A Little Light During Stressful Times
I do not know if I have ever experienced a time more steeped in uncertainty. Simple acts of personal and professional planning seem foolhardy, almost daring cosmic destruction. As the months of this global pandemic progress, and as our society reckons with its failure to live up to its foundational notions of equality, I have found solace in refocusing on what I value. Friendships—maintained both virtually and gathered in backyard gardens, spaced six feet apart—have allowed me to maintain some form of sanity. Growing food, even if just a small trellis of peas or my micro patch of raspberries, brings a sense of accomplishment and security. Appreciation of beauty, both of what is right outside my door and the rare foray into the Lost Coast or along the Eel River, soothes my frayed nerves. I remain constantly on the hunt for effervescent moments of joy.
We never know what the future holds, but that feels especially true now. Labor shortages due to the pandemic may have real effects on California’s harvest. Autumn is typically a time of bounty, so we’ve included an overview of food preservation methods to help you make that harvest last (p 19). The security and satisfaction of a full pantry can help put anxious minds at ease.
In stressful times like these, we want to shine a light on the good news stories happening around us. The health crisis has inspired a wonderful community collaboration to revitalize the Harrah Senior Center Garden (p 11), bringing together the Gardens Project, the Willits Garden Club, and 100 Women Strong. As a result, the community garden is producing again, providing increased food security and helping community members combat the loneliness so prevalent in this moment.
I’m inspired by the Mendocino County food pioneers who continue to pursue their various passions. A Willits couple is delving into the cultivation of coveted black truffles (p 4), while homesteader and primitive skills expert Steven Edholm has defied accepted dogma for orchardists by breeding apples from seed (p 13). These stories of commitment and ingenuity never fail to make me want to roll up my sleeves and try something new.
Jumping into a new project can help refocus our minds away from the world’s woes. But we can’t check out altogether. Included in our current reality of health crisis and economic upset is our upcoming election, despite the fact that it seems so abstract at times. This was always going to be a consequential election, but the stakes have been raised even higher because of the reawakened urgency around the pursuit of racial justice, the imperative to move toward environmental sustainability, and our hunger for any sort of leadership to guide us through the challenges brought on by the global pandemic. Please do your part. Educate, organize, and support the candidates that embody your values, and vote on November 3rd.
Wishing everyone a beautiful and bountiful Fall,
Holly Madrigal, Publisher
A Decade of Patience
City Transplants Turned Naturalists Dig Deep into Truffles
by Lila Ryan
In 2006, I began looking for property in Mendocino County with my husband, Mike Burgess. We had started dreaming about how to leave Los Angeles shortly after we got married. Mike had grown up there, working in aerospace electronics “forever.” I had been there for more than 20 years, working at UCLA and becoming a psychologist. We were both enthusiastic gardeners in that benign coastal climate, but we were eager for something different.
We found that, with every exploratory trip to Mendocino County, our search narrowed more tightly around Willits. Each of us had been through and around Willits a number of times since the 70s, and we both liked the look and feel of what is now our town. As we envisioned our new home and “retirement” with garden and orchard, along with reading deeply in the blossoming permaculture literature, two big ideas emerged.
First, the Transition Town movement and WELL (Willits Economic LocaLization) came into focus. Since we were already thinking about food security, that connection was natural. We wanted to be able to contribute something to the foodshed that might fill a particular niche. We were drawn to nuts as long term, protein- and oil-rich crops, and we needed a place we could grow trees and be active in community life. Second, the layering element of permaculture design theory introduced us to the notion of the rhizosphere (where roots meet the soil for nutrient exchange). It didn’t take long to connect the dots: nut trees (like hazelnuts) + beneficial fungi for their roots (like Tuber melanosporum) = truffle orchard!
We found our spot in 2009, close enough to town to walk if it came to that, and far enough away to feel “out of the city.” Still living in LA, we started planting trees in Willits—first a dozen pecan trees, then 250 truffle-inoculated hazel seedlings, then a few apples and pears. We were also developing off-grid water and power systems and building the house we would move into.
While we waited for the nuts and truffles, we planted more fruit trees, blueberry bushes, and a few chestnut trees (a 99% fat-free carbohydrate) for balance. We found out the hard way what it means to plant young trees in drought- parched ground. We learned all about voles and gophers. We replaced what died and pressed forward. After graduating the California Naturalist training in 2013, we began developing a water- and fire-wise domestic landscape based on the extraordinary beauty and fortitude of California native plants.
A particularly big truffle
We had designed our house for winter solar gain and positioned it for summer shade from a huge and ancient oak—which fell, missing the house by inches, on Mother’s Day 2015. The wood from that tree heated our house for more than two years, and the loss of it inspired a major effort to protect and propagate oaks on our property, involving an Oak Woodlands Restoration Grant from Natural Resources Conservation Service and the planting and care of dozens of young oaks. Next year we plan to add inoculated native oaks to the truffle orchard.
Occasionally we find time to sit on the porch in awe.
Nuts take time to come into fruition, and so do truffles. Typically 7-10 years pass before truffles emerge, and those are some hard years of waiting and wondering! In 2018, at the same time Kendall-Jackson was announcing their first truffles in Sonoma county, we were rewarded for our patience, too—but saved the fanfare for now. 2019 and 2020 have seen increasingly larger truffle harvests each season, and the hazelnuts are keeping pace. Time to take the next step.
Remember “rhizosphere”? Those truffles are underground, and thus, not visible to human truffle hunters. Noses are needed to find the “black diamond” fungi, noses belonging to trained truffle-hunting dogs.
We would much rather keep these fungal gems in the county than send them all to a distant wholesaler. And we would be very excited to team up with a local scent-trained dog whose owner would share our vision. Just imagine “destination Willits,” with farm-to-table restaurants, visitors savoring seasonal truffle dishes, buying locally made truffled hazelnut oil, and maybe someday joining the fun of the truffle hunt. It could happen!
When not farming and gardening, Mike volunteers at KLLG and Little Lake Grange, where he and Lila are officers. Lila practices psychology and brings her energies to the School of Adaptive Agriculture.
Franny's Cup & Saucer
photos, story, and illustrations by Cozette Ellis
During the short drive through tiny downtown Point Arena, one can’t help but notice a small pastel blue storefront nestled between two slightly larger buildings. Across the top of the exterior, hand-painted pink signage spells out “Franny’s” above two grey doves holding a large banner with “Cup and Saucer” in pink cursive. Two planter boxes, one on the window and one on the sidewalk, hold an assortment of pink and purple flowers. The large picture window features a red-hatted gnome, huge toy mushrooms, and paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling. All this before you see, smell, and taste the glory that awaits you inside.
Operated by mother and daughter power-duo Barbara Burkey and Frances (Franny) Robbings, this small blue bakery has been a feature of Point Arena’s food scene, and its greater community, since 2006. Before Franny’s Cup & Saucer opened, Barbara ran a bakery in the same location for eight years prior, under the name Point Arena Bakery.
Due to social distancing restrictions, I interviewed Franny and Barbara over the phone, but still drove out to Point Arena to take pictures of the stocked pastry cases. I left Boonville on a blistering Tuesday in late June, eager to leave the dry valley for a cool coastal breeze. Although the bakery was closed at 3pm when I arrived, Franny and Barbara had been there since the morning, cooking, baking, packing, and prepping the pastry cases. Barbara unlocked the door for me with a masked welcome and invited me inside the small store. The interior is bright pink (to fend off the grey coastal weather) and filled with delights such as a refrigerated case holding cupcakes, puddings, and macaroons, a 4-tiered cookie case, and multiple shelves packed with merchandise. It’s eclectic in the best way possible. I felt like a kid in a candy store, probably because I was.
The remainder of the shop is devoted to kitchen/pantry space. Peering over the front counter, I watched Barbara package enchiladas while Franny mixed a deep purple icing. Through the kitchen and out the back door is a small garden with be-flowered bushes, an apple and a lemon tree, and a small picnic table featuring another gnome. It’s so easy to feel (and smell) the creativity, love, and passion of these two bakers. Their affection for their craft is imbued into every nook and cranny of the shop.
For these women, baking is in their bones. Barbara started young, at the age of eight, making cookies with her Suzie Homemaker light-bulb oven and later starting a cooking club with her neighborhood friends. She graduated from Easy Bake Oven school and began working in restaurants as a young adult. She spent eight years in Paris, starting and running a tea room selling both savory and sweet items, and eventually returned to California, where she opened and operated a bakery in Tomales for another eight years.
“I just always did it,” Barbara said. “I always kind of wonder when I’m going to grow up and be what I’m supposed to be, but at this point I guess I’m supposed to be a baker . . . It’s not a job, it’s just really fun and exciting.” There are confections sold at Franny’s Cup & Saucer that Barbara has been making for over forty years. While one might assume that this could eventually become tedious, Barbara explains that she continues to be entranced with the process, that each product is an opportunity to learn technique and build skill.
Franny, described as the driving force behind the store’s creativity, has been involved in the family business since the age of eight as well, working behind the counter at her family’s bakery in Tomales, and then again in Point Arena when the family moved. Up until the age of 22, though, (when she and Barbara launched Franny’s Cup & Saucer), Franny had never done any of the hands-on baking. She explains, “It was just something that my parents did already. But I did a lot of cooking. It wasn’t until I was in my late teens that I started baking, once I moved out. There was this need for it.” Franny mentioned that, as a young adult, she used baking as a way to immerse herself in a familiar and comforting environment. It helped mitigate the loneliness and homesickness that she experienced when she moved out. The eventual inspiration for returning to Point Arena and co-opening Franny’s Cup & Saucer bakery came in part from restaurant co-workers, who urged her to consider moving from the front of the house to the back of the house after trying her delectable sweet treats.
While Franny’s Cup & Saucer has been a staple of the community for over a decade, many businesses are struggling to stay open during this time of crisis. Yet the global pandemic seemed very far away when I saw the wealth of goodies Franny and Barbara were preparing to sell. Upon expressing some surprise at this, they explained to me that the community was really the backbone of the business, that the locals had been stepping up and supporting one another.
Barbara has advocated strongly for innovation and adaptability: “We’ve pivoted in our menu selection to add a lot more savory items and a lot more dinner items, and those have been so well received … We make some really nice dishes that people can take home and reheat, and they still look good and taste great … What we’re not selling during day-to-day business at our retail gift store, we’re making up with our savory items.” This creativity and flexibility, combined with the renowned quality of the baked goods, has ensured their survival as the county has grappled with COVID-19 challenges over the past few months.
Innovation and out-of-the-box thinking is nothing new at Franny’s Cup & Saucer. While I was there, the bakers received a container of local goat cheese that Barbara planned to make into a cheesecake. I was shown edible flowers that get baked into donuts, and I was tempted by menu items such as the Raspberry Brooklyn Blackout Mini Cake, or the Green Tea Cake, Jasmine Mousse and Raspberry Cream slice. Franny explained to me with a laugh that a lot of these creations come from having a short attention span. “I like being able to work on things over and over again until it’s really perfect, but at the same time … I want to make something new. It’s exciting for me to keep changing things and have things be different every day.”
Franny also discussed a fundamental business choice that she and her mother support—the importance of working with local, organic, and seasonal ingredients wherever possible, while keeping an affordable price point for all audiences. Franny continued, “What people really like is something that has a neat story behind it. We do a lot of stuff with huckleberries. As soon as people hear that they’re wild foraged … or special to this area, they get really excited!”
Along with neat stories and interesting products, Barbara emphasized the importance of keeping the dollars within the community. Much like the ocean it borders, Point Arena has had its ebb and flow over the years—storefronts opening and closing, local housing being outfitted for short-term AirBnB rentals, and the gradual collapse of the fishing industry. Barbara, also the vice mayor of Point Arena, has been working on legislative changes that make it easier for area small businesses to get up and running. It’s a good thing, too, as the region is apparently experiencing an uptick, even with COVID-19. As the county re-opens, tourists have been journeying through Point Arena to visit the Stornetta lands. “We never forget our locals, and they’re our first priority, but now we have to cater to tourists, too. A lot of our tourists return. Every time they come up here, they’ll come back to Franny’s and I’ll remember them, and they’ll be so pleased.”
Here Barbara touched on a point that may be a large part of the continued success of Franny’s Cup & Saucer—the business serves as an avenue for positive relationship building between staff and customers, regardless of whether the customer is a tourist or a local. “I can’t wait to see who is going to walk through that door next and get to know them … It’s just so much fun. I never get over it,” Barbara enthused. I certainly enjoyed walking through that door, both on the way in with my notebook and camera, and on the way out with a cookie and a paper bag of fresh-picked cherries from a neighbor that Franny packed for me. With goodies like those in hand, it’s no surprise I’m already planning my return.
black forest mini-cake
chocolate-dipped cherries, devils-food cake, whipped cream, chocolate ganache, chocolate shavings
panna cotta
vanilla bean pudding and local berries
carrot cake cupcake
candied flowers, cream cheese frosting, sprinkles
green tea cake, jasmine mousse and raspberry cream slice
‘nuf said
s’mores mini-cake
graham cracker cake, chocolate mousse, marshmallow meringue, graham cracker crumbs
Franny’s Cup & Saucer
213 Main St, Point Arena, CA 95468
frannyscupandsaucer.com | (707) 882-2500
Wednesday–Saturday 8am–2pm | Sunday 8am–12pm
Cozette Ellis grew up in Anderson Valley and is a third year Design student at the University of California, Davis. Her passions include illustration, 3D design, graphic design, and sustainable design.
Many Hands Make Light Work
Collaborators Come Together to Revive Willits’ Harrah Senior Center Garden
by Shannon Furr
The gates were locked, and a once bountiful garden was now buried in four feet of weeds. The Harrah Senior Center Garden in Willits was closed until further notice. The torch had been passed by the folks that ran the garden previously, but there was no one to take on the garden management. After the pandemic hit, a few of the members of the Willits Garden Club decided to give it a try. With the help of the Gardens Project of North Coast Opportunities (NCO), 100 Women Strong, and the Commonwealth Garden, a delightful collaboration came together. Significant donations by Dripworks, Cold Creek Compost, Sparetime Supply, and Family Tree Service provided needed support materials.
The Harrah Senior Center Community Garden became the newest of the 56 gardens supported by the NCO Gardens Project, which empowers community, one garden at a time, in creating shared spaces for cultivation and supporting local gardeners to become leaders and decision makers. Lucy Kramer, Gardens Project Coordinator, met with the Harrah Senior Center Board to organize systems for the garden to meet the requirements for designation as a community garden.
“Partnering with The Harrah Senior Center and The Willits Garden Club on this project has been a wonderful experience. The work by The Willits Garden Club with Shannon Furr has created a strong foundation for a very successful garden of great benefit to the larger community,” says Lucy. With the help of Cody Bartholomew, the President of The Golden Rule Church Association and a contractor for Ridgewood Community Builders, the project participants constructed six raised beds, designed to be wheelchair accessible. Cody is passionate about supporting independence for seniors, and he was pleased to support The Harrah Community Garden project.
All of this garden organizing took significant effort as well as fundraising. The NCO Gardens Project had been a recent recipient of an ingenious collective called 100 Women Strong. “The mission and purpose of this group [100 Women Strong] is to promote our local non-profits by sharing real stories with the public about what they do and how they impact people’s lives,” says Katie Fairbairn, founder. “I had attended a 100 Women Strong event in Lake County and was so inspired by what they were accomplishing on behalf of their community, and the sheer support and love shown to their non-profit organizations, I just had to do it in Mendocino County. I really wanted to do something that would make a difference and impact our community. I reached out to six amazing women who, after listening to my spiel, immediately said yes to creating a group here. It was meant to be, because everything just came together so naturally and easily.”
100 Women Strong Inland Mendocino just finished their inaugural year. The premise is this: Anyone who is interested commits to donating a hundred dollars to the winning nonprofit at each of the quarterly gatherings. At the event, members are given a ballot. Representatives from three non-profits make a pitch for the attendees’ votes. Ballots are counted, a winner announced, and checks are written directly to the non-profit. There is no overhead or fee, so the nonprofit receives the total donated by those present. Many members are so moved by the presentations that they write checks to each of the organizations represented.
“Last year, we raised over $92,000 in four gatherings. We averaged $23,000 per meeting, with on average $21,000 going to the winning non-profit and the other $2,000 going to the other two non-profits,” explains Katie. “Due to COVID-19, our first gathering in 2020 was postponed. We held a virtual event on June 11. We didn’t expect a good turnout and were hoping to maybe raise $10,000. Well, once again, this community came through with flying colors. At one point we had over 90 people on the zoom call, and we raised over $22,000!” The five winners of funding to date include: National Alliance on Mental Illness, Cancer Resource Center of Mendocino County, Walk Bike Mendocino, NCO Gardens Project, and the most recent winner, Project Sanctuary.
Last November, the Gardens Project was the winner of that evening’s award. Sarah Marshall, Gardens Project Manager, spoke passionately about the impacts of food insecurity, especially in the elderly of Mendocino County. She affirmed that community gardens not only relieve a nutritional burden, but also foster community connections, diminish loneliness, and contribute to personal empowerment. The attending members of 100 Women Strong agreed and awarded the group more than $10,000 in donations. The NCO Gardens Project, in turn, invested in the Harrah Senior Center Garden with some of those funds. They partnered with the Willits Garden Club, providing financial support and training on operating a community garden.
The community collaboration continued with the nearby Commonwealth Garden, a project of the Howard Hospital Foundation, providing plant starts. “We are blessed to be able to provide locally grown produce to patients, staff, and visitors at the Adventist Health Howard Memorial Hospital, the Willits Food Bank, Daily Bread, and the Caring Kitchen. And this year, Commonwealth was able to provide plant starts to over 160 families as well as the Harrah Senior Center Garden,” enthuses Ananda Johnson, garden manager.
It’s such a blessing to grow something from a seed and watch it come to fruition. It’s even more satisfying to the soul to give back to the seniors and the homeless with all that this community garden now produces. There is disabled access to personal half wine barrels instead of a daunting row for those that are unable to reach down. Those custom-built planter boxes from Cody hold every kind of vegetable and herb one could ever want, including five different varieties of squash, eggplant, four varieties of lettuce, watermelon, cantaloupe, cauliflower, beets, turnips, artichoke, sweet peas, pole beans, three varieties of cucumber, carrots, six varieties of tomatoes, peppers, brussels sprouts, flowers, and fruit trees. It’s been a healing sanctuary for all involved, and it makes us all feel we are truly part of a community effort.
It was extensive community cooperation that brought the Harrah Senior Center Garden back to thriving vitality. Now, despite the challenges of the pandemic, community members of all ages and abilities can dig in the soil, share a laugh with fellow gardeners, clear their minds by weeding the beds, and fill their bellies with the homegrown harvest.
To learn more, visit gardensproject.org and willitsseniorcenter.com.
Shannon Furr is a member of the Willits Garden Club and creator of Odin’s Organic Dog Treats. When not gardening, you can find her carousing with her furry family, Odin and Ragnar the Bernese Mountain Dogs.
Going to Seed
A Consummate Homesteader Defies Convention by Growing New Apple Varieties from Seed
by Steve Edholm
After moving to this 40-acre homestead in the coastal range of Mendocino County about 15 years ago, I became fairly obsessed with apples, collecting and testing hundreds of varieties. I had just read Michael Pollan’s chapter on apples in A Botany of Desire. Unfortunately, Pollan’s story is woven around a common myth, which is that apples grown from seed are nearly always useless for eating. I had reason to believe otherwise.
When grown from seed, instead of by grafting, apples show a very high variability in size, appearance, growth habits, and flavor. Some take a negative view of that trait, pointing out that they may turn out too different than the parent tree, or even unpalatable. While that is possible, this variability is also the reason apples are our most diverse fruit outside of the tropics.
In the early 1900s, Albert Etter of Humboldt County asked his plant breeding mentor about improving apples by growing new varieties from seed and was told not to bother trying. Ignoring that advice, he bred some fantastic varieties, becoming a pioneer in apple breeding. Among other apples, he is responsible for the most well known red fleshed apple, Pink Pearl.
In 2010, against the advice of many, I planted seeds from a Wickson apple acquired from my friends at The Apple Farm in Philo. I was already hooked. The idea that I might make new apple varieties with unique traits like exotic flavors and red flesh was extremely compelling, and by 2011, I was making intentional cross pollinations. I chose one parent with incredible flavor and deep pink flesh called Grenadine, and I gathered pollen from a few excellent apples to pollinate it with. By choosing both parents, I have more control of the traits I want, like crossing cherry flavored apples with red fleshed, berry flavored ones. The resulting trees were then grafted onto dwarf rootstocks and planted in rows to await fruiting, which typically takes five or more years.
In 2015, the first of those original seedlings fruited and turned out to be very good! I named it BITE ME! for the people who said it couldn’t be done. Etter had not only inspired me to follow the same inspired risk, but I also use many of his apples in breeding for their unique traits. BITE ME!, grown from a seed of Etter’s Wickson, is my poster child for growing apples from seed.
I determined to spread the obsession, and began making videos about the project for my YouTube channel. I’ve sent out grafting wood, pollen, and seeds across America, and to many other countries. I hear back from people regularly that they have their own little apple breeding project, and some not so little. Many of these people have never really grown anything at all before.
I’ve sent out thousands of Wickson seeds alone, and thousands of others, some intentionally cross pollinated and some randomly pollinated by bees. Given that the very first apple I ever fruited from seed has become one of my favorites and a top 10 variety out of hundreds grown here, this is going to get extremely interesting in the next few years, when all of those dispersed seeds begin to bear fruit! Clearly this project has had a desired ripple effect, but it’s not just about apples and the many amazing varieties that will result.
When the apple first came to America, it exploded in diversity. New varieties cropped up by the thousands. Some were only known locally, and these local crop varieties were of critical importance to successful small scale farming. Farmers created, propagated, and discussed them. Consumers who bought them knew their names, loved them, talked about them, and looked forward to them in season. Beginning in the early 19th century, large scale farmers growing for broader markets gravitated toward a few varieties with particular profitable traits, such as appearance and shipping durability. As more citizens became consumers instead of producers, apple diversity went off a cliff, and most varieties were lost forever. Consumers became less savvy, and eventually the market became dominated by three apples at a time, red, yellow, and green.
The industrial food model brings us many benefits, but also many grave pitfalls. The secret to maintaining apple diversity is not in the hands of consumers buying politically correct apples, though. Nor is it in housing rare apple varieties in large collections. The heart and soul of apples and all food crops will atrophy unless they are part of a living food culture that talks about, grows, eats, shares, and propagates them. Breeding and selection of our food crops is the facet of that viable culture which we have become most divorced from.
Before the industrial food paradigm, many great apples were grown from seed, or selected from chance seedlings by ordinary people. Large breeders now pursue very narrow goals, starting and ending with profit for large growers. The victim’s stance is that we are being exploited by this system, but unless there is a law against planting seeds, we can blame only ourselves for the tragic loss of apple diversity and those disappointing cardboard tomatoes. To regain it requires only seeds, soil, water, intent, and patience. Not only is it possible for us to breed outstanding new apples that serve people over profit, but the great diversity of form and flavor dwelling within the apple gene pool has actually only just begun to be realized. Apples, in all their intriguing diversity, are the gateway fruit back into that vibrant, living food culture.
I currently have selected out over 20 seedling apples for quality assessment and use in further breeding. I plan to make any varieties which prove to be worthy available to orchardists in the future at the Winter Abundance Seed and Scion Exchange in Boonville and elsewhere. For more on this project, see my YouTube channel SkillCult. This altruistic project runs on personal funds, seed, pollen, and scion sales, and small contributions which are graciously accepted.
Find out more at: www.skillcult.com | www.youtube.com/skillcult
www.patreon.com/skillcult | Instagram @SkillCult
Steve Edholm is a long time practitioner and teacher of practical arts and self reliance skills. His main goal is to encourage greater physical and mental independence in an age of increasing dependency and helplessness.
Keep It!
Five Methods for Making Fall’s Bounty Last Well into Winter
by Torrey Douglass
The prolific bounty of gardens in the Fall is one of the true joys of the season. But what if you have more of an item than you can use? What if you are drowning in squash/tomatoes/plums, etc., and the neighbors you usually gift excess produce to have started ducking behind lampposts when they see you coming? That’s when you might want to consider one of the following methods of food preservation to stretch that harvest into the fallow months that lie ahead.
Dehydrating — Dehydrating is one of my favorite things to do with extra apples or tomatoes, but pretty much any fruit is game for this easy preservation technique. It concentrates flavor and leads to a satisfying chewy texture that adds a punch to dishes or just makes a delightful snack. For apples, I like to use an apple peeler/corer for fast peeling and slicing, and then dip the pieces into lemon juice before laying them out on a dehydrating tray. I love my dehydrator with four trays, but you can also go old school if you don’t have one. Lay out slices of whatever fruit you want to dry onto a clean cookie sheet, place outside in the sun, and turn them every few hours. It’s advisable to have some screens on hand to cover them and prevent flies and other bugs from inserting themselves into the process. Once they are dry, store in a sealed bag or jar in a cool place. In fact, unless they are bone dry, keep them in the fridge, as the remaining moisture can produce mold eventually—though our dried apples rarely stay uneaten long enough for that to happen.
Canning — Nothing makes me feel more like Ma Ingalls than breaking out the mason jars and getting some canning done. (Yes, I know, Ma Ingalls never did her own canning, but I never claimed my homesteading fantasies to be historically accurate.) Canning is possibly the most complex of the techniques included in this list, as it requires a bunch of specific equipment and some reading up if you want to be safe—and, believe me, you want to be safe. There are lots of excellent books out there. My canning companion is Canning for a New Generation by Lianna Krissoff. In it, she explains how canning conserves your garden goodies (or derivation of, like jams, chutneys, salsas, etc.) by storing them in an oxygen-free environment. Provided the contents are high acid, canning allows it to remain at room temperature, so you are not confined by your limited fridge real estate. Can to your heart’s content, or until you run out of pantry space.
Pickling — A subset of canning, pickling extends the viability (or more specifically, the edibility) of your veggies. Since canning is only suitable for high-acid foods, and vegetables are notoriously low acid (not a Dorothy Parker quoter among them), the pickling process supplies that acidity by adding vinegar or lemon juice. One could also ferment the veggies in salt water to eliminate the bad bacteria that cause decay and encourage the good ones that acidify and, as a result, preserve the food. Cucumber pickles can be fermented in a saltwater brine for several weeks prior to canning, or they can just be canned immediately in vinegar. When it comes to your personal blend of pickling spices, let your culinary creativity go wild. Peppercorns, dill seeds, coriander seeds, crushed dried chili, and mustard seeds are obvious, but I was surprised to find cinnamon, star anise, and nutmeg are often added as well. We do a shortcut pickling at home by keeping a large jar of vinegar and spices in the fridge. Any aging beets, onion, and cabbage that we have on hand get chopped up and thrown in, then the mixture is used on tacos, fish salads, or as a tart side on its own.
Smoking — Like dehydrating, you can buy an appliance to smoke meat, chicken, or fish, or you can cobble together your own from salvaged or cheap items like a large clay plant pot, old wood pallets, or a retired wine barrel. The main idea is to keep the temperature low and consistent over many hours. Using a base layer of charcoal (for its long burn time) and then sprinkling hardwood chips soaked in water for the smoke is a good way to go. Hardwood options in our area include applewood, oak, and cherrywood. Soak the chips for at least an hour. Keep the temperature at 200-225˚F for at least 6-8 hours. Both smoke and steam are necessary, so add charcoal and chips and include a water pan and refill as needed. Your meat is done when the internal temperature reaches 145˚F for red meats and 165˚F for chicken. Keep your meat flavorful and tender by soaking it in brine for 10-12 hours first, or it will feel like you’re eating a saddle.
Freezing — The downside of freezing is that it requires, well, freezer space. The upside is it is easy and fast. Strawberries are infamous for their blink-and-they’re-gone moment of ripeness, so wash them well, spread them out on a cookie sheet so they are not touching, and stick them in your freezer. The cold, dry air will ultimately damage any food exposed in your freezer, so as soon as they are frozen through, drop them in a freezer bag, push out the air before sealing, and stick them back in for long-term storage. Almost anything out of your garden will freeze well, with the exception of foods with a high water content (sorry, cucumbers). For veggies, wash them well and cut them into whatever shape you’ll use when you thaw them (carrot coins, broccoli florets—you get the picture). Blanch them in salted-like-the-sea boiling water for a quick minute before dunking them in ice water. Dry them thoroughly, then follow the same steps as above from the cookie sheet to the freezer bag. Frozen berries are ideal for smoothies or homemade ice cream, while frozen veggies are a healthy shortcut for a quick stir fry or a sauté in olive oil and garlic with a squeeze of lemon juice at the end.
Preserving your garden’s glory can be as involved as building your own smoker (and babysitting it for hours), or as simple as arranging some apple slices on a screen-covered cookie sheet and placing it in the sun for an afternoon. Whatever approach you choose, you’ll be grateful for the investment of time and energy down the road. When the temperature drops and you’re missing the sun, breaking out a jar of your own marinara sauce or dropping some homegrown strawberries onto ice cream can evoke warmer days by delivering the flavors of your garden long after harvest time.
Image, opposite page, courtesy of Brook Lark on Unsplash.
Image, this page, courtesy of Monika Grabkowska on Unsplash.
Torrey Douglass is a web and graphic designer living in Boonville with her husband, two children, and a constantly revolving population of pets and farm animals.
The Journey of Un-Becoming
Walking Spain’s Camino de Santiago
story & photos by Stacey Soboleski
“Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about un-becoming everything that isn’t really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.”
In September 2019, I had the incredible good fortune to walk the Camino de Santiago (The Way of St James) in Spain. It had been a dream of mine for a very long time, and I can honestly say that I am forever changed because of the experience.
The Camino de Santiago is an ancient pilgrimage route that has been traveled by Christians for more than 1,000 years. There is evidence that in pre-Christian times, the Celts traveled a route following the Milky Way. These ancient routes began to appear all over Europe, at a time when early faithful travelers used to begin their pilgrimage simply by walking out their front door. Today, tens of thousands of people from over 200 countries take part in this spiritual and deeply personal journey every year.
So why do people want to walk the Camino? Historically, Christians made the pilgrimage for religious purposes, seeking either atonement or penance. Today, many walk in search of the metaphorical pause button on their lives, to escape the hustle and busyness of everyday life and engage in deeper self-reflection. For others, the walk presents a physical challenge because of the daily 25-30 kilometers (15-18 miles) of walking and climbing. In one way or another, for every person who steps foot on the path, it becomes a spiritual journey, forcing them to unplug, slow down, and look deep within.
I learned about the Camino after watching the movie, The Way. For years after, I knew that it was something I simply had to do one day. The opportunity arose in 2019, when my husband and I were about to become empty-nesters. For the first time in more than twenty years of being a stay-at-home mom, I felt emotionally unsettled and asked myself, “What now?” I had a deep desire to move away from the familiar and do some much needed soul-searching. The Camino seemed like it could shed some light onto what the next chapter of my life could look like.
Each day on the Camino I would put on my backpack, which contained all of my belongings, and head out the door not knowing what I would see, who I would meet, or where I would sleep at the end of the day. A typical day on the Camino started with café con leche and either a croissant or toast at one of the local bars. Bars in Spain are more similar to a cafe or informal restaurant in the U.S., and that’s where I’d have lunch later in the day, perhaps a Tortilla de Patatas (Spanish omelette) or a Bocadillos (Spanish sandwich). Both of these options are quite filling and provided enough fuel to keep me moving.
As I didn’t want to add extra weight to my backpack, I didn’t carry a lot of extra food with me. There were stretches on the trail with no places to get food or water . . . especially on a Sunday. I tried to plan ahead by reading my guidebook and calculating how long it would take me to get to the next town, but sometimes I got it wrong. One of the most surreal moments I experienced on the Camino happened on my second day of hiking. I was experiencing the beginning stages of a large and painful blister forming on my right big toe as well as sharp pain in my left foot. I was only on day two, and I was worried—one of the biggest concerns of the pilgrims is that they will become so injured that they can not complete the Camino.
I had just struggled up a very long, steep, and rocky incline and was worrying about how I was going to make it to the next town for a place to sleep. My water supply was low, and I hadn’t eaten for hours. When I say it was in the middle of nowhere, I am not exaggerating. There in the distance at the top of the rocky incline, I saw what looked like a fruit stand next to some brick walls and awnings. I soon arrived at a pilgrims’ oasis called La Casa de los Dioses Cantina, home to a charismatic and hip guy from Barcelona named David. For over 10 years David has provided free food and drink, as well as a place to rest for weary hikers. His refuge offers plenty of shade, relaxing hammocks, benches, pillows, cookies, fresh fruits, and an assortment of beverages. There is a small donation box, but he doesn’t even mention it, and everyone who stops there is beyond grateful to contribute to his kindness and generosity.
Knowing the trek can inspire appetites, most local restaurants and albergues (hostels) offer a Pilgrim’s Menu for dinner. For around € 7-10, ($8–$12) you will get a three course meal plus bread and wine. The first course is either a pasta or salad, followed by the main dish (usually chicken), and finishing with a dessert. As I got closer to Santiago, the food choices changed to more Galician-style cuisine featuring plenty of seafood. A couple of the most famous dishes for this region are the tapas dishes Pulpo a la Gallego (Galician octopus) and Pimientos de Padrón (Padron Peppers).
A stay at the smaller albergues often includes a place at the table for a family-style dinner, typically prepared with the food from their gardens. The larger albergues have cooking facilities, which allow pilgrims to prepare their own meals either for themselves or as a group. My dinners with fellow pilgrims on the Camino were some of the best moments of my trip. After a long day of walking, an evening filled with laughter, singing, stories, and plenty of wine led to more than one life-long friendship.
Accommodations on the Camino ranged from a large 300-bed, barrack style albergue to a private room with a bathtub (bliss!) in a beautiful 1700s stone farmhouse. I slept in a converted thousand-year-old medieval pilgrims’ hospital, where I was awakened in the early morning by Gregorian chants. I stayed in a “Green” albergue which offered massages and vegan meals made with fresh vegetables out of their own garden. One of my favorite places to stay was Casa Susi. Casa Susi was a twelve-bed albergue in a converted barn owned by an Australian woman who had herself walked the Camino numerous times. Susi married a man she met while on the Camino and vowed to one day return and open a place of her own, offering all the creature comforts she had longed for while walking her own Camino. The evening I was there, I shared a family-style, delicious homemade meal with people from Latvia, South Africa, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Australia, Spain, and the U.S.
My memories and experiences on the Camino will stay with me for a lifetime. I’ll remember my reverential climb to the Iron Cross (The Cruz de Farro), taking part in an ancient tradition of leaving the stones I’d brought from home that symbolized the burdens I wished to leave behind. There was the day I went seven miles off the beaten path on a solitary journey to visit a magnificent sixth century Benedictine monastery. There was the unforgettable kindness I was shown by strangers who would magically appear just when I needed them the most. One of my favorite memories has to be the sound from the lone bagpiper as I made my final approach through the stone archway to the Cathedral de Santiago. I had just completed my own 200-mile journey following in the same footsteps as the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who had gone before me.
So did I figure out the next chapter of my life? Perhaps. I know that I changed after my experience on the Camino . . . and I can’t wait to do it again. Getting away and walking every day for almost a month changes the way you see yourself and gives you that rare gift of time to reflect on what is really important. The beauty and simplicity of slowly walking through Spain helped me remember who I once was. It helped me let go of who I wasn’t so that I could once again be who I was meant to be in the first place.
Stacey Soboleski lives in Philo with her family and menagerie of animals. She loves to travel, hike, and immerse herself in learning new ways to improve health through holistic health nutrition.
Growing Up Organic
Yorkville Cellars Specializes in Uncommon Wines with Respect for the Planet
by Dawn Emery Ballantine
As a serious bookworm and a lover of mysteries, one might think I’d be a fan of surprises. Sadly, I am not! Those chocolate boxes with unidentified centers fill me with dread, never knowing what I might be about to bite into. I would rather go without, thanks all the same. But receiving Yorkville Cellars’ latest email broke that long-entrenched pattern with a click of the mouse. Perhaps the COVID-19 shutdown played a role and we’re all thirsty for something out of the ordinary, but their recent promotion, “Celebrate the 4th of July with Special Pricing on Mystery Cases,” had my wallet out in a hot second and has been something lovely--and mysterious--to come home to after a hard day’s work these past weeks.
Mendocino County is bountiful with great wineries, and the Anderson Valley area is arguably a shining star in the firmament. Traveling via Highway 128 West from Highway 101, the first tasting room and the gateway to Anderson Valley is Yorkville Cellars, whose vineyards are part of the Yorkville Highlands American Viticultural Association (AVA). There could hardly be a more fruitful beginning to one’s area wine exploration. Indeed, Deborah and Edward Wallo first discovered and fell in love with the now-Yorkville Cellars site while on their own wine journey inspired by a Sunset magazine article in the early 1980s.
The gates to Yorkville Cellars open along the vineyard-fronted highway, and driving through the vines toward the beautiful redwood tasting room is just the beginning of an immersive experience. Since they first purchased the property in 1984—with structures only half-built and a few acres of aged and neglected sauvignon blanc— Deborah and Edward have been very hands-on and clear about their vision. Their vineyards are located at the headwaters of Dry Creek and Rancheria Creek, so they felt called to be “guardians of the watershed,” minimizing any damage or contamination from chemicals and run-off. They were also raising three children and wanted a healthy environment for them. So Yorkville Cellars became one of the first vineyards in Mendocino County dedicated to organic vineyard and winemaking practices. Though the decision to operate under organic certification was a simple one, it has not always been easy in practice.
Deborah muses that “ . . . we have so much more knowledge now . . . we’ve grown up with it [organic farming].” But in the beginning, all the work was manual, and she likens it to maintaining “an enormous backyard.” They had to hand hoe and weed (wild blackberry is still their biggest pest), use push-mowers, and apply natural fertilizers such as fish emulsion by hand (the memory of that particular odor is one that lingers years later). These days, there is irrigation tubing which can handle the load of organic fertilizers and other nutrients which are necessary to maintain the vines at their peak, not to mention newer, more mechanized mowing and weeding options, though a fair bit is still by-hand only. As Deborah says, “Our wines are made in the vineyard,” so they continue to use primarily old-world methods to craft their luscious vintages, with minimal intervention in the winery.
Yorkville Cellars farms thirty-one acres comprising two estate, organic vineyards, CCOF-certified since 1986, and holding designation as a Certified California Sustainable Vineyard. They are one of few wineries outside of Bordeaux, France to grow all six of the “noble reds”: Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot, and Carménère (a quite rare grape thought to be extinct in France but which found new life in the hills of Chile—and now Yorkville). They also cultivate two of the Bordeaux whites—Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. They produce and bottle each of these as single-varietal wines, enabling their customers to clearly enjoy and explore the distinctions between them. Deborah reports that Yorkville is very similar to the Bordeaux region in terms of climate, most specifically heat and rainfall, and this has been one of the reasons for their success with these particular grape varietals.
The hotter highlands, where Randle Hill Vineyard is situated, and the cooler lowlands, occupied by Rennie Vineyard, provide them with multiple microclimates, which enable them to support this wide variety of grapes. All of them have largely flourished here and allow Yorkville Cellars to produce a broad range of wines, some of which are very hard to come by outside of France. Of local wineries, only Navarro Vineyards
in the Anderson Valley AVA comes close to the sheer assortment of wines produced.
Deborah explains that the diversity of vines spreads out both the risk of pest infestation or crop failure as well as the timing of harvest, the latter often stretching out over six weeks instead of the more typical 2-3 day push. Each variety has its own peculiarities and issues, but good canopy management addresses the bulk of them. Deborah notes that the vines are aging, as this is their 26th year. They are becoming less productive and require more attention to keep the vines strong, and some years there is not enough fruit to bottle a particular vintage.
In addition to their regular bottlings, Yorkville Cellars creates some surprises from time to time. Amber Folly, first bottled by them in 2013, is an “orange wine” that dates back at least 5,000 years in winemaking history and is as established as red or white wines. Deborah and Edward began reading about these wines in 2009-2010. A very old style which originated in Georgia on the slopes of the South Caucasus—“the cradle of wine,” semillon wine grapes are harvested and all the skins are left on after crush for the fermentation process, creating the deep golden color. The grapes are fully fermented in open-top bins to capture wild indigenous yeasts. The ancient Georgian technique involves burying the fermented grapes in kveri clay pots, covering them with soil and leaving them in the ground over the winter. Yorkville Cellars prefers to blend the old-style technique with newer trends, mixing the “murkier” traditional result with clearer wines for a happy combination of the ancient and new.
The winemakers first attempted a Sweet Malbec in 2006. Fermentation is stopped earlier than is typical for red wines, leaving more sugar in the grape. It is then slow-fermented in a cold tank, with fermentation stopped when the sugar is at 6%. This creates a lovely wine, somewhat sweeter than usual but in no way cloying. I inadvertently put a bottle in the refrigerator (mistaking it for a rosé), but after a long, hot day of work, it was amazingly refreshing.
In 2013, they produced a Malbec/Petit Verdot blend, unique to them because they had grafted both varietals onto the same vine. The grapes were harvested and fermented separately, blended together, then barrel-aged for 3 years prior to bottling. They have also crafted both a Sparkling Malbec and a Sparkling Petit Verdot, most recently bottled in 2016. And they create their famous gold-medal wine, Richard the Lion-Heart, which is a blend of all six of the noble red Bordeaux varietals, mixed at various percentages based on the vintage and aged for 21 months in French oak barrels. This unique, limited production wine is so popular that the best way to obtain it is by purchasing the “futures” for next year’s release.
A happy customer of Yorkville Cellars for nearly 20 years, I look forward to receiving their newsy emails, especially when accompanied by one of their occasional specials. My personal favorite is their End of Prohibition sale in early November—no mysteries there, just a wide selection of their wines at half price with $1 shipping. Join the list on their website, where you’ll also find more in-depth information about the crafting of these special wines. You will also be treated to some lovely prose, such as: “While so much is on pause for so many right now, we invite you to have faith in the lesson of the vine, while enjoying the lesson of wine. Pull out the good vintages, the good memories, and revisit them. And know that the vine promises there will be more to come. And when this worldwide winter is over we will grow and flourish and enjoy our time in the sun all the more.”
Everything about the wines produced by Yorkville Cellars reflects the bounty and abundance of their organic vineyards, carefully nurtured through the years. Visit the tasting room (appointment only during COVID), where the sheer knowledge and friendliness of the owners and long-time staff create a singular tasting experience. Let yourself drink in the variety and depth of flavor embodied in their wines, making your own bright memories.
Yorkville Cellars | 25701 Highway 128, Yorkville
707- 894-9177 | YorkvilleCellars.com
Currently open for tasting and curbside pickup by appointment. Order online for shipping or pickup.
Dawn Emery Ballantine lives in Anderson Valley where she curates and sells books at Hedgehog Books, edits this magazine, and finds that she can enjoy a surprise, particularly if it’s a great bottle of wine.
Mulligan Gardens
by Michael Caine, with updated information from the Mulligan family
Reprinted with permission of the Willits Weekly.
Their 5,350-mile journey began in Den Helder, the Netherlands, where, as youngsters, Laytonville farmers Michiel (Mic) and Ben Rueb partially grew up at their grandmother’s homestead. At a young age, they became involved in agriculture on neighboring farms, where they worked the tulip, potato, and onion fields.
Now the pair, along with their mother, father, and younger brother, reside on twenty acres of arable land called Mulligan Gardens. The acreage includes three good-sized ponds (soon to have a number of ducks to go with their chorus of croaking frogs), several residences and work buildings, a propagation greenhouse, a thriving mushroom business, a bamboo business (run by youngest brother Denzel), and the gardens from which the complex derives its name.
The gardens are mostly the responsibility of Michiel and consist of a kitchen garden, where a large part of the vegetables for the family’s consumption are grown; three market gardens; a large tract for publicly-purchased seasonal veggies that are sold primarily at several Mendocino County farmers markets; and a sizeable herb garden. The herbs have just been planted and will take anywhere from two to four years to reach the bushy hedge stage, but they will be harvested continually while they reach maturity.
“This is one of our market gardens,” explained Michiel. “Everything that ends up at farmers markets comes from here. Right now we have tomatoes, carrots, onions, beets, cucumber, kale, and much, much more. I’m working hard to keep up with harvesting all the summer abundance, while planning and planting ahead for a winter bounty that will hold us over into spring.”
Their farm utilizes several innovations which increase their yield, use fewer materials, and protect the environment. They create their own compost out of used mushroom “logs” (which contain straw and other organic material), Biochar (made on site in a homemade charcoal kiln), manure from their own and neighboring farms, and other organic materials from the property. They use their homemade compost to make a compost tea, which is delivered to the various gardens through a clever irrigation system controlled from a central distribution manifold.
Most of their customers at farmers markets know Mulligan Gardens by the delectable and sizeable blue oyster mushrooms they offer. The production of these tasty delicacies is the responsibility of brother Ben, who has been working the past two-and-a-half years to perfect their production. He has had to do much study and experimentation to get the fungi to grow in the most efficient manner, creating and constructing many of the tools and equipment needed for the business. “You can’t order this stuff on Amazon,” he quips.
Mulligan Gardens
Ben, who is a classical pianist in his off-time, gave us a tour of his operation. First, he demonstrated how the “poly tubing logs,” in which the mushrooms will grow, are created. He recently received a Good Farm Fund Grant, allowing him to acquire a “bale chopper,” which slices a straw bale to a fine mulch in which the mushrooms will be grown. This has cut many hours off his production time. Then the grain spawn is added, as well as other additives such as gypsum. This mixture is stuffed into approximately four-foot poly tubing on a table designed and constructed by Ben. Holes are made in the sides of the poly tubing logs to allow for the gas exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. They are then hung in a warm place for the mycelium (the roots) to begin to spread.
Eventually, the logs are transferred to the climate-controlled basement, where the mushrooms grow through the poly tubing gas exchange holes. In ten days, the mushrooms will reach maturity and are ready to be harvested. This is a very simplified description of the process, which takes significant care, knowledge, and planning to produce the 80 or so pounds that it yields each week.
The brothers have big plans for next season. They would like to see an expansion of their orchard, honey bees, and pastured lifestock including pigs and sheep. Climate controlled shipping containers would increase blue oyster mushroom production and also allow them to grow more varieties such as shiitake, king oyster, yellow oyster, lions mane, and chestnut mushrooms. A mushroom propagation lab would allow them to make their own grain spawn, agar cultures, and liquid cultures. They are planning to sell a variety of herb bends and seasonings, as well as mushroom jerky, to supermarkets and at farmers markets next season. The jerky comes in four flavors: Barbecue, Teriyaki, Thai Peanut, and Flaming Hot.
You can find Mulligan Gardens at the following farmers markets: Laytonville on Monday, Fort Bragg on Wednesday, Bell Springs and Willits on Thursday, and Covelo on Friday. They also sell their produce and mushrooms to local supermarkets and restaurants, although, Ben added, ”The restaurant sales have gone down due to the COVID-19 crisis. The farmers market sales have gone up significantly.”
It is encouraging to observe the innovations and concern for the environment, as well as their ability to utilize available materials and methods, as the Mulligans create this growing business. With this creative and can-do attitude, they will continue to break new ground and feed their community for many years to come.
Follow Mulligan Gardens at www.instagram.com/mulligan.gardens and www.instagram.com/bluestek. You can also them at the farmers markets in Fort Bragg, Willits, and Covelo.
This article was reprinted with permission from the Willits Weekly. Originally printed in the spring of 2020. Updates and edits have been applied.
Slaughterhouse Rules
How a Local Meat Processing Plant Could Serve Ranchers & Strengthen Our Food Security
by Holly Madrigal
The concept of a local slaughterhouse—the idea that we would be able to purchase humanely raised and slaughtered livestock from our neighbors, avoiding the usual additional travel and expense associated with it—has been around for years. While not everyone eats meat, most can agree that a transition from horrific factory farms to locally controlled, transparent, smaller slaughter facilities would be a welcome change. Given that grocery store shelves and butcher counter freezers have been lean due to stressed supply chains during this pandemic, the idea of locally available meat only increases in popularity.
The Economic Development and Finance Corporation (EDFC) is a non profit organization tasked with supporting economic health in Mendocino County. They received grants from the U.S. Department of Commerce in 2013 and worked closely with the UC Agricultural Cooperative Extension and Mendocino County’s Ag Department to develop a feasibility study for a meat processing plant. This followed a 2009 report that specifically explored the idea of a New Zealand style, small-scale abattoir. The projected potential financial benefits were hopeful.
The 2009 estimates found that a local slaughterhouse could increase the gross value of livestock in the region from $15 million to $29 million annually. The study also found that such a project could create 682 jobs (44 directly attributed to the facility). These estimates were calculated with a baseline service area of Mendocino, Lake, Sonoma, Marin, and Napa Counties, with possible expansion into additional counties in the future. Total estimated value added to the regional economy would be $23 million.
Prior to joining the staff at EDFC, Diann Simmons had collaborated extensively with the Round Valley Indian Authority. Fresh off her work helping to create the Round Valley Community Library and Commons, she joined other like-minded individuals to discuss the feasibility of opening a slaughterhouse in that community. “The idea was to improve the viability of local food systems,” says Diann. “We received a grant from the California Endowment to pursue that idea, since we knew it would increase the value to local ranchers, allowing them to make more from each head of cattle, buffalo, sheep, or goats. Working in partnership with the tribal community, it seemed like it could serve an economic benefit to the area.”
Diann continues, “After a full analysis, it turned out that Round Valley was too far for ranchers to come from outside the valley, and it would be too cost prohibitive to survive just on the local supply.” She adds, “It is a shame, because there are herds of buffalo in Covelo that are currently sold cheap to a third party for processing. If we could do our own meat processing, ranchers could charge more and receive more of the benefit.”
Multiple ideas for local slaughtering options have been percolating around Mendocino County for years. Perhaps a small rig could travel to individual ranches, eliminating the stress on animals of long-distance travel. The carcasses could then be taken to a cut-and-wrap facility for further processing. In order to resell that meat to the public, a USDA inspector would be required, and this has proven to be a barrier due to expense and availability. The 2013 EDFC study estimated that a set up like this would cost approximately $430,500. If a modular slaughter unit and additional holding pens were set up on a leased site, with farmers transporting their livestock to the site, the cost would increase to $821,100.
Tyler Yadon, of Willits-area company Meat Box, was one of the people who operated with a similar travelling business model for many years. Demand was great. He would arrive at a ranch to kill the animal(s), which would then be taken to the cut-and-wrap butcher of choice. “We ran out of places that could take those carcasses. Bob Bennett in the Willits Valley, a retired butcher from Safeway, used to take them, but he is really trying to retire now,” says Yadon. “Larry Poss in Lake County and Geiger’s Market in Laytonville still do this work, but they get busy. If ranchers could bring animals to a small clean place with a good sized walk-in to hang and age the carcasses, and a top notch butchering area, you would never have an off day,” says Tyler.
The 2013 study also explored the option of a 24,000 square foot built-in-place facility that could slaughter and process up to 1,500 animals annually. At a cost of approximately $1.4 million, this plan had the greatest potential to create jobs, add value for ranchers, and boost economic development. Many local ranchers currently truck their herds to this type of setup, so providing a local facility would save them time and money, and reduce stress on their animals.
John and Charline Ford have been ranching in Mendocino and Humboldt counties for generations. “With the coronavirus problem, along with the old Rancho plant only slaughtering their own animals, this has made the need even more worthy than it was five or six years ago,” says John Ford. Currently, Ford takes his cattle to Redwood Meat Co. in Eureka, where the wait times have not been excessive. But they also have cattle coming from ranches within Humboldt County, so that involves coordinating the slaughter schedule. “I would definitely use a local facility if it could satisfy my needs and produce a similar end product, which Redwood does provide at this time. If the plant is built and operated properly, I do not believe the financing is a problem. The location is still the biggest problem,” John concludes.
This brings us to the primary stumbling block for a local slaughterhouse: location, location, location. The requirement to both be near our city centers and out of sight is a significant barrier. The EDFC feasibility study found that any facility would need to have access to a municipal water supply and sewer system. This is often in conflict with neighbors that either have a perception of a slaughterhouse as being smelly and awful, or who have ethical concerns about eating meat. In fact, if run properly there should be no detectable odors or outdoor feedlots.
One possible location is just north of Willits at the old Apache Mill site, perfectly situated on Highway 101, but lacking the municipal hook-up requirements. John Ford is aware of another potential property near Ukiah. “I believe it is still on the market, but we heard that there are neighbors in that area that have threatened a lawsuit if slaughterhouse plans move forward. They apparently do not believe in the slaughtering of any animals. Too bad, as this particular property has a municipal water hookup already. So the big drawback is an acceptable location that will satisfy not only the slaughter house’s needs, but also the acceptance by the public.”
Kyle Farmer of Magruder Ranch is pragmatic in his assessment of the issue. “One of the problems with the concept is that, while we don’t have slaughter as local as I would like it to be, we are pretty well off considering what most of the country is like.” Mac Magruder, Kyle’s father-in-law, has been selling his high quality pork and beef locally and throughout northern California for many years. They also take their animals to Redwood Meats. Kyle muses, “This is all for USDA. For state-inspected, there are much more interesting options. Recently, a law passed legalizing what people had already been doing, pre-selling an animal, having it slaughtered on farm, and processing it at a state-inspected facility. We can do five animals per month that way.”
Kyle continues, “The problem is that the only person who does on-farm slaughter recently partnered in purchasing a state-inspected cut-and-wrap facility, and now only kills for that facility. For on-farm slaughter, all you need is a tricked out pickup truck, some sort of boom hoist, preferably some refrigeration capacity. I think that the focus in Mendocino County should be helping someone who is raising animals on a small scale and is looking for diversified cash flow to acquire a tricked out slaughter truck to do on-farm slaughter, five animals per month, for as many ranches as possible.“
Additional progress is happening at the federal level. As recently as this past July, the California State Grange sent out an email encouraging members to support Senate Bill S1620 and House Bill H.R. 2859, the Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption Act (or PRIME Act—humor!). The act would allow small, privately owned slaughterhouses to process meat for sale to the public without requiring a full-time inspector to be on site. As the email states, “Custom slaughterhouses are regulated and inspected, but are not referred to as ‘inspected facilities’ because they do not have an inspector on-site during processing. The Federal law [that this act would negate] is not about safety. There have been zero recalls from these custom slaughterhouses.”
The CA State Grange closed by encouraging its members to contact their representatives to urge them to pass the bills. “Passage of the PRIME Act would support small farmers who currently lack reasonable access to processing facilities, thus helping to re-localize food systems, build more resilient supply chains, and improve consumer access to locally raised meat.” Decentralizing meat processing improves efficiency while providing better conditions for the animals, and therefore better product for the ranchers and omnivores involved.
When this health crisis first began, it was difficult to find flour at the grocery store. And yet, our local Mendocino Grain Project was able to step up to mill flour for our residents. A local slaughterhouse could serve a similar function, providing a smaller, more nimble food source closer to home. Much work has already been done to make this a reality. The findings of the 2009 and 2013 EDFC studies still have relevance, but as time moves on, they will quickly become outdated. Kyle Farmer reflects, “It is a great idea if there is a brilliant, committed person willing to lose sleep over the thing. The entrepreneur should be the starting point, not a fuzzy detail to figure out at the end. In this case, we aren’t looking so much for an entrepreneur as a mid-career professional who has experience in managing a slaughterhouse. Without that person, we’re just talking.” To turn that talk into action will take funding, commitment, and drive, and would make meat raised in Mendocino County more widely available to a supportive public that’s hungry for it.
Holly Madrigal is a Mendocino County maven who loves to share the delights of our region. She’s fortunate to enjoy her meaningful work as the director of the Leadership Mendocino program and takes great joy in publishing this magazine.
Wild Turkeys
The Tasty Fall Fowl
by Torrey Douglass
One of my favorite things about fall is the prospect of getting some wild turkey on the table. When the season is right* and the hunting license is in his pocket, my son will keep one ear open at all times for the birds’ telltale gobble. They can often be found in flocks walking through the fields and forests in the hour or two just after dawn or just before dusk.
It’s best to note the route the birds are taking and quietly find a spot farther along it, then take your shot when they pass by. Sneaking up on them is a much trickier prospect. Regulations permit using a shotgun, air rifle, or archery equipment to take a turkey of either sex. Aim for the head to preserve the meat. If you’re stealthy and have good aim, this hearty game bird can become the central feature of a foraged fall feast.
You want to tread gently when cooking a game bird. The white and dark meats need different cooking times, so it’s better to break down the turkey into parts and cook them separately rather than roast the whole bird. The meat is lean and can dry out quickly, but has a richer flavor than its domesticated counterpart. That wonderful flavor likely is due to their omnivorous diet—they will eat pretty much anything, be it berries, seeds, insects, and even small reptiles.
So when fall is winding down and the days are growing short, get yourself a hunting license and take off into the great outdoors (where you’ve been given permission, of course), and you just might bring home this most delicious forageable fowl.
*The season for hunting wild turkey in 2020 begins November 14 and lasts through December 13. Be sure to check out wildlife.ca.gov to familiarize yourself with the rules and regs, and get the proper license before you set out to catch your own wild turkey (limit 2 per season).
Wild Turkey on the Grill
A wild turkey’s legs and breasts are best for eating, and brining works well. For the breasts, marinate in soy sauce, kosher salt, juice of a lemon, and fresh ground black pepper.
Remove from marinade, sprinkle with piment d’ville and herbs de provence, and put on the barbeque. If your barbeque is outdoors and weather is not obliging, cut into chunks and put into a cast iron dutch oven along with previously sauteed onions. Add some root vegetables and whole garlic cloves, cover with stock and cook for 2-3 hours in a 350˚ oven. Veggies should be nicely softened and meat fork-tender, swimming in a delicious gravy. Great served with a rice pilaf. Pro tip: heat the pan in the oven for 10 minutes prior to adding the meat, stock, and vegetables.
Oz Farm Apple Cider
by Madeline Ruth
Oz Farm went into commercial production of its farmhouse-style cider only four years ago, but their unique organic cider blends are 30 years in the making. The farm’s three acres of organically tended apple trees produce over 50 rare and heirloom choice European cider apples planted in the 1990s. Their orchard-based blends are crafted with traditional methods: the apples are masticated, pressed, and fermented with native yeast in the barn adjacent to the orchard. Then they are intentionally blended to lend each vintage a taste of Oz Farm, offering a bone-dry effervescence with a crafted balance of tannins and acids. Infused into the terroir of these ciders is the essence of the rich soil that is continuously revitalized by Garcia River wintertime flooding and decades of regenerative orchard management.
Oz Farm’s cidery was born out of a passion to creatively utilize the apples that can’t be sold as dessert-grade. Instead of composting or sending these choice cider apples to pig farmers, four years ago Oz’s new owner, Dean Fernandez, decided to build a cidery and thus combine two things that add intrigue to any organic farm operation: upcycling and value-added products. Dean first got introduced to cider production while apprenticing at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems in Santa Cruz, and he spent years pruning the orchard at Oz before taking ownership of the farm and its “espaliered” orchards, with trees trained on trellises in rows much like grapes in vineyards.
Oz Farm brings their local and sustainable farming ethic into the production of cider. While it is possible to make cider from concentrate or source juice from apples grown far away, Oz’s cidery only uses organic pressed apple juice from its own orchards and is committed to small-batch production. Oz Farm has learned that the best craft cider is born from the alchemy of blending the juice of multiple choice apples, and their blends trace the arc of the harvest with early, mid, and late-season ciders. The most unique properties of apples—such as the acids in the Nehou apple and the unique tannin profile offered by the Siberian Crabapple—are fermented separately to add special qualities to blends. Oz is even experimenting with breeding new varietals of apple by growing out seeds born from the most ancient genetics of the original trees in the mountains of Kazakhstan.
The Oz Farm cidery has come a long way in four years. An entirely off-grid farm and retreat center, the cidery is powered by solar and wind energy. Abby Stoner, current Retreat Manager, remembers the early days when they milled and pressed all the apples by hand into 5-gallon carboys. “Our friends were getting married at Oz and really wanted cider from Oz’s orchard at the wedding. So eight months beforehand, all the farmers hand-pressed the apples. It was one of the first seasonal batches we ever made.” Oz Farm now has a full state-of-the-art cidery, but small-batch production, as well as sustainability, is still a central ethos.
Oz plans to expand production and distribution throughout Mendocino County come fall of 2020 and has just acquired a number of upcycled storage tanks from an Oregon tea company that was going out of business. While currently only available for wholesale accounts and on-site growler sales, Oz soon plans to sell bottles of cider to grocery stores and bottle shops along the coast.
Oz Cider can be found at Point Arena Pizza and is available for local growler purchase at ozfarm.com/cider.
Madi has been working with Oz Farm since March 2020 and spends her time developing Oz’s nonprofit branch when not sipping cider.
Wickson
Food from the Heart
by Torrey Douglass
The month of March started normally enough—there were commitments to fulfill, goals to pursue. Life rolled along merrily until … it didn’t. All our plans took a sharp turn off a high cliff, as the county ordered us to park at home and once-crowded calendars were wiped clean. Suddenly, for a lot of folks, there wasn’t much to do but sit around and fondly remember a time when venturing out into public didn’t feel like a Darwinistic game of Russian roulette.
For Rodney Workman and Alexa Newman, March was supposed to include the opening of their new restaurant, Wickson. Launching a nascent business is always a stressful enterprise, and the pandemic compounded the difficulties. County staff were largely unavailable to finalize permits in process, so they were unable to offer even the to-go meals that other restaurants were scraping by on. And as a new venture, they did not qualify for any of the grants or loan options available to other small businesses.
Yet even though it was frustrating to have their opening postponed, the extra time did offer some benefits. Alexa reflects, “We’ve saved on overhead, and we’ve had time to test and experiment.” Rodney agrees. “We’d been rushing to open the restaurant. Now we have had time to reflect. And we developed skills we wouldn’t otherwise have.”
One of those new skills includes the quarantine craze of making sourdough bread. But baking their loaves has an extra challenge thanks to the wood-fired oven at the heart of their restaurant’s kitchen. Wickson is located in an intimate space inside The Madrones visitor complex just outside of Philo, and the oven serves as both focal point and primary cooking source. So on top of getting the starter right and determining rise times that can fluctuate with temperature, humidity, and the Dow Jones, they faced the added challenge of baking with the imprecise temperature wood heat provides. “It has to be preheated for hours,” says Rodney. “Then we pull out the coals, clean the floor of the oven, and let the temperature equalize for about an hour until we bake in it. So every time we bake the result is a little different. It’s been a really fun learning process.”
The delay also allowed Alexa and Rodney to refine their menu, an important task since the county has placed a number of new requirements on food businesses. Rodney reflects, “With only 50% occupancy permitted, we have less staff, so everything has to be more simple logistically.” Their food style has evolved as well, responding to the emotional strain of the times with dishes that are lighter, simpler, and, above all else, comforting—like roast chicken, vegetable ragouts, and platters of smoked fish.
Caring for others through food is a natural impulse for the pair, as each found their way into the restaurant business through the world of non-profits. After attending university in Davis, Alexa moved to San Francisco where she worked for a variety of organizations. She soon discovered that food education programs were her favorite, and she realized that, to truly be effective, she should up her cooking game. By then Rodney was in her life, and he advised her to find a staging gig—the practice of working in another chef’s kitchen for free in order to learn new cuisines and techniques (based on the French word stagiaire, meaning trainee or intern). As a result, Alexa spent time at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, where she was inspired by the emphasis on sourcing seasonal produce directly from farms in the area. This approach immediately jived with her personal love of farmers markets, a passion she’d retained since her days in Davis.
In contrast, Rodney’s education focused on environmental science, after which he spent time working on restoration projects managed by non-profits. It became increasingly clear to him that food systems contribute a significant portion of humanity’s harm to the planet, and that making thoughtful choices around what we eat and how it’s sourced can play a role in its repair. Rodney, then in his mid-twenties, shifted his attention to cooking, and he’s been working in kitchens ever since.
For both Rodney and Alexa, the restaurant is a way to put their ethics into practice. They get to work directly with farmers, support a smaller food system, and use humanely raised animals, all while letting seasonal vegetables drive the menu. Both are inspired by Bay Area culinary heroes. Rodney admires Michael Tsai, formerly of Camino in Oakland, whom he describes as “the most thoughtful cook I’ve ever cooked with. He showed me that the small details add up to be a lot.” He considers Stuart Brioza of San Francisco’s State Bird Provisions to be a role model as well, based on his creativity and his ability to ignore the rules of cooking to let the flavors dictate his choices. Alexa looks to the impressive legacy of Judy Rodgers, award winning chef of San Francisco’s iconic Zuni Cafe from 1987 until her passing in 2013, and a key player in the popularization of California cuisine.
The Bay Area certainly has a phenomenal food culture with an abundance of talented chefs to inspire developing food professionals, but life in the city can grind a person down. Rodney and Alexa would escape to Anderson Valley to mushroom hunt and fish on their days off, so when burnout began creeping in and a couple of positions opened up at The Boonville Hotel, they decided to pick up stakes and move there for good.
After a couple of years cooking in the restaurant at The Boonville Hotel, Rodney and Alexa felt ready to strike out on their own. Wickson offers a house menu four nights of the week, featuring dishes that rotate and evolve throughout the season. Then, each weekend, guests will get a completely unique menu based on some faraway (and undoubtedly scrumptious) locale they’ve visited. For both menus, the primary influence on the pair’s culinary creativity will be the availability of local vegetables.
The rural setting has brought them closer to the people who grow those vegetables. “Anderson Valley is great for accessing farmers,” comments Alexa. She and Rodney have spent time in the field with Pam at Blue Meadow Farm in Philo, and also love working with the meat, fruit, and vegetables provided by farms like The Apple Farm, Filigreen Farm, and Petit Teton. Their plant-forward approach leads Rodney and Alexa to classify their cooking as California Cuisine, but they incorporate flavors inspired by their travels as well. Their albacore on a sourdough cracker with aioli and crispy onions, for example, was inspired by the fish tostada from the Contramar restaurant in Mexico City.
While the weather and health orders allow, diners can sit outside at safely spaced tables under umbrellas. One recent meal had a distinctive Mediterranean tone, beginning with peppery marinated olives. A smoked salmon rillete on crostini was indulgently rich, with the exquisitely fresh salmon flavors taking center stage and refreshing contrast provided by gently acidic marinated cucumbers and a green tomato pickle. For the main course, slices of beautifully prepared leg of lamb with the perfect amount of pink arrived on a plate with roasted eggplant flavored with Mediterranean herbs and enhanced by lovely smokey undertones no doubt added by the wood-fired oven. A chopped olive relish delivered a briney tang to balance the plate.
Promoting food based on the use of fresh, locally sourced, and seasonal ingredients has become so common as to feel cliché. That does not reduce the heart-opening bliss that one can experience when consuming a dish prepared with genuine dedication to those values. There’s food that just stops you from being hungry. Then there’s food that stops you from being hungry and also tastes good, so there’s a nice component of pleasure with your meal. But beyond that, there’s food that makes time stop for a moment, that gently insists on all your attention because it has unveiled some ingredient used at the apex of its existence, whose preparation and coincident elements cooperate to offer a flavor experience that is both multifaceted and elemental. It is the culinary equivalent of a expertly executed acapella harmony—all the voices must be perfectly pitched, with no extraneous noise to distract, in order to create the transcendent sound that, for just a moment, fills one’s soul with delight.
High-falutin’ words, to be sure, but each one is sincere. This is what Wickson does well, as evidenced by their Romesco, Tomatoes, and Scallions dish. The smoky sauce has just a bit of texture, and is thick enough to be scooped up with a fork. The scallions add a fresh note of onion-y green, but the full-bodied tomato flavors in both the sauce and the additional chunks are truly summer on a plate.
When asked how they’re feeling about the upheaval brought about by the pandemic, Rodney says, “It’s scary. Restaurants are hard enough, but we are hanging in there.” Alexa adds, “The pandemic changed our plans, but we’re excited.” Her excitement is well founded. The restaurant allows them to put their ideals into action while pursuing their favorite parts of the food business: developing relationships with farmers and simply bringing people joy through good food. “I really like going to the tables,” says Alexa. “I like to see how people’s faces and expressions change when you bring food out to them.”
It’s a complicated time to be alive, with a long list of problems to which we must set our minds and shoulders. Taking a moment to savor the simple joy of wonderful food prepared with care and attention seems like an excellent strategy for getting through it all. And Wickson is here to help us do just that.
Wickson at The Madrones
9000 Hwy 128, Philo, CA | (707) 895-2955 | WicksonRestaurant.com
Open Thursday – Monday. Check website for hours.
Farm + Flour
Cloverdale’s Farm Fresh Local Food Service
The first day Mendocino County’s shelter-in-place order took effect was also supposed to be the last day of Shannon Moore’s lease on her commercial kitchen. After over a decade supplying Cloverdale with cupcakes, pies, cookies, galettes, cakes, and other edible delights through her baking enterprise, Flour Girl, Shannon was ready to slow down, have a rest, and explore some new options.
One new project includes managing the Cloverdale Farmers Market. The small Tuesday gathering has historically been held in the lot next to the popular coffee spot, Plank, in Cloverdale’s charming business district. Small and intimate, the market enjoys a loyal following of customers for the farmers and other vendors (including Flour Girl) who sell there. The market was in the midst of its certification process when the former manager retired earlier this year, and Shannon was willing to step in to keep it alive.
Like so much else that was derailed by the pandemic, the year-round market was suspended when shelter-in-place orders came down, and ultimately the decision was made to cancel it for the foreseeable future. “It was just too many logistical things for us,” Shannon reflects. The market will return once conditions allow, but in the meantime, the link connecting farmers and other food vendors from their customers was broken.
The solution for its repair came via a phone call from Shannon’s friend and Cloverdale farmer, Rebecca Bozzelli of Lantern Farm, who suggested creating a farm box program where members receive a weekly box of local goodies. At first the partners started small with just produce and baked goods, but the project quickly evolved to offer much more. While customers can get the typical CSA-style farm box full of the best of that week’s harvest, they can also add all sorts of other a la carte items, including Flour Girl cupcakes, cookies, and galettes, as well as sausage, sourdough, olive oil, mushrooms, preserves, and handmade pasta, all made by local Cloverdale food businesses. Customers can even add non-edibles like t-shirts, soap, candles, and flower bouquets to round out their order.
Members can log onto the Farm + Flour website starting at 10am on Thursday and place orders through Sunday at 5pm. Deliveries and pickups happen on Tuesdays. There was high demand from the start, with news of the new food operation spreading through social media, email lists, and word-of-mouth. Says Shannon, “Everyone is so grateful we’ve been offering this outlet for people to get fresh, locally grown produce.” Meeting the demand while building out the business has been challenging for a two-person venture, making the support of friends and volunteers indispensable. The website was developed pro bono by a friend, and even the delivery drivers are volunteers.
It’s tempting to think of Farm + Flour as the Cloverdale Tuesday Farmers Market online, but Shannon is quick to point out that it is an entirely separate project. The endeavor allows Cloverdale farmers (as well as bakers, butchers, and craftspeople) a place to sell their goods, and it gives area residents a place to buy locally produced food.
While it looks like the relaxation Shannon was seeking won’t happen any time soon, she finds this new adventure deeply satisfying. It’s even possible that these types of hyper-local food hubs become the “new normal” as we move into an uncertain future, providing a much-needed marketplace where farmers can sell to their local communities.
Farm + Flour | FarmAndFlourBoxes.com
Photos courtesy of Farm + Flour.