In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, we sit down with MMA legend Matt Mitrione to talk about his retirement from the UFC at the age of 36. We talk about what it was like growing up in a small town in the late 80s and early 90s, and what it's like to be a professional MMA fighter at that time in your life. We also talk about the early days of the UFC, and some of his favorite memories growing up as a kid in the streets of Long Beach, California, and how he got into the MMA game. We also discuss some of the most memorable UFC fights he's ever seen, and the crazy things he's done in the past, including his time at the UFC Hall of Fame, and why he doesn't want to fight again until he's 40 years old. Enjoy! -Joe Rogan and Matt Mendez. -The Joe Rogans Experience -Training by Day, Training by Night, by Night! -All Day, All Day! -The J.R. Experience, Training By Night! -By Night, By Day, By Night - By Night, We're Up and Running! -By Day, We'll Figure It Out! -by Night, we'll Figure it Out! --By Night: Training By Day -Training By Night: By Day: By Night | Training By Nights - By Day | By Night -- By Night - By Nights: By Nights -by Day: Training Day -By Nights: Training by Day - By Evening -By Evening - by Night -by Nights by Night , By Day by Nights by Day , by Nights, By Nights, by Nights , by Days, By Months, By Weeks, By Days, by Months, by Weeks, by Days By Months by Months , etc., By Months , By Weeks , & All Days by Weeks What's a Day? , What Days? | By Months? & Nights, What Days Do You Need To Do? by Days & Nights? By Weeks? - What Days We'll Have A Day, or Nights, By Days & Months, & By Days , And Then We'll Get a Day, Then Have A Night, Then By Nights? By Weeks & Nights & Then By Days , By Months And Months And So On? .
00:01:42.000It's been fun being able to just basically channel that stuff into that and let it rip.
00:01:47.000It's one of the most difficult things for a fighter is the stopping fighting, but you don't know what to do with all this intense energy that you've been focusing your whole life in one way, and now all of a sudden...
00:01:59.000For a lot of fighters, it's like their whole identity, right?
00:02:43.000So you're still in this, like, athletic zone where you're still, you know, until you're in, once you're around 40, people start going, man.
00:04:27.000And then fights, like, wow, for more than 10 years.
00:04:30.000So this is 97. When did he retire from the UFC? I thought he was, like, 43 or 40. Man, I mean, he fought Liotta Machida, he was like, he was deep in his 40s.
00:05:24.000I mean, I hope that I feel that good to be able to compete when I'm 50, but I'll tell you what, I do a lot of hunting and fishing stuff with Hendo, and that guy's like...
00:07:02.000We were over at my buddy Chad Belding's house, and we were doing some filming and stuff, and we just sat down and everybody just kind of quit what they were doing and just watched that dude just KO dude after dude.
00:08:25.000You know, Francis Ngannou had a very good point the other day that there should be some protection for fighters because, you know, losing half of your purse because someone made a bad call.
00:08:36.000That's funny you say that because I years ago was talking with a buddy of mine and we were thinking of like an insurance plan for fighters just for that reason right there.
00:08:45.000For injuries like say you're you're because this is the shitty thing that I don't I mean a lot of people probably know this but you go through a 10-week training camp and this has happened to me multiple times in my fight In some fights where the week before the fight, your opponent gets injured, they back out,
00:09:01.000they can't find anybody to fill in, and now your fight doesn't happen.
00:09:05.000You just went through all that training, paying your trainers, you know, you still got to pay managers and everything for everything they do work-wise.
00:09:27.000I wish somebody would come up with that.
00:09:28.000I don't have the capacity now to do it, but I think it would be a smart business move and it would be cool for fighters to have, for sure.
00:09:35.000Well, you know, there was a lot of uproar this weekend because of who's the gal that was in the co-main event who won and then she got the $50,000 win bonus.
00:10:32.000But afterwards, they were talking about fighter pay, you know, and she was crying and then all these people got online and they started complaining about the UFC. And I see everybody's point.
00:10:46.000I see their point and I also see the UFC's point because A lot of people don't know who she is yet.
00:10:55.000I mean, they know who she is more now, but the whole thing about this sport is how many people are going to watch you fight.
00:12:53.000TJ was supposed to come do our tuna trip, our Fins and Feathers tuna trip, and we knew it was a 50-50 chance that, you know, whether he had broken hands or something, that he wouldn't be able to come, but...
00:13:26.000It looked like it was the heel hook, if I had to guess.
00:13:29.000Like, a lot of people were saying he wrenched it on the way out, but there's a moment where Sanhagen catches him in a heel hook, and he's yanking on it.
00:13:35.000And the way I'm looking at it, I'm like, man, that could rip your shit apart.
00:13:54.000But I do know I talked to TJ like a week before the fight, and he was like, man, this is probably the most injured I've ever been going into a fight.
00:14:06.000People give him a lot of shit for that EPO thing.
00:14:08.000And he deserves it, and he'll tell you he deserves it, but look, that motherfucker was dying making 125, like literally dying.
00:14:16.000I've never seen anybody look worse walking around like when they were filming him, not even the day he was making weight, but like up to the day of making weight, he looked like a fucking skeleton.
00:14:32.000I cut tons of weight throughout college for wrestling, and my senior year, I finally just put my foot down and was like, look, I'm going up two weight classes.
00:16:36.000I mean, I walked around, you know, when I was making weight consistently and training consistently, you know, two, sometimes even three times a day, dude, I walked around like 168, 165 to 168, and I was cutting down to 45s.
00:17:54.000How much of a hit do you think it takes off of your ability to perform, though?
00:17:58.000The fact that you do do that 24 hours before.
00:18:00.000I've noticed it like I'm and I almost wish that I would do this more through training camps when I was doing it but try to do a mock cut and then try to fine-tune exactly what to eat after because even my entire career I mean I would try to have the same things that I would eat but You know,
00:18:17.000you don't always feel 100% the next day.
00:18:20.000I don't think I ever felt 100% for any fight.
00:18:22.000You know, you cut that much weight, you feel good, but when you get in there and it's like, I could go through 10 rounds of 10 five-minute rounds and be just relentless in training, being able to eat and be hydrated, and then you get in there, and obviously nerves play a big factor too,
00:18:38.000but, you know, three rounds, you're already like, fuck, man, I feel this, you know?
00:20:42.000Yeah, when Cam was racing, when he was running the Moab 240, I forget what the exact calorie count was, but what he did was, let's say, burned 3,000 calories, ate 2,500 calories.
00:21:17.000Well, I mean, he's sort of cultivated it over his life, you know, and he's just made it more and more focused as he's gotten older and older and gotten used to the grind, and it's become just a natural part of his life.
00:21:31.000What's fascinating is it's self-imposed.
00:21:33.000You know, it's very few people have that kind of discipline.
00:21:36.000The only ones I know of like him are like him and Goggins.
00:21:40.000And the difference between him is he has a full-time job, which is really crazy.
00:22:14.000There's a photo of, you know, there's these memes going around when I sat down next to Connor, when Connor had a broken leg and I was interviewing him.
00:22:21.000It was me interviewing, like, the 9-11 Tower.
00:22:24.000It's got me interviewing Goggins' feet.
00:24:37.000When I run, it's probably because I'm top heavy, but yeah, I noticed my lower back gets pretty sore.
00:24:42.000Like I rained last night and it's sore today, but you know, it's just those things that the aches and pains you got to push through, you know?
00:26:00.000Obviously, I had just lost, but even going into that fight...
00:26:05.000I had started a company, was working on a few other companies, and there was a lot that I was more excited about than competing at the time.
00:26:14.000And, I mean, obviously we know that this sport is so brutal.
00:26:18.000Like, if you don't have a 100% mindset into it, you're going to get fucked up, you know?
00:26:23.000For me, I was like, look, dude, I'm going to take some time off or just end it here.
00:26:28.000I have other things going on and we'll see kind of what happens in the future.
00:26:32.000So I decided to retire, talked it over with the wife, and that was what the game plan was.
00:28:10.000And it's, you know, I think that this is an organization that's still very brand new and they're probably still working all these kinks out, but...
00:28:18.000I mean, I'm probably going to tape the shit out of my wrist just for the reason of support.
00:28:24.000But yeah, I think that's something that's, you know, it's definitely a possibility of getting cut on that stuff.
00:30:59.000A UFC glove, maybe a quarter of an inch of leather, half inch of leather over my knuckles, the concussion's not going to be much different, if anything.
00:31:08.000I think we're obviously dealing with a sharper object hitting you, so cuts are probably going to be a lot more prevalent, but as far as the concussion of getting hit...
00:31:19.000I don't think it's going to be much different.
00:31:21.000I also don't have to worry about a baseball bat head kick going whipping through and cracking me in the dome either.
00:31:31.000There's a lot of other things in the MMA game that I think are a lot more dangerous.
00:31:36.000You know, for me, it had to make sense, obviously.
00:31:40.000The numbers they were throwing out in the beginning didn't make sense for me.
00:31:44.000I have other businesses that are doing really well right now that are something that I can do for the rest of my life and not have to ever fight.
00:32:44.000So they're doing a smart thing where they're getting popular fighters who are known for UFC fights mostly and then just introducing the bare-knuckle world to them.
00:33:05.000Yeah, I know Forbes just did a write-up saying it's the fastest growing combat sport in the world right now.
00:33:11.000I always thought that it was weird that you could elbow somebody in the face, you could head kick somebody with a bare shin, you can knee them in the nose with no pads, but your hands are covered with a pad.
00:33:25.000But I used to say, like, why don't we just go bare knuckle?
00:33:29.000Because first of all, to make grappling more realistic, like submissions, you could sink in chokes and stuff much easier.
00:33:36.000But then I saw Chris Lieben versus, who was it, Dakota?
00:33:48.000And I was like, oh, maybe bare knuckles pretty fucked.
00:33:51.000It is, and I think that's, you know, you're going to have a lot of blood, which probably makes it pretty entertaining for a lot of people, but, yeah, cuts are definitely going to be there.
00:34:02.000I mean, like you said, elbows, though, in the UFC, like, you throw up against the cage and elbow somebody or even off their back and you're on top dropping elbows.
00:34:11.000I mean, those cut probably more than knuckles, I would imagine, but...
00:34:16.000I think you get hit a lot more with punches than you do with elbows in a fight, and that's probably where more cuts would come in.
00:34:23.000How many of these things are you gonna have?
00:36:00.000They always come for the UFC. When you're the UFC, it's like...
00:36:04.000That's got to be pretty cool for the UFC. Everyone's always trying to be the UFC or trying to create these MMA organizations that are trying to be on the level of the UFC. Nobody's ever going to do that, you know?
00:37:02.000And I think the talent's been like that for a while now.
00:37:04.000I mean, a lot of these guys have been there for a bit, but I guess my thing was it's, you know, you got so many people that are just like, the UFC is the NFL, you know?
00:38:37.000People have a hard time with it because of the cuts and everything like that, and I agree with you that it's easy to cut somebody, but they think it's more barbaric, but come on, man.
00:38:52.000My manager was kind of going over this with me the other day, and he's like, I remember trying to get sponsors when the UFC was kind of first taken off, and a lot of these companies were just like, oh, hell no.
00:46:46.000When Max Holloway fought Cater, how good did he look?
00:46:52.000And Josh Emmett, one of my teammates, his last fight, which was one of the best striking fights he's ever had, he did very, very light sparring movement.
00:47:44.000Getting your bell rung multiple times or, you know, obviously that stuff adds up and it's not good.
00:47:49.000I remember when we first got to Team Alpha Male, it was like me, Benavidez, Dillashaw, Danny Castillo, Justin Buckles.
00:47:59.000We had all the UFC guys in there and Faber and we would just...
00:48:03.00016-ounce gloves, headgear, tape up, and just basically be trying to KO each other for the entire sparring session, you know?
00:48:12.000And I remember there was guys that would get knocked out, like, you know, guys that would jump in and spar with us and, you know, would get knocked out.
00:48:19.000I remember one of the guys went out and sat in his car.
00:48:24.000And he sat in the driver's seat for like 20 minutes and then didn't realize, like he looked at his clock and he didn't realize he was there for that long.
00:48:32.000Like he was basically concussed, like really bad.
00:49:57.000At Team Alpha Male, I think that was kind of the beginning of doing all that type of stuff.
00:50:02.000And I don't know if he was just kind of like testing all this stuff out on us and then like see what would take and then be like, oh, that works.
00:50:47.000There's a few of those guys that have that absolute obsession with watching guys improve and figuring out what's the best technique.
00:50:56.000And also, Mark Henry's amazing because he develops combinations specific to each individual fighter and then names them.
00:51:06.000Based on like their kids or their friends or where they grew up or, you know, for you it'd probably be like the archery elk cunt or something.
00:51:15.000He would yell out some weird thing where nobody else would understand what the fuck you were saying and you would know what to do.
00:51:21.000And he would change it with every camp.
00:51:25.000In the wrestling world, Sammy Henson was that guy for me.
00:51:28.000My senior year was, I mean, Sammy took me to that next level, you know, and he was one of those guys that was obsessed, and he would, like, pull me aside.
00:51:36.000We'd have, like, separate one-on-one type sessions, and it really does make all the difference in the world.
00:51:44.000Yeah, if you can find someone who's that obsessed as a coach...
00:51:47.000I mean, I talked to Gordon Ryan about it when it comes to John Donaher, and he's like, there's no mistake.
00:51:52.000Like, the reason why I'm so good is not just because of his...
00:51:56.000Obviously, he's physically gifted, he's intelligent, he's super disciplined, super dedicated, but also he said John Donaher is like a cheat code.
00:52:04.000He's like, I have this crazy obsessed jujitsu coach who coaches seven days a week, 365 days a year, doesn't take any days off ever, has no family, has no girlfriend, and then when he's done coaching, watches fights.
00:52:42.000Just even for my commentary game, I would for sure want to learn jujitsu from him, but just my commentary game will improve in leaps and bounds just talking to him.
00:53:33.000I don't know them well enough to get in the middle of it and arbitrate, but I feel like the improvement that everybody was making under Dwayne was tangible.
00:53:43.000It's like he came along and then all of a sudden everybody had this footwork, they're moving good, their striking combinations seem to be improving.
00:54:05.000I mean, TJ's one of those guys that gets obsessed, too.
00:54:07.000And him and Dwayne just really meshed on that fact of notepad, writing, you know...
00:54:15.000mapping everything out and TJ has that memory you know that kind of comes along with it where he can remember all these different crazy combos and then get out there and actually perform it like you know that takes a special athlete to be able to see that thing on paper train it and then actually hit it in a fight for sure.
00:54:32.000The wild thing about his fight with Sanhagen was Sanhagen had him in a fucking triangle locked up and I was like man I wonder if He had some pointers on how to finish that better.
00:56:14.000Well, unfortunately with TJ's surgery, I mean he has like several major tears in that knee.
00:56:21.000You really never know what a guy's like once you get your knee mangled like that because the pain Like, it might inhibit training, it might become a problem, you know, it's so hard to say.
00:56:34.000On TJ's post, he said it happened at this part right here, where his knee gets all twisted.
00:57:31.000I've torn both MCLs through wrestling, but they were partial tears and it was basically through wrestling season.
00:57:38.000I just had to wear a brace and do a lot of swimming.
00:57:42.000It was actually, I think it was the first year I was an All-American, I tore it like...
00:57:47.000A couple weeks or a few weeks before Pac-10s and just swam every workout up to Pac-10s and then I just taped it up, went in there and I ended up winning Pac-10s.
00:58:59.000Just, I mean, I'd like to say pretty much I eat clean, you know, but I mean, you know, I'd still, every once in a while, eat some, like, fast food or, you know, if I go to somebody's house and they're making stuff,
00:59:17.000Um, you know, for the most part I thought I was pretty clean until I got on this diet and then I really figure out like how bad I was eating.
00:59:27.000Like the amount of sugar I think is key.
00:59:30.000Like I got on this diet and I did it, I started March.
00:59:33.000I started March 1 and I did it for the last four months.
00:59:39.000But basically sugar, I noticed, was probably the worst thing for it.
00:59:43.000Did you notice this because you added it in occasionally and you would see a difference?
00:59:48.000No, I just was, you know, my psoriasis over the years has just gotten worse and worse and worse until my buddy was basically telling me about this diet.
00:59:56.000We started basically the American Almond Beef, my beef company, and I was like, well, I have all the beef at my fingertips here.
01:01:05.000And it was just like, my psoriasis was, that was right after a hunt that I had gone on, and the lack of sleep really flares it up, which I, obviously on hunts, I'm eating bad in camp, whatever we're making.
01:01:52.000Three months in, I'm just like, it's almost gone.
01:01:56.000And ideally, I think it would be completely gone if I cut out caffeine, which they talk about you probably won't need caffeine after a couple months.
01:02:06.000Your energy levels will be better, which they were.
01:02:08.000I just really fucking enjoy getting all cracked out and getting a bunch of shit done.
01:04:34.000Against that he's like I probably wouldn't do that, but I just wanted to see and it doesn't seem to be flaring it up too bad So what I do notice is sugars though like if I have any just processed sugars, you know, you're anything like your processed breads I haven't been doing any wheat like any breads pretty much at all And I have a little bit of white rice here and there and that seems to be fine.
01:04:55.000So but for the most part, it's Mostly meat diet.
01:04:59.000Yeah Now, when you're training, have you adjusted it at all during training?
01:06:34.000I eat it, and I'm like waiting for my psoriasis to just start itching, you know, and it doesn't.
01:06:41.000I've also heard people say that like things you eat can, it's like a delayed effect, you know, up to 30 days or something like that for your psoriasis to like really get affected by it.
01:10:36.000But that's why I started implementing a little bit more carbohydrates because same thing, like I was hitting mitts and it's not that I felt bad, but I did feel like my explosive cardio almost would like kind of dwindle a bit.
01:10:50.000And then when I started adding in a little bit of the white rice and the grains and more fruit, I came right back.
01:11:53.000Those long endurance athletes, you know, being an explosive athlete and then someone that's basically relying on, I guess those guys do rely a lot on fat and that's kind of what the carnivore diet, your main source of energy is Should be fat now.
01:12:07.000And you're basically making the switch from glycogen, from the carbohydrates to fat.
01:12:12.000And the first couple weeks of that, I felt like shit.
01:12:16.000I think they call it like the keto flu or something like that, where you're just like, my brain's foggy, I'm just tired, I don't have any motivation, no energy.
01:12:24.000And then when your body kind of makes that transition, I felt so much better.
01:12:29.000I think you can move that along quicker with exogenous ketones.
01:12:49.000Yeah, but listen, you know, I had this woman on yesterday who escaped from North Korea and is one of the most difficult podcasts I've ever done.
01:13:46.000It was, you know, having this conversation with her and trying to imagine that there's a place right now on the other side of the world where people are living under the thumb of a brutal dictator and You know they're starving to death literally like most of the men are 4 foot 10 because they're just they have no nutrition They're starving and she's so tiny.
01:14:06.000I mean she's like literally one of the most frail women I've ever met in my life because she was starving her whole life like when you shake her hand It's like you feel like they're her like bones crack like she's made out of glass, you know, like she's so small She's 80 pounds That's crazy.
01:14:22.000Yeah, and she's eating whatever she wants now, but this is just because of her life, you know, starving all of her life.
01:14:30.000It's one of the craziest podcasts I've ever done.
01:14:55.000They were just so starving that when they caught a rat, they would cook it and eat it, and then they'd get sick and die, and then rats wind up eating them.
01:16:00.000They would hunt buffalo, and when they would kill a buffalo, they would cut the liver out and then eat it raw and squirt bile on it from the gallbladder.
01:16:50.000There was a mountain range out there that it's a 30,000-acre piece of property that this guy basically introduced a bull and four cows to 30 years ago and just put them in there.
01:17:01.000Basically, he wanted his family to be able to hunt them eventually.
01:17:04.000And over the 30 years, they've kind of just reproduced and they've separated into a bunch of different herds.
01:17:10.000And all the surrounding ranches, the bison are starting to go in there and compete with cattle and their food and everything.
01:18:32.000I've never hunted one, but I did take my kids to Yellowstone, and we were in this one area where you could take photographs of them.
01:18:39.000And we're behind this, like, area where if they wanted to, they could just fucking run you over.
01:18:45.000And I was like, you know, I think my daughters were eight and six at the time, or nine, maybe nine and seven at the time, so I was like, fucking...
01:18:57.000Super helicopter dad, like the moment these motherfuckers flinch, I'm grabbing these kids like two footballs and making a run for the truck.
01:19:06.000Because I know they smash people every year.
01:19:09.000Oh yeah, you see videos of a kid just getting tossed.
01:20:01.000It took us like over 10 hours to get this thing all cut up.
01:20:05.000For folks who don't understand what that means, it's the size of the antlers, where they take a tape and they measure it, and 63 inches is fucking huge.
01:20:19.000And the funny thing is, so he's an Alaskan resident, and he's the one that told me to put in for the tag, and he's like, you'll probably take, you know, maybe draw it in like 10 years.
01:21:26.000You're getting fined, you're losing your hunting license.
01:21:28.000And so we're just sitting there for a while, and he's just staring at us.
01:21:31.000And then finally he turns, and you get that back view, and we're both just like, dude, that's gotta be over 50. And so I ended up getting him, and we walked over there, and it's 63 inches.
01:23:15.000Like he found himself because the bear comes piling through these guys and all of a sudden he's on this bear's back riding it down the hill and they're talking about a coastal Alaskan brown bear which is huge.
01:24:47.000But you know in Texas you just shoot them like in Texas they have they're not protected at all It's just like a coyote.
01:24:56.000Yeah, they're like get rid of it, but in in California you can't do anything You can't even go out of state legally hunt one and bring it back, right?
01:25:05.000Yeah, right But in Utah you can hunt them you can hunt them, but you have to have a tag It's very difficult to get mm-hmm.
01:25:14.000It's not it's not easy Yeah, I had a buddy, my buddy Adam Greentree, gave me some mountain lion meat.
01:25:43.000It's just- If you think about what they're eating, they're not like a coyote where they're just eating stuff that's been dead for weeks and it's rotting.
01:25:52.000They basically kill and they eat it fresh.
01:25:56.000I could be completely wrong on this, but this is what I've been told.
01:26:09.000And so they're eating the clean, fresh stuff, but still just the thought of eating something that's eating meat has always been a little strange to me.
01:26:22.000I made a lot of chili and jerky out of it, but...
01:26:25.000Yeah, it bears definitely on that list, for sure.
01:26:28.000What's crazy is it was one of the preferred foods of the pioneers, the people that were traveling across the country.
01:26:34.000They loved it because it's fatty and it was soft.
01:26:38.000You know, like one of the things about, I guess if you're just cooking things straight over fire, You would think, when you think about bears, you would think, for people listening to this, that a bear would be like a really dense, really powerful animal,
01:26:54.000like a moose or elk or something like that, but they're not.
01:27:46.000They'll eat whatever the hell they can come across and live off of.
01:27:50.000I think, like we have a pig ranch that I guide pig hunts on up in Northern California, and there's tons of blackberry trees, tons of mulberry trees, green pastures because they run a bunch of cattle on it, and then tons of acorns too.
01:28:05.000So these pigs, like people, I think a lot of the times get weirded out eating wild boar, and they're just like...
01:28:11.000I think you go a lot of these coastal places where there's drought and food's scarce.
01:28:17.000They'll even sometimes kill each other and live off of that.
01:28:22.000I think that's when you start seeing a lot of that really bad gaminess in the pigs and then also disease coming.
01:28:29.000But these pigs up there are phenomenal, man.
01:28:31.000And I think it's because they're eating that delicious stuff year round and they're not having to scrounge around and trying to find any type of dead animal that they can and live off of it.
01:28:41.000And so that's what I try to tell people all the time.
01:28:44.000I'm sure bears are kind of the same situation.
01:28:46.000You got a bear that's in a place where it's tons of food and they're not struggling all the time, they're probably going to taste fine.
01:29:04.000And if you get a bear that's been eating rotten meat...
01:29:08.000It's like apparently the nastiest bears are the ones who are eating rotten salmon.
01:29:12.000Like when they're, you know, like a salmon run and there's a bunch of dead salmon and they eat the shit out of them.
01:29:18.000Like Rinello was telling me that he borrowed a guy's smoker and he used it to cook some bear and he said the smell of fish was so bad that he told the guy, hey man, you gotta clean your smoker out.
01:32:20.000But, I mean, and we were back in a spot where, unless somebody poached it, you know, but I looked up front, there was no, nothing in the guts.
01:32:29.000Like, I was actually looking to see if somebody had done it.
01:32:53.000Yeah, he was looking at it through a spotting scope, and he saw this grizzly chasing this moose and swats it on the back and breaks its back.
01:34:08.000Meanwhile, it's like, I guess people are just accustomed to people shooting deer, you know, and they see deer get hit by a car, they see deer everywhere, and it's rare that you see a bear, because bears are a little cautious being around people, but there's plenty of them, and they make a big dent on wildlife,
01:34:26.000and if you don't do something to manage them, like my friends John and Jen live up in Alberta, and where they are, like, There's bears everywhere up there.
01:34:38.000You can't imagine how many bears there are.
01:34:40.000And this is like really, really dense woods up there.
01:34:43.000I see a lot of the videos of you guys up there.
01:43:38.000The only way spot and stalk works is if you have to go to an area where there's a clear cut where they have new greenery coming through and the bears like to eat that right after spring.
01:43:50.000Or you find them when they're eating berries.
01:43:53.000Getting close enough to archery hunting?
01:43:56.000Yeah, because if it's thick enough to where there's no possible way to be quiet, what are you supposed to do?
01:44:01.000I have friends in Montana that hunt bear and there's no baiting in Montana.
01:44:04.000So it's like spring bear hunt is like you might go 30 fucking days and never get close.
01:46:08.000Well, I mean, how few people really understand?
01:46:10.000I mean, other than talking about it on podcasts like this one or on Meat Eater or on any other podcast where people have, like, common sense discussions about wildlife management, most people really have no idea.
01:46:42.000You know, people just, like you said, associate bears with the cute and cuddly.
01:46:46.000They don't, they have no idea that, I mean, I know now in LA they're starting to figure that out a little bit because you're getting tons of coyotes even coming in and killing people's pets and even attacking people.
01:46:56.000You got mountain lions, you know, attacking people, running and bike riding and killing them, you know, and I think there's even more and more bears now starting to move in.
01:47:06.000Especially around Pasadena, jumping in people's swimming pools and shit.
01:47:15.000I know that when we could run dogs, when hunters could run dogs on killing bears, there was a quota that the state would put on amount of bear kills.
01:47:26.000Once that quota was hit through successful tags, they turned the season off.
01:47:31.000And every year we would hit that quota.
01:47:34.000We haven't hit that quota since they stopped the bear hunting, which, or sorry, allowing dogs to be hunted, which has been years now.
01:47:43.000I've heard they get like half of it, even.
01:47:45.000So it's like the population's just compounding.
01:47:48.000It's getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
01:47:49.000And it's going to continue that way, too.
01:47:51.000Because the people that are making the votes are all city dwellers.
01:47:54.000I mean, the amount of people that live in the cities, whether it's the Bay Area or in Los Angeles, it's like, you know, most of the population in the state...
01:48:04.000But the crazy thing is when you make that drive from Los Angeles up to San Francisco, you pass farmers.
01:49:52.000They really don't know what they're doing.
01:49:54.000In San Francisco, where they've killed a bunch of mountain lions that have killed people's pets and stuff, one of the things they've found when they do necropsies on them and they check out their guts, they find out what they've been eating, it's mostly dogs.
01:50:56.000I had, um, and this happens all the time, you know, I'd go and ask permission landowners and, you know, usually it's these kind of, sometimes it's older lady.
01:51:06.000And this one in particular was an older lady.
01:51:08.000She had two little like white fluffy dogs.
01:51:10.000And, uh, I asked if I could, could hunt on her property and she told me no.
01:51:16.000And so I would just hunt the property next year.
01:51:19.000I was just trying to expand the property that I could hunt.
01:51:22.000And so I'd be out there and this probably was like months later.
01:51:28.000She's like, you know, I'd really like it if you saw these coyotes and shot them.
01:51:35.000One of them, I watched them pull my dog away and basically killed it.
01:51:40.000It was one of her little white fluffy dogs.
01:51:41.000And it's like, man, it sucks that that's what it takes for a lot of these people, like, something traumatic in your life to be taken away for you to understand, like, the benefit of doing this, you know?
01:51:53.000Like, if I was able to hunt deer on your property, if you wanted me to kill coyotes, I would take care of them for you, you know?
01:53:08.000And that's one of the reasons why coyotes are everywhere.
01:53:10.000And apparently it was a strategy for coyotes to survive with gray wolves.
01:53:18.000Because gray wolves hunt down coyotes and kill them.
01:53:22.000So because of this the coyotes had to figure out how to expand their range to get away from the gray wolves and how to breed more prolifically every time they got attacked by wolves.
01:53:36.000It's pretty wild shit man because the coyotes were smarter than the wolves because when They figured out how to kill off the wolves and what they would do is they would they would shoot a horse and then fill it up with strychnine and Like pump its veins with strychnine and then leave it there for the wolves and the wolves would eat it and die But the coyotes like me not today bitch.
01:53:55.000Yeah, and the coyotes kept expanding so now Coyotes are in every single state in every single city in the country and a hundred years ago They were only in the West Really?
01:54:24.000Pull that shit up, because you need to see this, because it's so bananas.
01:54:28.000They're essentially a small wolf, is what they are, which is why the red wolf and coyotes have bred in some parts of the south, and I think the southeast, and they've developed these hybrids that they call coy wolves,
01:56:06.000I mean, you see these people, you know, I have buddies that go out and do these coyote derbies, basically, where in the area they'll bring a bunch of people in and everybody tries to kill as many coyotes as they can.
01:56:18.000And it's very extreme, I get that, but it's like in an area, you know, that's very highly populated with coyotes, it's something that can help control the population very quick, you know?
01:56:29.000And it's something that needs to be done.
01:56:31.000If you want to keep your dogs alive and, you know, you want healthy populations of deer and a lot of other wildlife, like, you can't have an overpopulation of anything.
01:56:41.000And the only thing that balances that out, other than nature itself, and the cycle of nature itself when it balances out, Yeah, but that's how nature balances it out.
01:56:56.000The only other solution is wildlife management.
01:56:58.000And that's where wildlife biologists do an accurate assessment, a survey of the area, they find out what the populations are, and they figure out how many of each animal that they can pull from it.
01:57:10.000People don't understand when you're talking about getting a tag for moose.
01:57:35.000I have a story of, you know, I got the rack, you know, all cleaned up and everything, and I'm driving it home from my taxidermist, and this Prius rolls up, and I'm not making that up because it really was a Prius, and they roll up, and it's this big old fat chick.
01:57:51.000She's got, like, different colors in her hair.
01:57:54.000And I'm guessing it's her husband or boyfriend driving and I'm just minding my business in the slow lane just just wanting to get home You know, I don't want my nothing I want, you know, obviously if I could have Enclosed the whole thing I would have just because I know it pisses people off in California And I'm driving and this lady comes rolling up next to me flipping me the bird and she's cussing and yelling and they whizzed past me I'm just like jeez And so we start coming up on traffic basically to where I'm trying to slow down because I don't want to get
02:00:43.000I think these people just assume that we're going...
02:00:45.000I envision it like us in the back of a truck with an automatic weapon, drinking some beers, blasting some loud music, and just mowing everything down.
02:01:57.000We killed one of the pigs and one of them ended up being a really small pig, maybe like a 40 or 50 pounder, which is a pig that stands about that high.
02:02:07.000And we're like, hey, let's clean this pig and we'll put this on the smoker and we'll let it smoke all day tomorrow and we'll have it for dinner tomorrow night.
02:02:15.000So when we cleaned it, dude, this thing already had piglets.
02:02:18.000Like it was already breeding as a 40, 50 pound pig.
02:02:21.000Yeah, at six months old, they're viable.
02:03:48.000I try to do my point of view from everything, so I do a lot of vlogging and stuff.
02:03:53.000My wife went and killed her very first big game animal with me and it was a wild boar on that ranch.
02:03:59.000And like I said earlier, there's tons of wild mulberry trees all over the place.
02:04:03.000So she got this boar and then we went and picked a bunch of the wild mulberries.
02:04:08.000And I did like this, I smoked, I did the whole video if anyone ever wants to see it, but I smoked the whole like bone-in backstrap, like the loin.
02:04:18.000And then I did like a mulberry reduction on it from those mulberries from the ranch.
02:05:28.000That's what happens when you have a ranch, a large ranch with no people, right, and a large deer, pig, and they have cows there too, they run cows there too, and elk, and mountain lions unchecked.
02:06:55.000So it's the way that it's done, but obviously dehydrating, you're basically sucking all the moisture, like the liquid out of it, where freeze-drying you're not doing that.
02:07:04.000And so when you rehydrate something that's freeze-dried, Like, dehydrated stuff typically gets really mushy when you put water back into it.
02:08:06.000It's more time-consuming, but what's great about Peak Refuel is we have the facility, first of all, and we have all the giant machinery that a lot of these other companies, especially the smaller companies that are doing these other game meets, they can only do a handful at a time,
02:08:27.000Basically, the giant stuff, we can pump out higher numbers of it, so we can keep up inventory, but also, you know, it's just, we basically have the team that can keep up on top of being able to produce enough for everybody to keep it in their backpacks.
02:08:42.000How long have you been doing this for?
02:10:00.000And ended up buying a bunch of their stuff for that hunt.
02:10:03.000And it's funny because Seth and Bart said that was like in the beginning of them where they would just sit there like basically waiting for orders to come through.
02:10:12.000And Seth, who's the owner, is like a big UFC fan.
02:10:15.000And he's sitting there and it's like, bling!
02:10:17.000And an order comes through and he's like...
02:10:42.000Hard workers, they have amazing families.
02:10:47.000It's just been something that I feel honored to be a part of.
02:10:50.000For me to be able to basically create my own recipes and pump them out there for people to try, and their game meats, it's kind of something that's unique.
02:10:59.000You're not really seeing that very often.
02:11:28.000For people that don't know, when folks go hunting or camping or any of that stuff where you're trying to pack as lightly as possible, it saves you so much weight to buy freeze-dried things like that and keep them in your pack.
02:11:48.000Genuinely keep a whole week's worth of food in your bag if you have a large backpack.
02:12:16.000And then you have your peak meal at the end of the day, which is like your thousand calorie kick in the pants.
02:12:22.000Like, that's where all your energy is going to come from for recovery from today and, you know, my energy for working, hiking, and traveling tomorrow.
02:15:31.000It helps in a lot of ways, but it also sucks in a lot of ways.
02:15:35.000Well, I think the pandemic really opened up a lot of people's eyes to the possibility that there might come a time where you don't have any food at all.
02:15:41.000And, like, how do you get food if you don't know how to hunt?
02:15:44.000And a lot of people are like, you know what?
02:15:47.000So, obviously, gun sales went through the roof.
02:15:50.000But a lot of people also took up archery and started...
02:15:53.000You know, bow hunting for the first time.
02:15:55.000I think a lot of guys like you and Cam and Dudley, you know, you've really shown such a positive light on archery hunting and hunting in general.
02:16:04.000I think, I mean, so another business is Fins and Feathers.
02:16:48.000I've always wanted to get into archery hunting or hunting in general.
02:16:51.000And I think it's basically because people were starting to realize, like, fuck, if shit hits the fan, I need to know how to hunt.
02:16:57.000I need to know how to go out and provide for myself.
02:17:00.000And we had so many first-time hunters last year that booked with us, and it was pretty damn cool to see these people that are complete city slickers coming out there.
02:17:12.000And we had guys show up in tennis shoes to go hunting, and I'm like, dude, I told you to bring boots, but...
02:17:19.000Did you have to teach them how to shoot, everything?
02:17:28.000Get out there, sight your gun in at 100, make sure you're comfortable shooting out probably 200 or 300. And then when they show up, we take them out.
02:17:35.000I make sure that everything's dialed, make sure they're doing what they need to do.
02:17:40.000But they've all taken their hunter safety course, so they've gone through that.
02:17:43.000But then basically just hold their hand throughout the whole hunt and kind of Basically just guide them, leading the way.
02:17:55.000We had a young kid that booked with us last year on our cow elk hunt up in Oregon, and he was a huge fan of Ranella's and loved the Meat Eater podcast and the show.
02:18:09.000He kept all the organs And, but, you know, it was his first time going out hunting and first morning I get him on two cows, you know, 150 yards, just standing there across the canyon, broadside.
02:18:21.000And I get him on the shooting sticks and he's, you know, never, ever been in this situation in his life.
02:18:27.000And I look over and he's just like, Taking like a leaf.
02:18:34.000We sat there for like five minutes and they're staring at us and he's like, just heart beating out of his chest.
02:18:42.000I guess at that point I kind of forgot what that feeling feels like.
02:18:47.000I still get excited on hunts, but I haven't been that excited on anything since probably I was a kid, you know?
02:18:52.000And I'm just like thinking back like, God, I kind of missed that.
02:18:56.000Had he ever done anything that made him real nervous before like that?
02:19:00.000I didn't ask that, but it seemed like probably not.
02:19:03.000He was a pretty fragile-looking kid, just a young guy.
02:19:08.000That's a big thing to do for your first really nerve-wracking experience, to pull the trigger and end the life of an animal and then hunt and eat it.
02:19:18.000Even when he killed, it was a very emotional thing.
02:20:39.000Doesn't get an elk on that one and that whole herd runs down and disappears.
02:20:43.000And so, you know, I just had to talk to him, you know, like, hey man, this is part of hunting, especially because it's your first time.
02:20:50.000Like, I've been there, like, don't worry about it.
02:20:53.000And he's getting bummed, you know, because, you know, you only get so many opportunities on a hunt.
02:20:59.000And I want him to go home with something, but we're kind of getting down towards, I think he ended up killing on the last day.
02:21:04.000So we're getting down to the wire here.
02:21:06.000And finally we found one that was bedded up and we like came in and just sat on it for like an hour before it finally got up and it fed out into a clearing and he was sitting and I put the tripod up and he got a very, very steady shot and made a perfect shot and dropped it.
02:21:22.000Well, that's a very big change for him, right?
02:21:38.000The fact that you're taking a life of something is hard in itself and then if you've never been like an athlete or somebody that's been put in that moment of truth situation to where you have nerves and you have to figure out...
02:21:53.000With your mind going into that red zone, calm the fuck down.
02:21:58.000What it takes for you to get out of that red zone and get into that calm state.
02:22:03.000If you don't know how to do that, you're just like, what do I do?
02:22:10.000You know, it's cool being able to, for me, to kind of teach a lot of these people that have never done it before and just kind of, you know, get them through that situation and then gain that confidence, have them gain that confidence after the fact.
02:22:23.000And then, not only that, now you have all kinds of amazing meat to feed your friends, your family, and live off for the rest of the year.
02:24:25.000Basically, we subcontract guides that already have stuff up and running.
02:24:28.000So there's going to be professional guides there guiding.
02:24:31.000And then we just send our group and our pro staff guy to go out there and hunt with them.
02:24:36.000And they hang out, shoot the shit around camp.
02:24:39.000Basically, the idea with fins and feathers was...
02:24:44.000Creating that camaraderie that you don't really get anywhere else except for hunt camp.
02:24:50.000You've been there, you've seen it, you've felt it.
02:24:52.000Sitting around a campfire at night, whether you're, you know, someone singing, playing a guitar, I've had that happen where everyone's kind of having some drinks, hanging out, telling stories.
02:25:03.000Like, you can't really get that anywhere else, man.
02:25:04.000You go through the highs and the lows of the hunt, you know, and you can go to an autograph signing, meet these guys, shake their hand, maybe take a picture, and then that's pretty much it.
02:25:13.000Is it a weird thing, though, when you go take a guy out of the woods that you don't know?
02:25:17.000You know, like, you don't know who's going to fall apart.
02:25:20.000You don't know who's going to be in shape.
02:25:22.000You don't know who can handle pressure.
02:25:46.000But yeah, we've had guys fall apart on hunts.
02:25:49.000There's been pig hunts where we have guys that are A little bit overweight or a lot a bit overweight and it's tough for them to get to certain places.
02:25:58.000We see animals and they're like, I'm sorry dude, I just can't do that.
02:26:04.000I think it's a good thing for these guys though because it's a slap in the face.
02:26:09.000That really shows you In that moment, fuck, I've got to change my life.
02:26:14.000There's things I need to do different because this is ridiculous.
02:26:18.000I'm not going to go be a successful hunter and fill my freezer because I can't physically get to the damn thing.
02:26:26.000So I think he ended up getting one later, but he even said after, he's like, man, this is definitely eye-opening for me.
02:26:35.000So I had to change some stuff, so that's pretty cool.
02:26:37.000Yeah, I've talked to guys who took a hunter out, like guides who took a hunter out one year, and then, you know, the guy was just absolutely exhausted.
02:26:46.000Then the guy comes back next year 40 pounds lighter and realizes, like, yeah, how to make some changes.
02:26:53.000That's one of the reasons I wanted to do fins and feathers.
02:26:56.000Like, A, you know, it was something that I decided, like, how could I make some money doing something I absolutely love in the outdoor industry after I'm done fighting?
02:27:05.000And so that was kind of the main thing.
02:27:45.000And, you know, after the harvest, this is how we field dress them and get the meat all prepared and take it home.
02:27:52.000And then, what's super cool is that I get pictures all the time from these guys, like, of recipes they've created with those animals.
02:27:58.000And, you know, it's them and their families, and everyone's just super happy, man.
02:28:01.000It's, like, so heartwarming for me to be a part of that type of journey for someone that had thought that they could never get into it, you know?
02:28:11.000Yeah, it's an immensely satisfying thing when you can go out and get your own food, and then when you're eating that, you're never going to forget the experience you had, like the difficult times you had, you know, hunting, stalking, just the physical fitness aspect of it.
02:28:28.000I mean, that's the thing that people...
02:28:30.000A lot of people just don't know how much cardio it takes to do a mountain hunt.
02:28:35.000Like, you have to be in some serious shape.
02:28:37.000I remember the first time I went with Rinella, we went to Montana, and we were in the Missouri breaks, you know, and we were, you know, going through these...
02:29:05.000And then, you know, even on these elk hunts, I'd say elk is probably one of the harder, for sure, especially if it's a pack-in type hunt.
02:29:14.000A, because it's a big animal, you harvest that thing, like you said, 15 miles back in there.
02:29:18.000It's a lot of fucking work getting that meat out.
02:29:22.000I think that's probably the pinnacle of it, but mule deer hunting, you're in those types of situations you've never been in before, hiking those big ass mountains.
02:29:43.000We went up and over like four or five different mountain ranges.
02:29:47.000I remember the first day we hiked to the one and we're glassing and a fucking doll sheep's bright white so you can see it on that dark open hillside like 20 miles away, you know?
02:29:58.000And it's like, oh, there's definitely sheep over there.
02:30:02.000We're going to have to get a closer look, though.
02:30:03.000So you see like one, two, three, four mountain ranges.
02:30:08.000And our guide's like, you see that fourth range?
02:30:12.000Yeah, we're going to go up and over that by the end of this.
02:30:14.000And me and my buddies all look at each other like, the fuck we are?
02:30:20.000I'm like, can we get a helicopter or something?
02:30:22.000But, you know, you break it up, you're doing 8 to 15 miles a day depending, you know, and it's just, I mean, I remember there was days where the climb was so long, you're climbing and it's one of those like, step, kick your toe in,
02:30:54.000I mean, I'm using very stiff-soled boots.
02:30:57.000I think that when I was using some crispies that, you know, it was a very, very high-end, basically meant for the sheep type terrain.
02:31:06.000How do you know, like, I wear crispies too a lot of times.
02:31:09.000How do you know what boot to choose for a hunt like that?
02:31:13.000Because if you've never done a doll sheep hunt before, I basically asked around.
02:31:18.000I have a bunch of buddies that have done a lot of that stuff and it's, you know, obviously I can do some research online but It's typical online.
02:31:26.000You can get an answer over here that's one way, and then you can get an answer over here that's completely different.
02:31:31.000For me, I like asking buddies that have actually been there and done it firsthand.
02:31:38.000I had a bunch of buddies that had hunted in Alaska, and they all steered me towards, I don't know, it was maybe two or three different boots, and then I just basically chose one of them and went with it.
02:31:51.000I got those boots probably three months, maybe two months before my hunt and was just loading up my Kuyu pack and basically crushing it daily with a hike.
02:32:02.000There's a good area close to my house that basically it's...
02:32:06.000Fucking straight up and straight down for like four or five miles and you hike down to the river and then you're basically hiking straight back out of this canyon and that's what I would do for training with you know obviously leading up I would start off with a lighter amount of weight and then as I got closer I was getting heavier and heavier and heavier until I think I was at like 70 or 80 pounds of my pack and that's what I was doing at the end and then I think my pack was about 55 or 60 pounds total with everything gun and everything water.
02:32:37.000And that's basically what I was packing around out there.
02:32:56.000There's tons of sheep, but there was a huge winter kill-off That year of all the mature rams.
02:33:01.000So for people that don't know, a doll sheep ram has to be of legal age.
02:33:07.000So it has to be at least eight years old.
02:33:09.000And how you tell, and this is the most fucked thing ever, is you have to get close enough to them and count the rings that are on their horn.
02:33:19.000And it's like they have false annuals, false ones, basically.
02:33:22.000So, you know, basically what the guide was telling us is sometimes So basically how they get these rings is when they go through winter and food is very scarce and their body goes into basically like shock.
02:33:34.000They're pretty much like so run down that all their energy source goes into staying alive.
02:33:49.000And so that's what causes those rings.
02:33:52.000Every year they go through that winter, they get that ring.
02:33:55.000And this, you know, this is what the guide was telling us is sometimes, you know, the snow will start to melt off and, you know, stuff starts blooming and they start thinking, okay, shit, it's time to start growing again.
02:34:08.000Their body starts growing and then a huge winter storm will come and be like, psych!
02:34:13.000And so basically it'll cause those false annuli, which if you don't know what you're looking at, sometimes you're like, oh, that's definitely a ring.
02:34:20.000And guys kill sheep that are seven years old, not eight.
02:37:29.000I haven't had it, but I've heard it's incredible.
02:37:31.000Rinella did a hunt up there with Tim Ferriss, and a grizzly smelled their meat and started running towards them, and he had to scare it off.
02:37:43.000Rinella's had a few grizzly encounters on video.
02:37:45.000Two on video where they had to scare him off with guns, and then, of course, the one on a Fognac Island where they didn't capture it on video because they were actually eating lunch when the bear bum-rushed him.
02:38:19.000My friend Clay Newcomb, he's been on the podcast before, he put out a video recently on bear defense, whether or not you should have bear spray or a pistol, and it's just like...
02:38:34.000I've heard both work, and I've heard instances where neither work.
02:39:08.000But there's this cycling path that is very popular.
02:39:15.000And a lot of folks take this cycling path, they bike, mountain bike, and then they stop in this one spot in camp and this bear went into her tent and pulled her out and killed her.
02:39:42.000And I don't know if you're supposed to, but, you know, it's like, I think if I go to a state and I know that there's tons of grizzlies and you're not supposed to, I'll take the fine over getting eaten alive, you know?
02:42:00.000Me and a buddy of mine, we had just stalked in on a big bull that was screaming with his cows and I closed the distance and flung an arrow right over his back and we hiked out that morning, just tails tucked and we come up on this big sage flat and there's a group of antelope,
02:42:19.000200 yards in front of us and we just sit there and we're watching them feed and they ended up just feeding out of view and we take one more step well there was a big ass wolf like 20 yards in front of us laying under a tree in the shade that we didn't see because we were focused on the antelope And we take one step and that thing jumps up and just takes off in front of us out through the wide open sage flats.
02:42:41.000Dude, that's another thing that people don't realize how big.
02:43:56.000It's not the same movie, but I remember as a kid that always terrified me more than anything, but I liked watching it.
02:44:04.000I don't know, that's fucking weird, but the thought of a werewolf, that was always something that scared the shit out of me.
02:44:11.000Even going in the woods at night when I'm hunting, hiking out, that shit still scares the shit out of me.
02:44:17.000Not necessarily a werewolf, but just the thought of a wolf or a bear.
02:44:22.000I think the thing is that wolves, like coyotes, we were talking about coyotes being so smart, I think wolves are so smart that a lot of times people decide there's no way an animal can be this smart.
02:44:32.000It must be a person that turned into a wolf.
02:52:22.000They're amazing animals, but again, that's one of the things that you appreciate about the wild when you're out there, is that if you didn't exist, this is how it all goes down.
02:52:31.000It's wolves and bears and mountain lions and deer and elk and all these animals trying to survive, and it's just...
02:52:40.000I wish more people would experience it, and I'm really glad that someone like you has this service with fins and feathers where you'll take people out that don't have any experience whatsoever in that world, and you can introduce it to them.
02:52:53.000I mean, for a fan, what a great thing to be able to hang with you for a week and to be able to be introduced to the wild.
02:53:03.000Yeah, if we can basically teach them enough to be able to provide for themselves for the rest of their life.
02:53:42.000The almond beef is like they're just eating almonds?
02:53:44.000Yeah, so basically what we do, here's kind of the thought, the reasoning why we started this company is we were kind of talking about it earlier.
02:53:54.000Wanting, at least for me, I get hit up a ton from people like, dude, I see all the elk that you got or the deer.
02:54:04.000I'm not going to just ship you a bunch of meat.
02:54:05.000But I was like, how can we create something, like in the beef industry, that is as close as we can possibly get to the health benefits of wild game?
02:54:15.000And so we basically take these cows, most of them Angus, we do some Angus Cross, and And pasture-raised, no hormones, no antibiotics, no soy, no corn.
02:54:26.000We pasture-raised them the last 150 days.
02:54:29.000We basically feed these steers our proprietary blend of feed, which is almonds.
02:54:35.000I mean, my team's probably not going to want me to say this, but I think this is probably one of our most important selling points on the beef, but is the healthy diet that they're eating.
02:54:44.000But it's almonds, the almond whole, which is like that fuzzy part on the outside.
02:55:14.000And that feed, which is super high-octane, high in fat, high in protein, high in carbohydrates, is all we feed them for the last 100 to 150 days, which basically we were kind of testing all this out over the last year or so.
02:55:28.000And just seeing the type of marbling it's giving this beef, it's obviously leaving them super tender.
02:55:55.000So basically what we do is it's frozen.
02:55:59.000It's basically like a butcher box or something like that where you can go on and Order whatever cuts you want on our website and then it shows up frozen on your doorstep.
02:56:06.000When it's not frozen, like if you get that beef and it's fresh off, it's so dark.
02:56:10.000It's like that really rich looking stuff, but obviously once it freezes, you know, you lose a little bit of that.
02:56:20.000We wanted to do something that was healthier in the beef world.
02:56:24.000Obviously, it's not quite wild game, and I can't sell wild game, but we wanted to create something that was healthier in that sense, where people can go online, they can feel confident knowing these are humanely raised.