Someone’s salad is suddenly looking better. Bidding has ended on an eBay auction for a diamond literally crafted out of ranch dressing – and a lucky person paid $12,550 for the honor of owning the stone.
Hidden Valley Ranch hired a professional diamond maker to heat-blast its ranch dressing to 2,500 degrees and then crush the resulting charred dressing under 400 tons of pressure. Five months later, voila! The two-carat (carrot? It is for the salad, right?) round brilliant-cut diamond was placed in a 14k white gold band with the engraving HVR LVR: “Hidden Valley Ranch Lover.”
It’s a conversation piece for sure, and 79 bids showed the item’s popularity. But beyond training salad dressing to become a girl’s best friend, the larger meaning of the publicity stunt was to help those in need. With an opening bid of $310, this swank and unusual diamond ring was sold to raise funds for the charity Feeding America, which helps millions of people having trouble funding their grocery bills. Feeding America has a nationwide network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries; they serve an incredible one out of seven Americans.
It’s unknown whether the ring was purchased for use in a marriage proposal, but Hidden Valley Ranch timed the auction to close on March 17, in time for the winner to receive the ring by March 20 – National Proposal Day. If a marriage does result from this, we can only hope the lucky couple gets free ranch dressing for life.