"When you don't have an ingredient so you decide not to make the dish?
That's the opposite of Thai cooking..."
- Chef Kris Yenbamroong (To learn more about this cool young chef, CLICK HERE)
Last shopping day before Mother's Day... And Ranch Foods Direct has great gifts!
Consider a special occasion classic hand-cut
"sweetheart ribeye" (shown above)
Or pick up some Thai-style hot sauce and a handy page of recipes
from our May newsletter, in store now (and shown below)
Unique hand-formulated health care products
Local chef-turned-herbalist Becky Anderson has steadily built a following with her extensive line of natural, non-alcohol-containing salves, lip balms and liniments. What sets her apart is that she uses a glycerine and vinegar extraction method, making her products child-friendly and better tasting. Becky doesn't have a storefront of her own, so Ranch Foods Direct is one of the few places you can get these natural treatment products without ordering online.
(Sample products shown below)
In the produce cooler, find unique seasonal offerings, arriving weekly...
Old varieties of fruits and vegetables were selected for their hardiness and nutritional value; modern selection emphasizes yield and cosmetic appeal. Perhaps not surprisingly a recent
study in England showed that the oldest varieties of apples also had the most health-inducing nutritional compounds, attributes which are disappearing from human diets as farming modernizes.
Ranch Foods Direct is part of a network of food hubs and farmer co-ops preserving heritage varieties and traditional farming methods.
Coming up next Saturday, May 20: Annual plant sale and spring open house at Galileo School Garden
The beloved annual spring plant sale and garden open house at the Galileo School of Math and Science, 1600 N Union Blvd, is scheduled for Saturday, May 20, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Come by to see the garden, visit with the students and pick up organic gardening plants. This year's selection includes heritage raspberries and strawberries! Plus, expect to find all of your favorite vegetable plants as well as many perennials and flowers for attracting beneficial insects. The event is open to everyone and all proceeds from the sale will benefit the
Galileo Garden Project.
Be sure to take a minute to visit with Master Gardener Scott Wilson! He directs the garden project and can answer any of your burning gardening questions.
Local Master Gardener advocates for char soil enhancers
Results from the 2016 growing season indicate char soil enhancers perform well in gardening beds
Master garden Scott Wilson is a local advocate for bio-char and bone-char soil amendments.
He finished his first full season of using bio-char amendments provided by Ranch Foods Direct at the Galileo school gardens in 2016. "Last summer we observed a noticeable difference in the squash plants; those in bio-char beds were bigger and a richer green than the ones in non-amended beds," he recounts. "Flowers and fruit appeared sooner and we began harvesting squash from the bio-char beds almost
two weeks earlier than the others. We observed slightly less visual differentiation in our tomato plants, but during a difficult season for many tomato growers, our harvests from the bio-char plants exceeded the harvest from non-bio-char by a factor of 10. Yes, we got 10 times more tomatoes from the bio-char beds! For the most part, bio-char plants in general finished producing before non-bio-char ones. This is beneficial in that it allows earlier summer sowing for fall crops once the initial plants are removed."
Scott recommends applying char at a rate of 10 to 20 pounds of char per 32 square-foot raised bed, or roughly 3% by volume. Be sure to inoculate the char before applying.
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