Our next two ranch tour dates are Saturday, June 23 and Saturday August 4. We will give you a walking tour, share our family history, and explain how we do things at Stemple Creek Ranch. Then we’ll BBQ some tasters and enjoy the scenery! We will not be doing a full BBQ lunch this time, but feel free to bring your own picnic lunch or head down to the Tomales Deli afterwards where you can get a Stemple Creek Ranch burger and mingle with the Tomales locals. If you are interested in joining us please contact us, we’d love to have you. RSVP’s are required. We will send directions and details to those who RSVP.
Summer 2012 Ranch Tours
May 7th, 2012Details on May 5 Open House and BBQ
April 8th, 2012Our annual Open House and BBQ is on Saturday, May 5, 2012. We will be giving a tour of the ranch, grilling burgers, and perhaps adding in some Cinco de Mayo festivities, West Marin style.
The Open House will begin at 10:30 AM. There will be tours starting at both 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM, with lunch being served at 12:00 noon. The Open House and tours are open to the public and free of charge, but RSVP’s are required. Lunch is $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for kids 12 years and younger.
To RSVP, please send us an email with the number of children and adults that are in your party. If you are planning on eating lunch, please pay in advance on our website. On the Shop page, click on the item called “Events” and use the drop down menu to chose how many adults and children are in your party. We will send an email the week before the event with directions and more last minute details. Please feel free to bring kids and friends, but please do RSVP for everyone who will be joining you.
2012 Open House and BBQ
April 2nd, 2012We will be having our annual Open House and BBQ on Saturday, May 5, 2012. We will be giving a tour of the ranch, grilling burgers, and perhaps adding in some Cinco de Mayo festivities, West Marin style. Stay tuned for more information, or if you want to be notified when we are ready to accept RSVP’s, please sign up for our e-mail newsletter here or send us an email. More info coming in a few days.
Ranch Tour – Sept 10 at 11:00 AM
August 30th, 2011Our next Ranch Tour is September 10 at 11:00 AM, please join us for some outdoor fun and treats!
We will give you a walking tour, share our family history, and explain how we do things at Stemple Creek Ranch. Then we’ll BBQ some tasters and enjoy the scenery! We will not be doing a full BBQ lunch this time, but feel free to bring your own picnic lunch or head down to the Tomales Deli afterwards where you can get a Stemple Creek Ranch burger and mingle with the Tomales locals. If you are interested in joining us please contact us or RSVP to the event on facebook, we’d love to have you. RSVP’s are required. We will send directions and details to those who RSVP.
If you are interested in a ranch tour but can’t make it on September 10, please let us know; we do informal ranch tours frequently.
Spring Has Sprung
May 3rd, 2011And just like that we have gone from having too much water to hoping to get just one more bit of rain before summer is upon us. We are so fortunate to have had as much rain as we did this winter, but now we want to hold on to the green grass for as long as possible before it dries out into the quintessential California “golden” hills of summer.
Speaking of summer, it is going to be a busy one for us at Stemple Creek Ranch. We continue to sell our beef and lamb at the Sunday morning San Rafael farmer’s market at the Marin County Civic Center, and we are also going to start attending the Valley of the Moon Certified Farmer’s Market market at the Sonoma Plaza on Tuesday evenings. If you haven’t already, please come down and say hello to us!
We are hosting our annual Open House and BBQ on Saturday, May 21 at 11:00 AM. If you would like to join us for some good, old-fashioned outdoor fun, learn about how we do things at Stemple Creek Ranch, and enjoy the best burger you have ever tasted, please RSVP and let us know you can make it.
Last but not least, our beef is going to be featured alongside the wines of Au Bon Climat at a Winemaker’s Dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Vin Antico in San Rafael. The dinner is on Monday, June 6, 2011, and boasts a five course menu that looks absolutely amazing. We will be at the dinner giving a short talk about our ranch and beef, and of course would love to see you there. If you can’t make it to Vin Antico on May 6, go another time. Our beef and lamb is regularly featured on their menu and this is a great way to try our meat, enjoy a fabulous meal, and support a local restaurant that supports local agriculture.
Join Us For A Tour
January 28th, 2011Our next tour dates are below, please do join us for one. We will show you around the ranch, explain how we do things here, grill up some tasty samples of our beef and lamb, and promise to show you a good time. Kids and friends are welcome, please do invite others but make sure to RSVP on our facebook page or via email. We will send details to everyone who RSVPs.
Saturday, February 12 at 11:00 AM
Saturday, March 5 at 11:00 AM
Sunday, April 10 at 11:00 AM
Hope to see you there!
December On The Ranch
December 13th, 2010It has been a busy few months on the ranch. The bulls have all been tested to make sure they are ready to “go to work” and have been put into the pastures with the cows. This year we have one bull for every 25 cows and we will give them about 75 days to conceive. Traditionally we see more than 50% of our cows impregnated within the first 30 days. Those bulls are busy right about now! The cow gestational period is almost exactly the same length as for a human beings, so the calves will be born around September 2011. Here is one of the bulls just before he was put in with the cows on a particularly frosty morning.
Meanwhile, our fall calving cows have all had their calves and most of the ewes have had their lambs. There are little cuties running all over the place! These lambs are just a few hours old.
We have had over 8 inches of rain this season, which has been more than enough to turn the grass nice and green as you can see from these photos. We have already had enough rain to keep our grass growing through the winter months. Now we are trying to balance our cattle numbers with pasture availability to keep from creating muddy spots and chewing up the pastures too much.
We have also had a few tours recently and had lots of fun with both old and new friends, alike. This one was a group of families from San Ramon Elementary School. We were lucky enough to have Loren’s sister Melissa and her family join us for this one. Melissa is the family’s resident expert on the history of the ranch and area and so it was a special treat to have her along.
Our last tour of the year was this past weekend, another great group of folks braved the wet grass and mud and ventured out into the pastures with us. After our hike we were all rewarded with sunny skies while we BBQ’ed some beef and lamb tasters.
Thanks to everyone who joined us! If you would like to join us for a tour in the new year these are our tentative dates for the first few months, drop us a line if you are interested: February 12, March 5, April 10 and May 22.
Welcome Ramini Mozzarella
October 19th, 2010Stemple Creek Ranch and the Poncia Family is thrilled to welcome Craig Ramini of Ramini Mozzarella and his herd of water buffalo to our ranch. Ramini Mozzarella is renting out an original dairy site on our ranch to pasture and milk his water buffalo. He is going to start making farmstead mozzarella cheese that will rival the mozzarella di bufalo that is made in Italy. For all of you cheese lovers out there, you will have to wait until sometime next year to get your hands on his amazing cheese, but we assure you it will be worth the wait!
Here, Loren and Avery welcome Craig to Stemple Creek Ranch with a champagne toast in the milking barn:
The water buffalo get accustomed to their new pasture on the ranch:
Our Next Ranch Tour
August 31st, 2010We have had many inquiries for our next Ranch Tour. It will be Sunday, September 12 at 10:00 AM. We will give you a walking tour, share our family history, and explain how we do things at Stemple Creek Ranch. Then we’ll BBQ some beef and lamb for you to taste and enjoy the scenery! We will not be doing a full BBQ lunch this time, but feel free to bring your own picnic lunch or head down to the Tomales Deli afterwards where you can get a Stemple Creek Ranch burger and mingle with the Tomales locals. If you are interested in joining us please contact us or RSVP on facebook, we’d love to have you. RSVP’s are required. We will send directions and details to those who RSVP.
If you are interested in a ranch tour but can’t make it on Septemeber 12, please let us know, we do informal ranch tours frequently.
Passionate About Grass-Fed
July 26th, 2010One weekend last month we had a very busy and fun weekend of tours and events at the Ranch. One of our guests was Jay Hamilton-Roth and his family. Jay is the creator of Business With Passion, a television documentary series that features interviews with people who have successfully transformed their long-term passion into a successful business. Jay interviewed Loren and took some beautiful footage of the Ranch, and we were featured on the Business With Passion that aired tonight on Marin County Comcast Channel 26.
Take a look at the video:
You can also view the video on the Business With Passion website, please click here.
Creek Ranch is a family owned and operated cattle ranch in Marin County, California. We raise our animals on our own pasture land just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean. Our beef and lamb is all natural and grass-fed, and we are confident you will enjoy and appreciate it as much as we do. We invite you to 
