Here we’re featuring two perspectives on dry-aged meat—one from food writer Bill St. John, and one from Pete Marczyk. They will answer some of your questions—why does it cost more? what happens during the process? what is the history of dry-aging? how soon is now?—and you will realize why our dry-aged Niman Ranch beef is our signature item of every year.

BY BILL ST. JOHN
Niman Ranch pork is different; it truly is something else. I’ve cooked with it now several times, from shoulder to belly to loin. It’s not only that Niman Ranch pork has true pork flavor, it’s that that flavor is so richly deep that it shocks. When you first experience Niman Ranch pork, your palate remembers that of all the pork that you’ve eaten before, none had this much flavor.

BY CHEF JAMEY FADER
This past weekend I was fortunate to be presented with an opportunity to visit a hog farm in Iowa that uses the Niman Ranch methods. I also got to attend the yearly Hog Farmer Awards dinner and ceremony. I was eager to see the practices being put into play and, quite honestly, to see if the hype was real or if it’s all just a great story.

BY CHEF JAMEY FADER
Soda bread is love and life in my family. This humble peasant bread, accompanied by a pot of tea and meant to sustain farmers through the final hours of their daily toil, has been omnipresent throughout my life.

BY BILL ST. JOHN
It’s not the "peaches" in Palisade peaches that taste so good; it’s the "Palisade." These peaches are awesome because they come from this place on the planet.

BY BILL ST. JOHN
In order to "get" local, it may pay to look far and wide. The Slow Food movement — begun in Italy in the 1980s by a group of food activists — really has changed how we see the idea of eating “local.”

BY BILL ST. JOHN
True, the red, white and blue is plenty blue these days; not blue as in “blue state,” but as in glum (to be generous). Blue’s not everywhere, surely, but it’s a wide hue. Some might say that the only one thing we all do in concert is complain. But even that’s not true; many do not.

BY BILL ST. JOHN
The Italians call it dining “al fresco.” For the French, it's “en plein air.” To us, it's keeping the flies away from the chicken salad. But little else means summer in Colorado than eating outdoors and planning a picnic underneath Old Sol.

BY PETE MARCZYK
We just got some very sad news: Gary Giambrocco passed away earlier this morning. Gary was an icon in the food business in Denver — he and his family have been quietly supplying markets, restaurants, and institutions with produce, dry goods, and staples for over a hundred years. He was legitimately the nicest guy we have worked with over the past 16 years, and I will miss him greatly. 

BY BILL ST. JOHN
Some terrific foods and drinks began as accidents. Beer wasn't invented by some dude in a flannel shirt and suspenders tinkering with a formula, but most likely by a pre-Egyptian who unthinkingly left out his soupy porridge in the Sinai sun.

BY BARBARA MACFARLANE
Growing up in VT, it was always a treat to get to the ocean, Nantucket, in the summer. Out of the oppressive humidity and heat of Vermont and by the ocean breezes. Our families would rent a house and then squeeze aunts, uncles, and many cousins into it. Everyone had at least 3 kids, we had 6. Then we would drive a station wagon to the grocery store and buy about $12,000 worth of food for everyone. We would never buy fish though, because that HAD TO BE fresh.

BY BILL ST. JOHN
Having a National Eat What You Want day every May 11 isn’t like “Christmas in July,” or like everyone becoming Irish on March 17 — you know, making a day special or turning you special on it ‘cause you’re alive that day. I mean, look around; it’s pretty clear that every day is “Eat What You Want Day.”