Our aim is to raise meat, eggs, wool, and flowers you can feel good about bringing into your home.
My name is Corinne McAndrews, and I’ve had a winding road leading to Late Bloomer Ranch. As a first-generation farmer, I was raised in the city and didn’t have an experience on a farm until the summer after my senior year of high school. I didn’t know it at the time, but the time spent farming that summer would shape my future. Experiences growing market vegetables, grapes and perennial fruits, and even medicinal herbs and plant dyes have all nudged me to the world of animal agriculture. The more I farmed, the more I learned about the central role animals play in soil health, and the health of plant crops and pastures. At Late Bloomer Ranch, my goal is to share the joy and beauty of working with animals outside, year-round, to create delicious and nutritious products that your family and community can feel good about. We raise animals that have histories and lineages of growing on pasture-intensive diets, raising their own young, and thriving in cold and mountainous conditions. This is the basis of animal welfare at Late Bloomer Ranch: animals that do well in our cold and mountainous climate, and express their inborn behaviors right where they are. How does this translate to your experience as an eater? Flavor. A richness and complexity not found on grocery store shelves. Satiating fats and proteins that exceed their conventional equivalents. Nutrition. Higher omega-3 fatty acids, and fewer omega-6’s. More protein, more vitamins e and d, more unsaturated fats. A cleaner eating experience that can be felt in the body.
Why heritage breeds? Over the course of the 20th century, animal agriculture shifted towards industrialization and larger commercial operations. As a result, traits such as fast growing, ability to do well in confinement, and the standardization, became desirable and have gradually taken over the marketplace. The unintended consequence has been the loss of diversity, flavor, and nutrition, as well as the ability to thrive in pasture-based agricultural systems. By choosing heritage livestock breeds, we are essentially choosing animal lineages that predate the shift towards industrialization, and are unique or relevant to our history in the United States. Heritage breeds are often hardier in outdoor environments, thrive on pasture, have good natural mothering skills, and usually taste better. We want these genetics to persist for generations to come, and so we raise these breeds with intention. In short, a heritage hog or sheep is one that your great grandparents might have raised.
Farms and ranches don’t exist in a vacuum, they are part of the communities that support them. Creating housing, employment, and business opportunities for the folks in Teton Valley and beyond is a core value for Late Bloomer Ranch. We believe in paying a living wage, providing housing, and setting future farmers up for success.
Experience the difference of eating meat bred for flavor and nutrition. Our pigs are outdoors, year-round, exhibiting all of their “pigness” and reveling in it. Compared to conventional pork, humanely, pasture-raised pork has 2.4x Omega 3 fatty acids, 60% lower Omega 6 fatty acids, 1.3x higher polyunsaturated fat, 8% higher protein, and twice the vitamin E.
How can the inherently controlled environment of agriculture exist to the best of our ability in line with nature? The beauty of seeing a herd of pigs asleep in a huddle, or the various colors and textures of a flock of heritage breed chickens. Creating nourishing products that in turn provide a real living for the farmers who raised them, and a market for meat raised ethically, or as close to ethically as we can get.
We’re committed to listening and raising the bar as part of our holistic, community-oriented philosophy. Don't be shy!
