Locally Sourced Ingredients
When it comes to dining, our menu is quite a bit different than what you might envision from typical dude ranch grub. One of the things in which we take pride are meals created in-house. When we say our creations are “farm to table,” we mean it. We get our prime ingredients from a variety of local sources for our restaurant, including our own garden. Here is a list of some of our favorite suppliers of our local bounty.
Carter Country Meats
Based in a tiny town in northern central Wyoming called Ten Sleep (population 304), Carter Country Meats is a third-generation family ranch, which as they say, are a “dying breed.” Their cattle is range-raised, and their slogan is “Our Flavor Is In the Flora,” with cattle raised as they have been for generations, grazing on “powerful range grasses” to provide the best possible quality. As ranchers, they face the competition of large, industrial operations, and strive to keep up traditional practices while embracing new technologies that don’t sacrifice their standards. This could mean cowboys who ride dirt bikes instead of horses. Ultimately, the Carter brothers say, “country math means low quantity = high quality.”
Cosmic Apple Gardens Organic Farm
In a small town in eastern Idaho called Victor, just outside Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, exists a 30-acre organic farm called Cosmic Apple Gardens. With irrigation gravity fed from Tetons snowmelt, Cosmic Apple relies on the band of rich, loamy Teton Valley soil known as “Driggs Silt Loam,” as well as a unique micro-climate that keeps the farm a few degrees warmer than surrounding areas.
Cosmic Apple grows food for the surrounding population, including a local CSA program with 200 members, but the majority of their customers are in Jackson, WY, about 30 miles away. Starting in 1996, the farm began supplying Jackson-area restaurants with fresh basil and quickly recognized the demand for high-quality fresh produce in the area. By 2001, they had outgrown the original farm, and the current land was purchased by a generous local community member so Cosmic Apple could meet the increasing demand for quality food. In addition to organic produce, they now include flowers, honey bees, chickens, cows, and pigs, are supporting at least six full-time workers, and relying on 25 workshare volunteer force members who trade 5 hours of work per week for a share of the harvest. They have been certified both Organic and Biodynamic.
Turpin Meadow Ranch feels lucky to be able to provide the high-quality fruits of their labor to our guests while supporting a true community farming organization.
Sweet Cheeks Meats
If you’re lucky enough to find yourself in Jackson, we recommend a visit to local Sweet Cheeks Meats. You just can’t find as good a quality of meat in the grocery stores as you can in a butcher shop. In addition to providing select cuts of premium, locally-sourced meats, they provide a bevy of sandwiches, baked goods, stocks & broths, jams, jellies, pickles, ferments, sausage, and other fine goods to eat on the spot or include with your at-home feast.
They have also been known to work with other local kitchens to break down entire locally-sourced, select, humanely-raised animals to ensure they are as utilized as possible for their menu, which helps reduce waste, ensure the quality of the product, keeps money in the region, and is considered an art mostly lost to the convenience of commodity farming.
We’re delighted to rely on their high-quality sourced and produced meats, but if you happen to stop by, grab yourself a smashed burger or breakfast biscuit with their store-cured bacon.
Robinson Family Farm & Ranch
Another source for the quality meats we prepare at the ranch is Robinson Family Farm & Ranch. We particularly love their pork. The Robinsons are located south of Jackson along the Idaho/Wyoming border. They describe themselves as “an agricultural operation built on the core values of family, community, self-reliance, education, quality, health, safety, and integrity,” and consider the natural life cycle to be sacred, believing the closer our food gets to its natural state, the better it is for us. In addition to raising chemical-free vegetables, natural grass-fed and finished beef, natural grass-based pork, chicken and eggs, they also host a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Shares program, along with work share and educational opportunities.
Ultimately, their dream is to operate a full-service local food market, where local food can be made readily available to the local population. Until then, they are another great source of farm-to-table produce and meats for us and others in the area.
At Turpin Meadow Ranch, we believe in “Prairie to Plate” and are dedicated to sourcing the highest quality local ingredients whenever possible. We hope when you visit you will have the opportunity to sample the fare. We provide a complementary hot breakfast buffet spread with fresh pastries to overnight guests. Lunch and dinners are available for to any visitor. Day visitors are strongly recommended to make reservations for dinner.
