The Lone Rancher
July/August 2018 California Bountiful magazine
Story by Kevin Hecteman • Photos by Rob Andrew
Orange County's last beef producer doesn't follow the herd
In a county that once was rural but now is urban, Frank Fitzpatrick stands alone.
Scan the grasslands near Silverado, and you may find a herd of Barzona cattle roaming the hills and munching on the grass. These cattle represent Fitzpatrick's pride and joy: the beef he sells in Orange County and elsewhere in Southern California as 5 Bar Beef.
"I decided I wanted to be a cowboy on my eighth birthday," the Silverado native said, "and basically I just never changed my mind."
That interest led him to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where he studied agricultural business and animal science, and then on a 10-year odyssey to about 17 different ranches in Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Northern California.
"Then I had the opportunity to buy some Barzona and Beefmaster cows in '79," Fitzpatrick said. Thus began 5 Bar Beef, which eventually became a Barzona-only zone. Today, he runs about 700 head of cattle, including 300 cows; he sells 125 to 150 head of beef each year. Fitzpatrick said he's the last rancher raising and selling beef in Orange County.
The Barzona is a breed developed in Arizona beginning in the early 1940s as a cross of Afrikaner, Hereford and Santa Gertrudis. Fitzpatrick said they are tough animals, able to withstand extreme temperatures, sparse rainfall and rigorous range conditions.
The other critical component is the herd's diet. Fitzpatrick's cattle eat grass—mostly the grass they find while wandering around the ranch. If grass is scarce, he'll supplement with organic produce and summer hay.
"Grass-fed beef is a hard deal, because you're dependent on rain … to make the meat," he said. "As you know, in California, we haven't had a lot of that the last half a decade."
Frank Fitzpatrick and son Ryan keep watch over one of the Barzona herds. Photo: © 2018 Rob Andrew
Bonds forged over barbecue
Fitzpatrick offers nearly three dozen cuts of 5 Bar Beef, including favorites such as filet mignon, roasts, and porterhouse and New York steaks, as well as ground beef and several sausage varieties. He sells his products at two farmers markets—Fridays in Laguna Hills and Saturdays in Irvine—and online to Southern California customers.
Through the years, Fitzpatrick's beef has earned a following: "I have some 14-year customers that buy a half a cow from me every spring and eat it for the rest of the year," he said.
His beef has also helped him forge new friendships, including with Irvine residents Jutta and Jesus Gamboa.
"We've been to the ranch many times and hiked around, and seen (the cattle) just having fun out there," Jutta Gamboa said. "It's just beautiful."
The couple met Fitzpatrick seven or eight years ago at a farmers market when Jutta Gamboa, a novice at cooking grass-fed beef, sought the rancher's advice: "'We have a party coming up—a barbecue. You want to come up and help us cook it?' He said, 'Sure. Why not?' So that's how our friendship started."
In the kitchen
Grass-fed beef tends to be leaner than grain-fed beef, so cooking it to perfection might take practice.
"If you don't cook it right or prepare it right, it gets very tough," Gamboa said.
According to the American Grassfed Association, grass-fed beef cooks 30 percent faster than grain-fed, so watching the temperature is critical. The beef should be pulled from the heat source when the temperature is 10 degrees lower than desired, as it will continue to cook for several minutes.
The association recommends serving grass-fed beef rare to medium rare. Those who prefer well-done should cook the meat at low temperature in a sauce to add moisture.
Customers say they like the old-fashioned flavor of 5 Bar Beef. Photo: © 2018 Rob Andrew
Gamboa typically cooks 5 Bar Beef filets in the oven, wrapped in foil, while roasts go in the slow cooker with red wine, vegetables, herbs and lots of garlic. Either way, she said, the result is "super tender, falls apart."
Meanwhile, Jesus Gamboa fires up the gas grill when it's time to cook a steak from 5 Bar Beef. He uses indirect heat and cautions that a grass-fed steak is "not the usual hamburger that you put in and you shut the barbecue and go and play a game or something, and then come back and eat burgers. You have to be there to look at what's happening to it."
Despite the learning curve required for cooking, it's the flavor of the beef that customers say keeps them coming back.
Jutta Gamboa describes it as "a little more gamey, which I personally like," and Huntington Beach customer David Montoya said the old-fashioned flavor "reminds me of my parents' cooking."
[I] get joy from my position in the community from selling the best food that I can raise.
Frank Fitzpatrick
Driven to succeed
Fitzpatrick said he gets joy from "my position in the community from selling the best food that I can raise," he said. "I like the genetic aspect of the cattle and the environmental aspect of managing the ranch."
He runs a "closed herd," comprised solely of cattle born and raised on the ranch, and manages a type of grazing that he said closely simulates the behavior of natural herds of wildlife and helps restore the biodiversity and fertility of the soil.
"Trying to leave the place better than I found it is a major 'attaboy,'" Fitzpatrick said.
That can be a challenge, given the profound changes Orange County has seen just since Fitzpatrick was growing up. He recalled a cattle drive he and a friend were on in 1965, when they drove 1,000 animals down Culver Drive to the feedlot, about 10 miles.
"We met exactly three cars on the way," he said. "And we knew everybody in the cars."
That same road, Fitzpatrick said, now sees upward of 80,000 vehicles per day.
Back at the ranch, about the only traffic is Frank and, part time, his son Ryan—and the herd of Barzonas.
Ryan Fitzpatrick drops hay into a corral. Hay is used to supplement the animals' diet when grass is scarce. Photo: © 2018 Rob Andrew