Nina and Ian Abernethy's Fox Den Farm, owned by Scottish immigrant descendants for over 150 years, has been nominated for an American Treasures Award and the Abernethy's could not be more pleased.

Pride of The Plains LLC is a family-owned business producing the finest pasture-raised, grain-finished natural Angus beef. Located in the Hunger Run valley near The Plains, Virginia, the farm provides custom cut beef to chefs and families in Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C.

More than eight upscale restaurants, three local retailers and numerous families in our community and as far away as New York and Chicago enjoy Pride of the Plains beef.

All the beef is raised without the use of hormones or steroids and fed the finest grains, silage and grasses we can procure. More than 75% of our feed is raised and produced on our own farm or contiguous farms with the balance of grains purchased from local producers in the northern Virginia and Maryland Mennonite areas.

Ian, a retired management consultant, and Nina, an interior designer, decided to create a plan to utilize their farm in their retirement to create a product worth of the farm's history and heritage.

Aberdeen Angus beef is the preeminent British beef breed, hailing from the north of Scotland and originally imported to America circa 1873.

The Abernethy's maintain a cow/calf-breeding herd of purebred registered Angus from which they develop animals to enter their feeding program each year.

Initially, they consulted three Ph.D. Beef Nutritionists with a combined experience of 35 years at Virginia Tech to explore feed options and regimens, developmental issues and optimal targets for a program that would consistently meet their finished product objectives.

They then examined the requirements of a custom abattoire to process the beef, realizing that for their targeted customer base, they would need not only a USDA inspected plant, but a butcher with precise cutting skills and the flexibility to respond to highly customized fabrication requests from chefs whose menus evolve with seasons.

After numerous interviews and site visits, the Abernethy's entered a service partnership with Dehaven's Butcher in Winchester, Virginia.

At that time, Dehaven's was state inspected only. In a joint effort Dehaven's and Pride of The Plains LLC took the responsibility, over three months, to develop the plans, procedures and submissions to successfully obtain USDA certification for this plant.

As they began working with a number of our professional chefs, it was clear that the knowledge base of beef fabrication, and cutting skills had been eroded somewhat over the last 30 years. Many culinary schools had virtually eliminated curriculum that taught these skills.

However, with the increasing desire of restaurants and their customers to consume locally produced, non-commercial products—the "Buy Fresh, Buy Local" movement—many chefs expressed interest in acquiring these skills.

In response, Pride of the Plains strongly encourages chefs and sous-chefs to spend time on the cutting room floor to learn more about the various beef cuts and options for utilizing beef both efficiently and creatively in their menu designs.

The American Treasures Awards were created to identify and honor Americans who have made exemplary and substantive contributions to the American enterprise system.