While Oregon is known for its abundant rain and evergreen hillsides, the golden landscapes of Central Oregon’s high desert are sunny for nearly two-thirds of the year. Pastures drenched in sunshine are a rancher’s dream, and the agricultural bounty of Central Oregon proves that dream is reality. On a trip through the high desert, you’ll see cattle, sheep and even fuzzy alpacas at local farms and ranches. You can also help support the local economy by buying meat in bulk or enjoying barbecue at local eateries. Summer is a great time for flower workshops. Visit in fall for cooler weather and all the wonderful on-farm harvest action.
Farm Fun for the Whole Family
Central Oregon’s farms and ranches offer many opportunities for visitors to spend time on farms. In October a visit to DD Ranch in Terrebonne is a must for its legendary pumpkin patch, hayrides and petting zoo. The farm also sells heritage pork and 100% grass-fed beef and lamb shares through the on-site ranch store.
Just up the road, Smith Rock Ranch is another autumn destination. A working farm producing carrot seed, wheat and bluegrass seed for most of the year, it opens to visitors seasonally starting in late September (through late October) for a whole array of on-farm activities. There’s a themed corn “maize,” a Great Pumpkin tram ride, pumpkin cannons and live music. Take home pumpkins for Halloween grown there, as well as winter squash, gourds, honey and other seasonal products.
Drive down US-97 in Terrebonne and you can see the fluffy alpaca friends of Crescent Moon Ranch. Stop in to stroll through the pastures, where you can pet the impossibly soft creatures and hand-feed them too (for a small fee). The on-farm shop focuses on local goods, souvenirs and fiber products like alpaca socks and sweaters. The ranch is just one of many places to visit with alpacas in Oregon.
For dark-sky viewing, book a stay at Wine Down Ranch in Prineville, a working cattle ranch that welcomes guests all year-round to its lodgings, which include a tiny house, a bunkhouse and campsites. Overnight guests can go bird-watching, hiking and mountain biking on the property, as well as cross-country skiing during the winter season.
Stop by Pine Mountain Ranch on Fridays in Bend or visit them at the Bend Farmers Market from May to October to try their grass-fed buffalo, Tibetan yak and pastured elk.
Stop for Pork Belly, Fry-Bread Burgers and Homemade Bologna
When it comes to meals, there are many places to enjoy the products of local ranchers. For family-friendly farm-to-table fare in Redmond, stop at Feast Food Company. The business started as a food truck, and owners Emma and Chris Leyden have grown it into a sit-down restaurant. Expect an ingredient-driven and seasonal menu, with pasture-raised beef and lamb from Vaquero Valley Ranch & Cattle Company, Larkin Valley Ranch and Cascade Mountain Pastures in Sisters, as well as Redmond-grown Deschutes Gourmet Mushrooms and produce from loads of small local growers.
Farmer’s Deli, a food cart in Bend, lives up to its name, serving a casual breakfast and lunch menu that includes locally sourced ingredients. It’s tough to beat the cart’s Sparrow Bakery English muffin breakfast sandwich with Tillamook sharp cheddar, Hill’s sausage from Pendleton and a farm egg, especially drizzled with hot honey made using Trifecta hot sauce from Indigenous-owned Sakari Farms. Another food cart, Native-owned Twisted Teepee, serves up excellent fry-bread burgers in Warm Springs, just over an hour north of Bend.
For a wide range of local meat offerings, the artisanal butchery and sandwich shop Sisters Meat and Smokehouse is a must. Shop from the cases or pull up a chair and order from the menu. The house-smoked tri-tip with onions, provolone and barbecue sauce might be the most popular, but the sleeper hit is a sandwich of homemade bologna on white bread with cheddar cheese. The smokehouse has two locations, one in Sisters and one in Redmond.
Sisters Meat and Smokehouse has also opened a spot in Bend in collaboration with Bend Brewing Company, just east of the Box Factory. Called The Way West, it’s an artisan butcher shop selling fresh cuts sourced from a Colorado farm along with its popular sausages, sauces, barbecue rubs, and grab-and-go goodies like smoked cheeses and beef jerky. Bend Brewing runs the in-house restaurant and bar, with a menu of smoked-meat sandwiches, plus a few vegetarian and kids’ options.
Go big on date night with a visit to Hawkeye & Huckleberry Lounge, a glitzy take on ranch cooking from “Top Chef” season 3 finalist and Food Network-famous restaurateur Brian Malarkey and his brother, James Malarkey. The steakhouse menu highlights hemp-finished beef from the family’s ranch in Tumalo.
Prefer to cook it yourself? Visit Central Oregon Locavore in Bend, a nonprofit grocery marketplace, which sells meat, produce, eggs and dairy from local farms and ranches, and plenty of other goods sourced from within a 200-mile radius.
Hot tip: Find more places to eat and adventure throughout the region along the High Desert Food Trail.
Buying Pasture-Raised Meat From Central Oregon Farms
Most beef sold in the United States changes hands many times throughout the supply chain from farm to supermarket, which can mean that the ranchers who raise beef cattle see only a small fraction of the grocery-store sale price. One way Central Oregon ranchers are building more sustainable livelihoods is by selling their beef directly to people.
Some ranches follow a retail model, offering direct sale of their meats through farm stores like Redmond’s The Ranch Market, a year-round farm store from Larkin Valley Ranch. But several area ranches, including Vaquero Valley Ranch & Cattle Company in Bend and Casad Family Farms in Redmond, also offer grass-fed beef and lamb either by specific cuts or by the variety box online. Another luxe mail-order option, Pioneer Ranch raises Kobe and Wagyu cattle just outside Bend. The ranch’s signature move is finishing its beef on spent grain sourced from local whiskey distilleries.
North 44 Farm in Bend connects the dots between ranch and table. Not only does it provide home delivery of its grass-fed and finished beef, lamb and poultry every week, but at Bend’s North 44 Kitchen, it offers local meats plus convenience. Visit for premarinated meats — think ready-to-grill, Korean barbecue short ribs, or shawarma-style lamb kabobs — plus bone broth, compound butters, fresh pasta and house-made sauces.
How and Where to Buy Shares
If you’d like to order beef (or pork or lamb, depending on what’s available) directly from a farm or ranch, consider buying in what’s known as shares — a whole, half, quarter or even sometimes an eighth of an animal at a time.
DD Ranch in Terrebonne, Big Summit Beef Co. in Prineville, Redmond’s Casad Family Farms, Bend’s North 44 Farm and Pioneer Ranch, and more ranching operations in the area sell animal shares directly. Here’s what you need to know.
- The meat from a whole cow represents a big financial commitment and ample freezer space. For example, an eighth of beef share represents about 50 pounds — which would fit in a large cooler — whereas a whole share is about 400 pounds.
- You’ll need to preorder well ahead of time, discuss the cuts you want with the butcher and plan to pick up your meat when it’s ready — be sure to bring coolers.
- A farm that sells pork shares, like Redmond’s Well Rooted Farms (along with beef shares, vegetables and eggs in season), will also ask if you want a portion of your pork turned into ham, bacon or sausage.
- This type of cooperative-buying model isn’t limited to meat. At Windy Acres Dairy Farm in Prineville, you can buy a monthly farm share (even as a visitor to the area) to choose from its selection of eggs; raw-milk cheeses; and unpasteurized farmstead dairy products like yogurt, cream, milk, butter and kefir — all of which are made from the milk of the farm’s small, pasture-raised herd.
