TLR Newsletter

Who was Turning Leaf Ranch's  newest member in 2020? Mr. Rye Flanagan Turning Leaf Ranch's newest farmer! Born in August, he is the son of Jacob and Rhea Flanagan.  Turning Leaf Ranch is a partnership between Brian Palmer, and Jacob Flanagan.  Brian handles the day-to-day management of the farm, the marketing, and the delivery, and Jacob handles the website, and the payment handling, and offers his ideas for the operation.  Jacob has been with the ranch from the beginning, and we are excited to have his son join the enterprise from day 1!  We can't wait to see the adventures that await him! Congrats to Jacob and Rhea!

Farm Goals 2021 It comes as no surprise that a farm never truly reaches it's "finished state".  Rather, farms are always evolving, growing, and developing, in a constant state of "rebirth".  Because our farm is so new, we have many ambitious goals that will truly transform the farm from its current state.  Realistically, some of these are decades-long goals, but 2021 will see many important first steps in this transformative process.  Below are some of the main goals we'll be working on in 2021. Plant out multiple rows of trees (hundreds, if not thousands) As we all know, California gets little rain in the rainy season, and  zero  rain in the dry season.  We enjoy our beautiful green foothills in winter and spring, but they quickly turn to brown as we approach June.  As the grass turns, it also loses some of it nutritional value, as proteins and lipids break down and decay, leaving lignified straw in its place.  Farmers are in the business of...

Building a livestock enterprise is slow-going, even under the best of circumstances.  Farm infrastructure is extensive, and time consuming to install.  Animal growth only happens so fast, and developing a herd is a years-long process.  So when we began developing this enterprise in 2016, we knew that we wouldn't feel the full business experience until years later.  2020 was that year. 2020 Goals Herd Goals Replace herd sire We lost our herd sire due to natural causes in 2019, and 2020 would be the year that we selected one of his descendants as a replacement.  Now that the 2020 kid crop has come of age, we have now selected our next herd sire: He does not yet have a name, so any suggestions you have are welcome! Diversify female stock to meet different customers' needs As we have interacted with more and more customers, we are recognizing the need to diversify our herd, to offer cuts that meet specific requests that customers have.  To date, we have diversi...