Niman Ranch Pork with Balsamic Peaches
Nov 12th, 2007 by admin
Excitement is contagious! I spent this weekend with five amazing women from the Junior League in Phoenix. We attended a conference in Anaheim to help us learn and share ideas on creating more impact in our group and how to make a difference in our community. I shared time with:
- A former Miss New Mexico
- A fundraiser coordinator for Make a Wish Foundation
- 2 women who spent a week in New Orleans rebuilding homes
Wow, right? One girl, Ann, was high energy and passionate about her job. She represents Niman Ranch they are a group who encourages and distributes meat that is organically and humainly raised. What a novel concept! Paying ranchers to raise animals free of hormones, growth agents and free range. While browsing the new Whole Foods in Chandler today, I asked the butcher if they had Niman Ranch products. He didn’t have anything in the case, but he did direct me to the frozen food section where there was a frozen dinner by Grace’s Kitchen; It was Niman Ranch Pork with Balsamic Peaches. For $9, it was worth a go and can I tell you the portion size was perfect, the directions produced a juicy clean tasting main dish.
The angle of the picture is deceiving (although this spinach, radish salad was quite delicious too). I’m excited to find out more about this group. If you’re in Northern California, you’re lucky, it seems that most of your nicer restaurants proudly serve Niman products.
Keesha oversees recruiting and training programs for GoDaddy.com. She is responsible for building programs that attract and retain amazing employees. She attended Blinn College and Texas A&M University.
Keesha loves food and photography and is passionate about community volunteering. She sits on the board of directors for the Junior League of Phoenix and in her free time you will find her baking and working on her empire Cupcake Cabana. Her most private cupcake confession? She doesn't like frosting!
The Niman Ranch thing brings an interesting point… Something I learned when becoming vegan is that there are several different offshoots of veganism… two of the main trains of thought are animal rights and animal welfare. AR people feel that animals deserve equal rights to humans, and that they have as much of a right to life as a person does. Welfarists feel that since the entire world isn’t going to wake up and become vegetarian tomorrow, the animals who ARE going to be killed for food should be treated humanely while they’re alive. This is often called ‘happy meat’. AR folks HATE this, because they feel like it’s making it okay for people to kill animals, and holding back the movement. I’m a little trapped in the middle. While I don’t think it’s okay to ever take an animal’s life for food, I do like the idea that the ones that are doomed regardless get treated really well before they have to go. I say if you’re going to eat meat, at least eat the kind from Niman’s ranch or similar establishments.