Established 1973

Owner

Mac Magruder

The ranch has been in the family for 4 generations. Mac’s mother grew up on the ranch and Mac’s father grew up on a plantation in Mississippi, studied as a banker, and then went into the Navy before he married Mac’s mother and took up ranching.

Mac graduated from the University of Washington in 1976 with a degree in sculpture, a profession which he seriously considered pursuing full-time before returning to the ranch. Mac’s father had a substantial pear orchard, but Mac decided on a different route and devoted his energy to cattle.

The prospect of raising cattle the “right” way held his interest. He found that customers/restaurants were interested in and supportive of what he was doing, which he found affirming.

Seasons

Calves are typically born in the last winter or early spring, but Mac is beginning to calve in the fall as well. January – March are slow months for slaughtering.

Challenges

Getting the public to understand that without ranching, we will no longer have open space. Getting the public to understand that you are what you eat. That it is in everyone’s best interest for those who eat beef to eat beef from cattle raised in a healthy manner.

Principles

Mac employs a controlled, rotational grazing system, which is a sustainable way to graze. The idea is to take responsibility for the land. He does not use any hormones or antibiotics.

Practices

Mac markets cows of different ages. The taste of cow varies with age.

Length of relationship with Oliveto

2 years

Location

Potter Valley, Mendocino Country

Products

Cattle – 450 head

Secondary products: hill hogs – 100 head

Distribution

Restaurants, individuals who have storage for large cuts

UPDATE: See the revised schedule

It is late spring and this is the time to be eating beef. The steers have been eating plentiful amounts of green grass (from our plentiful rains) and several important ranchers have presented us with offers too good to turn down.

First, Mac Magruder’s 8-month-old veal came in a couple of weeks ago.   Then, the huge and delicious 4-year-old steer from Jack Monroe in Covelo. And next week Moira Burke, of Agricola: flora et fauna in Dixon, CA, will send us half of a 22-month Angus. These are all grass fed and grass finished animals.

Three Angus animals: 8-mos, 22-mos., 48-mos. We are first to admit, that’s a lot of meat! But we thought we could do some pretty neat things with them. The animals will all be hanging in our meat locker, aging, and at the appropriate time, Chef Jonah will prepare them for the menu over the next month. Here’s a schedule of these extraordinary (seriously though, this is some exceptionally tasty beef) offerings and events over the next few weeks:

Friday, June 17
48-mos.
Short Ribs
We wanted to get into these without too much aging. Such a fatty cut doesn’t benefit from a lot of age and can end up tasting a bit stale.  We are salting these for twelve hours before braising them.

Friday, June 24
22-mos.
Flank Steak & Carne Crudo/Carpaccio – three animals
This will be a rare opportunity to taste the same cut/preparation of three similarly raised and fed animals from the same breed, but different in age.  This should be an interesting demonstration on what characteristics are associated with the age of an animal.

Sunday, June 26
22- and 48-mos.
Osso Bucco
Our first of two classics from Milan. With three animals, we’ve got quit a few shanks on hand. These will be cut and braised in the classic preparation.

Wednesday, June 29
22-mos.
Cotoletta
Our second dish from Milan. Tender ribeyes pounded paper-thin, breaded, then fried.

Thursday, June 30
22-mos.
New York Top Loin

Friday, July 1
48-mos.
Bollito
This is THE way to eat mature beef in Italy. All the cuts you’ve been wondering about, in one bowl.

Saturday, July 2
48-mos.
Bollito
Because a good thing deserves repeating

Thursday, July 7
22-mos.
Rib Eye
No explanation required.

Saturday, July 9
48 mos.
Prime Rib
The 48-month steer has a huge rib section. We’ll take the rack and slow roast it (12 hours) and carve prime rib in the dining room, for as long is it lasts.

We’ve got lots of other cuts, so you’ll be seeing corned beef, beef braises, meat balls, pepperoni and other cured meats. We expect you’ll do you’re part.

Magruder's Wild European Boar

New to this year’s Whole Hog Dinners, we’ll be wood fire roasting a different whole hog from one of our ranchers each night.  Saturday, March 12th, will be Mac Magruder’s half Wild European, half Berkshire heritage breed.  Chef Jonah got pretty excited when he first starting working with Mac’s hogs a couple of weeks ago.   The meat is very clean and sweet– with a nice balance of meat to fat, and the fat seems to melt at a lower temperature, which is not so good for salumi because the fat easily smears, but it is great for lardo, lonza and pancetta.

Although this is our first Beef Dinner, it has been a long time in the making.  Based on close relationships with local ranchers practicing alternative methods of raising grass-fed beef, Chef Canales has obtained a wealth of knowledge in regards to butchery, aging and cooking technique over the past six years.  This, along with the construction of our meat locker, and numerous requests from our customers has finally resulted in the 2010 Beef Dinners.

The menu is still being finalized but two items have been leaked:

Grilled bone-in Rib Eye with duck livers

Smoked manzo brisket

UPDATE: see the FULL MENU

As for wine, beef needs a wine that is still somewhat tight, fruit-driven and full of tannin.  Therefore, we’ll be featuring an array of glass wine selected for their tannic prowess, including:

Barolo:
Castello di Verduno 2002
“Vigna Castellero” Barale 1999

Brunello di Montalcino:
“Corte Pavone” Loacker 2000
“Riserva” Canalicchio di Sopra 2001
Casanov di Neri 2001 and 2005

Taurasi:
“Radici” Mastroberadino 2000 & 2003

Chianti:
“Vigna del Sorbo” Fontodi 1999

We are excited to be sharing this event with the ranchers who have made so much of this possible.  Moira Burke of Agricola: flora et fauna will be in attendance on Thursday night, Bill Niman will be here Friday, and Mac Magruder & the his family will be with us on Saturday.  All of these ranchers will be available to chat in the cafe before dinner.  Additionally, we will also be serving Highland beef from Larry Walters of Cedarbrook Ranch and Piedomtese beef from Ken Silva.

October 14, 15, and 16

For our upcoming beef dinners, we are inviting a few notable local beef ranchers to join us each night so our patrons can meet them.  We’re pleased that Mac Magruder will join us on Saturday, October 16th.  Mac is probably one of the first grass-fed cattle ranchers in the alternative-to-feedlot era from northern California, and probably well beyond.  For the past twenty years he’s been developing a very well-thought-out system of grazing and pasture management, and in the process has invented a business for himself which is enriching all of us.  When interest in grass-fed beef took-off several years ago, it was Mac’s beef that showed us how tasty it could be.

Chef Paul Canales has been working with whole beef animals from Mac and other local cattle ranchers for the past three years.  He’s been learning about breeds, diet (there’s considerable variation in grass-fed beef), maturity, aging, butchery and how best to cook each cut.  So, Paul wanted to present these Beef Dinners as a way of showing some of the various, unexpected, and delicious things he’s learned.

Mac will be here with his wonderful family: wife, Kate, daughter Grace, and Ben–the new son-in-law. They’ll be in the cafe available for chatting from 5 to 6 PM, then have dinner with us upstairs; they’ll be back down in the Café to socialize after dinner.

We’ll be posting additional information/menus, and announce other guest ranchers’ dates in the coming weeks on the Oliveto Community Journal.  But we recommend you reserve now.

“Never Enough” written by Ben Provan. Performed by Ben with very new wife Grace Magruder-Provan, along with Kate and Mac Magruder, at their ranch on the banks of the Russian River headwaters in Potter Valley, CA.

For this dish, Chef Canales will be using chicories that were grown by Rick and Kristie Knoll of Tairwa’ – Knoll Farms in Brentwood.  Rick and Kristie grew these chicories from seeds Oliveto co-owner Bob Klein brought back from one of his annual trips to Italy.  Bob had stayed with his friends, Armando and Rosalba of Masseria Il Frantoio, Ostuni in Puglia, and they offered him seeds from some of the more favorable chicories they grow.

In turn, Bob made a charming video about Armando and Rosalba that tells the story of their passion for community and a love of good food.  It is the basis for their incredible guesthouse and the motivation behind much of what they do.  Tonight, we’ll be serving some of those fabulous chicories with a nod to our friends.

Chef Canales also gives us a heads up on the porcini forecast for next week, tells us what “hard crack” means, and introduces us to Pablo “Tigre” Gavito.

If we’re out by the time you get here, we hope you’ll be consoled by ravioli tondi of fonduta Val d’Aostana with summer Chanterelles:

Ravioli tondi of fonduta Val d'Aostana with Chanterelle mushrooms

Most of the Chanterelles available this time of year are from Eastern Europe.  We’ve been holding out for the ones we get from Northern California and Oregon, and they’ve just arrived.  These Chanterelles are drier and more concentrated, with a nutty flavor.  In addition to the pasta, we’ll also be serving them in a ragûot with late summer vegetables and orange-scented black and white riso.

]]> http://www.oliveto.com/ourcommunity/farmers/brookside-farm/vitallone-chanetrelles/feed 0 http://www.oliveto.com/ourcommunity/ranchers/chef-canales-gives-a-tour-of-the-meat-locker http://www.oliveto.com/ourcommunity/ranchers/chef-canales-gives-a-tour-of-the-meat-locker#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:00:03 +0000 Catherine Meng http://www.oliveto.com/ourcommunity/?p=2626

We installed a large meat locker a few years back that finally provided the space for some more ambitious projects such as receiving whole sides of beef, as well as hanging and aging meat....