The Potterosa Story

The Potterosa Ranch is the result of a dream many years in the making.

In October of 2019, after many years of debating whether it could be done our family finally made the decision to go for it. We purchased a beautiful but severely neglected farm, sold our house and moved our family. We worked harder than we had ever worked in our lives. We began improving the ground, renovated the house and cleared the barns. It took almost a year. Things were looking up and we finally purchased our first herd. We were finally raising our own animals, on our own land, in a beautiful place we could call home.

That was when it happened.

2020

The COVID pandemic reached the US just as we were preparing to launch our business. Jobs were being lost, schools were cancelled, processing plants closed. Ranchers all over the US were unable to process the animals they had raised. The large corporations that run those processing plants were offering to “help” ranchers by purchasing animals at fractions of the price that had been paid for them. Shoppers were going to the grocery only to find that any meat to be found was now priced too high for them to afford. Ranchers had animals but no one to process them and without the income they generated, no money to care for them. Herds and the ranches that raised them were on the verge of being lost all over the United States. It was a terrifying time to raise cattle but to continue with the launch of a new endeavor like ours was borderline insane. In truth, the only things that saved us were our faith and our community. While the giant producers were closed down, local small businesses were still up and running. We were able to not only have our animals processed but we sold out completely. Our freezer (and those of our customers) were full. While the year raged on and at times seemed like it just couldn’t get any worse, we were able to continue providing the food our customers and our family needed. That year taught us many lessons but the most important lesson was that we cannot depend on corporations, supply chains and the easy availability of the things we need. Instead, we must return to the days of self-sustaining communities where we know what we are getting and can trust the people we get it from.

To know that you are responsible for what people are feeding their children is a responsibility that we do not take lightly. It seems quite basic but there is something about being able to feed people that speaks to the soul. Because of that, our mission is to make sure that every product we provide is the absolute best we can offer. We raise our animals with the greatest of care and respect for the nourishment they will one day provide to us. They are humanely processed by our local, certified processor and are packaged according to our customers instructions. When our products are delivered you can rest easy knowing that not only do you have the best quality meats on hand for family dinners; you have a way to feed your family even in the most unpredictable of times.

Food not only sustains us it connects us.

-The Potter Family