A party at Lockhart Cattle Company Ranch

Last night, I attended a celebration of community, local food and art. There was a farm to table dinner on the historic Lockhart Cattle Company Ranch. The dinner featured grass fed beef BBQ, seasonal vegetables from around the valley, wine, beer, art for sale on hay bale displays, and live music by The Canyon Kids. It was presented by Slow Food in the Tetons and sponsored by Lockhart Cattle Company, Snake River Brewing, BoBQ and more. Attendees were encouraged to carpool or ride their bikes and boy did they! The backdrop, as always, was the Teton Mountains... wow!

 

 

  

The Slow Food movement began in 1986 in Italy with a protest of the opening of the first McDonalds near the Spanish Steps in Rome. Slow Food envisions a future food system that is based on the principles of high quality and taste, environmental sustainability, and social justice –in essence, a food system that is good, clean and fair. Slow Food members are organized into local chapters or “convivia” and work at the grassroots level to carry out the local, national and international mission. Today Slow Food is 100,000 members strong, 1300 convivia (200 in USA), represented in over 100 countries. Slow Food in the Tetons was founded by Teton Valley resident Sue Muncaster in 2006. All the food at the event was locally sourced, organic and grass-fed in the case of the beef. Even the butter was churned locally. Delicious!

                                  
                                  Beer and wine were donated by local companies.

Lockhart Cattle Company specializes in raising grass-fed, antibiotic and hormone-free Hereford cows. They’re the same breed Jackson’s original cattlemen brought here in the 1880s. Homesteaded in the 1880s by Stephen N. Leek, the ranch was purchased by Bruce Porter in the 1930s and has remained in the family ever since. Today, Porter’s great-grandsons, Cody and Chase Lockhart, run the Lockhart Cattle Company, their brand a heart with an L inside, as seen on the barn below. The white clapboard house built by Leek in 1904 was the first home in the valley constructed using lumber instead of logs, and the red barn was built shortly after. It was a beautiful setting for a dinner party at sunset.

 

The Lockharts grow and harvest their own grass for hay. In early summer, the grass is hip-deep or higher, and haying season starts... three to six weeks of cutting, curing, baling and stacking. Each cow will eat about 3 percent of its body weight a day, so about 30 pounds for an 18-month-old, more in calving season. That's a lot of hay!

I ran into a ranch co-worker and her husband at the event, along with her very cool parents who were in town visiting ;)

After dinner, we got back in line for dessert. After seeing the sign, I inquired what "rescued" meant and was a little amused when the woman serving it said they had "rescued" the bread for the pudding and shortcake from a local bakery... 2 days old, before it was thrown away and wasted. I envisioned a dumpster as part of the scenario. ha-ha. Actually, it was delicious. I didn't dare ask where the strawberries had come from ;0

 

As we finished eating, we were directed to bring our plates to the designated area to separate our trash, napkins etc from the food waste. That's right, it was going to be recycled and fed to pigs somewhere. Welcome to environmentally conscious Teton County, one of the most affluent and liberal zip codes in the country, in an otherwise red state. Hey, I'm all for recycling things, reducing landfills, and having happy, free range, grass fed cattle!

The photo above is of the party taken from the highway as I left around 9PM... still light out. I was glad I hadn't ridden my bike since I was 13 miles from the ranch and it was getting dark. Another great Wyoming event... perfect weather, perfect setting, great food! Cheers ;)