Five Marys Ranch Named One of America's Top 100 Small Businesses
I have some big news from our little ranch. Five Marys Ranch was named one of the Top 100 Small Businesses in America by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce!!
The award is called the CO-100. The Chamber picked 100 businesses out of more than 12,000 that applied this year, and somehow a cattle ranch in Fort Jones, California made the list.
What is the CO-100?
The CO-100 is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's yearly list of America's top 100 small businesses. Businesses apply, the Chamber reviews every one of them, and the 100 honorees get invited to Washington, DC for a few days of events in October. This year that was October 19 through 21, with a gala on the 20th they call the Night of 100 Stars and a Small Business Forum on the 21st.
Five Marys was honored as one of the 100 for 2026. For a family ranch that sells beef and pork straight to your door with no middlemen, that felt like a pretty big deal.
The trip to DC
So I flew to Washington, DC to celebrate! My friend Amanda Brown, a fellow cattle rancher, came along on behalf of the Siskiyou Economic Development Council. We left Fort Jones in the middle of the night to catch a 5am flight... ranch life does not stop for awards.
We stayed right by the White House and watched the presidential motorcade go by the morning we arrived. The weather was perfect. Our friends Eric and Alana Goldstein of G5 Insurance came down from New York to celebrate with us. They have supported our M5 Entrepreneurs program for years and we had never met in person until this trip!
Amanda and me at the Small Business Forum. Yes, we wore the hats.
The Night of 100 Stars gala was incredible. As small business owners we spend so much of our time working through the next problem and keeping things moving. Having a whole evening set aside to celebrate that work was a gift.
The next day was the Small Business Forum with speakers from Google, American Express, Walmart, Josh Cellars and T-Mobile, plus a behind the scenes tour of the U.S. Capitol. Amanda and I also stopped by Congressman James Gallagher's office to say hello from Siskiyou County.
Who this award really belongs to
The Chamber made us feel so special. But the whole time I kept thinking... none of this happens without our customers.
Every box you have ordered and every friend you have sent our way built this ranch. We raise the cattle here, harvest and butcher them here in our own USDA facility, flash freeze every cut within hours, and ship it straight to your door. There is no distributor and no wholesale. It is our family and our butcher team, and then it is you.
So thank you!! This one is yours too :)
What's next
Back to work. It is finally getting cold in Scott Valley, so our family dinners are a repeat of roasts, soups and the slow cooker. If you want to cook along with us this fall, the new Fall Family Dinners Box has the cuts for seven easy dinners and a recipe book with a night by night plan and a grocery list.
From our family to yours, thank you for trusting us with your family's table.
XO, Mary
