JJD Ranch

We at JJD Ranch are so delighted to see the new food pyramid. This is what we think a healthy meal should look like. The lamb was grilled. The patty pan was sauteed in olive oil and spices. And, those purple sweet potatoes just need a big dollop of grass-fed butter to make this a complete meal now!

We have been promoting eating heirloom style for years now. Thank you MAHA for catching up and recognizing that this IS the diet we need!

In case you have not yet seen the MAHA food recommendations, check them out at:
https://realfood.gov/

Of all of our remarkable foodstuff that we have at JJD Ranch, this is definitely one of my favorites. The yucca (not to be confused with the yuca that grows a potato like tuber) is a native to the US. These gorgeous spikey barrel shaped plants grow from Panama to southern Canada, and they are often used in landscaping along roadways and at development entrances. They are perennial and evergreen, and they require very little care. They don't need much water. They are in the agave family. The only real downside to them is that those long "leaves" have sharp ends which is why people often confuse them with cacti.

But about every other year, each one puts out a glorious stalk that grows from the top and stands tall above the plant. This stalk is covered with delicious white blossoms. If you can get to them without too many wounds from the spikey leaves, you are in for a real treat. They are crunchy and full. They taste a little like artichoke. And, they make a wonderful addition to things like tuna salad! But, they are also good to just munch on.

There is not a lot of information out there about using yucca for anything but decorative landscaping ... and we would not recommend you picking any of the blossoms from plants that have been used in that way because who knows what kind of chemicals have been used on them .... but if you do have access to a safe yucca, it is likely that, much like agave, we will eventually come to know of and appreciate many benefits of this plant!

https://www.rxlist.com/supplements/yucca.htm

We think our rosemary is simply remarkable because it is such a beautiful and resilient plant. Less than 4 years ago, this guy was just a tiny start with a couple of stubby little branches. And now it has almost overgrown its great big deep 14 inch pot. It has survived scorching sun; snow sleet and ice; super high winds; and pretty severe drought conditions. It has lived from days when it was almost 110 F to days when it was barely 10 F. It is an evergreen, and it has blessed us with gorgeous pale purple edible flowers. It just keeps on growing no matter how much of it we cut to use in our foods.

Rosemary is a wonderful spice whether you use it fresh or dried. One of our favorite ways to use it is to toss lots of it with some olive oil, garlic, and quartered baby potatoes and then bake it all until the potatoes are creamy soft in the middle and nice and crispy on the edges.

But rosemary is apparently not just a yummy spice. It seems to have a plethora of health and beauty care uses. From helping wounds to heal faster, to increasing memory and mental processing, to aiding with asthma, to repelling fleas and ticks, this is a plant that just keeps on doing great things for us.

There are some potential health risks with using large amounts of rosemary such as taking supplements or using rosemary essential oil, so you should always check with your own health care professional before using large amounts of it. But using it as a spice regularly on your food seems to be considered safe for almost everyone.

We are not medical professionals or nutritionists, so as always we will post in the comments some links to sites that will help you understand both the benefits and the risks involved with rosemary. And coming soon, we will be launching a section of our website called Ranch Recipes. We will be sure to post some of our favorite ways to spice things up with our rosemary there when as soon as we can.

Coming Soon!!

Over the years, we have developed some of our own recipes using information from heirloom recipe sources and / or the things we grow. Some of our recipes are things you can special order from us as Cottage Foods, and some are not. But, even when they are, we realize not everyone who visits us online is local. And, we are limited, at least for now, to selling our Cottage Foods locally only.

So, whether you are local or live very far away from us, we are happy to share our recipes with you. And, coming soon to our Remarkable Foodstuff section of our website, there will be a link to some of the recipes we (and our local customers) particularly enjoy. Until that part of the site is up, feel free to contact us and ask ... we will share.

We'd love to know from you ... would you like to be able to access our recipes online? If so, what from our recipes would you most like to see? Keep in mind that part of our mission is to explore fresh old fashioned foodstuff .. so think heritage dishes that would have been made from foods grown in our part of north Texas - rich cobblers, hearty quick breads, skillet meals cooked chuck wagon style, and so forth.

This is great news for our local customers. SB 541 updates Texas Cottage Food Laws. They have needed to be updated for awhile now. This law will go into effect on Sept 1, 2025.

One of the most exciting things about this update is that Cottage Foods can now be sold through Cottage Food Vendors. Before, they had to be put directly into the hands of the customer by the producer. So, this opens many many doors.

If you are interested in becoming a Cottage Food Vendor, please let us know. We would love to consider working with you!

Want to start growing some of your own food but not sure how to get started? There are so many options out there. Which one or what combination would be best for you? If you are like me, I did not even know what terms like food forest or foodscape (edible landscaping) even meant until recently, and I certainly did not know they were options for me.

Even if you have no available land at all, there are gardening options available to you. We are not horticulturists or even master gardeners, but we are good researchers. If you need help figuring out what type of gardening would work for you and how to put it into practice, but you don't have the time to do all of that research, JJD Ranch consultants can help you find the answers you need.

Right now, because of the MAHA movement (Make America Healthy Again), many of us are becoming more aware of what it means to eat a healthy diet. But do we all know what a healthy diet is? There are so many people out there promoting healthy eating. How do we make the best choices for ourselves?

You may be familiar with the old food pyramid. Even the US government has decided it is not sufficient for helping you make food choices. They are now promoting a product called "my plate" (link in comment below).

At JJD Ranch, we think that even this new system misses the mark in many ways. We think that the best way to decide what is going to go onto your plate is to develop understanding of two key things:

1. What your body needs ... not what most bodies need; what YOUR body needs.

2. What different foods actually do for you. And, in some cases, what certain foods might do to you!!!

How will you decide what to put on your plate? Let us help you get better connected to your food so that you can begin to make better food choices for yourself!

There are several different ways to look at beef, and depending on how you categorize it, there are some important differences. One of the ways to categorize beef is on how it was fed when it was raised.

Was it grain-fed?
Was it grain-finished?
Was it grass-finished?
Was it grass-fed?

Do your know what those mean and why they matter?

Most regular beef you purchase in stores is either grain fed or grain-finished. JJD Ranch Beef is grass-fed. And, over time and serving size, it makes a pretty big difference in nutrition. These numbers may seem small, but when you consider that they are for just 1/4 of a pound of ground beef - one standard hamburger worth, these tiny numbers change quickly. For example, the steak in the picture is a 3/4 lb steak.

For ground beef (grass-fed is typically about 15% fat, so we have compared to regular ground beef that is 85/15). These numbers are for 1/4 lb of ground beef:

Protein:
Regular = 21g
Grass-fed = 22g

Fat:
Regular = 17g
Grass-fed = 14g

Omega 3's
Regular = 0.07g
Grass-fed =0.10g

Omega 6's
Regular = 0.01g
Grass-fed = 0.20g

There are some other important differences as well. For more information, we used nutritionvalue.org

I am so in love with my Rose of Sharon. But it is not really a rose. In fact, much like okra, Rose of Sharon is actually in the hibiscus family.

These beautiful blossoms are equally gorgeous once dried, and they make beautiful decorations for cakes as well as fancy additions to things like salads. And, not only are the blossoms edible, so are the leaves, and even perhaps the bark of the limbs. They sometimesalso turn everything that red color that is in the center of the flower, so they make a delightful, colorful addition to herbal teas and infusions.

Rose of Sharon is not just a beauty to look at; it is also not just a great addition to add color and interest to foods; it has some pretty important health benefits. But for some, that means you have to use it sparingly. Because we are neither medical professionals nor nutritionists, I am providing a link to the benefits, side effects, etc. of Rose of Sharon here, and I will put another link in the comments below.

https://eattheplanet.org/rose-of-sharon-a-beautiful-edible/

Yes, this!!!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BXgfvwFGZ/