If you're looking for a unique entree, Oakridge Farm has something to offer: an ostrich roast.

For 18 years, farm owners Rosie Jones and C.W. Horsley have been raising and selling ostriches and emus for meat, eggs and leather, along with emu oil, which is a natural moisturizer with anti-inflammatory properties.



If you're looking for a unique entree, Oakridge Farm has something to offer: an ostrich roast.



For 18 years, farm owners Rosie Jones and C.W. Horsley have been raising and selling ostriches and emus for meat, eggs and leather, along with emu oil, which is a natural moisturizer with anti-inflammatory properties.



At first glance, Oakridge could be another horse farm along Patrick Road in Gastonia. Fenced-in pastures and small wooden stables line one side of the gravel driveway. But then the ostriches, as curious as horses, come to have a look at the visitors, trotting up to the fence with heads bobbing. The biggest adult birds stand higher than 8 feet tall and can weigh 350 to 400 pounds or more.



There are about 35 ostriches at the farm now, along with fiveemus, another large, flightless bird species from Africa.



Oakridge Farm�s biggest ostriches are penned in pastures on their own or with a mate and they all have names, including as Elvis, Maya, L.B. and Cindy. They are the breeders, and lay massive 3- to 5-pound eggs. Those can be scrambled or boiled just like chicken eggs � and a single ostrich egg can feed up to 13 people.



The eggs that are fertilized and incubated hatch tiny 3- to 5-pound ostriches, which grow at an astounding rate and reach 6 to 7 feet or more in their first year. Once these �grow-outs� are big enough, they are caught and corralled onto a horse trailer. That can be a tricky process since they can run up to 40 miles per hour and kick with more strength than a horse. Jones recently had her arm broken when one frightened bird kicked her.



After being loaded on the trailer, the ostriches are taken to Thomas Brothers Meat Processing in North Wilkesboro, where they are slaughtered and processed into several cuts of meat, from ground ostrich, which sells for $6.99 per pound, to several different fillets costing up to $21 per pound � and even the ostrich roast.



From there, Jones and Horsley sell the meat each week at a Charlotte farmers' market, as well as from their Gastonia farm and via their website (OakridgeFarm.biz) to customers across the country.



Some of it has made its way onto diners' plates at the Sir Edmond Halley's Restaurant on Park Road in Charlotte, which features on its dinner menu an Oakridge Farm ostrich meatloaf for $15.50 with julienned vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy. Helen-Marie White, general manager, said the dish is popular. It stays on the menu year-round.



"It's not gamey. It's really lean,� she said. �You probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference (from beef).�



Ostrich meat is a red meat, not white like poultry, and Jones said it's a tasty and healthy substitute for beef. It's naturally 97-percent fat free, is raised without antibiotics or hormones, and has been endorsed by the American Heart Association.



"Beef is greasy. Ostrich is not," Horsley said. "If you didn't know, you'd think it was the best burger you ever tasted."



If it doesn't sound appetizing to you, you're not alone.



Jones said they faced an uphill battle selling the meat when they first began. In an effort to get people to try it, they created a concession trailer and took the meat to the Cleveland County Fair and other events.



"I said, 'If they're not going to try it, I'm going to cook it for them,�� Jones said. They offered ostrich burgers, ostrich barbecue, ostrich quesadillas, and "ostrich on a stick," marinated fillets grilled and served on a skewer. To entice customers, they offer a money-back guarantee. But everyone who tries it likes it, according to Jones



�We�ve not had one person bring back food from the trailer in all those years,� she said.



Selling ostrich burgers was not what Jones originally had in mind when she started ostrich farming. About 20 years ago the ostrich breeding market was lucrative, with adult pairs selling for as much as $65,000. Wanting to put her former horse farm to use, Jones purchased a few birds for the more modest price of $1,500 a pair.



But right about that time, the ostrich breeding market crashed, and the formerly expensive birds were being given away by farmers getting out of the business. There were 400 ostrich farms in North Carolina when they started, Jones said, but the number has dwindled significantly since then.



"Now it's just a handful of us," Horsley said.



Oakridge and the other remaining ostrich farms have found a niche in the market by selling the meat, eggs, leather and sometimes feathers, making about $800 to $1,000 per bird � a good profit but nothing near the astronomical prices of the old breeders' market.



"It's been a struggle," Jones said, recalling how they initially had to pay a USDA inspector to certify the meat when the ostriches were being processed. Since then, however, laws have been passed to make that mandatory.



Though ostrich and emu farming has taken a different route than she initially imagined, Jones said the business has been worth the time.



�It's really been an adventure,� she said. �Some day, we'll retire.�