Our Mission
We are the Heffernan Family and are proud to be stewards of the land at Sharps Gulch Ranch. With farming in our blood from generations past, we are raising livestock and our children as natural as we can in the California sunshine.
We like doing things the hard way.
We believe in muddy boots, calloused hands and nurturing our land and livestock through dedication and hard work.
We believe that healthy animals live in big spaces with lots of sunshine, and don’t need extra hormones, chemicals or antibiotics.
We believe that food should tell a story, and are thrilled to share ours with you.
Why Five Marys?
We are a small family ranch and together as a family we diligently care for each of our animals.
We believe in selling only the finest meat, and the finest meat comes from animals and land that are well cared for. Our Black Angus cattle, Navajo Churro lambs, and Berkshire heritage pigs live on our green pastures and hills rich in minerals and with plenty of sunshine and fresh Northern California mountain air.
We raise our animals with care and attention. You will taste the difference.
Our meat is never treated with antibiotics or hormones. Our beef is finished on pasture grass and steam-flaked barley (barley is always GMO-free). You can experience the difference in the taste of our beef, lamb, and pork because of the extra effort we make to ensure the health and ethical standard of our pasture-raised meat. We raise our own cattle, pork and lamb right here on our ranch and work with our in-laws ranch and trusted ranches with the same standards we have as we grow our customer base. We know trust is the most important thing for our valued customers - and we take that very seriously!
Our meat is processed, butchered, and dry-aged to ensure the highest ethical standard and premium flavor and tenderness.
We raise our animals with your family and your dinner table in mind, just as we would for our own family. We take extra steps and go the extra mile to provide the highest level of care and diligence, even after our animals have left our farm. Our beef, pork, and lamb are harvested right on the ranch under USDA inspection in a Temple Grandin designed facility processed at our own first class USDA process, cut, and wrap facility - Five Marys Custom Meat Co - and each cut has complete traceability to our animals. Our beef cuts are all dry-aged for tenderness and flavor you won't find many places other than the premier steakhouses.
When you buy from us, you become part of our story.
Not only do we strive to bring the finest meat to your table, we want you to know the real story behind it, too. You should know just where your food comes from and TRUST your rancher. We share our story, our days and our ranching methods transparently everyday on social media, our website and talking directly to our customers.
Find us on Instagram (@fivemarysfarms), subscribe to our email lists (below!), and come along on our journey so you can see more than a glimpse into life at Five Marys Farms in the mountains of far Northern California. Additionally, our Farm Store and great staff are only a call away, willing to help with any needs or questions you might have while doing business with us. (530-468-4001 info@fivemarys.com)
There are no short cuts!
The only way to do things well - is to do them right from start to finish. Our family are out there working diligently day after day to care for our animals and raise premium quality meats fit to feed your family. It’s not easy…. but it’s worth it.
Frequently Asked Questions
General FAQ’s
Why are you called “Five Marys”?
Five Marys was named by Brian, for his FIVE Marys! His wife and their four daughters are really all named MARY - MaryFrances or "Francie" is 13, MaryMarjorie or "Maisie" is 12, MaryJane or "JJ" is 10 and MaryTeresa or "Tessa" is 8. They are all named after strong and memorable grandmothers and aunts on both sides of the family and each carries the middle name of that grandmother or great aunt.
Five Marys is truly a family operation honoring the roots in California agriculture on both sides of the family, the younger Marys are 7th generation Californians with ancestors dating back to 1851 at the time of the Gold Rush. Brian’s father Tom was an active farmer and advocate for California agriculture and the Heffernans are proud to be carrying on a family legacy in the industry - and paving their own way too.
We work hard to raise a quality product from start to finish. That begins with great genetics in our animals for things like rib-eye size and marbling, as well as breeding and birth weight/size. We make sure to feed our animals a high quality feed for their entire life. We finish our beef with alfalfa and steam-flaked barley for an extended finish time of 180 days on finish feed. We also dry-age the whole beef carcass longer than the industry standard or the more common “wet age” which helps creates a premium flavor and tenderness in every bite - right down to the ground beef. Extra care, attention and inputs mean better products for our family and our customers.
Why does your meat taste so good?
We are located in Siskiyou County - at the top of the state of California, almost to the Oregon border, where our Cattlewomen boast “top beef, from the top of our state, to the top of your plate.” Brian and Mary are both California natives, the girls are 7th generation to the state! Brian grew up in Imperial County and Tehama County with roots in agriculture and Mary was born and raised in Menlo Park, CA - better known today as “Silicon Valley” where she and Brian met, started their family and worked before deciding to change paths and leave the busy life there for 1800 acres of wide open spaces in Scott Valley.
Where are you located?
Where can I find out more about your story?
We share our daily life on Instagram right here.
Mary also wrote an ebook about their decision to move to the ranch, including their story, and how things changed when they did. It’s called “They Can Do It. What I Learned About Parenting by Moving to the Country.” and you can download it to read on any device HERE.
Are you organic?
When you are not certified organic, legally you cannot use the word organic. However, we are 100% mindful to practice and produce all-natural products. We raise what we believe is the best product to feed our own children and share it with our customers.
We believe that when you get to know and trust the family raising your meat, that means more than a certification sticker on a package, so the red tape and extra cost to the consumer associated with certification is not necessary.
Yes, all of our livestock feed on the ranch is 100% GMO-free.
Are you GMO-free?
Has your meat been treated with antibiotics?
Never. The meat we sell through Five Marys brand is always 100% antibiotic free from day one. We administer therapeutic antibiotics to animals on the ranch if they are needed for life saving situations or illness, but those animals are “red tagged” and pulled from our meat program. We still find other creative outlets for them after the proper and safe withdrawl period like local families or friends who understand the history of the animal. Animals given antibiotics in their lifetime are perfectly safe to eat after the standard withdrawl period - but we choose to have a clear designation for our customers that all meat sold from Five Marys is 100% free of any lifetime antibiotics.
Is your meat hormone free?
Yes, our meat is 100% free of any kind of growth hormones or any added hormones.
Visting FAQ’s
Can we visit the ranch for a tour?
We open the ranch occasionally for special events like Farm Dinners and weekend retreats for customers and friends to allow them to experience ranch life and get closer to where their food comes from. We announce these events in our Friends & Family email newsletter when they are released. Other than those times, we run a “lean” operation and besides our family of 6 - have just 1-2 extra ranch hands on some days - so we are very busy taking great care of our animals and getting our excellent meats to our customers!
Brian, Mary and the girls are busy taking care of the animals, the ranch and finding time together as a family so they are not able to accommodate any sort of ranch tours or visits! But you are welcome to drive by the ranch on the public highway (Eastside Rd) and take it all in from the road (please don't stop to block traffic, try to see animals or disrupt daily operations) The Heffs stop by the Burgerhouse often and love to say hello and meet visitors from all over though!
But while we can not give ranch tours - we love to have guests from far and wide come to visit Fort Jones to experience all that there is to offer in the area and the Five Marys brand at our restaurant!
Can we shop at the Farm Store?
Five Marys Farm Store is open to the public weekdays while we are shipping meats! You can usually catch us during business hours but we start shipping early so close at 3-4pm some days.
You can shop all of our M5 gear and dry goods in the front of our restaurant, Five Marys Burgerhouse, just two doors down.
If you’d like to order locally, choose Fort Jones Pickup and email info@fivemarys.com to let us know when you will be by to pick up at the Burgerhouse, we’ll get it ready and leave it there in the freezer for you!
Where can we stay?
There are also a variety of AirBnb's in Fort Jones to accommodate smaller groups or 1-night stays.
The Etna Motel is another great option just 9 miles down the road in the town of Etna. "Camp Five Marys" experience and tents are not available for stays, but make sure you are on our mailing list to find out about any upcoming Farm Dinners or Camp Retreats!
There is also a great RV Park in Etna called The Mountain Village or one in Yreka called Yreka RV Park.
We do not rent out our camp area, the bunkhouse, or any other facilities on the ranch and do not allow visitors on the ranch at any time.
The Fort Jones Museum is a gem of a spot with great local history and lots of opportunities to learn more about Northern California. It is located on the same block as Five Marys Burgerhouse and Farm Store.
Mountain Healing Spa is a great spot for some relaxation with soaking tubs and massages available in the town of Etna.
Callahan's Mountain Lodge just north in Ashland, Oregon is a hidden gem of a resort to stay in summer or cozy up in winter with live music every night.
There are also lots of great attractions nearby like Crater Lake, the town of Ashland Oregon, summer camps, hikes and more.
What is there to do?
Where can we eat?
Five Marys Burgerhouse is open Monday-Saturday 11am-9pm right downtown Fort Jones and offers our dry-aged beef, pork and lamb in a delicious lunch and dinner menu served 6 days a week. Our Bourbon Bacon Burger or Cowboy Blues Burgers are customer favorites, and make sure to have an M5 Sidecar with our own Five Marys Bourbon or Whiskey. You can even purchase and take a bottle home from the Burgerhouse - they make fantastic gifts and are only available to buy at Five Marys Burgerhouse!
Our friends at Denny Bar would love to host you for lunch or dinner as well! Denny Bar is a first-class craft distillery just 12 miles down the road in the town of Etna, open on Sundays and they offer distillery tours!
The closest airport is Medford Oregon (MFR) which is serviced by Alaksa and United airlines. It's easy to rent a car from there and drive 1.5 hours south to Fort Jones. Sacramento Airport, serviced by most airlines as well as Southwest, is 4 hours south.
There is also a private small private airport just 2 miles from Fort Jones called Scott Valley Airfield A30 - if you fly in for lunch or dinner let us know and we can arrange a pick up!
We hope you'll enjoy a visit to Fort Jones to enjoy all it has to offer and experience Five Marys through the Burgerhouse and Farm Store!
How do I travel there?
ANIMAL FAQ’S
Navajo Churro Sheep: We have a blog post about our sheep HERE
Berkshire Pigs: Berkshire pigs produce one of the best meat qualities - an optimal fat and marbling and are a great heritage breed. Some pigs are bred to be extra lean now - and others can be too fatty. Berkshires are a great in between with what our customers frequently tell us is the best pork they’ve ever tasted!
Black Angus Cattle : Black Angus produce a premium quality beef and we are proud of our herd with great genetics for superior marbling, flavor and consistency.
What breeds are your animals?
What do you feed your pigs? Do you feed the pigs scraps?
We feed our pigs a carefully mixed ration of protein and minerals according to their age or stage of life. Our gestating mothers get one ration, nursing mothers get another, weaned piglets another and grower pigs their own.
We try to avoid scraps for our pigs since it’s hard to control what might be in the scraps or how that food was raised. But they love an apple core shared from one of the girls or some leftover garden veggies at the end of the season!
Is your beef grass-fed?
Our cattle live on pastures or hill country at Five Marys year round and eat our local and ranch raised pasture grasses and alfalfa. We finish our cattle on a thoughtfully balanced ration of alfalfa, grain hay and steam-flaked barley for the best possible quality in marbling and taste. We believe grass-fed and grass-and-barley finish, with an extended finishing time of at least 180 days is the optimal way to raise our beef for consistent, excellent quality and flavor with all the benefits of a grass-fed lifestyle. We never feed corn, GMOs and all of our meat is 100% free from antibiotics, growth-hormones, beta-agonists, and ionophores.
Are your lambs grass fed?
Yes, our Navajo Churro lambs and sheep eat only our pasture grasses and alfalfa.
Cow terms
Calf = newborn
Bull = uncastrated male, used for breeding not for meat
Steer = castrated male, most common in meat programs
Heifer = female who hasn’t had a calf yet
First calf heifer = female who has had one calf
Cow = a momma earns this title once she has had at least 2 calves
What is a cow versus a steer or a bull?
No - we don’t raise poultry and will not in the future. If you are looking for quality raised chicken or turkey to ship to your doorstep like Five Marys, we recommend:
Covey Rise Farms in Ohio *M5 Entrepreneur
Rockside Ranch in Siskiyou County CA
1915 Farm in Texas *M5 Entrepreneur
Do you sell chicken or eggs? Turkeys?
HARVESTING FAQ’S
Yes. We are invested in making sure every stage of the process of raising and harvesting our animals is done thoughtfully and with the utmost care and attention to the well being of the animal. Our harvesting or slaughtering process is done under USDA inspection right here on the ranch and we work hard to make sure the animals experience the least amount of stress and are slaughtered in the most humane way. This is obviously important because it’s the right thing to do, but it can also affect the quality of the meat (stress before harvest is not good for quality) so it’s important to everyone involved that animals are harvested humanely every single time.
Do you harvest humanely?
How are animals are handled during processing?
At Five Marys, we are focused on raising our animals as humanely and ethically as possible their entire lives. We take the same concern for the harvesting process. We work hard to make sure animals experience the least amount of stress possible and are harvested thoughtfully and humanely, all under USDA supervision and care.
Beef that is dry-aged has an exceptional flavor and tenderness. It requires extra time, commitment and cost - but it is worth it in the end result of a perfect steak or incredibly delicious ground beef. Pork or lamb can be eaten soon after slaughter, but that is not the case with beef. Beef benefits from aging to promote tenderness and enhance flavor. Soon after slaughter, most beef sold in the US is split into large pieces called primals, vacuum sealed, and boxed up for transport, where it “wet-ages” during transit to grocery stores, meat distributors, and similar locations. When it arrives it is ultimately cut into steaks, roasts, and other familiar cuts for the consumer. Ground beef is often packaged and shipped without the benefit of any aging at all. In contrast, dry-aging beef involves hanging it in just above freezing temperatures in a humidity controlled room with ample air flow. We prefer 14-28 days for optimal tenderness and to impart a unique taste and delicate consistency to the meat.
Dry-aging is a craft tradition that used to be the norm, but it is slowly being replaced in favor of expediency and efficiency. However, Brian and I firmly believe that dry-aging creates the best possible beef. We don’t cut any steaks or grind any beef until the entire carcass is well aged. Purely grass-fed meat doesn’t always benefit from dry aging as it is often too lean without much marbling, but because we finish our cattle on barley which gives a great marbling, dry-aging is an optimal way to create a premium product for our customer.
What does dry-aging do?
How do you choose which animals go to harvest for meat? Are they all born on the ranch?
Our breeding mothers never go into our retail meat program. They stay breeders on the ranch as long as they are able and sometimes longer. Our breeding males (bulls, boards and rams) are also not put into our retail meat program. Older animals who have bred or birthed young are not as desirable as meat animals for most cuts. The animals born on our ranch every year are our market animals that we harvest for meats. We keep about 20% of these animals most years as breeders to replace older breeders who age out of reproducing. We buy new males for breeding from high quality genetic stock every few years to avoid line breeding and to ensure genetic diversity.
Are all your animals born on the ranch?
We raise most of our animals from start to finish, but sometimes will add animals from other trusted ranches (like our brother-in-law’s all-natural, Oregon ranching operation) as we expand and grow our herd.
Every animal is slightly different, but we aim for between 85/15 and 80/20 for our ground beef.
What is the fat ratio in your ground beef?
Shipping FAQ’s
We ship our meats, jerky, bones and bone broth to all 50 states every week Monday-Wednesday!
Where do you ship your meats?
We do not ship to Canada. Canadian customs is not reliable to keep perishable orders moving through and boxes often get held up in customs for too long to make it feasible to ship frozen product. We do ship all other products besides meats, bones and bone broth to Canada though!
Do you ship meats to Canada? Will you ever?
We are not able to ship our meats to addresses outside of the US. We are able to ship other products like sheep pelts, M5 gear, books, prints, hats, etc.
Do you ship non-meat items internationally?
We do! We ship to all 50 states. Our normal shipping rates for perishables (meats, bones, bone broth, etc) is a flat rate per box or per order for any size (from a pound of bacon to a ¼ share of a cow at 100 pounds of meats!) since we pay for the custom box and insulated liner, dry ice and overnight shipping.
