the restaurant

the farm

Our farm is located on Edwards Ranch Estates in the foothills of the city of Orange and the Santa Ana mountains. Owned by THE RANCH Restaurant & Saloon's founder, Andrew Edwards, the farm supplies organically grown produce to the Restaurant & Saloon.

During the summer months, the heirloom vegetable farm is home to over 600 Heirloom Tomato vines featuring 90 different varieties. Depending on the season, additional heirloom varieties include: cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins, squash, zucchini, beets, corn, kale, melons, beans, citrus, berries and fresh herbs. There are also original orange and fig trees on the property and newly planted heirloom cherry tomatoes.

[The Farm reads on screen, then a brief clip of Executive Chef Michael Rossi appears as he begins talking, with upbeat music playing in the background]

Today we are at Edwards Ranch Estates here in Orange, the home of the farm for THE RANCH Restaurant & Saloon. The vision of the farm I think was a wonderful collaboration of our owner Andrew Edwards and myself, kind of just talking about using our own ingredients in our restaurant and showcasing those items. My philosophy in cooking has always been driven by the farm. The thought of using product that is farm-driven has, it's become a way of life. When I write dishes I literally am writing on what's to come. How long is it going to be on the farm, and how long and how much did we plant to help drive our menu? With the climate that we have here, we can grow a varietal of things. We grow beets, we grow zucchini, string beans. This year we planted 600 heirloom tomato plants. We have corn, a varietal of herbs, swiss chard. We have oranges from our trees here, the beautiful Valencia orange trees that are showcased in our beet salad. We have 3 or 4 different varietals of eggplant, 40 varietals of chili peppers, the list goes on and on. It's very exciting for a chef. I played sports my whole life. I always played within a team environment. And that's kind of what we do in the kitchen every day. We have a common goal, we are trying to win the day, make sure our guests are completely happy when they leave and when they leave we want them to be, their expectations to be exceeded.

[Slide displays with text: occhefs.org, #occhefs, another slide displays with text: Anaheim Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau, anaheimoc.org]

Farm Fresh Ingredients

"The vision of the farm was a wonderful collaboration of our owner Andrew Edwards and myself just talking about using our own ingredients in our restaurant and showcasing those items. My philosophy in cooking has always been driven by The Farm. The thought of using a product that is farm driven, it's become a way of life. When I write dishes, I literally am writing on what's to come, how long is it going to be on the farm, and how long and how much should we plant to drive our menu.

With the climate that we have here, we can grow a varietal of things. We grow beets, we grow zucchinis, string beans. This year we planted 600 Heirloom tomato plants. We have corn, varietal of herbs, Swiss chard. We have oranges from our trees here, the beautiful Valencia Orange Trees that are showcased in our Beet Salad. We have three or four varietals of eggplants, 40 varietals of chili peppers. The list goes on and on. It's very exciting for a chef.

I played sports my whole life. I always played within a team environment, and that's kind of what we do in the kitchen everyday. We have a common goal. We are trying to win the day, make sure our guests are completely happy when they leave. When they leave, we want their expectations to be exceeded."

- Chef Michael Rossi, Executive Chef, THE RANCH Restaurant & Saloon

the restaurant

the farm gallery