Five Marys Honored for Support of Local Cattle Industry in Siskiyou County
Through their “fresh look” at the cattle industry and their impressive online presence that regularly highlights Siskiyou County, Cowley believes Five Marys is a shining example of what it means to be an Ally of the Industry.
Scott Valley’s Five Marys Farms has been awarded the distinctive “Ally of the Industry” honor by the Siskiyou County Cattlemen’s Association. SCCA President Dave Cowley and SCCA Vice President Sam Jackson met with Five Marys owners Brian and Mary Heffernan and their four daughters last week at the site of what will soon be Five Marys’s meat processing plant.
When the SCCA decides the recipient of its Ally of the Industry award each year, Cowley said, “We’re looking for people who support the Siskiyou County Cattlemen, but more importantly support the cattle industry.”
Through their “fresh look” at the cattle industry and their impressive online presence that regularly highlights Siskiyou County, Cowley believes Five Marys is a shining example of what it means to be an Ally of the Industry.
The Heffernans previously worked in California’s Silicon Valley, where Brian was a lawyer at a large firm and Mary ran a series of small businesses. After getting together, the couple also got into the restaurant business.
They explain on their website, “In the quest for super high quality meats, raised ethically but with great flavor, we did a ton of research with our chefs to know exactly what we wanted for our customers ... We searched high and low in small farms and couldn’t find anyone who could do this on a large enough scale to supply what we needed. So we decided to do it ourselves.”
The Heffernans purchased a ranch in Siskiyou County at the tail end of 2013. They originally planned to just visit the ranch on the weekends and hire a ranch manager to take care of the day to day operations.
After coming north for the eighth weekend, Mary said, she and her husband looked at each other and questioned why they were leaving the ranch to head back down south. They decided to live in Fort Jones full time and run the ranch themselves.
The lifestyle appealed to the Heffernans because they knew they wanted to work together and raise their four girls in a rural area. When it came time to sell the meat they’d raised on the ranch, Five Marys started out by personally delivering to customers.
After much trial and error, they eventually worked out an efficient way to ship their product to customers all over the country; meats arrive overnight, packed in dry ice.
Though running a ranch and online business is plenty of work, the ever-ambitious Heffernans opened Five Marys Burgerhouse in Fort Jones on New Year’s Eve of 2017. The restaurant serves beef, pork and lamb raised right on the Five Marys ranch.
A large part of the success of Five Marys is the Heffernans’ engagement with people and the way they share their story. Five Marys has an impressive social media presence. Mary regularly shares photos and snippets of daily life on the ranch on Facebook and Instagram.
The Heffernans have also started a small business academy to teach others what they’ve learned about entrepreneurship, shipping and selling products, and social media outreach. Thus far, 300 people have enrolled in the online course. Additionally, 45 women have visited Five Marys Farms in Fort Jones on a retreat that includes a stay on the ranch and learning basic butchery and new cooking skills.
Next on the horizon for Five Marys Farms is the construction of a meat processing plant in Montague, which the Heffernans hope to have operational by the end of 2020.
The love and work that Brian and Mary have put into Five Marys Farms, restaurant and small business course has “brought a lot of exposure to the county,” Cowley said. He added, “It paints a good picture for us.”
