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!
After a week sharing one of my family’s favorite dessert recipes, I think it is only fitting to feature rhubarb on today’s Fun, Fact, Friday right here on Ranch Raised.
Casually called the ‘pie plant’, rhubarb dots the plains tucked away with in abandoned homesteads and in the yards of those who know just how spectacular this plant is.
Rhubarb is a vegetable known for its reddish stalks and sour taste. Due to its sour taste, it’s rarely eaten raw. Instead, it’s normally cooked — either sweetened with sugar or used as an ingredient.
It wasn’t until the 18th century, when sugar became cheap and readily available, that rhubarb became a popular food. Before that, it was mainly used medicinally. In fact, its dried roots have been utilized in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years.
Only the stalks are eaten, most commonly in sweet soups, jams, sauces, pies, tarts, crumbles, cocktails, and rhubarb wine. As sweet rhubarb pies are a traditional dessert in the United Kingdom and North America, this vegetable is sometimes called “pie plant.”
Rhubarb stalks are a good source of fiber, which may affect your cholesterol. Rhubarb is also a rich source of antioxidants. One study suggests that its total polyphenol content may be even higher than that of kale (7Trusted Source). The antioxidants in rhubarb include anthocyanins, which are responsible for its red color and thought to provide health benefits.
I won’t get any further into the weeds about this nostalgic plant. Chances are you can finally locally grown rhubarb at your farmer’s market or in a neighbor’s backyard.
Karina ranches with her husband, Marty, and 4 children 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, where she deep dives into cattle industry issues and 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 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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