Gourmet & Healthy in Cimarron Hills

The family behind Snow Creek Ranch strives to make restaurant-quality steaks available to the public by selling its free-range, hormone-free beef at area farmers’ markets. In addition to grazing its Black Angus cattle on 2,500 acres of indigenous, pesticide-free prairie grasses, the family also supplements the herds’ diets with natural flax seed oils, creating tender, marbled beef. Dedicated to ensuring quality, the family dry-ages all of its steaks for 21 days and claims that “Grandma kisses every cow” to check whether it’s actually a handsome prince.

An outdoorsman since childhood, Jimmy Laverty can regularly be seen with a hefty pack full of gear strapped to his back and a strip of jerky hanging from his mouth. It came as no surprise to anyone, therefore, when he decided to open My Jerky Shop, a boutique palace of jerky offerings with dried and smoked meats in more than 100 varieties.

Light spices add flair to strips of ostrich or alligator jerky, two of the most exotic options, while maple-syrup-infused bacon and classic buffalo jerky keep traditionalist tongues happy. Meat-based mixes called pemmican incorporate sweet bursts of dried fruit with the smoky taste of beef. The majority of Jimmy's jerkies contain no MSG or preservatives, just good, old-fashioned meat obtained from Rocky Mountain suppliers. He even carries strips especially formulated for pets, an excellent way to repay a dog for kindly listening to your movie pitches.