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Before the drought that broke out nearly a decade ago, Elizabeth Poett built a beef empire. Every week, often with her two young children in tow, she sold Rancho San Julian meat raised by her father, Jim Poett; and husband Austin Campbell – at three Santa Barbara farmers’ markets and the big one in Santa Monica, while delivering to butcher shops across Los Angeles.
“Things were going really well,” said Poett, the seventh generation of the famous De la Guerra family who called the 14,000-acre ranch between Gaviota and Lompoc their home. “I was busy.”
But then, after four years of steady growth in their business, it stopped raining. “We really had to focus on our mother cows, who were born and raised and lived on the ranch all their lives – that’s our genetics,” explains Poett, the daughter of editor-in-chief and co-owner of this newspaper, Marianne Partridge. “We couldn’t keep additional cattle on the ranch. I just didn’t have enough room to raise more animals. ”She continued to sell in Santa Barbara but had to shut out the entire LA market.
 100vw, 429px “data-recalc-dims =” 1 “/> presenter Elizabeth Poett is eating with husband Austin, cousin Roz, and family, as featured on “Ranch To Table,” Season 1. | Credit: Courtesy</p>
<p>Poett had alternatives up her sleeve, realizing that customers wanted to learn more about life on the ranch, from growing to cooking. “People who go to the farmers market are some of the best people to know about food,” she said, but even they needed more. “Everyone in the market always wanted to come and see the ranch. The people longed for a connection. “</p>
<p>Instead of just giving the ranch to others, she invited people to hands-on workshops and home-cooked meals at Rancho San Julian. In 2017, Poett started a company called The Ranch Table, which built a website, recipe collection, and social media to boost face-to-face meetings. </p>
<p>“My life has always been a host,” said Poett. “Merging these worlds was my dream. It is so inspiring to see other people click because we have all clicked on food at different times in our lives. I want to share that. “</p>
<p>The pandemic temporarily shook these experiences, but also offered Poett a new opportunity to inspire these clicks: From this Friday, August 6th, Poett and her family are the stars of Ranch to Table, a new six-part television series by the Magnolia Network for the Discovery + streaming service.</p>
<p>“It was a whirlwind project that has been in the works for a long time,” Poett said, explaining that to be honest the show was meant to be before the pandemic even started. “I am still shocked that it will continue.” </p>
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In the pilot, which has been on the network for a few months, she tells the story of her family, how they met Austin on a branding, and what everyday life is like as she casually teaches us how to do Tri-Tip at Santa- Maria-style, fire-roasted salsa and a blackberry and apple galette makes.
“I’m not a professional cook; I didn’t go to a cooking school, ”said Poett of how she became the star of an actual cooking show. “I’m just a rancher who loves food, enjoys cooking, and enjoys talking to people who grow food.”
Magnolia is the lifestyle brand developed by Chip and Joanna Gaines, best-selling authors and former stars of the HGTV show Fixer Upper. “Yes, it’s a show about food, but it’s also a show about ranch life,” Joanna said on a commercial on Ranch to Table. “It shows her as a mother, as a wife. It weaves in and out of her whole history. Not only does she cook three to four meals on the island. It is the interface between food and the ranch and her family. ”
Poett realized that customers wanted to know more about life on the ranch. | Credit: courtesy
For Chip, the show reminds him that he used to visit his grandfather’s ranch every summer as a child. He explained, “When you think of a woman like her and a family like her, from generation to generation over the years, the stories she tells and the things this country has been through over the centuries are real spectacular. “
That’s correct. Jose De la Guerra took over the ranch in 1837 and his descendants have been running it ever since. Jim Poett, Elizabeth’s father, grew up in Los Angeles, where his mother taught, but spent weekends on the property and then attended the nearby Midland School. He always wanted to live there, and when Marianne became pregnant with Elizabeth, they planned to return to the ranch.
“He bought cows the day after I was born. He still has the receipt, ”said Poett about her father’s initial investment. “My poor mother was still in the hospital.”
A few years later, Poett was “one of the first, if not the first, certified organic beef producers in California,” recalled his daughter, whose childhood memories were countless trips to butcher shops like the old City Market in downtown Santa Barbara and Lazy. remember acres that long ago also bought cattle from Rancho San Julian. But eventually he wanted to focus more on growing the herd and toning up their genetics, so he stepped out of the finished beef business.
Elizabeth meanwhile left California for college and then worked in New York City and Los Angeles. “I went out and did things in the world that were really important to me,” she said. “Then I slowly but surely began to come back here more and more.”
 100vw, 403px “data-recalc-dims =” 1 “/> Poett makes coleslaw, as seen in “Ranch to Table,” Season 1. | Credit: Courtesy</p>
<p>When she returned, she wanted to bring the meat back to the ranch and use all of the animal as best she could. (I bought her a cow heart at the market once – another story for another time.) “I always thought our end product was great, and that’s what we always focused on when we thought about our cows,” she said. “I wanted to be able to deliver beef and get rid of the middleman.”</p>
<p>It was and is not easy. “It came with a million challenges,” she said of entering the market in 2008. “Just bringing the meat to market was a lot. There is simply no infrastructure in California to make really small products like this. “</p>
<p>But she persevered and built up the Rancho San Julian brand, which is still a hot commodity in the farmers’ market. Now Poett can thank television for spreading her family story, which she doesn’t consider particularly unique in the American grand scheme of things. </p>
<p>“This is a real community, and a lot of America is these little communities that grow food,” she said of what you want viewers to take away from the show. “That was my hope: that people would see that and be inspired.” </p>
<p>See theranchtable.com and magnolia.com.</p>
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