From Silicon Valley to the Ranch
In celebration of Mother’s Day, Farm Journal is teaming up with FarmHer to highlight farm moms who embody the grit and grace found in rural America.
Mary Heffernan is an entrepreneur in every sense of the word. Over the years, she’s started more than 20 small businesses in different industries while being a mother to four daughters, wife to Brian, teacher to many and so much more.
As a sixth-generation Californian, Mary grew up in the suburbs of what is now Silicon Valley. She and Brian started their family in the same San Francisco Bay area where Brian was an attorney and Mary ran her own businesses.
The couple had always dreamed of moving to the country, so in 2013 they bought Sharps Gulch Ranch and moved their family to Siskiyou County the next year. They jumped into becoming ranchers and working together as a family on Five Marys Farms.
Five Marys Farms is named after Mary and their four daughters all named Mary after grandmothers and aunts. MaryFrances, or Francie; MaryMarjorie or Maisie; MaryJane or JJ; and MaryTeresa or Tessa.
Food is an important topic to the Heffernan family because everyone must eat. The desire to provide other families with fresh food led them into the restaurant business.
When trying to source fresh local beef, they quickly realized quality varies and the necessary certifications were an obstacle. That’s when Mary and Brian decided to use their own cattle as the source and build a model from scratch to raise and sell their meats directly to customers all over the country. Today, they run Five Marys Meat, which offers beef, pork and lamb from their black Angus cattle, Berkshire hogs and Navajo-Churro sheep.
The ranching methods they practice, from grazing rotations to slaughter, preserve and protect the land they live on and respect the animals they raise from birth.
They believe in actions, not labels. Their products reflect their beliefs in raising animals with the utmost care. Mary and Brian feed their customers only what they feed their family – the highest quality meats raised as naturally and humanely as possible.
The Many Businesses of Five Marys
In addition to the ranch, direct meat sales and their restaurant, Five Marys Burgerhouse, the Five Marys franchise includes:
- Camp Five Marys, a place for visitors to come and experience a little bit of life on the ranch.
- M5 Ranch School, a series of interactive lessons and engaging activities launched during the pandemic.
- Several cookbooks.
- A test kitchen to create new recipes, host cooking or small business retreats and share their favorite ways to cook Five Marys meats.
In her lifetime, Mary has taken diversification to a whole different level. Her passion to foster the entrepreneurial spirit in others led her to start M5 Academy and M5 Entrepreneuers. Her goal is to share her knowledge and experience to empower others to strengthen or diversify their family farm.
In fact, Mary’s favorite tagline is “you can do it!” She truly believes to be a successful entrepreneur you need to be opportunistic, scrappy and work hard.
Happy Mother's Day, Mary — and all the farm moms who help keep their family, farm and community running.
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