All natural Callicrate Beef jerky, no MSG, no artificial
flavorings or preservatives. Completely chemical free. Sold in
two flavors — teriyaki and red hot sweety — in
handy quarter-pound packs for just under $10.
New from Heritage Acres
pork: one pound ground pork chubs. Make
your own sausage! $4.99/lb.
Score during the Superbowl
Locally made fresh Baja Salsa and
one-of-a-kind made-in-house creamy salmon dip, CLICK HERE.
“When I think
how far the onion has traveled
Just to enter my stew today, I could kneel and praise All small
forgotten miracles.” — Poet Noami Shihab
Nye
The
Recipe Box
“…Knife enters onion and onion
falls apart on the chopping block, a history
revealed…”
“…At meal, we sit to eat,
commenting on texture of meat or herbal aroma but never on
the translucence of onion, now limp, now divided, or its
traditionally honorable career: for the sake of others,
disappear.”
The lines above are from “The
Traveling Onion,” a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye.
The onion, a tangy root vegetable that keeps well through the
winter, is believed to have originated in India, migrating from
there to Egypt, then to Greece, then Italy and the rest of Europe
before eventually finding it’s way to the U.S. With a little
creativity, it can easily become a meal’s centerpiece.
Colorado is a leading producer of onions, and they
are available year round — with other select produce
— at Ranch Foods Direct.
The Ranch Foods Direct store is clearing a 500-sq.-
ft space for product, service and cooking demonstrations. The
new area is expected to accommodate around 20 people. It will
allow the store more room for future cooking demonstrations as
well as demonstrations of the home service program.
Food for thought —
New book re-traces a historic attempt to document
and preserve crop diversity, an issue then and now. CLICK HERE.
Arkansas Valley Organic growers
update, CLICK HERE.
Creature comforts
Get your meatloaf, beef
broth, soup bones, baking potatoes, squash and
stew meat at Ranch Foods Direct. Pick up
some natural pet foods too.
January
2009
Happy New Year to all
the wonderful loyal
customers of Ranch Foods Direct!
Shop Ranch
Foods Direct
and start the year off right.
In 2009, start
fresh with home service Pete helps deliver the store to your
door
Pete Vieth is the new home service consultant for
Ranch Foods Direct. He recently took a moment from his busy
schedule to answer questions about the health, value and
convenience benefits of using the home service program. An
upright freezer for food storage is included in the
program.
Pete Vieth
Q. A lot of people are worried about
their budget this time of year. How does home service help with
an individual or family food budget?
A. One of the things it does is it locks you into a set
monthly food budget, so you’re not spending money
randomly like you would at a supermarket. Depending on what
you like to eat, we can fit any menu into the home service
budget. It’s not one size fits all.
I typically interview potential customers about what
foods they like, what types of servings they eat, and that kind of
thing. Most people don’t know what their food budget is
and that’s part of the problem. At the grocery store
it’s a few dollars here and a few dollars there, and it adds
up.
Q. A home service plan is a good way to eliminate
impulse buying, isn’t it?
A. Absolutely. Statistically 60 percent of what people
spend at the grocery store is on impulse items.
DID YOU KNOW? … The average
American spends more than 100 hours grocery shopping
annually. Save time, save money: sign up with the Ranch
Foods Direct home service option.
Restaurant
profile This sandwich will bowl you
over
Meet the “slopper,” a
Callicrate Beef third-pounder smothered in arguably the
city’s best green chili, shredded cheese and diced onions,
served open faced on a grilled roll. The chili is studded with
tender chunks of pork from Ranch Foods Direct. “You
have to love cooking to make it right,” says Pat, the
plate’s creator, who adds that the whole endeavor takes
about a day (although the diner has to wait only minutes for it to
arrive at the table.)
This dish just might be one of Colorado
Springs’ hidden culinary gems, a highlight on a menu
that includes the fixings you expect at a bowling alley and bar:
burgers, sandwiches, salads and Southwestern specialties, but
with a special ingredient you might not expect, natural fresh
Callicrate Beef.
The Pikes Peak Grill at the Peak Bowl (2861 N.
Prospect, 719-636-5193, CLICK HERE for their website) is
undergoing an extensive renovation to elevate the décor
to match the high quality food. New paint, flooring and
bathrooms are only the start of what owner Larry Phair plans as
a multi-year project. Eventually, the new bar will sport an
exhibition window overlooking the bowling lanes and more
space will be added to the dining area, which will eventually
offer live music.
One thing Larry won’t change is his long-time
loyalty to serving Callicrate Beef — which he calls the
city’s true “gourmet burger” — and
his commitment to doing business with a neighbor (the Ranch
Foods Direct store is just around the corner.) “I had a New
Year’s Eve party with 60 people in here, and they just
raved about the food,” he recounts. “They
don’t know why, they just know it’s a good
burger, and they enjoy it. That’s why we go with the food
we do. You can get it cheaper, sure. But the quality makes
whatever you’re making that much better.”
DID YOU KNOW? … In a
Parade Magazine poll, 48% of poll
respondents
say they are eating out less than they used to. Another 21%
of those surveyed
said they are planting their own vegetable gardens, a
national trend.
New year,
new food economizing strategies
Times are tough economically, but that’s
potentially an opportunity to make some positive changes
centered on food.
It’s clear that people are
showing a renewed interest in preparing their own food and
eating at home, and even in producing more of their own food
or buying it locally.
Mike Callicrate, owner of Ranch Foods Direct, says
those can be very positive shifts. One benefit is an increase in
family time. “It’s not just the eating time,”
he says. “It’s the food preparation time in the
kitchen. It’s the clean-up time as you go.”
Taking advantage of quality prepared foods allows
you to eat in without being overwhelmed, even with a busy
schedule. Carol Miller, owner of the Blue Spruce Market in
Evergreen, says you can feed a family of four quality food from
her gorgeous deli for as little as $20. “People are not
eating out as much, and they are cooking for themselves more,
she says. “But it doesn’t need to be more difficult.
We’re here as a resource. You can pick up an entire meal
or just get a side.” (CLICK HERE to visit the Blue Spruce
Market on-line.)
“With most restaurants you can’t tell
where the food came from and how it was prepared. Here you
can, and for a fraction of the price,” Mike Callicrate adds,
during at a visit to the Blue Spruce. Eating in a restaurant
— while it can be a nice treat — also requires
paying for more business overhead and for extras like tips and
drinks that quickly add up.
Pete Vieth, Ranch Foods Direct home service
consultant, says freezer sales by the country’s leading
manufacturer were up 21 percent in November and are expected
to shoot up even more in subsequent months. That indicates
people are buying in bulk, eating in more and using options like
home service to limit spending, improve convenience and do
away with excessive driving and fuel usage.
Read Pete’s interview, above, to learn more
about the budget benefits of home service.
“We’re now making it even more
convenient to eat Ranch Foods Direct quality products by taking
it right to your door,” Mike Callicrate says. “This
just puts us another step closer to our
customer.”
Supplier Profile
Heritage pork from hog heaven
A visit to the farm of Russ Kremer, founder of a unique
Missouri pork producers’ cooperative
Imagine dropping down into a quiet
river valley dotted with small German towns, each with an
immense Catholic church at its center, where cattle graze
peacefully on hillsides and in lush valleys, while pigs root freely
amid the trees before bedding down for the night in an open
barn knee-deep in sweet-smelling hay.
"You don't know what news is, nor what
politics, nor what the life of man,
till you see it on so small a scale and with your own liberty at
stake.” — Robert Louis Stevenson
–
... Your local source of natural beef, poultry,
buffalo, pork, lamb, eggs,
wild seafood, deli meats
and cheeses, meals
and more!
Store and Meat Plant
2901 N. El Paso, Colorado Springs 80907
Retail Hours: Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-6 p.m.
Saturday 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Closed Sunday
(719) 473-2306 or 1-866-866-6328 www.ranchfoodsdirect.com
Mike
Callicrate, Owner
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This newsletter is published by:
Candace Krebs Writing, Editing,
Photography, Design - Candace Krebs is a freelance writer and
communications specialist. Contact her at [email protected]