ARE YOU FROM THE SPRINGS ORIGINALLY? (Ryan) Yes, in fact our kids are fifth generation Colorado Springs natives. We love the weather here. I guess we get bored easily! And of course it’s nice having over 300 days of sunshine a year too.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN COMING TO RANCH FOODS DIRECT? (Ryan) Seven or 8 years at least. We probably shop twice a month on average. We also send tons of our clients here (they own Bark Busters Home Dog Training.) In fact, that’s how we learned about the store: one of our clients told us this was a great place to buy bones for dogs, and we decided to check it out. Of course we picked up some people-food as well and we’ve been coming back ever since. Leona (the store manager at the time) told us to try the flatiron. That’s the first thing we tried, and we were floored by how good it was. We’ve tried a lot of other things since then and it’s all good, but we keep coming back to the flatiron. It’s our must-have.

OTHER FAVORITES? (Erin) The maple sausage. The ground beef. We get the skirt steak a lot. (Ryan) I like to make beef jerky sometimes, and when I do I use the London Broil. When I bring it to family events, everybody’s pretty excited.

SO YOU ALSO BUY PET FOOD HERE? (Ryan) Our dog Aspen (a lab mix) has been eating Ranch Foods Direct products all of her life! We got her at six weeks, and she’s been on a raw food diet ever since.

DESCRIBE YOUR COOKING STYLE: (Erin) We eat pretty healthy and grill a lot. The other day I did a made-from-scratch breakfast pizza. I cut the potatoes really thin with a mandolin and put those down on a homemade crust for the first layer, then added maple sausage, lots of cheese and scrambled eggs on top. I made a gravy with the sausage drippings, and we also had maple syrup on the side. The kids loved it! (Ryan) Another thing we do annually is that Erin makes a big traditional St. Patrick’s Day dinner, complete with Ranch Foods Direct corned beef.

YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE PUBLIC MARKET PROJECT? (Erin) I’m very interested in it. I can’t wait to check it out!