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!
Welcome to the day of the week when I give you some “food for thought”…pun intended…about the food you eat and story behind it. Let’s hit it! It’s Fun, Fact Friday right here on Ranch Raised!
Each year on April 19th, National Garlic Day celebrates a vegetable also known as the stinking rose. The fragrant and potent root has been seasoning dishes for thousands of years. This stinking rose is a member of the lily family. This family also includes the flavorful onions, leeks, and shallots we use in some of our favorite dishes. Garlic originated in Asia over 7,000 years ago, so it’s no surprise that cuisines worldwide incorporate it into favored recipes.
Garlic is quite versatile as illustrated by its many medicinal purposes. The mighty bulb is considered an herbal remedy for colds and may reduce blood pressure and cholesterol. Modern science has also proven garlic’s antibiotic properties.
Myth and superstition reek of garlic. Get it?!?! The most familiar one suggests that garlic wards off vampires, witches, werewolves, and demons. Greek midwives used garlic to keep evil spirits away, and fill Roman soldiers who consumed the bulb with courage.
California is the top garlic producing state. Unfortunately, since Americans have such a large appetite for garlic that means that the US is the largest global importer of this commodity brining it in from China, Mexico, Spain and Argentina.
So check your labels and support your US garlic farmers to help strengthen our domestic industry and hopefully gain traction on growing more of our own supply!
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 former 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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