Collection: Circle B Ranch Wholesale

Growing up in a large and boisterous Italian family, Marina learned at an early age how to entertain. When she married John she kept the tradition alive. Holidays, birthdays, weekends, whatever occasion we wanted to makeup, they had a house full of family, friends, and delicious food. For them, a staple was her cranberry chutney. It may sound odd to not only serve it with turkey on Thanksgiving but just wait until you taste it with a little bit of your favorite cheese and a good, crisp cracker. With such a simple and versatile recipe how can you go wrong?

While her kids were growing up what was important to them was good food and simple ingredients. She remembers visiting the grocery store checking labels and being appalled at all the extra additives and preservatives. “I was giving them that?!” she would say in disgust to herself.

You see, John and she had owned a successful catering company for many years. Many nights around a table laden with food and friends led to one friend one night giving them this crazy yet logical idea to open their own business sharing their food with others. This business was wonderful but, became all-consuming. John and she found ourselves feeding our children better and healthier but missing out on so many of their milestones. They decided to put catering on the side and focus on the kids. But, John and she never liked sitting still so, she worked on perfecting my family recipes and John planned our next move.

Little did she know that their next move would be literal! They moved to Missouri from New Jersey with not a single family member or friend around, they were out of their element while being so grateful and happy to be in this new and fruitful state.

Her husband and she were sitting down for dinner one night when he brought up what he felt like their next adventure and business venture should be, “hogs”. He and she did as much research as they could on the best practices for raising and selling hogs while creating clean, healthy pork products. Two and half years later they found themselves with some pigs!

They would visit the farmers market twice a week, one in St. Louis and one in Springfield, selling their pork products when she found herself pretty consistently selling locals a jar of her tomato sauce, cranberry chutney, or BBQ sauces, letting them in on some fun recipes she knew. These shelf-stable products were a perfect complement to the pork products they were already selling. John and she were shocked to find so many hard-working locals churning over the same weekly recipes and looking for something else that was easy, healthy, and delicious to make for their families.

While attending these Farmers Markets, John and she were able to educate so many of their customers about their products. She quickly found acquaintances becoming repeat customers and then friends. They were so happy that our recipes and products were not only exactly what they were seeking but also good for their bodies to boot!

Local stores began to ask to stock her products but it was always more important for her to have a connection with her customers directly. They decided to hand-select local stores that they wanted to support while still having the capability of having those personal conversations on how to use and consume their products.

Holidays, birthdays, weekends, Thursday nights, and whatever occasion we wanted to make up nowadays are even lusher. Living in Missouri and being so close to the Farmers Markets John and she love to eat fresh locally sourced food and enjoy it with their four happy, healthy grandchildren. Over the years they have introduced so many delicious products to the market and the one they are really proud of is their prize-winning Bloody Mary Mix. John and she love to cook and through this love of cooking, I write recipes and blogs to share with her family.

At Circle B Ranch, we care what you put in your body.

Founded by John & Marina in 2009