August 2014 Customer Newsletter
The New Header

"Our gardening forebears meant watermelon to be the juicy, barefoot taste of a hot summer's end, just as a pumpkin is the trademark fruit of late October... It's tempting to reach for melons, red peppers, tomatoes, and other late summer delights before the season even arrives. But it's actually possible (and preferable) to wait, celebrating each season when it comes."


- Author Barbara Kingsolver      
Coming Saturday...
Museum to host workshops, family activities

  

THE SCOOP: Look for Ranch Foods Direct on Saturday, August 2nd at the Colorado Grown Festival at the beautiful downtown Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum (shown right.) Don Martin and Melissa Hahnenberger will be cooking burgers and selling them for $5 each (part of the proceeds go to the museum), while visitors enjoy a full day of cool food, craft and gardening workshops! CLICK HERE to register for workshops and learn more about the day's FREE events.


 

Makers of savory meat pies set their standards high


 


  
THE SCOOP: Pies aren't just for sweet summer fruits. When buttery, flaky crust meets a rich meaty savory filling, the marriage can be every bit as satisfying. Especially when the meat inside that lovingly-made pastry shell is all sourced from Ranch Foods Direct! So it is with a new product being offered by a local couple in Colorado Springs who just happen to be long-time Ranch Foods Direct customers. 

"This is an item I grew up eating in New Zealand," explains Matt Campbell, who started Mountain Pie Co. with his fiance Tara Quisenberry, above. (Speaking of great marriages, the two are planning a September wedding.)

The couple is thoroughly committed to sourcing high quality ingredients like beef, chicken and pork from Ranch Foods Direct and dairy products from Royal Crest. "The integrity of our product is more important to us than the price," Tara says. In fact, she says she would still be a vegetarian if it were not for Ranch Foods Direct (coupled with some influence from her soon-to-be hubby.)


Concerns about livestock welfare and handling gave her an aversion to meat in the past. "Humanely raised is very important to us," she says. "I know I can trust Ranch Foods Direct completely." (Tara is a successful example of what Ranch Foods Direct owner Mike Callicrate jokingly refers to as the company's "vegetarian recovery program.")


Adds Matt: "I think people out there are just as concerned as we are about where their food comes from and how it is raised."


 


  

UP NEXT: For now the couple's savory breakfast and dinner pies (featuring beef, chicken or breakfast chorizo) are sold at the Sunday Downtown Farmers Market and at the recently re-opened Kinfolks in Manitou Springs. (They also do catering.) Eventually, they'd like to sell frozen pies in bulk through retail outlets like Ranch Foods Direct, which sounds like a marriage made in heaven.


MOUNTAIN PIE CO � (719) 650-7344 � MountainPieCo.com


Ranch Foods Direct... supporting local food in oh-so-many ways...

Custom processing business helps area ranchers stay afloat
    
THE SCOOP: Third generation rancher Elin Ganschow, owner of Sangres Best Beef of Westcliffe, relies on Ranch Foods Direct to cut and package her beef for direct sale to the public. Getting access to processing can be a big hurdle for independent ranchers like Elin, who runs mostly Herefords and Red Angus cows at Music Meadows Ranch. "They do an excellent job for me," she said recently at the Colorado Farm and Art Market (held Saturdays at the Margarita at Pine Creek and Wednesdays at Ivywild). "They are a huge asset." Helping other ranchers was the intention of Ranch Foods Direct from day one, says owner Mike Callicrate: "We are the infrastructure that not only allows me to get to the market, but as many other ranchers as we can help." 

Stop and smell the garlic!
 
 
THE SCOOP: The annual Pikes Peak Urban Gardens Garlic Fest is set for Sept. 13. In anticipation of the festival, which gets bigger and better every year, PPUG teamed up with Ranch Foods Direct to create a new garlic bacon burger. Collaborators on the new product included (above, from left) Craig McHugh and Larry Stebbins, of PPUG; Kyle Mauro, of Torpedo Farms Pork of Pueblo; and Mike Callicrate, rancher and owner of Callicrate Beef and Ranch Foods Direct. The burgers will be served at the garlic fest this fall, but you can also pick them up NOW in store, only at Ranch Foods Direct!
Ranch Foods Direct is teaming up with Shawn Saunders, proprietor of The Sourdough Boulangerie, to offer Callicrate Beef as well as fresh breads and pastries at two Colorado Springs farmers markets this summer.

Find Callicrate Beef at these locations...
 
Old Colorado City Market, Saturdays 7 a.m to 1:30 p.m. at Bancroft Park in the Old Colorado neighborhood;
 
Sunday Downtown Market, runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Acacia Park, downtown Colorado Springs

 
 Stop by and say Hi!