Website

Liz Riffle

Regenerative Farming & Agriculture Specialist

Liz Riffle is a Regenerative Farming & Agriculture Specialist and the Owner of Riffle Farm in West Virginia. With over six years of experience, Liz specializes in holistic bison farming and employing humane agricultural practices in her business. Riffle Farm is the first commercial bison operation in the state of West Virginia and is part of the movement to facilitate the large-scale regeneration of the world’s grasslands. She is committed to honest meat and changing the current meat processing system that the US currently relies on.

Education

  • Masters, Nursing Education, Excelsior University
  • Part of the US Navy Nurse Corps Commission at Northwestern University

Professional Achievements

  • Riffle Farms was the first commercial bison operation in the state of West Virginia
  • Started The Honest Carnivore - A WV Meat Collective, the first farm business in West Virginia to field harvest animals for state certified commercial sale
  • Has appeared on multiple podcasts

Certifications & Organizations

  • Board member of the National Bison Association since 2022
  • Savory Accredited Professional–Liz teaches Holistic Management across the country

Favorite Piece of Advice

Hone and believe in your gut instinct, and work with Mother Nature—her secret is patience.

wikiHow's Editorial Process wikiHow partners with over 1000+ experts from a wide range of fields to ensure our content is accurate and based on well-established research and testimony. Content Managers conduct interviews and work closely with each expert to review information, answer reader questions, and add credible advice. Learn more about our editorial process and why millions of readers trust wikiHow.

Q&A Comments (5)

What are the reasons why meat has a gamey taste?
The gamey flavor often arises from factors such as the animal's diet and the stress it undergoes during harvesting. Poor diets, including incompatible grains for animals like bison, can affect the flavor, as can the stress hormones released during the animal's high-stress harvesting process or during hunting activities. Furthermore, an unhealthy diet can disrupt the animal's digestive system, leading to the release of specific stress chemicals that impact the meat's taste, with the extent of gaminess often correlating with the duration of exposure to an inadequate diet.
What causes the gamey taste in a bison, and how do I reduce the gamey taste of the bison?
To mitigate the gamey taste of bison, prioritizing the acquisition of high-quality meat is crucial. So only buy from trusted and reputable sources. Typically, this gaminess is linked to the animal's diet and the processing method, particularly how it was slaughtered or harvested. Ensuring a nutritious diet for the bison, compatible with their complex digestive system, is essential to minimizing the undesirable flavor. Additionally, reducing stress during the harvesting process, whether in a slaughter facility or during hunting, is essential, as stress hormones released during such times can impact the meat's taste. A healthy diet is also imperative to maintain the digestive system's equilibrium and prevent the release of stress-related chemicals that can affect the meat's flavor.
Can I feed haylage and silage to our bison?
We incorporate haylage into the diet of our bison, which is supplied in wrapped form. The key disparity between haylage and silage lies in their moisture content. Haylage contains a lower moisture content, while silage is designed to ferment at a specific moisture level. Both haylage and silage are provided to our bison, and they enjoy both varieties, with the choice often influenced by weather conditions. 
See more comments

Co-authored Articles (10)

400+ Cute, Cool, & Unique Name Ideas for Cows & Bulls

Choose the perfect name for your cow with this guide If you’ve recently gotten a new cow, you’re probably wondering what to name it. Luckily, there are all kinds of cute names for cows, no matter the type, color, or ...

How to

Make Beef Jerky

Beef jerky is a delicious snack made by drying lean, flavorful meat. You can use all sorts of meat for your jerky, including flank steak, sirloin, or filet mignon. To flavor your meat, add seasoning and marinade. To dry ...

How to

Make Prosciutto

Make cured meat at home with this simple prosciutto recipeThe pig is an animal which has brought people a wide variety of meats. Prosciutto is Italian ham, that has been cured and dried. When you learn how to make prosci...

How to

Cure Bacon

Curing bacon yourself might seem like a lot of labor when you can just go to the supermarket and pick up a package that is ready to cook as is. However, curing the meat yourself allows you to omit sodium nitrites if desi...

How to

Cure Meat

Curing is an age-old process of preserving meat for later use. With just a few ingredients — salt, nitrites, and time — the meat transforms: from water-packed and pliable to dry and stiff. Over time, the flavor devel...

How to

Build a Livestock Fence

Livestock fencing is dependent on the type of livestock you intend to keep inside the fence. There are many types of fence that will control livestock.This article provides a simple brief overview of typical livestock fe...

How to

Get the Gamey Taste Out of Meat

Eating game meat like venison, bison, duck, or rabbit is a great way to become healthier and more self-sufficient in your meat routine. But the gamey flavor associated with it can be off-putting. Whether you hunt your ow...

How to

Cut, Bale, and Store Hay

Dry hay harvest and baling is an important part of life for ranchers and farmers who have foraging herbivorous animals, like sheep, cattle and horses. A good hay crop is defined by weather, field conditions and plant res...

How to

Raise Cattle

There is more than one way to raise cattle, that's something that everyone, beginner and veteran cattlemen alike can agree with. How cattle are raised depends not just on the individual raising them, but the breed, class...

How to

Make Homemade Bacon

Bacon is a cured pork product made from pork belly. The curing process requires a large quantity of salt, usually mixed with other ingredients to help infuse flavor. After curing the pork belly, people usually smoke baco...