Krys Cook didn’t set out to be an ambassador for women in the outdoors and yet through her own healing journey, this bowhunter, rancher, outdoor educator and mother of three has emerged as a prominent figure within it. A testament to this is The Ranch, a veteran-focused outdoor educational facility in Julian, California, of which Cook is the founder, president and director of programming. 

Cook’s background is about as far from the stereotypical backwoods hunter as you can get. She didn’t grow up in a remote cabin in the woods. She grew up in the bustling Los Angeles area. In college, she majored in fine arts and got her master’s degree in marriage and family therapy with a focus in art therapy.

Today, she runs The Ranch, a business that grew from a small artisan pork company to a place that works hard to educate others on all things hunting, outdoors and survival. 

Cook describes her business as passion-driven and inspired by her family. The Cook family hunts, shoots bows and runs The Ranch’s educational programs together. Their oldest son sparked the entire idea behind the business. 

Cook became focused on finding healthier-sourced food than what she could get at the local grocery store when her son was diagnosed with autism. After pouring over miles-long lists of ingredients and additives on product labels, Cook decided to take complete control of the family’s nutrition, so they moved to a small farm and began raising animals for food. 

Photo provided by Krys Cook

It was just before the whole farm-to-table movement busted wide open with a wave that carried Cook’s farm to success. She took her psychology and art background and applied it to raising animals. 

“I wanted to raise them to be the most beautiful pieces of artwork possible,” Cook said. 

Cook met her husband, Mike, in graduate school. Mike, who served 20 years in the Navy, introduced Krys to hunting. Although it took Krys a while to jump into the sport, it seemed like a natural progression in her dedication to feeding her family food from the healthiest sources possible. 

Cook is also passionate about sharing the outdoors with her children—ages 9, 12 and 14—and what hunting teaches them about food, life and responsibility.

The Cook’s ranch has become an educational oasis, first by offering classes on whole-animal butchering. 

Photo provided by Krys Cook

“I just did this because I was hoping there were other people out there like me, and they would want to do this. I thought if I could make a program for myself that I could have gone through at the beginning of my journey, how would that look?” Cook explained. 

Now, The Ranch offers educational courses and retreats focusing on helping others hone the skills they need to feed their families wholesome, sustainable, healthy-sourced food while enjoying the great outdoors. 

In a recent interview with Kinute, Cook shared her thoughts on raising children, feeding her family, and sharing her love of hunting with other women. 

You started raising animals to have access to a healthier food source for your son, but how did you make the jump from raising animals to hunting?

After having children, I was inspired to take control of my food system, and raising animals was my first step. Then, I found a lot of interest in raising animals and the science of feeding them and harvesting them. I used my background in marriage and family therapy, specifically art therapy, in the process. I had no idea I was even interested in any of that, but that was where I landed—raising pigs. It was a marriage of those two interests. 

Photo provided by Krys Cook

I originally had no interest in hunting; that was really out of my realm, but my husband brought that to me. We’ve been together for almost 20 years. Every year, he would hunt for his own therapy and to fill up our freezer. Then, I became interested in learning that and doing it on my own. I wanted to be able to pass that on to my children. I didn’t want that to only fall on my husband because he’s gone so much in the military. I wanted to know how to hunt on my own each fall. I wanted to do it with my kids and continue that tradition in our family. 

What was your first successful hunting experience like?

My first successful hunting experience was a turkey with a bow at around 60 yards. I was not with my husband when it happened but with my son. It wasn’t that profound of an experience for me; it was just really cool. I made soup with it, and we utilized all the bones and stuff. 

I’ve killed a lot of birds with guns, but I would rather focus on the archery part. My first time would have been a duck hunt. That would have been a really long time ago. But killing an animal with my bow, that’s a much more personal thing. 

Photo provided by Krys Cook

How did your family get into archery, and how has shooting together affected your relationship with your children and your husband?

All of my kids started shooting when they were pretty small. I don’t really remember when, but I don’t think they remember when, either. They just started when they took an interest in it.  We always had bows for them, and they saw their dad shooting. Then, down the line, they saw me shooting, too, so it was natural for them to want to shoot a bow.  We never pressured them. 

Most kids exposed to archery will typically become interested around eight or nine. Although I know some kids who started when they were younger, that’s around when they develop the hand-eye coordination to shoot well. 

Photo provided by Krys Cook

I reminded my 14-year-old yesterday that his [hunting] tag is about to expire. I asked him if he wanted to go out with me this weekend. He’s playing football right now, and he’s just so tired that he doesn’t really want to go, and I don’t want him to feel pressure from me. 

I will always buy my kids tags, but they shift into what kind of hunters they want to be each year. I let them define that because I never want to burn them to get burnt out. I want them to always enjoy hunting.

My kids all have their own independent interest in hunting. My daughter just finished her hunter safety course and will go on her first turkey hunt this fall. She’s going to crush it. She’ll be great. 

How has hunting with your kids impacted you as a mother and your relationship with your children?

I love hunting with my kids. It is my very favorite activity to do with them. It brings us closer together, connects us to the Earth, and gives us time away from being busy. It makes us slow down. It also takes them away from electronics, which is huge. 

Hunting helps them find a bigger purpose. It is tough, especially bowhunting. Every time we go out, we assume we aren’t going to see anything. Game animals are so few and far between out here where we live. I like that because it helps teach my kids how to deal with defeat. It also teaches them patience and discipline. Not many things that our children are given in modern life really teach them any of that. 

Hunting creates something for them that can’t be recreated in a school environment where they have to deal with disappointment and be okay with that. There are no trophies in trying. And because it is a struggle, once they do harvest something, it is a huge deal. But there is always something good about getting out there in the outdoors every single time, whether we harvest an animal or not. Creating that passion for the outdoors with them is special. 

And it teaches me, too. It’s tough to hunt with little kids. You have to have a ton of patience. I’m still a relatively new hunter, but my kids have taken precedence over me now. I’m more concerned with them enjoying the experience. I will let them have a shot over me any freaking day. At the end of the day, the food is all going in our freezer anyway. We’re sharing it. 

It thrills me more to be there for their successes. My kids are now in their teenage years, and I don’t know how much longer they will want to hunt with me. I only have this little magical block of time where they are old enough to get out there and go hunting but are young enough to still want to do it with me. They are teetering on the brink of wanting to go out with their friends. I know this time with them will pass, and then I will have years on years of being able to hunt with my husband once my kids get older. That’s fine. My goal has never been to be a professional hunter.  I just want to fill up the freezer. Right now, I just have to put myself aside and foster these experiences for them so that they take on this tradition that we have as a family and be able to pass it on to our grandchildren and their grandchildren. 

Photo provided by Krys Cook

So many of The Ranch’s educational opportunities seem geared toward women. What made you want to share hunting with other women? 

We have specific women’s programs, and then we have open ones. Everything is targeted for everyone, I think. I want to say that we steer away from things that target men because that’s what this industry targets so much. We try to target mainly the underdogs, the people who don’t feel like there’s a space for them to learn. We want to provide a safe space for youth, women, and anyone wanting to learn about the outdoors. 

What are some of the classes The Ranch offers?

Some of the courses we offer are field dressing, bowhunting, butchering, and survival - we offer all kinds of different survival courses. We also offer advanced field dressing, which is like caping for taxidermy. We also have retreats specifically designed for youth, women, and veterans. 

Hunters often face criticism for killing their food, but women are even more harshly judged for it. Some think the lifestyle conflicts with a woman’s innate desire to nurture. A woman who can dispatch an animal for food, whether one she has hunted or one she has raised, is often considered especially cruel or heartless. What are your thoughts on that?

My view on being a woman in this space is that I want to do everything. Part of this is because my husband has been gone for a large portion of our marriage because of his obligations with the military, so I’ve had to play both roles of mom and dad to my children. 

But I want to be a nurturer and a provider … It’s not even that I want to be, but that I need to be. 

It is our duty as humans to respect our food, and part of that is knowing where that food is coming from, whether you’re a man or a woman. If I’m going to eat meat, I have to understand where it came from and have a story about it for my kids. Period. 

Photo provided by Krys Cook

Of course, I have feelings about [dispatching animals]. I don’t love it, especially killing livestock. It’s terrible. I hate doing it. There’s nothing attractive or appealing about it. But it’s part of responsibly feeding your family, which has everything to do with nurturing.

I think any woman who comes through our programs feels the same way. They want a chance to provide for their families just like their husbands. 

When we start talking about bigger picture things like emergency situations, whether the world ever goes there or not, nurture will only get you so far. Are you going to be the type of person that runs away? Who are you going to be in those situations? I’m going to be an ultra badass. I want to have those skills so I can provide. That’s why I’m continuing to learn and then passing that knowledge on to others who want to be that person, too.