Vendor Profile: The Farm at Sunrise Ranch

By: Garth Bontrager, Master Gardener

This is beef country to be sure. The open range, the cowboy spirit, and cattle: That sounds like authentic Colorado to me. At Sunrise Ranch they have taken that authenticity and simply and magically updated it. The Farm at Sunrise Ranch, a part of the Sunrise Community west of Loveland, sells grass-fed beef at the Larimer County Farmers’ Market each Saturday as they have for 3 years. However, the land they ranch has been naturally cared for since before WWII. In fact, the whole farm and ranch has been free of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers as far as anyone there knows. Their beef is one pure and genuine product.


What exactly does grass-fed mean? Stop by and ask them. Sunrise loves to educate consumers about the benefits of grass-fed beef, sustainable ranching, pasture ecology, and nutrition. Because they are a non-profit entity they really take the time to reach out with information. To boot, they have a great tasting product –just taste one of their meatballs to find out. Sunrise Ranch believes they have a responsibility to be good stewards of their land, and they’re proud to tell you about how ranching can make a better community as well as better beef.


When you have nothing to hide about your wholesome product, you become an open book filled with passion. While talking with Anita, it was obvious that Sunrise has a passion to be available to their customers for information. Whether you are interested in learning about cattle and cows, or eating and preparing beef, you can stop by and get a straight answer from Sunrise. They employ interns as another piece of their grassroots effort to educate people about grass-fed beef. The interns are very willing to answer questions about their education at The Farm at Sunrise Ranch.


Anita has been so impressed with the Fort Collins community for how educated they’ve become about the food they buy. It’s very heartening to vendors who invest in the long term health of the land they steward to hear their customers take an interest in the process of making food. Anita loves to tell people about the ethical way to raise beef. About the LCFM she says it’s like a party every week, getting together with the other vendors and talking “shop.” It’s a nice local community, and she feels like their efforts to educate people about healthy and local beef are paying off. Show her it’s true—stop by The Farm at Sunrise Ranch booth and engage them in a little one-on-one community building. And ask them if those meatballs are for sale, ‘cause they’re doggone good! https://sunriseranch.org/farm/