Author: ride-n-mama Sharon

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Venison with Bacon Recipe

venison with bacon

In years past during deer season – which is in the Fall here on the Central Coast – we would often sit around the picnic tables on the patio and slice meat for jerky and cut and wrap the rest to put in the freezer. Now we get out the meat slicer to prepare the jerky meat. For many years the Grieb Ranch had a walk in cooler to chill and age the venison.

Recipe for: Venison Recipe

From the Kitchen of: Connie Grieb Willems                    Servings:5

Ingredients:

3 strips of bacon

1 Venison Backstrap Sliced

Instructions:

  1. Cook Bacon until half done
  2. Place slice backstrap slices on top of the bacon.
  3. Cook on medium high heat until the meat is medium rare (overcooked venison is like trying to eat shoe leather). When the juices in the backstrap slices rise to the top on one side flip to the other side.
  4. The taste of the venison varies with the age of the deer and the vegetation that it has been eating.

When cooking a venison roast I cook it at 325 degrees. The roasting takes about 20 minutes per lb.

Additional notes: One of the most popular methods of preparing this cut is slicing the meat in filet mignon-sized portions — 1-2 inches (2.5-5.1 cm) thick — marinating them, wrapping them in thick-cut bacon and grilling them. Wrapping the meat with bacon not only adds extra flavor, it also changes the way the meat is cooked because of the fat content. The meat is ready to be taken off the grill after the outside edges are slightly crispy. The internal temperature of venison should reach at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit (71 degrees Celsius) for safety.

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Henrietta Grieb Stow

Henrietta Grieb Stow’s Urn
Henrietta Grieb Stow

Henrietta Grieb Stow, the second child of Konrad and Katharina Grieb, was born in Germany and migrated to California with her parents Konrad and Katharina Grieb. She was actually part of the five children left behind while their parents traveled to America and settled on the California coast. Once Konrad got a place to live and a job settled he left Katharina with her newborn son and returned to Germany to bring the rest of the family to California.

Henrietta Grieb Stow and her husband owned and worked a ranch on Suey Creek located off Highway 166. When Henrietta died she was cremated and her ashes were placed in a square urn and buried near Suey Creek.   Sometime later, there was a flash flood and the urn was unearthed and washed downstream.  Someone,  we don’t know who, located Henrietta’s granddaughter Elizabeth Stow Groose and delivered the urn to her.  After Elizabeth’s death, her daughter Judith kept the urn.  This last Summer July 2015, the urn was delivered by Judith to the Grieb Farmhouse  for safekeeping. The urn is engraved with the birth year of 1866 (incorrect should be 1863 – The same time as the Civil War in America) and the death year as 1925 (as yet, have not been able to confirm death year.)

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Packin’ in with Grieb Ranch Horses

FullSizeRenderOnce the cornerstone of human transportation, horse packing is now considered an activity for the adventurous. For several years now Daniel and a group of friends travel with horses, gear and hunting equipment to a wilderness area and spend a few days living off the land and what they pack in their saddle bags. This year, Daniel was joined by Cody, Greg and Bo. The four of them explored the South Fork area of the Upper Sisquoc River in Northern Santa Barbara County. They went looking to bag a deer.

FullSizeRender(3)The travelers together with their horses and gear planned for and accomplished packing over twenty one steep miles. It was a long ride and water was hard to come by. The men and horses camped under the stars and cooked their meals over an open fire. The hunter’s favorite cut of deer meat is the tenderloin. One morning they enjoyed eggs and fried onions for breakfast. The Grieb Ranch horses were all employed to complete this year’s adventure. Bob (the horse), Fifty, Mr. T and on his first packing trip, Joe, who is the latest addition to the Grieb Ranch string. Joe is being worked and trained to become Payson’s horse.

Twenty one steep miles were covered.
The men camped under the stars.

Grandpa Carl is the go-to guy for packing tips, experience and even the best place to search for a buck. He has been instrumental in giving Daniel experience and in helping Daniel prepare for these annual trips. Papa Carl and JR Jennings have taught Daniel how to obtain good horses and pack balanced loads. As the days and miles progress the loads change and shift. Proper hitches on the ropes holding the packs to the saddles and closed are crucial. Daniel uses three types of hitches, a double diamond, a box hitch and a one man diamond. Which hitch is used depends on the size and shape of the pack.

Well Papa Carl’s keen knowledge of the area paid off as Daniel secured a nice buck for meat for the freezer. He captured this buck right where Papa told him to search. This was a highlight for Daniel as it was his first buck bagged on public land found using information from his Papa. The antlers were carried home on the back of Bob (the horse). Tex was surely missed this year as the best horse carries the meat and beverage cooler. Without Tex to carry this important load the job was passed on to Fifty who carried it with dignity.

FullSizeRender(5)To learn more about the adventure and art of horse packing Daniel recommends the book, “Packin’ in on Mules and Horses” by Smoke Elser.

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Little P gets to hold the antlers.

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Family Camp Memories

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As summer draws to a close, it brings to mind memories of the wonderful care-free days we spent at our private family camp. Cattle grazed lazily in the pastures, a creek flowed by huge sycamore and willow trees.

The campsite itself had our grandmother’s unique touch. She probably invented the first outdoor kitchen. There was a tall, green camp cupboard to store supplies, a table for food preparation, a large picnic table, a spot in the creek for keeping perishables cold.

Our grandparents had “luxury” sleeping arrangements, a large tent erected over a wooden floor complete with cast iron bed and chest of drawers. The rest of us slept in our own tents or nestled our sleeping bags together on the ground under the stars. We didn’t seem to mind the hard ground.

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Grandpa Fred Grieb with Grandkids.

The camp gathering was unique and special bringing together our grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins as many as 40-50 at once. Lots of laughter and fun. Cousins played in the creek in inner tubes or rowed back and forth in the rowboat, fished for trout, played kick-the-can or hide and seek. Adults lazed back with a good book or played cards and shared all the family news.

The great cooks, with our grandma in charge, prepared meals that were fabulous from breakfast to dinner. We feasted on homemade family recipes. Evening campfires with storytelling, roasting marshmallows and popcorn ended perfect days of togetherness.

The best part of it all was the family closeness we experienced; a feeling of belonging and being a part of something very special. What in life is better than that?

Written by Sandi Ferrio the owner the Grieb Farmhouse Inn.  Her mother was Lorna Grieb Erickson

1 John 4:7 “Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God. Every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.”

Grandpa Fred Grieb enjoyed fishing.

Grandpa Fred Grieb enjoyed fishing.

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Grieb Ranch Farms in Japan

With the T family

This summer, Stan Willems of the Grieb Ranch experienced a great opportunity to visit Japan. Grieb Ranch has maintained a connection to a Japanese dairy farming family since the 1980’s. This summer’s opportunity started with a student travel conference in Tokyo, Japan. Stan then traveled north to visit with the Japanese family on their small farm that raises feed for its dairy herd near the northern village of Mogami near Shinjo.

Map of Japan with Tokyo and to North, Shinjo.
Stan enjoyed riding the Bullet Train which travels up to 200 miles per hour.

Dairy farming output in Japan has increased in the last decade as the Japanese diet has changed and includes more dairy products. Japan has limited land and is very mountainous making agriculture production challenging. Only 12% of the total land mass is available for agriculture and most of that is for rice farming. The northern island of Hokkaido, with its colder climate and larger farm size is the primary area for dairy farming. The products from Hokkaido are primarily used for dairy products. Dairy farms closer to the major cities produce most of the fresh milk that Japanese drink. Japanese dairy herds are small compared to the US, with an average herd size of 50 head.

Grieb Ranch shirts

Grieb Ranch shirts in Japan.

Stan stayed with fellow farming friends at Rocky Ridge Farms near the village of Mogami which is located North of Tokyo. There he spent a few days plowing and tilling for a future crop, repaired some stairs, and checked out the local agriculture production in nearby, Shinjo. This farm stay was the highlight of the trip as he reconnected this friendship which began in the 1980’s.

Stan fixed these stairs at the Rocky Ridge Farm.

Stan fixed these stairs at the Rocky Ridge Farm.

Click these links for more information on Agriculture production and Dairy farming in Japan.

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Play Days and Playdough: Making Squishy-Fun Memories

Squishy fun memories
Our home at Grieb Ranch is a ways from town. So through the years when making something squishy-fun from playdough was our chosen entertainment, we made our own playdough. The tradition continues as play days with Grandma are often spent making more squishy-fun memories with home-made playdough. Here is our recipe:

Kool Dough for Kids

2 ½ C Flour
1 T Cream of Tartar
2 Pkgs of Koolaid (gives it color)
1 C Salt
2 C Boiling Water
3 T Oil

Directions: Combine dry ingredients. Add oil to water and mix well with dry ingredients. Knead as cools until smooth. A Kitchen-Aid mixer with the paddle attachment pulls this recipe together very fast. Store for future fun in a ziplock bag.

P intent on making playdough animals

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Rebuilding The Paulding Wall: Arroyo Grande History

Finished wallHumpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. Well Humpty Dumpty didn’t sit on the Paulding wall on East branch Street in Arroyo Grande, but that wall did fall and has been in disrepair for decades. The Paulding wall is a retaining wall that keeps the land, that Paulding Middle School rests on, from spilling onto East Branch Street as one enters or leaves the village of Arroyo Grande. Paulding Middle School is the former site of Crown Hill High School. Carl Grieb attended High School at Crown Hill and Connie Willems has taught and tutored Jr. High students at Paulding for 30 years.

Works Progress Adm signA sign near the wall shows that it was originally built in 1940 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) a New Deal program that put unemployed, unskilled people to work on public projects. WPA was involved in several projects in the the Crown Hill neighborhood. The wall began to crumble as much as 40 years ago and the city of Arroyo Grande never mustered the funds to fix it.

Men's Club signThank goodness for the Arroyo Grande Men’s Club who found some individuals to take on the project and raised funds to see it happen. The wall repair began the beginning of June 2015 and looks like it should be finished here soon.

The original rocks from the first wall were removed and retained and in their place a cement retaining wall was built. The original rocks have been cemented as a veneer face to the cement retaining wall.

Construction has confined the traffic driving by the wall on East Branch and forced tight negotiation around the turn as less room is available. This is most difficult for larger tractor-trailer rigs which need a wide turning radius. Thankfully drivers have been cautious and courteous as they drive by and patiently wait for the unveiling of the new and improved wall, re-built by local citizens.

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Hardware Disease: Goodbye Tonka

Tonka Grand ChampionConnie’s favorite cow, Tonka, died last week. She was a favorite because Ethan showed her at the Santa Barbara County Fair in 2011 and she was the Grand Champion Heifer that year. Adele, this year’s Reserve Champion was out of her. Ethan still proudly wears the Grand Champion buckle he received.

IMG_2002Recently, Tonka was acting strange and losing weight. So she was brought down from the hills and put in a pen for observation. There were signs of something as a lump under her jaw had developed. She was checked for woody tongue but that was not it. Her brisket started to enlarge which indicated “Hardware Disease”. A “Bounty Hunter” metal detector was used to determine if there was any metal in her.

Cattle are not discriminant eaters and frequently swallow bits of metal and nails and parts of fencing as they graze the hillside. These metal pieces accumulate in a chamber of the stomach called the reticulum which is also near the heart. The metal pieces can puncture through and impact the heart or cause infection throughout the body. Yes indeed the “Bounty Hunter” lit up which meant that she had metal in her. The detector also saved time during the autopsy as it showed where the metal was. Metal pieces had settled in several places in her body and one had caused an abscess.

Bounty Hunter was used to find the metal in Tonka’s body.
Magnet that is placed in the cow to attract metal pieces.
Magnet pulled from Tonka with metal pieces attached.

Tonka had a magnet placed in her several years ago to help prevent this disease by attracting the metal pieces all in one place. However her magnet stopped working as a coating grew on it and it no longer held or attracted metal pieces. Above is a pic of the magnet that was pulled out of her body. Note several metal pieces that stayed attached to it.

FullSizeRender(1)When a cow dies what happens to the body? There are several options. One, is to call the Tallow works and they come out and pick up the animal. Two, is dig a big hole and bury the animal. Three, leave it out in the hills and let the buzzards, bears and bugs do a fast job of making the carcass disappear.

Goodbye Tonka. Thank you for leaving your legacy with Grieb Ranch.

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A Day In The Life at Grieb Ranch

A day in the life of Grieb Ranch

A day in the life at Grieb Ranch. We were out gathering cattle at Grieb Ranch, recent rain stimulated the grass to emerge; giving a hint of green, the morning was clear and we could see to the ocean. The cattle were making their way back to our main area . . . we turned to see that it was just another beautiful day on Grieb Ranch. We were thankful.

Yes the recent storm dumped enough water to allow Connie to skip watering for a week. However the hay stacks got wet, and the moisture caused the grass seeds to germinate but without regular watering the grass will die and not re-germinate. Yet we are thankful. Even when the rain actually can leach out the nutrients in the grass which then provides less feed value to the cows, we are still thankful.

PSALM 121

1I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

where does my help come from?

2My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

3He will not let your foot slip—

he who watches over you will not slumber;

4indeed, he who watches over Israel

will neither slumber nor sleep.

5The Lord watches over you—

the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

6the sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon by night.

7The Lord will keep you from all harm—

he will watch over your life;

8the Lord will watch over your coming and going

both now and forevermore.

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Fair Fun and Friends

Ethan and RH 2015

Ethan and his Replacement Heifer ready for the Santa Barbara County Fair 2015.

Last week Grieb Ranch was off to the Santa Barbara County Fair. Grandpa Grieb stayed home and manned the ranch while the rest were working and well yes, playing, at the fair. Along with all the animal supplies many other things had to be brought and set up on site: the stall decorations, the blocking chute, the travel trailer to sleep in and the Replacement heifer to show. First on the fair agenda is the pregnancy test – if the heifer is not pregnant she can’t be shown. Next is the showmanship class followed by the breed judging class. All these classes set up the animals for the auction on Friday of fair week. Every day during the week the animals are groomed, fed, watered and of course the cow stall is mucked several times a day. All free time is spent hanging with fair friends and doing fair activities like the rides.

Wow! One of the Replacement heifers from Grieb Ranch and shown and worked with by our friend Katie Howell was Reserve Champion FFA Replacement Heifer and Local Bred Reserve Champion! These awards are a Grieb Ranch first! Katie started working with “Adele” shortly after she was born out at Grieb Ranch.

Extra excitement this year came from the sky as thunder, lightning and pouring rain caused all participants to run for cover and resulted in a mandatory evacuation of the camp trailer area on Sunday morning. Imagine the chaos as hundreds of rigs were tying to get out of there at once. July is typically one of the driest here on the Central Coast so to get a rain storm like this in July during a drought was truly unexpected.