Fresh business grows in pandemic woes

Image
  • David and Dianne Linderman pose outside Dianne’s Ranch Diner, a fresh farm-to-table restaurant and more business outside Stephenville featuring an on-site petting farm to visitors (below), healthy and tasty meals like the chicken “unfried” steak (bottom) and special events like December’s Christmas under the lights festival (above, right). Paul Gaudette | Citizen staff photo
    David and Dianne Linderman pose outside Dianne’s Ranch Diner, a fresh farm-to-table restaurant and more business outside Stephenville featuring an on-site petting farm to visitors (below), healthy and tasty meals like the chicken “unfried” steak (bottom) and special events like December’s Christmas under the lights festival (above, right). Paul Gaudette | Citizen staff photo
  • Fresh business grows in pandemic woes
    Fresh business grows in pandemic woes
  • Fresh business grows in pandemic woes
    Fresh business grows in pandemic woes
  • Fresh business grows in pandemic woes
    Fresh business grows in pandemic woes
Body

It was almost a year ago when Dianne Linderman was at the 2020 Houston Livestock Show with the Great American Petting Farm that she realized just how much the COVID-19 pandemic was going to disrupt day-to-day life.

“It was like a wave that came over you,” said Linderman who has traveled with the petting zoo run by her and members of her ‘family’ for 38 years. With shutdowns enacted across the country, the pandemic effectively shutdown the traveling business’s livelihood.

The thought and prayer that followed allowed the entrepreneur to ‘get back to basics’ in a business that promotes a healthy, agricultural living and allows her to work with those closest to her- both very important to the Texan who had spent 25-30 years in Oregon before coming home.

Linderman said the family returned home to the Great American Lone Star Ranch (located just outside of Stephenville at 5396 S. Highway 281) and got to work on a new business model that would allow her to share good food and good living.

She was ably aided in converting the five-bedroom ranch house into a business, by her husband, David, who has years of experience as a contractor.

While a professional-grade kitchen was built, Dianne started crafting a menu of casseroles, dishes and desserts to be prepared and flash frozen so they could be sold to the public. Available in small and large sizes, customers have to just pop them in the oven for allnatural meals including lasagna, King Ranch Chicken, jambalya, cowboy stew, Mexican mac-n-cheese and more!

Dianne is a big supporter of natural, organic ingredients and always goes Texan. If she and her crew don’t produce the ingredients herself, she will find someone nearby who does.

Dianne said she believes in the quality of the diner’s food and makes sure that everything is consistent.

The business took off quickly with many customers commenting on how much they enjoyed coming to the ranch and expressing a desire to be able to eat there. An enclosed deck was added so people can stop by for lunch and dinner from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. The restaurant setting allowed them to add items like salads, Chicken “unfried” steak and quiche.

Dianne wants to share her love and good food and healthy cooking with everyone, offering several cook books of her tried and true recipes and Kids Can Cook Academy programs on Saturdays, in which small groups of children get to spend some time learning on the grounds before coming into the kitchen where Dianne leads them in preparing some of her recipes. Not only do the kids get some hands-on training in the kitchen, they get hands-on time on the farm.

The property holds more than 200 animals (including llamas, geese, goats, chickens, ponies and more) which can be viewed as part of the petting zoo that the Great American Entertainment Co. still travels with often. Dianne is equally proud of the petting zoo, saying they set industry standards in safety and cleanliness.

A love of animals has always been a cornerstone of the Great American Entertainment Co. In 1983, Dianne and David had to find a way to support a fiveacre wildlife park in Oregon that was given to them by a woman with cancer, who had seen the work the couple did with troubled teens at their dude ranch.

The couple moved there to manage more than 200 animals, aided by 20 teens in need of focus. The couple found that working in the park had a miraculous effect on many of the teens, who learned many valuable life lessons and a strong work ethic. (The kids also learned the same love and care for the animals. One of them is currently crafting a prosthetic leg for a pony named Hustler who got into an accident.)

Many of these teens, whom Dianne calls ‘her children’, are actually living on or near the Stephenville property with families of their own and helping to build a growing business that has evolved a lot, especially as it was redefined in the past year.

In addition to cooking shows, the Stephenville property hosts cowboy boot camps, GASCAR animal races (in which spectators can see different species show off their speed), the petting zoo, a ’dino dig,’ the Texas Junk Co. décor and more store and special events like a fall festival and a Christmas event on the farm which drew many to take in all the lights in December.

“It’s all outdoor and very spread apart,” said Dianne, who relied on the property as a way to maintain business while following social distancing mandates.

The secret to being successful to an entrepreneur like Dianne? “Never get comfortable.”

The company always looking for ways to expand and adapt like an upcoming dinner and a show Valentine’s Day package set for Feb. 12-14 (in which couples can get a fresh meal while Dianne, with her flair as a former radio personality, shows how to prepare it on stage). They are also set for a mammoth Easter egg hunt, which will feature separate hunts by age group and 5,000 eggs hidden on the ranch.

Preparations are being made for Mother Clucker’s Coffee House, offering fresh gourmet coffee starting at 6 a.m.

The property also offers accommodations to stay overnight for those who’d like to ‘glamp’ in style.

Dianne invites anyone interested to come see the ranch and try the food, all managed by a family who got back to basics to grow a local business during a pandemic.

For more information, call (254) 431-1108, visit diannesdiner.com or find Dianne’s Ranch Diner on Facebook.