Sometimes you find the story, sometimes the story finds you.
Having lunch of linguini Giacomo at Giacomo’s Cibo e Vino last week, I wound up seated next to an adorable, just-engaged couple, Michael Anderson and Maggie Yewens.
Who just happen to have started a longhorn ranch last year.
Last November I wrote a Food for Thought column about local chefs using more longhorn beef in dishes and about Sam Clegg’s Texas Longhorn Land and Cattle Co., which sells ground longhorn beef to Giacomo’s chef/owner Lynette Hawkins for her delicious meatballs and Bolognese sauce.
Yewens and Anderson are part of a growing trend of young people who have given up the rat race and become sustainable farmers.
“Of course we read that article!” exclaimed Yewens. “We were starting up the ranch and we were researching everything about longhorns.”
Yewens and Anderson are part of a growing trend of young people who have given up the rat race and become sustainable farmers, selling their wares at farmers markets and to local restaurant chefs. Much like Lisa and Christian Seger of Blue Heron Farm who gave up city life to raise goats and make wonderful cheese, which you can buy at the Eastside market on Saturday mornings. If you get there early.
Anderson gave up a marketing career in Colorado to move back to Texas and raise cattle on the Meadow Creek Ranch near Fayetteville. He and Yewens, both originally from Houston, have about 50 head of longhorns with their Longhorn Beef Co. and sell meat online (they deliver to Houston weekly), to restaurants like Giacomo’s and Ibiza, the Brazos Valley Farmers Market in Bryan and even to Houston area Crossfit gyms.
“It’s a good fit because of the health benefits of longhorn beef,” Anderson says. “It’s naturally leaner, lower in calories, saturated fat and cholesterol than traditional beef.”
And it’s darn tasty with a slightly sweet, melt-in-your-mouth quality. Hawkins, who uses Clegg’s ground longhorn in her meatballs and Bolognese sauce, is experimenting with Longhorn Beef's whole cuts of meat. Her recent specials have included a rib-eye steak and an osso buco with saffron risotto that was falling off the bone delicious.
The company also offers longhorn sausage, stew meat, liver, sirloin steak, round steak, flank steak, 1/2-thick New York strip and even a tenderloin.
Their cattle are grass-fed and finished with no hormones, steroids or unnecessary antibiotics. Compared to grain-fed beef, grass-fed beef has less fat, is lower in calories, higher in Omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin E. It also has almost four times the amount of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and as much as seven times more beta-carotene. Which translates to a healthier you.
The Rancher Life
Interestingly, there are no ranchers in the Anderson’s or Yewen’s families. He says it is an appreciation of the animals that inspired him to turn to longhorn ranching.
“They are really sweet animals,” he says. “People ride them and they’re very calm. I never use a cattle prod on them.”
“I cook a lot. We’re out in the country so there aren’t a lot of restaurants.”
Anderson does all the ranching and animal wrangling. Yewen, for now, still has a day job wrangling oil and gas contracts, but the future looks bright, particularly as longhorn beef gains in popularity. They hope one day to have their own slaughter plant on site where they can humanely slaughter and cut the meat.
And yes, they do eat it themselves.
“I cook a lot,” Yewens says. “We’re out in the country so there aren’t a lot of restaurants.”
Wanna try a longhorn steak at home? Here’s some advice.
“There’s almost no fat,” Anderson says, “so there’s very little shrinkage and you don’t cook them as you would regular beef. Pretty much just sear them and let them rest.”
For broiling, position steaks three to four inches from heat and watch closely so they don’t over cook. Broiling frozen steaks will actually keep them juicier. For grilling, he recommends using mesquite or cherry wood chips and using a medium-hot fire. For roasts, cook at 275 degrees.
Longhorn steaks are great, as is the osso buco, but you can also use ground longhorn beef for just about anything from tacos to burgers, and, of course, Bolognese sauce.
So next time you’re buying beef, try a real Texas tradition. Longhorn beef, it’s what’s for dinner. Again.
Their cattle, a few shown here, are grass-fed and finished with no hormones, steroids or unnecessary antibiotics.
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