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!
Here is a super fun and random fact on this special Friday edition of Ranch Raised!
What two things hail from the Cornhusker state, are sweet, enjoyed by many, and share August 16th as their day of celebration? My husband and Kool Aid!
Today is National Kool Aid Day! Kool-Aid is the official soft drink of Nebraska. Kool-Aid, an American brand of powdered drink mix, now owned by Kraft Heinz, was invented by Edwin Perkins in Hastings, Nebraska. Perkins was always fascinated by chemistry and liked to invent things. As a boy, he worked in his family’s general store after school and experimented with concoctions in his mother’s kitchen. He became interested in a new powdered dessert mix called Jell-O that came in Six Delicious Flavors. His childhood friend and future wife, Kitty Shoemaker, introduced the product to him.
Later, Perkins finished high school and set up a mail-order business to sell the products he had created. Perkins and his wife produced a bottled, concentrated drink mix, Fruit Smack, which also came in six delicious flavors like Jell-O’s. In 1927, he developed a method of removing the liquid from Fruit Smack — due to problems with bottle packaging — so the remaining powder could be packaged in envelopes. He designed and printed the packaging himself, with a new name Kool-Ade. Remember when Kool Aid was 10 cents a pack? Oh the good ole days!
And happy birthday to Mr Jones Ranch, my husband! What better way to celebrate than raising a glass of Kool Aid, one of your favorites!
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.
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.
[email protected] or visit facebook.com/ranchraisedwithkarinajones
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