Argyle Farms sits on a ridge above the town of Andes, in the Western Catskills, where the pastures run steep and the winters are honest. It is not an easy place to farm — and that is rather the point. The land asks for patience, and it rewards it.
We raise heritage-breed cattle, sheep, and pigs the slow way — rotated across open grass through the season, finished without shortcuts. Moving the animals keeps the pasture healthy and the pasture keeps the animals well; it is an old arrangement, and a good one. The three animals on our crest — the ram, the horned steer, and the pig — aren't decoration. They're the farm.
What we can't sell at the barn we pack and ship cold to your door, from our hills to your table. Nothing travels far before it's raised well; everything is handled with the care you'd want for your own kitchen.
"The three animals on our crest aren't decoration. They're the farm."Harry · Head of Farm, Argyle Farms
The slow way
Heritage breeds grow more slowly than the animals bred for speed, and we let them. Slower growth means better marbling, deeper flavor, and a life spent doing what the animal was made to do — grazing, rooting, ranging on open ground. We finish on grass and forage, never on shortcuts, and we use the whole animal so that as little as possible is wasted.
It's more work and less yield, measured by the ledger. Measured by the plate, it's the only way we care to do it.
