Table talk

The Harvest Restaurant at Thanksgiving Point has begun serving its new summer lunch and dinner menu.

Executive chef Jason Merry-weather's offerings include entrees such as pan-seared Alaskan halibut with pistachio pesto sauce, rosemary skewered shrimp and scallops, a double cut Frenched pork chop, and bacon wrapped tenderloin. Pasta dishes include house-made gnocchi and pasta Florentine. The restaurant is open Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. for lunch, and 5-9 p.m. for dinner (801-768-4990 or thanksgivingpoint.org).

The Utah State University Extension office in Salt Lake County offers free testing for home food canners with dial-type pressure gauges. The testing takes place on Tuesdays from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. at 2001 S. State, south building, Room S1200.

Those with canning questions can call the canning hotline at 801-468-3173.

Costa Vida, a Utah-based chain, opened its newest location last week in Queen Creek, Ariz. Costa Vida has 23 locations across the United States (www.costavida.net).

Whole Foods Markets is now selling a local, organic, grass-fed beef raised on Native American Arapaho Ranch. Operated by the Northern Arapaho Indian Tribe on 595,000 acres on Wyoming's Wind River Indian Reservation in west central Wyoming, the ranch received USDA organic certification in 2008.

The tribe has raised an all-Angus herd on a year-round diet of grass since the 1940s. Its 3,500 cattle and 2,800 yearlings never enter a feedlot and are never fed antibiotics or growth-stimulating hormones (www.wholefoodsmarket.com).

E-mail: vphillips@desnews.com