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!
I am always looking for new ways to use my garden goodies in the kitchen. Is the word I am looking for, “utilitarian”? Like, I want nothing to go to waste. I want to utilize every little bit of garden goodness.
If you have chives in your garden, you know that they quickly erupt with those beautiful, lavender blossoms in the spring. This year, I decided to try making chive blossom vinegar. I gathered a bunch of chive blossoms before they were fully opened and rinsed them off. I filled a couple of pint jars half to 2/3 full of the blossoms and then filled the jars with good ole white distilled vinegar. I set them in a dark cupboard for a few weeks and decided not to tell anyone what I was doing, in case it didn’t turn out and I tossed the concoction out the back door.
After a few weeks, I opened the cupboard door to find the most beautiful purple, clear vinegar. I was able to easily fetch the blossoms out of the vinegar with a spoon. It smelled heavenly, in a chive vinegar with a pinch of floral sort of way. I couldn’t wait to use it, so I rushed to the garden to pull some radishes, sliced them up with some red onion, covered with the chive vinegar and added some dill, sugar, and mustard seed and voila, pickled radishes. Umm, yes, the chive vinegar is awesome! I will definitely be making more so I have some tucked away for the winter because it will be a pantry staple in my kitchen.
Next up, I can’t wait to make some salad dressing with it.
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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
