Our Story
Our Story
Looking for 100% grass-fed and grass-finished beef and lamb, locally raised on lush Willamette Valley pastures? Kookoolan Farms is a regenerative farm located in Yamhill, Oregon, where we focus on raising the most natural, delicious and nutrient-dense meats for you and your family, and focus on husbandry and grazing methods that help reverse climate change.
Our family lives our values. As prior vegetarians (Koorosh even spent two years as a raw vegan!), we are deeply committed to the quality of our animals’ lives and deaths, and to the nutrient density of our finished meats. Not everyone can up-end their life to become a farmer and raise their own meats, but we invite you to transform your family’s relationship with meat by making Kookoolan Farms your farm, where your family can experience how people come together to celebrate food production and recognize that individual life has more to offer within the context of a community. We know every single person involved in production or processing of our meats by name, and are proud to have The Meating Place process all of our beef and lamb shares.
We have always treated the guardianship of our animals and environment, and the stewardship of our soil and water resources, as the key to longevity for our business and community, but newer research indicates that these old-fashioned grazing and management philosophies actually work to reverse climate change. While we respect Mother Earth as a whole, “local” to us is the North Willamette Valley. Our region is the world’s leader in grass and grass seed production, making this the ideal location to graze sheep and cattle. We ensure our animals have continuous access to productive pasture all year round, rotating on several parcels within a 20 mile radius. In doing so, our animals are nurturing permanent perennial pasture, taking more CO2 out of the atmosphere and putting it back into the soil where it belongs. We don’t “practice” regenerative agriculture, we live it. Regenerative agriculture has the power to reverse global climate change, cultivate social justice, improve your health, and change how you feel about where your meat comes from.
Founders Koorosh and Chrissie Zaerpoor started Kookoolan Farms in October 2005, teaching themselves how to build fences, greenhouses, and barns. They have produced more than 100 tons of composted manure from our poultry and cattle, built raised vegetable beds, learned to raise and butcher chickens, built and licensed a poultry processing facility and a winery, learned where to buy feed, alfalfa, straw, baby cows, baby chicks, the plastic bags we package our poultry in; midwifed the births of calves and lambs, and created a pillar of the Oregon modern farming community.
All of our practices have always been organic, but we have
never been certified and have no intention of becoming
certified.
Our chickens eat only certified organic grains.
The pastures for our chickens, beef, and lambs have never
been treated with any synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, or
herbicides ever. We have never used any pesticide, herbicide,
fungicide or synthetic fertilizer anywhere on our farm, ever. We do not use harsh chemicals: our water is City water, and the detergents we use to clean our processing facility are environmentally friendly.
Our cattle and lambs never eat any grain, only grass and clover pastures; and grass, clover, and alfalfa hays. Our electricity is 100% solar for both the business and residence. Our garbage for the entire commercial operation fits into the smallest residential garbage pickup container. All of the liquid and solid waste from our poultry processing facility is re-used right here on the farm: solids are composted, and liquids are pumped to the highest point on the property and used to irrigate and fertilize our perimeter arborvitae (legally under a permit and license from DEQ). Our animals are vaccinated against common illnesses, just as we have always immunized our family. But we never treat any of our animals with hormones or antibiotics or other medications, unless they are acutely ill (then of course we appropriately treat the illness or injury, just as we do with any member of our family).
The Farm
Kookoolan is a small, diversified family farm located in
the Carlton-Yamhill American Winegrowing Region in
the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range, established
October 17, 2005! Our maritime climate provides mild
temperatures summer and winter, and plentiful rainfall
for our mixed-grass pastures.
What does "Kookoolan" mean?
Our farm's name Kookoolan comes from founder Koorosh's childhood nickname given to him by his father. An obscure hero of Irish literature is the medieval character Cuchulain, pronounced "koo-cullen," who was a big mead drinker, a warrior, and guardian of the cattle herds. Even before Chrissie and Koorosh met, Chrissie considered "Cuchulainn" as the name for her future meadery -- except that almost nobody has ever heard of Cuchulainn, and spelled in Gaelic it looks impossible to pronounce. The first time she heard his older brother call Koorosh what she heard as "Cuchulainn," she almost fell out of her chair! It became something of an inside joke, and later, when it was time to name the farm, there was never any other name on the table.
The Mission
"Our passion is to produce the best-tasting, most nutrient-dense food available anywhere, to steward our land sustainably, and to provide high quality life for the animals and people of Kookoolan Farms. We take pride in our hand-crafted foods, and pleasure in sharing our farm with you."
Founding Farmers - Chrissie and Koorosh Zaerpoor
