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The
Coffee Pot Ranch got its name from the Field side of the family.
My great grandfather Dexter Field ran the family cattle sheep
and horses on the Coffee Pot Range in the Colorado Territory
in the 1860's. My grandfather Alve continued using the brand
and today my uncles and cousins still use it.
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Bob
grew up in Oakdale, where he raised "every kind of poultry
imaginable", Berkshire hogs, sheep and cattle. The Sorensen
family moved to Foothill Farms when Bob was in high school,
where he continued to raise and show registered Hampshire
sheep. Bob's dad was a Nebraskan farmer at heart and instilled
the love of good food and farming in Bob. Bob continued his
agricultural goals for a time at Sierra College. He continued
with the sheep and some bronc riding until love struck. He
married and started a family with the births of Toni and Eric.He
would be out of the livestock business for almost 20 years.
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I was
raised in Carmichael before all the houses. I can remember
the red fox running down the drive, and Pheasant abound. We
had sheep, cows, a horse, cats and the Australian Shepherd
dogs. By the time I was a senior high school I had 60 ewes
and project steers. I never realized that this could be a
lively hood; to me it was my 4-H project. My brother took
over the sheep and I went away to college.
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Pictured
here are Dexter Field's sons
Alve (Shirley's grandfather) on the left and Ollie on the right |
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I ran into a
4-H friend while at Cal Poly, who was attending Fresno State. Bill
Harper and I would finish college and start a life together that
lasted 20 years. We began a seed stock farm in Kerman, Ca. raising
registered Duroc, Hampshire and Yorkshire hogs. Bill was an excellent
hog man, and instilled in me the love for the animal and knowledge
to take care of them. The early 80's were good. We were selling
lots of seed stock, our daughters' Taran
and Sara were born, what could be better? But by the end of the
80's the hog markets were awful, life was hard and personal tragedy
hit home. Bill and I divorced in 1994, he passed away in 1997. The
girls and I moved to Lincoln to be closer to family in 1993, bringing
along cattle, sheep, hogs, dogs and the cats.
In 1994, my dad ran into Bob where he was working and another beginning.
Bob and I had been in the same 4-H club as kids, and his parents
came to celebrate my wedding to Bill in 1974. We renewed our friendship,
got married in 1997, and bought the Sheridan ranch in 1998. The
girls were still involved in FFA, showing and raising the livestock.
The time came when Taran and Sara were off to college and we had
to decide whether or not to continue with the livestock. The way
of life is so entrenched in us that we decided to continue and in
2005 we began the retail meat business with Coffee Pot Ranch Premium
Cuts. Our first farmers market was in March of 2006.
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