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’s time to get back to Fun, Fact Friday here on Ranch Raised.
Today, January 6th is National Bean Day! This day celebrates the bean in all sizes, shapes, and colors. We’ve been cultivating beans since the early seventh millennium BC. And today, just as throughout the Old and New World history, beans provide a significant source of protein. Not only are beans an exceptionally healthy meal and snack choice, but they supply an excellent source of fiber. They are low in fat and are high in complex carbohydrates, folate, and iron, too.
While there are 40,000 bean varieties there are only a handful that are mass produced for consumption. Here in the US per capita consumption of dry edible beans is 7.5 pounds per year. North Dakota grows a third of our national supply of edible beans. Americans have chosen Pinto and Navy beans as their mostly widely consumed dry legumes which kind of surprised me. We are a kidney bean household if I do say so myself. I use kidney beans in my chili. I also add them to taco meat to help stretch the beef!
What would the home garden be without beans? How in the world did I get stuck with 3 kids who do not like green beans. While I do still can a number of pints of green beans for my husband and I, I really love canning dilly beans, totally better than a dill pickle! While my garden slumbers I can only dream of the beans I will grow this year.
In the meantime, I think we can all thank the American dry edible bean farmers this weekend by partaking in the fruits of their labor. Let’s start the chili cooking!
Have a great weekend from all of us at Your Ag Network!
Karina ranches with her husband, Marty, and 3 daughters near Broken Bow, 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 current role as full time Field Director for R-CALF USA.
You can hear her almost every Friday on Your Ag Network’s Hot Barn Report that is broadcast on 60 radio stations with coverage in 9 states, where she deep dives into cattle industry issues and highlights R-CALF’s work on industry reforms. Listen to Ranch Raised on a Your Ag Network hometown station or www.youragnetwork.com where she talks about her daily life on the 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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