“I knew that we wanted enough animals to feed us and to have a dairy,” recalls Susan. “But Dan was Type A and he took off with it. Next thing I knew, we were at an auction … before we knew it, we had 300 black Angus.” They also have 100 heritage laying hens, 100 Tamworth pigs, and a micro-dairy made up of 20 Jersey cows. What doesn’t make it to their diner gets sold at two local farmers’ markets in Manhattan.

The key differentiator among farmers like the Gibson’s is the fact that they finish their animals on grass, rather than corn. But doing so takes time and requires a great deal of land, as the animals must be rotated often. What the pastures lack in grass in the winter the family makes up for with dry hay and baleage, which is made in the summer months from rye and orchard grass with broad-leaved ladino. The grass, high in both carbohydrates and sugar, is cut and wrapped tight in biodegradable plastic so that no oxygen gets in and no fermentation can happen. “When you open it up in March, it smells like you just cut it and the animals go nuts for it,” Dan explains.

The farm is Animal Welfare Approved (AWA), a certification program and label that are considered by many to be the most rigorous in the animal welfare field. Founded in 2006 as a certification program for meat and dairy product, AWA is a birth-to-death program that works with over 2,000 farms in the U.S. and Canada.

Although the AWA label often accompanies the certified organic label, only 46 percent of AWA-certified farms are organic, meaning they feed their animals certified organic feed. Dan is part of that group because, as he puts it, “I feed everything the way I want to eat and I’m willing to pay for it.”

The two Grazin’ locations are also the only 100 percent AWA-certified restaurants. Other establishments might offer a few dishes, but Andrew Gunther, AWA program director, says the organization created the restaurant certification just for Grazin’. Even their mayo is approved.

“Dan takes farm-to-fork to a whole other level,” says Gunther.

Eating at Grazin means you’ll never see a Sysco truck parked out front because every ingredient on the diner’s menu comes from their farm or from people the Gibsons know personally. If tomatoes aren’t in season, well, you’re not going to find one on your bun. When Prodigal Farm is held up making cheese, it means no blue-cheese burger. Buns are made down the street at the Waldorf School, and when chicken soup is on the menu, it’s made from the Gibson’s retired egg layers.

Is Grazin’ in the black? “Not by much,” says Gibson. “But we’re eating well.”

Photos, from top: A Grazin’ burger by Larisa Zimberoff; Dan and Keith Gibson, by Audra Mulkern for TEDx Manhattan; the black Angus cows at Grazin’ Angus Acres by Michael Altobello.