy life where it could play with it’s friends, root, wallow, get groomed and spoiled on exceptional food.

Not only does it produce something wholesomely ethical, the taste and texture are unlike anything I have experienced anywhere.

Yes, that’s pork. It’s NOT the “other white meat” This tender, full flavor chop is from a Berkshire hog finished on peanuts! A long-time friend who was born and raised in Spain admitted to me it was, without a doubt, the best pork he had ever tasted. He followed by saying “That is probably the highest compliment a Spaniard could give an American” it us both burst into laughter, and was quite reassuring all my work has not been in vein!

 

 

 

Beefalo & Wagyu:

 

A HUGE THANK YOU! To Cougar Vineyards and Winery in Temecula, CA for supporting Jamie’s local “olive oil” beef project.

It was so much fun to see the owner Rick personally operating the olive oil press. The olives are picked fresh, on-site and loaded into the hopper. After a generous amount have made their way through the machine the magic begins. A thin stream of raw, golden olive oil pours out into a small container.

…But, out the other side, a mass of purple paste is pushed out into a waste bin. Although the leftovers smell so incredibly delicious, like the freshest olive oil, grassy with a hint of butter…the tannins make those raw lees too bitter to be palatable (yes, I tried it!) The cattle won’t eat it, not without help…

Inspired by the Japanese ethic of mottainai, “to waste nothing” Masaki Ishii オリーブ牛情報サイト developed a process drying and roasting the olive oil lees into a malty, irresistible treat for his small herd of Wagyu cattle. In this process, with such time and care, a waste product becomes the secret ingredient to the worlds most luxurious & expensive beef.

The roasted olive oil lees are fed to our beefalo as part of a 75 day specialized finishing diet which also includes some corn-soaked olive oil, milk, molasses & whiskey mash.

 

Why add bison genetics to your herd?

-Exceptional quality meat- Beefalo claims the prize of “Best Grass-fed Steak in America” more years than “standard” breeds. The coveted American Royal Steak Competition judges steaks on flavor and texture.

-Longer Reproductive Lifespan, over twice that of regular taurine cattle

-Exceptional maternal instincts

-High conception rates, excellent milk production and quality

-Ease of calving/small birth weight yet…

–Rapidly growing calves don’t need hormones or grain for exceptional gain

-Disease resistant

-Tolerant of extreme heat and cold

-Requires up to 40% less cost to produce vs. traditional breeds (for those with access to grazing)

Beefalo is very healthy! According to the USDA beefalo has:

-Superior vitamin levels vs. regular beef

-Nearly 1/3 less cholesterol vs. regular beef

-79% less fat vs. regular beef

-66% less calories vs. regular beef

More information can be found on the ABA website:

http://americanbeefaloassociation.com/benefits

 

There are a few boxes left of 2024 Olive-Oil Beefalo

Each box includes good mix of olive-oil finished steak, roast, stew, ground & soup bones:

Urban Share – $275 for 15-pound mixed-cut box

Cowboy Share – $485 for a 30-pound mixed-cut box

Holy Cow! Share – $795 for an 60-pound mixed-box. Includes a TOMAHAWK STEAK!

 

 

Gaited Trail & Hunting Horses

Jamie’s SSHs & Peruvians are small, 13-14h ambling horses which makes them easy to mount and dismount on the trail, as well as much more smooth, sturdy and reliable on rugged terrain. They are known to be as willing, comfortable and practical as they are tough. I also very much like their spritely personalities! They are great for those who like to do long trail rides and they make fantastic falconry partners. I am not the only one who prefers the breed for falconry. Harry McElroy, a revered falconer, rode a Peruvian Horse with his birds until his recent passing at 94. He details his experience with equines and falconry in his book: Desert Hawking IV.

Stay tuned for a breeding announcement spring 2025!