Happy Bison Month, it's Day 8 Friends!
Happy Hump Day Friends! and it's more bison more often...
Hope you like what we have here today... great stew recipe and some more of our favorite people
Gonna be a quickie... T has a long to-do list for me today. NanaCamp is going down to the river with the crew here... I get to stay behind and get some stuff done. It was a crazy busy day yesterday, and I still have quite a few orders to pack.
Have a great day!
Chris & Theda Pogue: Living the Buffalo Life at GP Ranch
Chris and Theda are some really good friends...never boring hanging out with them, really love them.
If you ask Chris and Theda Pogue what they do for a living, you might hear "bison ranchers." But spend a little time at GP Ranch in Sulphur Springs, Texas, and you'll quickly realize they're doing something much bigger—they're restoring prairie, preserving culture, teaching others, and proving that sometimes the best way forward is to follow the buffalo.
After retiring from the U.S. Navy, the couple traded military life for ranch life, purchasing their 60-acre property in 2017. What began as a dream of raising healthy food for their community soon evolved into a deeper calling. Rather than building a large commercial meat operation, Chris and Theda chose a different path—one centered on conservation, education, and stewardship of the American bison.
Today, GP Ranch is home to a carefully managed herd of grass-fed bison that live much as nature intended. Chris often says that successful buffalo ranching begins with healthy grass. Their focus on native prairie plants, rotational grazing, and pollinator habitat has transformed their land, bringing back deer, rabbits, butterflies, bees, and countless other species. The buffalo aren't just grazing—they're helping restore an entire ecosystem.
But the buffalo are only part of the story.
The Pogues love opening their gates to others. Whether it's welcoming school groups, hosting educational tours, teaching beginning ranchers, or sharing what they've learned about sustainable agriculture, GP Ranch has become a place where people reconnect with both the land and one another. National Bison Day is especially meaningful, with the ranch hosting blessings, hayrides, cultural demonstrations, and opportunities for visitors to experience buffalo up close. For many Native families, it's also a chance to reconnect with traditions that stretch back countless generations.
One of their most unique programs teaches tribal members how to utilize every part of a buffalo—from pasture to plate and beyond. Participants learn traditional harvesting, meat processing, hide preparation, and how the animal provides food, clothing, tools, and other necessities. It's a hands-on reminder that the buffalo has always represented far more than food—it symbolizes resilience, respect, and relationship. Chris has become quite the leatherworker..
Of course, life on a buffalo ranch comes with plenty of laughs. There are curious calves that seem to inspect every visitor, giant dust baths that leave buffalo looking more brown than black, and the occasional reminder that a 2,000-pound animal has absolutely no interest in your schedule. Chris and Theda have learned that buffalo don't just teach patience—they insist on it.
Their enthusiasm is contagious. Whether they're talking about native grasses, soil health, wildlife, or the history of the American bison, it's impossible not to catch their excitement. Every conversation becomes a lesson, every pasture tells a story, and every buffalo represents another step toward a healthier landscape and stronger communities.
For Chris and Theda Pogue, GP Ranch isn't simply where buffalo live. It's where history, conservation, family, and fun come together—one shaggy, grass-loving, dirt-rolling buffalo at a time.
The Tanka Fund is a national campaign to return Buffalo to the land, lives and economies of Native American people
Celebrating our Buffalo relatives is something we do every day. But as the United States marks its 250th year, National Bison Month gives us a meaningful opportunity to reflect on a much longer story — one rooted in Native lands, survival, and restoration.
Buffalo have shaped this land for generations, sustaining Tribal Nations and helping maintain the balance of the grasslands they call home.
Today, their return to Native lands is part of a larger story of healing, reclamation, and strengthening Native lives and economies.
Follow along this month as we honor our Buffalo relatives and the people working to bring them home. We are still here.
Bison Stew- Native style.
This is a "three sisters" style stew with corn, beans and squash, plus wild greens like amaranth or lambsquarters. Any greens (chard, kale, spinach, etc.) are fine.
Servings:8 servings
Author:Hank Shaw
Prep Time:20 minutes
Cook Time:3 hours
Ingredients
- 2 to 3 pounds bison stew meat
- Salt
- 4 ears of corn
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 ounce dried mushrooms, crushed roughly
- 1 pound dried beans
- 1 to 2 pounds winter squash, cut into chunks
- 2 tablespoons bison fat, beef fat, butter or oil
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound greens, lambsquarters, amaranth, spinach, etc.
- Green alder pepper (optional)
Instructions
- Cut the bison meat into big chunks. Just barely cover with water in a large pot and bring this to a boil. Once the foam collects on the surface after a few minutes, dump the water. Return the meat to the pot, add enough water to cover by several inches and return to a simmer.
- Slice the kernels off the ears of corn. Reserve the kernels and cut the cobs in two pieces. Put them in the pot with the meat. Add the bay leaves and salt to taste. Simmer 1 hour.
- Meanwhile, heat the butter or bison fat in a pan over medium high heat and brown the onion. When it's mostly browned, add the garlic and cook another minute. Scrape all this into the pot with the bison.
- After 1 hour, add the mushrooms and beans and keep simmering. After another hour, add the squash. When the bison is tender, fish it out and cut it against the grain into pieces you'll want to eat in a stew. Discard the corn cobs.
- Add the corn kernels and greens and cook 5 minutes. Add more salt if you want, along with the green alder pepper, if using.
- From Honest Food
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