Paleo Mini Meatloaves - 10 servings

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• ¾ cup diced carrots
• ¾ cup diced onion 
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
• 1 cup lightly packed fresh spinach leaves
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 large pinch chopped fresh thyme
• 1 large pinch chopped fresh parsley
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 3 pounds lean ground beef 
• 1 egg, lightly beaten 
• 3 slices bacon, cut into 10 pieces

Directions

Step 1

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook and stir carrots and onion in hot oil until slightly softened, 3 to 7 minutes. Add tomatoes, spinach, garlic, thyme, parsley, salt, and black pepper; bring to a simmer, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until flavors combine, about 20 minutes. Cool slightly, 5 to 10 minutes.

Step 2

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Step 3

Puree vegetable mixture using a stick blender until smooth. Alternatively, pour vegetable mixture into a blender no more than half full. Cover and hold lid down; pulse a few times before leaving on to blend. Puree in batches until smooth.

Step 4

Mix pureed vegetables, ground beef, and egg together in a bowl with your hands until evenly combined. Divide meat mixture into 10 equal portions; form each into a mini-loaf and place on prepared baking sheet. Place 1 bacon piece on top of each loaf.

Step 5

Bake in the preheated oven until no longer pink in the center, 40 to 45 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 160 degrees F.

Fire, flood, and plague

What a summer this has been!  As we all have been struggling with the COVID pandemic and as we described in our last newsletter the two fires here in Gila County that engulfed 250,000 acres, we can now add flood.  At times over the past month we really thought that Noah would be coming by to pick up a couple of Highland for the ark.  The above picture was taken yesterday - August 18 - of the biggest flood we have seen to date.  This is about the 20th time we have been flooded since July 3 when we awoke to our Conex box wrapped around the barn and two buildings and all their contents swept downstream by the first flood.  We are waiting for the locusts next!

Our last newsletter came out while we were on a GO order for the Mescal Fire.  The firemen warned us that the Telegraph fire would be a bigger risk to us and we thought "How could that be?  That fire is in Superior and that is an hour drive?"  We got the GO order for Telegraph at 5:38 am on June 14 and by 7:15 am the incident command chief was at our house screaming at us to get out and if we didn't leave at that moment we would all die here.   We were executing our READY, SET, GO plan as we had planned it but all our rescue trailers were being held in Globe because Highway 77 was engulfed in flames.  There wasn't enough time for them to go around and sadly with a very heavy heart we left our beloved animals behind.  Long story short,  the Telegraph Fire burned through our ranch in its first pass coming at us from the northwest.  Later that afternoon, Telegraph came at us from the north after completing its burnout of the Tonto National forest and the Bar F Bar Ranch.  This time it got to within a quarter mile of our home.   The fire developed a plume several times (that is when you see firefighters get very nervous) and a fire tornado picked the fire up and brought it into the Ranch Creek area to our south last that afternoon burning out the Heisler Ranch and destroying 12 primary residences.  The next day the winds shifted and the fire roared up our canyon once again completing its burnout of the T-11 Ranch, the Bar F Bar and the Van Winkle Ranch. Several units were deployed into our canyon and they were pulled back three times due to dangerous conditions for the firefighters.  They were able to contain the fire only 100 feet from the pen holding the cattle.

We had worked very closely with Tucson 1 - the type 2 team that had been assigned to us for the Mescal Fire and was deployed to us during the Telegraph Fire - to create a plan for the cattle.   We followed their recommendations and we are very pleased to announce that not a single head was lost.   They were also able to save all our buildings including our home.  We returned from evacuation later that week to find about one third of ranch intact and we felt very relieved because we knew the grazing would grow back.  We got to work rebuilding and getting the ranch back in shape.

That relief was short lived when the floods started on July 3.  Buildings that the fire fighters saved were now wrapped around trees and the contents were well on the way to the San Carlos reservation.  Given that we are surrounded by hundreds of square miles of burn, we have been advised that we have 3-5 years of repetitive floods to look forward to.  A couple floods have hit town in the past couple weeks and many people have lost their homes.  We feel blessed we still have a home that is still safe and habitable.  The ranch has been hit about 20 times with flooding of various intensities.  Since there is nothing left to destroy, we are holding our own.  The earthwork we have done has proven effective in protecting the barn containing the hay.   The frequent flooding and availability of resources means a long road back but we are blessed that we will be able to continue operations.   To date we have been able to fulfill every committed order as promised. We are very close to being sold out for the year.  We are currently booking the October 8 harvest date.  

Raffle to benefit Gila County Ranches

Help the Gila County ranches affected by the Mescal-Telegraph Fire and subsequent floods and enjoy quality Highland grass fed/grass finished Humanely raised and handled beef!!!

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We had a customer who had to move from the area and didn't have the space to take all their beef with them. Tori and John have generously donated this grass fed grass finished HIGHLAND beef to the ranchers of Gila County affected by the Mescal-Telegraph Fires and floods. We will be raffling off this meat with a maximum of 100 tickets sold or August 31 (whichever comes first) at $20 per ticket. All proceeds will go to the Gila County Ranchers fund for the local ranchers affected by the fire and flood. Gryphon Ranch will deliver at no charge to ShowLow, Phoenix Valley, Tucson Valley.   The winner must be in Arizona.  We picked up the beef and it is safely stored in the freezer here at the ranch. This is what is included:

Qty           Pounds         Cut

4                   2           ground beef

1                   3           sirloin tip roast

1                  2.5         oxtail

1                  2.5         leg bones

1                  1.5         liver

1                  2.5         tongue

1                  1.5         kidney

1                   0.5        filet

1                   1.5        cheek meat

1                   4           chuck roast

1                   1           shank steak

1                   0.5        shank steak

1                   1           flank steak

1                   3.5        heart

2                   2           liver

1                   0.5        cube steak

1                   2.5        soup neck bones

1                   0.5        cube steak

1                   0.75      shank steak

1                   1           shank steak

1                   4           chuck roast

1                   0.75      cube steak

1                   1.75      sirloin flap

1                   4.5        chuck roast

1                   2.5        BBQ ribs

If you want to make a donation to benefit the Gila County rancher directly you can also make a donation here.