Colvin Ranch

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Tenino, WA
Colvin Ranch

The Colvin Ranch is a fifth generation family owned and operated cattle ranch in Tenino, Washington.

Beef and pork sides are available for reservation through our website. Individually packaged beef cuts can be purchased through our online store for local pickup in Tenino or Tumwater, and from the Olympia Food Co-op stores, Spuds Produce stores, and the Tacoma Proctor Farmers' Market.

05/28/2026

If filling your freezer with clean, local beef has been on your list, this is a good time to make it happen.

Colvin Ranch bulk beef shares are available, and this is one of the best ways to keep your family fed with grass-finished beef you can trust, at a price that makes sense for a real household. You choose the size, we handle the rest.

Questions? Stop by the store, call us, or send a message. We’re happy to walk you through the options.

https://colvinranch.com/beef-pork-sides/

05/27/2026

We found one - here’s what death camas looks like. This one was growing in our front yard. All parts of the plant are poisonous to humans and livestock. If you find one on your property, wear gloves, dig up the bulb and remove every part of the plant, including roots. Wrap in a plastic bag and toss in the trash. We’re keeping our eye out for more.

05/26/2026

Here's something I don't think most people realize about local food.

The hardest part isn't raising it. We can do that. We've been doing that on this land for five generations. The cattle are healthy. The grasslands are some of the best native prairie in the Pacific Northwest. The ranching knowledge runs deep.

The hard part is everything that happens between the pasture and your plate.

Meat processing. Cold storage. Distribution. Most people never think about any of it — and why would you? You shouldn't have to. But for every local rancher trying to grow a viable business and get their product to more families, restaurants, schools, and food banks in this region, that infrastructure is the difference between possible and impossible.

Right now, for USDA processing, we haul our animals to Eastern Washington. It's a great facility, and they've been a fantastic partner — but the geography adds cost. Transportation there, shipping the finished product back. Those costs affect our margins. And some of them get passed along to you.
That's not a complaint. It's just the reality of what's missing close to home.

When we talk about building a stronger local food system, this is what we mean. Not just more farms, more ranches, more producers committed to doing things right — but the infrastructure underneath all of it that makes the whole thing actually work.

We're building that infrastructure. Right here in Tenino.

To hear the full conversation — including what this means for every livestock producer in southwest Washington — click here 👉 https://www.conservationstarters.com/1903207/episodes/19131213-strengthening-local-food-systems-in-thurston-county-a-new-usda-meat-processing-facility

Thurston Conservation District Thurston Economic Development Council Thurston County Washington

05/23/2026

We have some news to share. For the past six years, Jennifer has been living with metastatic breast cancer. She’s been lucky to receive treatment that has allowed her to live a full life with her family at the ranch and pursue the things she cares about most, including sustainable agriculture.

Recently, however, Jennifer had a seizure which led to the discovery that the cancer has spread to her brain. She’s working with some of the top neurologists in the country and has confidence in her treatment plan. However, you’ll be seeing a little less of her going forward. We have a great staff at Colvin Ranch who have all stepped up to keep things running smoothly, and Eric is ensuring that we’re remaining on a path to growth. We have some big plans for the future!

We know this is tough news to share, and that we have a large community of people that care about our family and the work that we do at Colvin Ranch. If you want to do something to help, the best thing you can do is shop local.

Visit our store and pick up some cheese and crackers for a snack this afternoon - plus some organic eggs, beef, pork and other local foods all produced in Southwest Washington. Or shop at or for a selection of grass-fed, grass-finished ground beef, steaks, and roasts.

If cooking today isn’t going to happen, you can also find our beef at in Olympia with their amazing smash burgers, at in Tacoma on their wood-fired pizzas, and locally in Tenino at the Sandstone Cafe.

Of course, you can also order directly from us online at https://shop.colvinranch.com/

It’s a small way to spread some love around the community to the people who are growing, raising, and making the best local food for all of us.

And if you want know the whole story behind Jennifer’s diagnosis and decision to take over the family’s business at the ranch, you can read about it on her latest blog post: https://shop.colvinranch.com/blog/yes-and

With love and appreciation for all of our friends, customers, and partners,

The Colvin Family

05/21/2026

Prairies, grasslands, grazers, and the people who steward them. This exhibit + talk series in Olympia is worth your time.

WSU South Sound Agriculture Program and Thurston Conservation District are opening the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists with art, photography, and real conversations about what grasslands mean — ecologically, culturally, and for the future of land stewardship in our region.

If you care about where your food comes from and the landscapes behind it, this one's for you.

📅 Thursday, May 28 | 5:30 PM | Olympia City Hall

05/20/2026

Love it when we get to see a rare white genetic variation of the typical purple camas on the prairie. This is not the death camas, which has a very different type of white flower and is poisonous, and has never been identified on the ranch. It’s like a bright spark of light in a sea of purple.

05/19/2026

Something I don’t talk about enough:

Twenty years ago, we put a conservation easement on Colvin Ranch and became the first ranch in Washington to participate in the federal Grassland Reserve Program. What that means, practically, is that the land is permanently protected from development. Whatever happens in the future — economically, personally, generationally — this land stays in agricultural use. It can be sold, it can be inherited, but it cannot be subdivided or developed.

We did that because we believe this land matters beyond what it produces for us. Ranchland in this region is disappearing, and once it's gone, it's gone. The easement was our way of saying, "not this one."

When you buy beef from Colvin Ranch or shop at Colvin Ranch Provisions, you're part of what makes it possible to keep operating this way. That's worth saying out loud, I think.

Read more about the conservation work behind the ranch: shop.colvinranch.com/blog/a-conservation-legend

— Jennifer

05/18/2026

This weekend, Karsten’s Cub Scout group participated in a cleanup day at Forest Grove Cemetery in Tenino, where more than a dozen Colvins are buried. A while ago, we got a call from someone who had noticed that Ignatius Colvin’s gravestone had fallen over, but before we could get there to fix it, someone had already taken care of it for us.

We’re grateful to live in a community that takes pride in our history and takes care of each other. Thanks especially to the Board who oversees the cemetery, especially of ❤️

Address

Tenino, WA

Telephone

+13603398465

Website

http://colvinranch.com/

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