TLDR: Ree Drummond’s family gets first pick of the leftovers from filming The Pioneer Woman, followed by her film crew, and finally her dogs. With her five kids now grown and mostly out of the house, the crew has taken on a bigger role in making sure nothing goes to waste.
Watch enough episodes of The Pioneer Woman and the same question eventually comes up. Ree Drummond cooks an enormous amount of food on every single episode, often four full recipes at a time, and somebody has to actually eat it once filming wraps.
The good news for anyone who hates food waste is that almost none of it goes in the trash.
Family Gets First Dibs
Ree has explained the system herself in her magazine column. “We try very hard not to waste food,” she wrote. “If my family doesn’t finish it off, the crew definitely will.”
Since The Pioneer Woman is filmed at The Lodge on the Drummond ranch rather than a studio, leftovers do not have far to travel.
For years, that meant Ree and Ladd’s five kids and Ladd himself were the first line of defense against waste, polishing off everything from lobster mac and cheese to entire sheet cakes after a long filming day.
The Crew Steps In More Than Ever
That dynamic has shifted recently. As of 2025, all of the Drummond kids are out of the house, with Alex and Paige both married and living in Dallas, and Bryce, Todd, and Jamar away at college.
They still visit often, but they are no longer guaranteed to be around every time Ree shoots an episode.
That has put more of the responsibility on Ree’s production crew, which runs somewhere between 15 and 20 people on a given filming day.
With cooking shows often shooting multiple episodes back to back, there can be anywhere from 12 to 16 finished recipes sitting around by the end of the day, which gives the crew plenty to work with.
And Finally, the Dogs
If there is still food left after the family and crew have had their turn, the last stop is the Drummond dogs. Ree has joked about how hard it is to resist their begging, and with several dogs on the property at any given time, including a few basset hounds known for their bottomless appetites, very little food manages to survive that long anyway.
Ree has said that when a dish needs to be held onto a little longer for photography or other production reasons, and it is past the point where a human would want to eat it, the dogs are “the happy recipients.”
It is a fitting end for a household that has never been shy about its love for its animals, and one that fits the ranch’s broader ethos about not letting anything go to waste, whether that is food, land, or anything else on the 433,000 acre operation.
So the next time you watch Ree pull yet another tray of cinnamon rolls or a full pan of chicken spaghetti out of the oven at The Lodge, you can rest easy knowing none of it is headed for the trash.
Between a husband, five kids who still come home plenty, a film crew with healthy appetites, and a pack of dogs waiting in the wings, there is never a shortage of takers.
Pioneer Woman Leftover Food: Frequently Asked Questions
Who eats the leftover food from filming The Pioneer Woman?
Ree Drummond’s family eats the leftovers first. Whatever is left after that goes to her film crew, and any remaining food goes to the Drummond family dogs.
How many dishes does Ree Drummond cook in one filming day?
Ree typically films around four recipes per episode, and since cooking shows often shoot multiple episodes in one day, there can be anywhere from 12 to 16 finished dishes by the end of a filming day.
Where is The Pioneer Woman actually filmed?
The show is filmed at The Lodge, a separate guest house on the Drummond ranch property, rather than in Ree’s actual home.
