Karina Jones is a real-life ranch wife in the Nebraska Sandhills and one of the most highly sought-after speakers in the cattle industry nationwide!
It is the time of year when it feels like everything is ready all at once, except my tomatoes, but Ill get back to them in a minute. Garden harvest season is a time of year that just feels so sacred to me. It gives me opportunity to reflect on the entire process. The planting of the garden and the hoping for a harvest. The hard work weeding and being so grateful for all the blooms and fruit that start to set on. The praying for the bugs and Mother Nature to have mercy. And then little by little and then a lot by a lot, the harvest comes. And everybody and their mother has zucchini to give away.
I am that woman that just can’t see anything go to waste, especially when it comes to food. This is probably the consequences of my meager upbringing and the even meager financial situation of when we were first married. There was a time I looked at those shelves of name brand jellies in the store and longed for the day that I could afford to put one in my cart. And now that I could probably afford it, I wouldn’t dare. Because I my family wants the pickles that I preserved. They want the plum jelly that can’t be bought in a store. They want my peach salsa that can be found no where else.
So on today’s menu will be Jones Ranch burgers on the grill, harvested from daughters Hereford 4-H steer from last year, served alongside roasted eggplant and tomatoes that were still on my garden’s vine this morning, and peach crisp baked fresh. And while we will never travel world or even the country, when my family sits at my table, I hope they know, we are rich.
Karina ranches with her husband, Marty, and 4 children near Merriman, NE. She grew up in western NE, with roots also in southwest SD. The cattle industry and raising kids is her passion.
Watching the cattle industry go the path that it has gone, she could no longer sit quietly at home checking cows, fixing fence, and doing all the everyday tasks wondering when some else was going to make it all better. As she became more active and outspoken on industry issues, she was asked to join the R-CALF USA staff in September 2020 as the Checkoff Petition Campaign manager. That position transcended into her former role as full time Field Director for R-CALF USA.
Listen to Ranch Raised on a Your Ag Network hometown station or www.youragnetwork.com where she talks about her daily life on the Jones Ranch.
Cattle producers are her people. She will meet you at the county fair, at the sale barn, or anywhere the dusty trail leads.
karina@youragnetwork.com or visit facebook.com/ranchraisedwithkarinajones
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