Behind the Burger
Created by the New Mexico Beef Council, we are telling the stories behind the beef in New Mexico.
Behind the Burger
Regenerative Ranching in New Mexico's High Desert with Sile Pastures
What happens when a chef's passion for food quality leads to raising cattle? In this enlightening conversation with the family behind Sile Pastures, we discover how culinary expertise transformed into regenerative ranching in Sile, New Mexico.
Sage Hagan shares his remarkable journey from high-end kitchens working alongside Wolfgang Puck to establishing a diversified farm operation with his wife Andrea and their daughters. Their story illustrates the challenges and rewards of being first-generation ranchers in New Mexico's varied landscape, where water access proves both precious and determining. With incredible candor, they discuss how their operation has evolved from a small market garden to managing 60 head of cattle and 70 sheep while maintaining their commitment to sustainable practices.
The conversation delves into what makes New Mexico ranching unique, from dealing with unexpected May snowstorms to navigating limited land access. You'll hear how their four-year-old daughter already serves as the "farm manager," spotting trailers, sorting cattle, and developing an enviable work ethic that only agricultural life can provide. This family's deep respect for their animals permeates everything they do, from humane handling practices to their innovative "ancestral blend" ground beef that incorporates nutrient-dense organ meats.
Beyond cattle, Andrea explains their latest venture creating tallow-based body products as part of their commitment to using every part of the animal. Their philosophy of connection—to the land, their animals, and their community—offers listeners a thoughtful perspective on modern ranching that honors traditional values while embracing innovation.
Whether you're curious about regenerative agriculture, the realities of starting a ranch from scratch, or simply want to understand the dedication behind locally-raised beef, this episode provides an authentic window into the lives of those who choose to nurture both land and livestock. Listen now to appreciate the people behind your next meal.
Welcome back to another episode of Behind the Burger, our podcast with the New Mexico Beef Council. I'm Caroline Romo and I am here today with representation from Sile Pastures. Now I'm worried. I asked you your names, but did I say Sile, right?
Sage Hagan:You did.
Carollann Romo:Okay, All right, that was, thanks, Liz. So Andrea Sage, Pilar and Chamisa are here with us. Will you guys introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourselves?
Sage Hagan:Yeah, my name is Sage Hagen and this is my beautiful family and we run Sile Pastures together, which is a small scale regenerative farm that seems to be fairly diversified, in the sense that, you know, we raise beef grass for grass, finish our lamb, our poultry, we were running hogs for a while, and then, you know, we also have produce, sometimes mixed in on all that wild crazy stuff that we do.
Carollann Romo:Perfect. Do you want to introduce yourself too?
Andrea Romero:My name is Andrea Romero and yeah, I'm just part of the farm on the other ends of tying up loose ends and stuff like that.
Carollann Romo:Perfect, and where are you guys from and what's kind of your story?
Sage Hagan:You guys grew up in Corrales, as you said, but maybe how did you meet and how did you guys start this farm? I mean, we've been together a long time, which is kind of cool, because you know, history always has a lot to offer, and I think for us in our relationship to look back at like where we started, right, I mean to not get into too much nit and gritty of of my background. Essentially we met in California when I was coming out of recovery from, you know, having some partying a little bit too hard and needed to straighten my life out. And so we were. We met at an AA meeting in California, of all places. This is after I knew her, after I knew her in high school, went to high school with her and her brother, and her folks lived maybe a mile south of my folks there.
Andrea Romero:They still live a mile from each other in Corrales.
Sage Hagan:So you know from being 21 and trying to. So you know from being 21 and trying to figure out you know, life's lessons and where to go.
Sage Hagan:Here we are. I'm going to be 40 this year, two beautiful daughters, and you know to think where I'm at now or where we're at now, I wouldn't have guessed it. When you talk backgrounds, you know like I think for me, culinary was my biggest background. I started in kitchens early and, as I progressed through all the way into culinary school and then, you know, living in Europe, working in Paris and really developing a love for food, a passion for it. But really that, that political side of where, why, who, how, what is this type of questioning from our food, is what really kind of pushed me into like the slow food movement farm to table, farm to fork, ranch to fork, all these different terms but really it's just about like hey what are you eating?
Sage Hagan:Where is it from? Why are you eating it and is it good? Is it good for you, is it good for the environment? Is it good for our community? All these different things, and it's just, it's a ripple effect, right, boom. And so that's sort of my passion side. And then, as I got burnt out in kitchens which tends to happen to chefs because it's just a grind and you're working seven days a week and you know I've worked in Beverly Hills and Roy Yamaguchi and Wolfgang Puck and it was crazy. But so yeah, that was sort of my background and why I had a passion for food and what sort of led me down this path of growing vegetables in the back with some chickens and then, all of a sudden, you know we've got 60 head of cows and 70 sheep and we do eight markets a month and really trying to just get after it.
Carollann Romo:Oh, that's so neat and I think knowing where your food comes from is, you know, such a special thing and that's exactly what I guess the goal of the podcast is right is knowing where your food comes from and talking, you know, we say behind the burger because it's behind the beef, and I think from the culinary side too, we talk to a lot of culinary students and we try and inspire that conversation of knowing where your food comes from and where your ingredients come from is a really great, great thing and obviously it's grown well into a business for you guys. Will you talk about New Mexico's landscapes and climate and how they shape your ranching and methods?
Sage Hagan:Yeah, I mean New Mexico is so varied right, we have high alpine beautiful forests. You know aspen forests and you know 10,000 foot elevations all the way down to you know the border where it's barren and hot and very in a very desert landscape. I mean we're known as New Mexico is like a high desert but we have beautiful forests and we do have four seasons right and forests and we do have four seasons right and you know one percent of the land in new mexico has running water through it. So water in the desert, water in the high desert, water here in new mexico is sacred, you hear all the time water is life and indeed that it is. So I think with the landscape and how it varies so much is is really like you know the ranch that we run our cattle under the summer. The gentleman that we lease it from told me you know this land bleeds water.
Andrea Romero:Yeah.
Sage Hagan:What do you mean? It bleeds water. Like who says that? But you know this ranch has 13 sprigs, so our carrying capacity is huge. We're not hauling water. That's huge during the summer and I think that you know for ranchers and producers, the way that you run your herd is is going to really dictate or the land's going to dictate your. You know your working environment, how you manage your cattle and manage your herd, and you know are you hauling water, are you hauling out? You know real max tubs Are you? You know you know putting whatever you need down. You know how much, how much hay are you having to? Uh, to invest in and um, it varies. You know and everybody's got to really, you know, figure out what works best for their herd and go that route Absolutely.
Carollann Romo:We talk about it a lot, that that you have to be stewards of the land in order to be stewards of the livestock right.
Sage Hagan:Indeed. Yeah, like you said, yeah, yeah, and it's and it's the same for for many ranchers.
Carollann Romo:Right, everyone's dealing with it. Everyone has to deal with the land and take care of the land. What is one of the biggest challenges you all face in your operation?
Sage Hagan:part of that's part of ranching is being able to wake up, being excited about what we're doing and knowing that, hey, there's these, these outcomes that are out of our control. We have variables that are always out of our control. Um, for instance, you know we'd gotten the cattle up to our grazing and in this for the summer quite early, which we were already sort of in question of. You know what's ranch look like, what's the water content going to be? We're going to need to cut our numbers down up there just because of there was no winter. We didn't have a winter, so the ranch was really dry. Here comes a May storm and it snowed two feet at the ranch. So I'm hauling hay in May in the little Tacoma, cutting trees down in two feet of snow just so I can get up to the ranch, and, yeah, everyone's buried and we have calves on the ground and yeah, so now we're managing our herd in two feet of snow in May, which hasn't happened before. That was new.
Carollann Romo:That was a crazy, crazy New.
Sage Hagan:Mexico spring Definitely an anomaly, but those are some of the things and I think you know when we talk, like you know, operations, animal health is always huge. Right, we want to make sure animals are doing great, we want to make sure our calves are good, we want to be managing our herd, we want to be managing our land and when it comes to it's never our bottom dollar on the ranch to make money, ever that if we were in it to make money we would not be here at all. We do it because we love it and we love the lifestyle. We love being able to see every day our hard work and the reward that we get from it. And, with that being said, I think one of our biggest deals right now is just access to land as a small operation. It requires money to bankroll the season, it requires money to grow the herd, it requires money to manage the herd and for us to look at that, it's like well you know, we want to grow, but we are, you know, butting our heads because of land access.
Sage Hagan:growth access, I mean, the demands are for sure, 100%. How do we grow our operation? That's one of our biggest things right now for us.
Carollann Romo:I think access to land is crazy. And then a lot of there's so many operations too that are generational. So there's, you know, their land is going to stay in the family and so, as a first-generation rancher, that's a unique challenge that you guys are faced with, and everyone needs more land to grow, even if they're generational. They're trying to look for more land or find a new lease and hope that it's a good lease, hope that it's a long-term lease and that your landlord's good and all of that Land is important. And then, of course, you guys aren't too far from the urban sprawl right lease and that all that your landlord's good and and all of that land is land is important.
Sage Hagan:And then, and then, of course, you guys aren't too far from the urban sprawl right yeah, I mean we're, we're really conveniently located pretty much smack dab between santa fe and albuquerque, which gives us access to clientele, people that are, you know, um, and into the markets. You know my commutes to the markets aren't bad at all. We do go to taos as well. I mean, I think Santa Fe we say Corrales is our home market, but just cause you know we had spent so much time there, but I mean really Santa Fe is is a closer drive from, from Sealy, it's just up and out, and then you're up La Bajada and there you are in Santa Fe. So, um, you know, I was on the drive here.
Sage Hagan:I was thinking you know how much respect and admiration I do have for these multi-generational ranches. I mean the history there. I mean you have brands that are over a hundred years old. I mean there's legacy there and, if my hats are off to those outfits for sure, a lot of respect and admiration. And you know they've shaped. They've shaped the cattle industry here in New Mexico, shaped the cattle industry here in New Mexico.
Sage Hagan:And, um, and it's fun too, because when you talk about, like gatekeepers or code keepers of, you know, cowboying or or or ranch, you know, being a first generation rancher has its, its downfalls, but it also has, you know it's, it's, it's very uplifting, you know I it's. We take a lot of pride in what we do and, um, you know no-transcript than I was at 25, to be quite honest, and that is incredible. That's, I mean bottom line. That's why else are we doing this Is to develop not only the passion for food or the passion for cattle, but, you know, develop humans. Develop, I mean them, you know, to develop her on a ranch in the situations that she gets to experience. I mean I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Carollann Romo:We talk about it a lot too. I think the the family aspect of ranching, that there's no better place to have kids raised and get to learn the work ethic Even even I grew up pretty ag-adjacent, right, so we we showed livestock and we had horses, but we weren't I wasn't a part of commercial agriculture until my career but just even the work ethic or the understanding the cycle, the circle of life, and understanding that you know we don't get our animals forever, and just having respect for them while they're here, and just so many things that I think that growing up in agriculture taught me and I hope I can also teach my daughter my daughter right, and obviously you guys are doing that with your daughters. It's really special. Yeah, do you want to add to that at all?
Andrea Romero:that's kind of what it is for me to see. It's about connection, you know, and connection to something that's real and you know it's nature, it's the animals, like you said, the cycle of life, like she knows about birth you know we were talking about when we were going to give birth to Chamisa and she knew all about it from the animals and that was like my reminder in my head about the natural part of everything you know. And then she sees the chickens come in and and the calves being born and and and then daddy processes chickens and then it's just, yeah, connection and and, yeah, seeing it all happen. It's beautiful.
Carollann Romo:Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, we had a baby horse born at our house and that was that was fun to explain that. You know, yeah, the horse is in in Betty's belly and then she came out and she got to name her her. All right, we do have a horse named Banana, and that was.
Carollann Romo:It was our fault for allowing that, that's a great horse name, yeah it was right after the baby was born, right after the Savannah Bananas were in town last year. Banana, banana yeah, she's a really pretty horse too. She's a sorrel with the flaxen mane and tail, so she's got like a blonde mane. It's very beautiful, it's fun.
Sage Hagan:I would love to go to Savannah Bananas.
Carollann Romo:Oh yeah, it is. Yeah, it's fun. I would love to go to savannah banana. Oh yeah, it's a. It is. Yeah, that's a. That's a sidetrack, but gosh, that's a fun. It is a fun experience they have. We went to the one recently and it was there's a lot of cowboys on the team now. There's like cowboy hats, like you see, real cowboy hats, and some of the some of the teams. It's fun. And then all the people, a lot of the people going. We saw tons of people in agriculture at the Savannah Bananas. It was a whole thing. It's a great, I think, because it's such great family, such a great family atmosphere and such a, you know, wholesome entertainment that I think a lot of families that we get along with were at the Bananas game, or I think it was the party animals. Anyways, what's one thing most people don't know about? Raising beef in New Mexico, or even just your operation?
Sage Hagan:I would kind of go back to just. You know that it's not just a desert. You know, for us our pastures are irrigated. We've got really really, really nice diversified pastures that we graze. You know we're really fortunate for the ranch that we do lease the 13 springs help, but it also has a carrying capacity more than 300 acres, which is a pretty small ranch in terms of grazing, but its carrying capacity is is double that, just because of what it's able to grow. So I think one of the things too is just like you know yeah, it's, it's the the train's very, very different in a lot, of, a lot of areas of the state we do have, like the deserts and the very arid parts, but there's also some very lush areas that, uh, you know, cattle are raised in and um, cattle live a really great life, you know, and there's a lot of people that are very skilled at what they do and have some very fantastic operations in this state.
Sage Hagan:Okay, my horse is named Spots Spots. Does Spots have spots? Yeah? He rolls and bucks on me, though.
Carollann Romo:Oh, he does. Is he an Appaloosa? Yeah, we love Appaloosa. Yeah, we love Appaloosas.
Sage Hagan:He's cool. He's a little Appaloosa. Shetland Gets a little.
Carollann Romo:Perfect. They get a little snarky sometimes, really. Yeah, that's what makes tough gal girls right. Yes, yes, perfect. I was going to ask too. I feel like some of the questions would be repetitive.
Carollann Romo:We've already talked about them. But what is something exciting? Oh, no, we were talking about sorry, I got excited about the horse. You're talking about the diversity of landscape and the grass, and I know I had a conversation with the rancher and I told him that another rancher had to reschedule a branding because of the rain, and it's so different because the northern part of our state got a ton of rain and that snow in May and all of that, and so it looks pretty green up here, but the southern part of the state they've rain in the last 365 days or something crazy.
Carollann Romo:And that's not science, so I could be wrong, but that was the conversation and I just think it's yeah, it's incredibly diverse. And then even our state is so big. I think Of course we hope New Mexicans are listening to the podcast, but if they're not, our state is so big and so spread out. We have two million people in our state and I think a million and a half of them are just Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Well, that's half a million people spread out through what are we? The largest public land state in the nation. We have tons of public land and then, you know, ranches spread out on those. So, anyways, it's just. New Mexico is incredibly diverse and incredibly complicated.
Sage Hagan:And I, yeah, I think I had heard somewhere and I mean I don't think that it's true, but they said that there were more cattle in the state than there were humans.
Carollann Romo:Oh, and there were for a long time. Yeah, it just changed. It just changed Is what. We've kind of done the math and talked to some ranchers is it used to be? For a long time there were more cattle than people, but now we say there's about a million and a half cattle, 1.4.
Sage Hagan:1.4,. Yeah, because I was looking at some of the numbers and I was like yeah, I don't think that was right.
Carollann Romo:Yeah, it was for a long, long time. And then, even when I moved to New Mexico 10 years ago, there was 1.7 million people. Well, now there's 2.1 million. I don't know. That seems like fast growth, but maybe it's not that fast when you look at other states, you know, I know Texas and Idaho and other states are dealing with population growth Rapidly, yeah, very rapidly. It feels rapid, though, to just in my time here that it's grown so much and reached over 2 million. But yeah, we used to be more cows than people. Now we're catching up. Not enough grass and rain, or we'd have more cattle. What's kind of your favorite part about the beef industry? And then, yeah, I want both of you to answer this Just your favorite part kind of of what you do.
Sage Hagan:I think for me, just being a part of such a historical industry, there's a lot of pride in it and we get to meet individuals who do what we do, and that's regardless if they're, you know, a cow-calf operation running you know 600 moms, whatever Major right, there's a respect there because they know that be we're out there doing, we're doing the work, we're taking care of our animals, and so just being a part of that industry, being a part of the whole, and uh, I really you take a lot of pride in that. And then just getting to meet a lot of different folks, um, you know, for us going to different ranches and meeting different people, they're family-based, we relate to them a lot. Um, that's been, that's been really fun for us. And you know the the big thing too is that we eat a lot of beef.
Sage Hagan:We eat beef on a daily basis us too yeah, guilty yeah, it's my job yeah, that also having beef from our fields come into our freezers and our fridges.
Carollann Romo:Yeah.
Sage Hagan:That's fun, that's awesome, I mean, because that's what I always tell folks at the market. It's like, hey, my family eats from the farm. First, we stand behind our products because this is what I'm feeding my four-year-old, this is what I'm feeding my four-year-old, this is what I'm feeding my six-month-old, this is what I'm feeding my wife, this is what I eat myself. So those are really fun and I think for us it's just yeah, that we're part of a community that has history, that has a future, that we are staying present because we have to with our animals, with our land, and that we get to benefit directly in sharing our food, sharing the meat, sharing the beef. And, yeah, we eat like kings and queens.
Carollann Romo:Like broiled. Yeah, that's really special. And you even talked about the industry as a whole being kind, you kind of mentioned the gatekeeper and all that. I have a friend, her name is Markie Hageman-Jones, and she's a public speaker and she has a presentation about being a gate-getter in the industry and it's just a really special thing and she's always trying to inspire. You know whether it's. You know she talks to FFA students and women and just in cattlemen's organizations and how being a gate getter is so important, no matter what role you are in the industry, of just helping people and showing them and and for the most part, it feels like I've interacted with a lot of really wonderful gate getters, especially in my career here and then and then in general. But it's just a good reminder of always trying to be trying to not that we ever want to be riding passenger side and actually be the person to get the gates, but you know, but metaphorically I love that, that presentation that she talks about.
Sage Hagan:But yeah, I mean, we wouldn't be where we're at if it weren't for mentors when we're older gentlemen that you know, basically like man, you work your butt off. Like how can I help you? We'd love to help. You know one of the you know the guy with Lisa Ranch. From those, he's like man, why do you work so hard? This is what we want to do and he's been a huge help, and a lot of the old timers that we've come across have been nothing but helpful and bless their hearts for that, because they came from a different time where that information and knowledge that they learned is hard earned. You know that's not just Googled and YouTube. They're out there doing it when there wasn't that sort of information available. So for them to come up and admire and respect and that's what I'm talking about is like, yeah, they're sharing it with us and wanting us and welcoming us, so we feel welcomed.
Carollann Romo:That's special and that's the hope. Right, I hope everyone feels that. Yeah, what about? Do you want to add to that that your favorite part, or?
Andrea Romero:Let's see. So I would say we love cows. You know we have lots of different animals on the farm and it's grown to be one of our favorite animals. I think all of us. You know branding, we brand together. She helps him tag just relationships with the cows and we eat a lot of meat. It's been really special with Chamisa. You know we've done bone marrow, we're eating whole animal, you know with them and having them experience that, and then you know we're using the suet now to make our tallow products. So it's just so connected to that animal in so many ways. And you know we sell quarter shares and it was really cool to hear a sage talk about you know that particular steer or you know being that connected. You know he can talk about it like that and that's really special.
Sage Hagan:Yeah, we love cows.
Carollann Romo:That's awesome. We also love cows and we appreciate the work you guys do. It's such an important part of our industry. So we have I know Liz and Jane and Kate and I all work in the office and the Beef Council representing you all but we just appreciate what ranchers are doing every day. When we get to be the nine to five, you know sitting there conditioning Thanks for coming to the air conditioning for us but yeah, we have so much respect and admiration for what everyone's doing. I was going to say what's something exciting you're working on right now, or maybe something you're proud of recently. Maybe it's a chance to talk about the farmer's markets or yeah, but what's kind of exciting.
Sage Hagan:Jay, do you want to go first?
Andrea Romero:Well, we got into Santa Fe market. That's very exciting. It's our first year showing up at that market and, like he said, you know it's closer than Corrales to us and last weekend was our first weekend and it was very exciting. Lots of people going there. What else Just it was? He did the market.
Sage Hagan:Yeah, I mean, santa Fe is a great market. It's very professional, I mean, it's geared for the producer, and so you know, we've been going back and forth and finally got all the things that we needed in line and Phil accomplished this to be there. But, yeah, it's great to be there. So you can find us at the Santa Fe Market now on a biweekly basis. We're in Towson those other Saturdays, but yeah, so that's been exciting, got a new bull.
Sage Hagan:Yeah, you know, we had a really nice San Gertrudis bull that we were breeding with and then, unfortunately, within him being a couple weeks at the ranch, he found himself being you know hurt and couldn't use himself the way that he would like to. Yeah, poor guy. So we ended up picking up a very nice, yearling about 16, 18-month black Angus registered bull that came from Amhat down in Berlin, south of Berlin. Couldn't be happier with him and we look forward to seeing what he can bring our herd and the genetics and the calves that we'll be dropping Cause it's kind of funny how we you know we we keep cow calf but we're also, you know we've got, you know we we produce our cows for beef, you know.
Carollann Romo:Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, they all have. They all are a little bit multi-purpose. Yeah, absolutely.
Sage Hagan:And I'm sure Andrea can get kind of giddy now because she gets to talk about her project, which has been our tallow.
Andrea Romero:Oh, yeah, please do so. We've. You know we were thinking we need some value-added products, you know, for our farm, and so we used our SUA. You know I researched so much and just creating a really good quality, natural, simple product is what I wanted, you know. So I learned how to render traditional methods, so the least amount of rendering to keep all of the nutrients in the tallow, and we whipped up some body butter and some lip balms and it's all we use on us, and it's been a labor of love. You know she helps with the rendering of the tallow and it's been really, really well received at the markets. I can't keep up, so is anybody who wants to help me? Yeah, um yeah, it's a great problem. Yes, it's great, but, um, yeah, so it's. We love it. You don't smell like beef, it smells like herbs. So, yeah, or butter no, it's, it's.
Carollann Romo:It's very popular and very great product. And then it even brings me back to the thought that we like to talk about the beef industry being really efficient and really respectful of the animal, to use everything right, like you guys are doing. I think that's a really important part that people should know that the byproducts and the other things that can come from meat production yes, yep, okay. And the other things that can come from meat production yes, yep, okay. What about the? I guess we kind of already asked this again, because when you're talking about what you do, obviously the passion comes out. But why do you do what you do and why do you keep going?
Sage Hagan:Yeah, I want to jump back to the other one and the other thing that I wanted to talk about, which is our ancestral blend, which is our ground beef that has heart and liver incorporated in it.
Sage Hagan:Oh.
Sage Hagan:Great product.
Sage Hagan:Okay.
Sage Hagan:And nose to tail right, Utilizing the most nutrient-dense part of the cows. And not everybody's just ready to gobble up liver. Right, but if it's in the blend, yeah it's in the blend, and it's in the blend, and it's, you know, organ.
Sage Hagan:organ consumption is gained in popularity, thank god thank god and yeah, so being able to grind it in and have it package one pound package ancestral blend.
Andrea Romero:It's phenomenal, especially for kids. You cook the taco meat, yeah no, there's no heart.
Sage Hagan:No, liverless, it's brown beef, but yeah, so that's exciting too, something else. But why do we do what we do and and what makes us not want to want to stop? I mean, there's definitely days that'll kick your butt, but that just comes with the territory, and part of having those hard days is also there are some tremendous days that will put chills on your spine, bring tears to your eyes, and seeing my family committed to this life is tremendous. As a father, right, you make these decisions and you make these sacrifices, and sometimes they may not play out the way that you would like. But the most important part is that for us, you know this is what we do as a family, and the experiences that we get to have together are. You know how many people are producers? How many people get to experience what we get to experience on a daily basis? Not very many, and that lucky few get to really live a special life. So for us, it's like I said regardless, it's not, it's not the money why we're doing it. It's doing it because we love it, and we get to see our daughters experience these things, and some of my best memories are just watching.
Sage Hagan:You know, p the shoots with me cutting out cows and sorting them. And you know she's gonna be five and she, she knows how to be around cows, she knows how to be. I mean she I'm like, okay, we gotta hook up the gooseneck so she's out on behind the trailer. I can see in the mirror and she's spotting me, puts the fist up, stops me perfectly. We rack the trailer down. I'm like, okay, we need to. We need to open up this gate and have it right on these panels. She stops me perfectly. We then get into the chutes and cut out the, the, the two cows that we needed to cut out two girls.
Sage Hagan:Nope, that's right into the chutes. We walk them in, load them up. I mean it was like I had a seasoned hand with me. Incredible, for I mean you know branding, and she's butchered animals with me. We've done sheep, we've done cows, we've done the chickens. So her skill set, like I said before, I mean you know she's 15. She's wherever she wants to go in life and it's because of her foundation on the farm and the ranch.
Andrea Romero:We forget she's from.
Sage Hagan:You should be so proud, I'd like to tell you this Two, you should be so proud. I have to tell you this Two years bloated, oh no.
Carollann Romo:It's in memory too.
Sage Hagan:Good herd management right there A cow bloated and me and Dad cutted it.
Andrea Romero:You processed it. See what happened? Huh, it's kind of like a homeschool activity.
Sage Hagan:Yeah, hard days, you know it's just part of it.
Sage Hagan:Hey, what's that up there, my cow Chocolate cow.
Andrea Romero:Chocolate cow, yeah, where I'm always waiting to see when they come in the door. You know it's like what happened now. She's always so excited to tell me about what happened, what's going on on the farm, and I just call her farm manager and I grated my finger and cut my thumb on the trailer. Oh, yeah, that's what it's all about, you know, yeah.
Carollann Romo:Oh, it's so special and so so wonderful to see your little ranch manager growing up and we talked a little bit about food politics. Oh yeah.
Sage Hagan:I mean, that was it. It was like sometimes I have, you know, like you go into a grocery store and like where's all this coming from, but to really have that oversight of everything that we're doing and knowing that the animals are living the best possible life that they possibly can. And you know, we say they have one bad day. I know that's a term we get thrown away around, but it really is like we mitigate when we take them, our animals, to process. We take the steers in. You know, we try to load them up the night before so they're settled, you know, giving them a little bit of water and just making sure that, hey, like talking to them in quiet voices and there's a lot of respect there. It's something that doesn't get beyond us, doesn't go beyond us, is that this is life and and and you know, for us it, we, we honor those lives, but we're taking those lives as well and there's a cycle there and it's full circle, right. And yeah, I mean those.
Sage Hagan:I remember eating an apple in Paris. I was busy on the line. I'm like the chef comes in and he's like, here, you want an apple. I'm like I'll take an apple, I ate it and I'll never this. And that was the trajectory that, like you know, sent us into. I mean, we got our start in a market garden. That's like how ag was for us was like we are doing a market garden. That's, we were on it three quarters of an acre and we just started crushing out produce, having CSAs and, and slowly but surely, we just started adding on, adding on, adding TSAs and slowly but surely, we just started adding on, adding on, adding on, adding on to where we are at now.
Andrea Romero:Love where we are. This is it, yeah.
Sage Hagan:And it's kind of funny, like we started from, you know, growing lettuce and tomatoes, and I remember my dad was like what are you going to do? You know, sell tomatoes at the grower's market for the rest of your life.
Sage Hagan:And we have another horse named Pistol.
Carollann Romo:Oh, that's so perfect. That's a good horse name.
Sage Hagan:But yeah, I feel like we've reached that apex, and it's funny because for us that apex is beef cows cattle.
Carollann Romo:Yeah, you found the right niche. That's perfect, Not to go back too much. But you said CSA and I think I know what that is. But just in case someone doesn't, what is a CSA?
Sage Hagan:Community Supported Agriculture. Okay case someone doesn't, what is the csa community supported agriculture. Okay, yeah, very cool, so like in that aspect, and we've talked about doing it with meat too, but you know people are paying what are unicorn names?
Sage Hagan:sparkles paying into the farm in the beginning of the season. So you have quite a big chunk of money to operate off of and then you're delivering on a weekly, bi-weekly basis. Uh, whatever the contract you know we'd sign contracts and it's hard to be contracted to produce food, but it really showed that the community supported us. I mean, and you know that was we started pre-COVID and then during COVID, which was which was wild. But yeah, I mean, the people showed up and supported. So it's huge Community without community there wouldn't be. You know, for us there wouldn't be really an option to do what we do.
Carollann Romo:No doubt. So, speaking of that, and community, where can people follow you and find you? What's the plug for? You guys said the markets right and you guys have a website and social media right.
Andrea Romero:Yes, we are SealyPasturescom, and then follow us on Instagram at Sealy Pastures and then you can find us at every week Sundays at Corrales Market. We call it the home market. We're both from Corrales, so that's our home market. Santa Fe every other weekend on Saturdays, and then Paus other, but weekly right.
Sage Hagan:Yeah, and that's S-I-L-E Sile. Yes.
Carollann Romo:Perfect, there you go. Well, we'll make sure and tag you and all of that. And then the last question, and possibly the most important question what's your favorite way to eat beef, or favorite recipe?
Andrea Romero:We were talking about that way over. What's your favorite way to eat the beef?
Sage Hagan:On the bone, on the bone, on the bone.
Carollann Romo:The bone like a steak on the bone.
Sage Hagan:One day I cleaned the bone up.
Carollann Romo:Oh yeah, oh yeah, just all just cleaned it completely.
Sage Hagan:That's the truth either, and cleaned it better than a dog, right.
Carollann Romo:There you go. You've got to get every ounce of that steak.
Sage Hagan:She liked the bone and ribeye and then we had gotten her porterhouse cut and she's I want my own porterhouse, daddy. Yeah, the porterhouse is good. Steaks are always a fan favorite. Um, we were having this conversation, but I think for us right now it's just been exciting.
Andrea Romero:Yeah, ancestral blend's really cool, and then we've been eating a lot of bone marrow and trying different things with her know, like saying the nutrients are in the bone marrow. We whipped up and all kind of ate it. They had on crackers. She loved it.
Sage Hagan:And we always stash 50 pounds of ground every time we process. That goes into our freezer. We fill up our freezer. So we eat a lot of ground beef and we do that in you know different ways too. I mean, um, burgers, of course, is always the classic. We do like a ground beef bowl with, you know, avocado and, yeah, some rice stuff like that. But you know, if I was to choose, it would be a bone-in ribeye as well that's a, that's a daddy's daddy's girl right there yeah.
Andrea Romero:Yeah, I know, I told him what are you going to do when we go to the restaurant? You have to order four ribeyes, right?
Carollann Romo:Sell more beef.
Andrea Romero:Yes.
Carollann Romo:Get more deals at restaurants or something, and would you claim those as favorites as well?
Andrea Romero:Yeah, lots of ground beef. What else I mean?
Sage Hagan:We're getting into the tongue.
Andrea Romero:We're going to try the tongue. You know I'm reading this book about babies and their first foods and it's all you know fats and protein. So we've tried so many different things. And next is the beef tongue, slow cooked, and, yeah, I've given her the tallow that I render. So, yeah, yeah, really nice Ground beef Can't go wrong with ground beef for a ribeye.
Carollann Romo:Oh, yeah, works and works and everything I know I did. I did Our kids' first food was beef. I did actually make sure that it was. It was just the little Gerber, you know mush or whatever, but I did, I did get beef in there because I was, I was determined. And then she, she is like Pilar, she loves a steak. Loves a steak. That's fun.
Sage Hagan:And then I also.
Carollann Romo:My other favorite thing is we have a. I just ordered this for a friend who has, is, has a baby. Are coming and it says when I get teeth, feed me beef. But you don't even have to have teeth, you can do it before, but I've been slicing it and she slaps her face with this.
Andrea Romero:We give her strips of steak and she sucks everything out of it. Oh yeah, but they have pretty strong gums absolutely, absolutely well.
Carollann Romo:I just thank you guys so much for coming on the podcast, sharing your family with us and sharing a little bit about your story, and just really appreciate it and wish you guys all the best yeah, thanks for having us.
Sage Hagan:It was an honor to be here, you know, to talk about what we do, and thank you so much to the New Mexico Beef Council for the time and effort and energy in supporting producers and ranchers. It's much appreciated.
Carollann Romo:Absolutely Well. Thank you for what you do. Yeah, behind the Burger is a podcast produced by the New Mexico Beef Council with the goal of telling the stories of the cattlemen and cattlewomen of the New Mexico beef industry. Thank you for joining us for today's episode. If you'd like more information, please visit nmbeefcom. Whether it be a burger, a steak or another beef dish, we hope you're enjoying beef at your next meal.
