Sustainability
Sustainable Today, Beautiful Tomorrow
It’s not very often the average person can spend time in such a beautiful corner of the world as this. We at Rocky Mountain Elk Ranch are some of the lucky few who live in this beautiful place all the time. We believe that everyone in the human family has a stewardship over this amazing world we live in. Jeff & I have both been raised to do all we can to provide for our family and our needs as much on our own as possible. Being self-sustaining and self-reliant has real, tangible satisfaction that is hard to find anywhere else. It feels good to have the skills and the ability to take care of yourself and your family. We try hard to live our lives with minimal waste and to do what we can to give back.
We bring this perspective with us to the ranch and everything we do there. We minimize our evironmental impact on the mountain to ensure that it’s still as beautiful for our grandkids as it is today. The lodge is completely off the power grid. We generate all of our own power through renewable energy. We have two solar panels and a windmill that feed power into a battery bank. The lodge draws power from the batteries through an inverter system which converts it to usable power. We joke that it cuts down on our complaints about the wind because at least we can be grateful we’re making power. We also have a backup generator that runs on propane.
Our animals are not treated with growth hormones or other chemicals. Our elk are accredited, tested and certified. You can be assured to receive the highest quality, best tasting elk. Elk meat is excellent and has been growing in popularity in recent years. More and more people are discovering the health benefits and great taste of this lean and tender meat. Our elk are raised in a natural environment, grazing on Idaho’s native grasses. If you’ve never tried elk meat, you’re really missing out! Elk is lower in fat, lower in cholesterol, lower in calories and higher in protein and other nutrients that your body needs, even compared to chicken. These are all very key things to look for in a lean, healthy diet. When you’re craving something other than chicken that won’t bust your diet, you should seriously consider ELK. Go ahead and fire up the grill and fix yourself a nice, big, tasty elk burger. If you are looking for high protein foods, try some elk today!
Our guests get lots of home grown goodness in their meals. We raise our own vegetable garden and buy from local producers. We do lots of home canning to prepare for hunting season and the winter ahead, putting up things like peaches, pears, jams, jellies, salsa, beans, corn and peas. Of course, being from the “potato state” we store a generous amount of potatoes too. We raise our own chickens and always have fresh eggs for breakfast. We grind our own wheat to make homemade bread. What an excellent way to use up that raspberry jam! We can’t eat elk at every meal though, so we also raise a pig or two each year to supply us with plenty of fresh pork. This way even the leftovers and scraps at the ranch don’t go to waste; we fill up the slop buckets and take them to the pigs for next year’s pork!
Even our kids get involved in the process. They each get a portion of the garden to raise their own produce, getting them more excited about eating their veggies. One of their jobs at the lodge is to collect and smash all the aluminum cans for recycling. They have a recycling basket near the garbage in the kitchen and they encourage all the guests to save their cans for recycling. The boys get some spending money from the recycled cans and learn how to be conscientious of their environment as well.
When booking the next corporate retreat or personal hunt, choose to support a beautiful tomorrow by promoting sustainability today – choose Rocky Mountain Elk Ranch.