A Time of Reimagining
“I never thought that I’d be …” is a phrase I have heard a lot lately. “I never thought I’d be serving all our customers entirely outdoors.” “I never thought I’d be teaching my kids from home while I juggle work.” “I never thought I’d be so excited about my mom getting a vaccine shot.” It seems the unforeseen and unimagined has become commonplace and the reinvention and reimagining of our circumstances has become the norm. Will this new way of doing things work? Will our creativity be rewarded? It’s like a caterpillar breaking out of its cocoon, transformed, wings crinkly and tentative, ready to take to the skies.
Spring encapsulates this combination of possibility and unpredictability. It’s an annual constant, yet the act of new growth is always exciting while also slightly uncomfortable. The stories in this issue capture both the uncertainty and the hope of our moment. Places like Drop In Donut saw a need in Fort Bragg for delicious sweet treats, and their bakery is thriving despite starting in the midst of a global pandemic. The Pie Ranch in Cazadero found themselves reinventing an entire farm program once they were no longer allowed to have guests, and they continue to work toward a more healthy and just food system despite enduring a devastating wildfire and the myriad challenges brought on by COVID. Chef Janelle Weaver of the Bewildered Pig takes a moment to reflect on the meaning of local, and writer Anna Levy looks at the 100+ year history of Emandal Farm and the creativity and flexibility that keeps them thriving. The challenges of the past year are significant, but they force us to adapt, adjust, and reimagine as we move forward.
Also in this issue, we catch up with local culinary legend, Margaret Fox, to hear about how Harvest Market has revamped their well known fresh food offerings into a bountiful array of pre-made meals to carry out. We hear from Cornelia Reynolds, gardener and Chair of Fort Bragg Bee City USA, who has been rehabilitating a piece of land to welcome and encourage native pollinators. And we look at Pennyroyal Farm’s Laychee, their first cheese of the spring season, with a fresh flavor perfect for a spring celebration cheesecake.
My heart sings as these days grow longer. Catching the sunset is a personal daily goal, and I love that this can now be closer to 6:00 than 4:00 in the afternoon. As springtime unfurls, remember that we are in a time of creativity and dreaming, but also for getting our hands dirty. It’s time to work the soil to allow for new growth. Perhaps I’ll plant some local milkweed seeds to welcome the butterflies of spring.
Holly Madrigal, Publisher
Pennyroyal’s Laychee
The First Cheese of Spring
by Torrey Douglass
When I was seven, I asked my parents for a bike. When my daughter was seven, she asked me for an American Girl Doll. When Erika McKenzie-Chapter was seven, she asked her parents for a cow. A live one. That she could milk.
This probably was not such a surprise for Erika’s parents, as they had family members who’d worked in the dairy business for generations. Erika’s great-grandfather operated a cow dairy in Sonoma County, later joined by his son. Her great-aunt also operated a cow dairy in Sonoma County with her husband, and currently a cousin owns a sheep dairy in the Central Valley with his wife. But for a child living in Fairfield, raising livestock was not an option, so Erika was forced to postpone the launch of her dairy career until more suitable conditions could be arranged.
This setback did not deter Erika from her destiny, though it did allow time for her to transition her focus from cows to dairy goats. “As soon as I started working with goats at UC Davis, I was hooked. They have so much personality,” Erika shared. “You have to develop trust with dairy goats, to milk them, to pull babies.” She was in the midst of a dairy science course at Davis when the class paid a visit to Vella Cheese Company, a creamery in Sonoma. Stepping into the facility was a singular delight, a kind of homecoming similar to the sensation of meeting a new-old friend. “I loved the smell,” she recalls. “I have a genuine joy for being around aged cheeses.”
After completing her Bachelor of Animal Science degree, Erika apprenticed at a goat dairy in France before returning to Davis to work on her M.S. in Animal Biology. There she met fellow grad student Sarah Bennett, a viticulture student who had grown up in her family’s winery, Navarro Vineyards of Anderson Valley. Though they were pursuing different fields, they shared a love of sustainable farming—agricultural endeavors that harmonize with the cycles of nature.
Sarah dreamed of integrating her ecological values into a new winery—specifically a combined winery/creamery, home to a herd large enough to produce enough manure for 100% of the vineyard’s fertilization needs. After two years of planning, three years of building, and the arrival of Erika’s 85 goats, the creamery at Pennyroyal Farm opened in May of 2012.
Pennyroyal provided the ideal testing ground for the pair’s agricultural ambitions. Some creameries use hormones or artificial lighting to stagger births so milk is available year round, but Pennyroyal prioritizes seasonality. This means the milk ebbs and flows throughout the year, as does the availability of certain cheeses. In the summer, milk production starts to wane from its peak of 15 pounds per day, and the decline continues once the goat and sheep mamas are bred in the fall. By the end of December, they’re “dried off,” producing no milk as their energy shifts to growing babies. It’s a welcome respite for everyone. “We want to embrace the seasonal nature of animals,” Erika explains. “We have a break in winter so no one gets burned out.”
This “winter maternity leave” lasts through January and into February and is one of Erika’s favorite times of year.She’ll walk into the barn where the pregnant goats are barely visible, buried in the straw and gently groaning from time to time, creating an ongoing soundtrack of maternal contentment she refers to as “the pregnancy hum.”
Then, in mid-February, the seasonal clock clicks forward again and the baby goats and sheep start arriving, and, with them, the milk. As cheesemaking resumes, the first product to hit the shelves is Laychee, a combination goat and sheep cheese that takes just 48 hours from start to finish. The milk arrives at the creamery, it ferments for 24 hours, the whey is drained from the curds, and voilà! Mix in salt (and blueberries if you’re feeling frisky), and it’s ready to eat.
Spring brings the maximum milk production from the sheep, so the proportion of sheep to goat milk is as high as 20% in the early batches of Laychee. This lends the cheese a particularly rich and creamy texture, as sheep milk is higher in fat and protein. It’s just a touch sweeter than the Laychee made later in the year, which expresses more citrusy flavors due to the higher amount of goat milk.
Other Pennyroyal cheeses take longer to mature. Bollie’s Mollies requires four weeks, while harder aged cheeses like Boont Corners, Fratty Corners, and Boonter’s Blue can take two months or more. Laychee, in contrast, is fast and fresh, the perfect spring cheese. Spread it on a slice of fresh bread with chutney, mix it into a creamy salad dressing, or go all out with Erika’s favorite Laychee Cheesecake for the perfect celebration dessert. Its creamy-sweet decadence embodies the jubilation that comes from being alive while the world shakes off winter’s frost and starts pushing green things up from the dirt under the welcome spring sun.
Laychee Cheesecake
by Erika McKenzie-Chapter
I take this cake to get-togethers, make it for holidays, etc. The crust can be modified with choice of spices to make it fit the occasion (i.e., I add nutmeg and cinnamon in the fall, some lemon or orange zest in the spring).
Crust:
10 graham crackers, crushed
6 Tbsp melted butter
2 Tbsp brown sugar
Spices to taste
Cheesecake:
2 lbs Pennyroyal’s Laychee cheese
1 cup sugar
4 Tbsp flour
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
Heat oven to 350˚. Grease 8” spring-form pan. Using a fork, mix the ingredients for the crust. Pour into pan and tamp down with a spoon or bottom of a glass. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until golden around the edges. Set aside to cool.
Combine Laychee, sugar, and flour in a stand mixer. Mix on low speed, then add one egg at a time. Add vanilla. Pour batter over the crust. Bake for 12 minutes at 350˚. Then lower temp to 250˚ and bake an additional 45-55 minutes, until the top of the cheesecake is slightly puffy and spongy-firm to the touch. The center should jiggle slightly when the pan is tapped. Let cool, serve, and enjoy!
Pennyroyal Farm, 14930 Highway 128, Boonville
(707) 895-2410 | PennyroyalFarm.com
Open Mon–Sun, 10am–5pm
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.
Harvest Market
Supremely Convenient Quality Food Stewarded by the Legendary Margaret Fox
by Holly Madrigal
Anyone who has walked through the doors of Harvest Market can tell you that there is something special about this place. It feels more creative than your traditional fluorescent lightbulb, anywhere USA stores that carpet the nation. Harvest harkens back to the mom-and-pop markets of the past, but with a decidedly modern-day twist. Natural light fills the store, solar panels create power, and exhaust heat from the coolers helps to warm the space. Curated groceries, beer and wine, pet supplies, home goods, and just about anything you need line the shelves. But what has put this market on the must-stop list of anyone who visits the coast? The food.
The Culinary Director of Harvest Market, Margaret Fox achieved legendary foodie status as a former Chef/Owner of Café Beaujolais in Mendocino Village. Having purchased the restaurant in 1977, the then 25-year-old set about serving distinctive breakfasts and lunches out of the yellow house on Ukiah Street. “Luckily, I didn’t have enough experience to even imagine how hard it would be, or I probably wouldn’t have done it. But Mendocino was different back then. It was a quiet and sleepy town,” says Margaret. “A good thing, because I could (and did) make mistakes, and no one paid much attention. But yes, it’s probably good that I didn’t know how much I didn’t know.”
Within a month, Café Beaujolais began serving dinner. Creativity and commitment to exceptionally good food eventually made it a culinary destination. Two cookbooks, Café Beaujolais and Morning Food, were published in 1984 and 1990 respectively, created with co-author John Bear. “I wrote those cookbooks by hand! That’s how long ago it was,” laughs Margaret. “And it was so quiet and rainy in the winters that I could devote the time.” (Margaret revised and republished Morning Food in 2006, re-testing all the recipes and updating the photos and design.)
When the time came for a new chapter, Margaret decided to sell Café Beaujolais. Her daughter was young, and Margaret relished having time to walk her to school and volunteer in her classroom. She did some business consulting and thought that she might end up doing something unrelated to food when Tom Honer, owner of Harvest Market, came calling and asked, “How would you like to be our Culinary Director?” “What does a Culinary Director do?” queried Margaret, and he replied, “I don’t know. We’ve never had one. You have to make that up yourself.” But Margaret loves a challenge, and she jumped right in.
Margaret enthuses, “Tom is a genius. He always had such a vision for what Harvest Market could be. His finger has been on the pulse of our community. Since I grew up with a hardworking, entrepreneurial father and knew from my personal experience what it takes to run a successful business, Tom’s energy just really resonated with me. He foresaw organic and embraced local farms way ahead of his time.”
Margaret developed many of the aspects that make Harvest what it is today. While the deli is her main focus, she also has significant influence in other parts of the store. Thanks to her Beaujolais breakfast past, she was a natural at baking. She developed new recipes for the bakery that achieved immediate popularity. Her buttermilk cinnamon coffeecake was already legendary, and she made it available at Harvest. Margaret developed several cookie recipes which customers have enjoyed for years. Now frozen cookie dough can be purchased to bake at home. Margaret also had an instrumental role in furthering the expansion of the cheese department that was initiated by former Department Manager, Julia Conway. “I was really lucky that Julia, local chef and caterer, had preceeded me, bringing her vast knowledge of cheese and educating customers about a broader range of products.”
The pandemic of this past year has required Harvest Market to make significant changes in how it operates in order to keep customers and employees safe. Dedicated entrance and exit doors were established, plexiglass barriers were installed between shoppers and clerks, directional arrows eliminated crossing paths in the aisles, and delivery and curbside pick-up all work to this end.
Margaret had to re-imagine how to continue providing the excellent food they had become known for. She explained, “Like the entire world, we were trying to figure out how to move forward.” The deli case and prepared salads and meals were able to continue with some minor adjustments. The extensive self-serve options, including the salad bar and olive bar, daily themed meals from Indian, Chinese, and Mexican cuisines, along with traditional comfort food and hot soups, had been a huge draw. Given the new safety protocols, all of this had to go.
“When I returned after the first stay at home orders, I was a little apprehensive, but our team adapted. We had to learn what people would feel comfortable with,” Margaret remembers. “Our customers still wanted good food, so we started to make more prepared items. We set up a whole grab-and-go case with full meals, salads, and breakfast. Although people were cooking at home rather than going out to restaurants, it’s always nice to have alternatives and variety, and not have to do all the work yourself.” The “Best of Harvest” case, where you can buy individual entrees or select from dishes such as creamy polenta with roasted squash, samosas, and grilled asparagus, continues to be very popular.
Challenge is a large part of what keeps Margaret creatively interested, and she’s also been inspired by her team’s talents. Their combined efforts have resulted in an experience for locals and visitors to the area that has garnered Harvest Market a very devoted group of customers. Harvest’s offerings are always evolving. Margaret and the deli staff love trying new recipes. “For example, one of our cooks experiments with Asian-influenced cuisine and sauces, and we’ve gotten enthusiastic responses,” she shares.
There are also aspects of Harvest Market that have not changed. Certain dishes are sacrosanct. “If we ever stopped offering our kale salad, there would be a revolution,” Margaret laughs. When asked if there have been dishes whose reception surprised her, she mentions a roasted sweet potato with a shallot and miso topping. “It sounds unusual but it’s so good. We cannot make enough of them. I’ve had people leave messages of love for that dish on my phone.” In normal times, Harvest caters parties and events, but this past holiday season, they doubled down on single-serving Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. They sold more than 70 full Thanksgiving dinners with roast turkey, green beans almandine, mashed potatoes, and lots and lots of homemade gravy, which made people happy.
The enhanced culinary aspect of Harvest Market has become a major draw over the years. “We want to make it accessible to people. I want everyone to be able to enjoy good food and not have to pay an arm and a leg for it. Such a cross-section of our community comes through our doors every day. We actually see people who visit the area year after year, and we’ve formed relationships with them,” adds Margaret. “And we love our locals. At the end of the day, we need and want all our customers to feel taken care of. And I love that we can provide that at this moment.”
The love shines through. There is a reason that Harvest Market’s vision has succeeded all these years. The dedication of the owners, the quality of the goods on offer, and most important, the wonderful frontline staff who keep us all fed and taken care of have set this local business apart. So next time you find yourself picking up an adult brownie (nothing taboo here, just perfectly decadent chocolate) or a buttermilk coffee cake from the bakery, add some sesame salmon or grab-and-go biscuits and gravy to your cart. As we continue to adjust to this new paradigm, some things will remain the same, like stopping at Harvest for more of that incomparable kale salad.
Harvest Market
Open daily 7am–9pm (hours subject to change)
171 Boatyard Drive Fort Bragg
(707) 964-7000 | HarvestMarket.com
Holly Madrigal is a Mendocino County maven who loves to share the delights of our region. She enjoys her work as the Director of the Leadership Mendocino program and takes great joy in publishing this magazine.
Loco for Local
Reflections from The Bewildered Pig
by Janelle Weaver
We have been big fans of Word of Mouth since day one! In a way, we “grew up” together, as The Bewildered Pig opened the same year that the magazine released its first issue in 2016. We’re each going on six years in operation, and both the magazine and the restaurant have forged paths into the heart of our community and become known as trusted sources, sharing local food philosophy and ideals.
When we first permanently arrived in Mendocino County to open our restaurant, the word “local” took on a much different meaning. We had been visiting and catering in Anderson Valley for over a decade, and we had so much excitement and passion about finally being able to realize our long held dream of opening a small, intimate restaurant featuring locally sourced foods. The thought never occurred to us that we might not be considered “locals” after moving here.
Daniel and I were a bit unprepared for the unforeseen politics of earning acceptance into a new community, alongside the intense pressures of opening a small restaurant in the “middle of nowhere.” It appeared that there were endless factors when considering whether someone or something was “local.” Over time, we have come to realize that the concepts of being “local” and sourcing food locally are much more interrelated, thoughtful, and complex than their textbook definitions.
Sourcing local food for a restaurant is a fairly complex endeavor. It requires much more than just typing “sourced locally” on the menu. First, chefs and farmers have to find each other. Sounds very simple, but in reality, small farmers, like chefs, are extremely busy and don’t have a big outreach/marketing budget or team. Both are struggling business people: up at dawn (or just going to sleep after a long night of work), managing all areas of their business, and working “8 days a week.” A chef doesn’t just call up a farmer, fisherperson, or artisan food producer and “order stuff.” Like an individual becoming part of a community, the process of chef and farmer uniting requires building a relationship based on long-term commitment and trust.
Once they’ve found one another, they learn about their respective food philosophies and practices. There are discussions about availability, timing, and options. Finally, an initial order is made. Great! Now that that’s done, how to get the product? Delivery and receipt of product can be complicated, especially in a rural, spread out area like Mendocino County. I can’t tell you how many suspicious looking rendezvous in parking lots or on the side of the roads have taken place when coordinating with small purveyors to receive goods! Sometimes it’s delegating deliveries/pick ups to servers or managers coming to or from work, or maybe the purveyor knows someone who may be traveling nearby. It requires a lot of collaboration.
As time goes on, a chef and purveyor become almost like business partners: they are taking a chance on each other and making long-term arrangements in advance, up to a year or more. Some end up partnered for decades. How many heads of cabbage can you grow? Can we get them at reasonably consistent sizes? The chef expects a certain quality, criteria, and timely deliverability of goods, and s/he relies on the expertise of the farmer to deal amicably with Mother Nature. The purveyor expects to work hard to ensure that they’ve done their best to grow/raise their product with utmost care and trusts that the product will be utilized with integrity (and, of course, paid for). It is a relationship that relies on mutual commitment to survive.
Many chefs also enjoy foraging and gleaning. Though they already work 12-plus hour days, some are so passionate and dedicated that they’ll wake in the wee hours to go seeking mushrooms, wild herbs, sea salt, berries, and myriad other wild delicacies. I recall arriving at a farmer’s orchard at 4:00 am to glean figs. The farmer was contracted to a famous chef and was not supposed to “sell” to anyone else, even though the chef only used less than 10% of the product! So the farmer provided his incredible figs to me in secret. Some chefs raise and harvest their own animals. There is really no end to the depths chefs can go to express their passion for showcasing locally sourced food!
We are lucky to be in this magical area, with so many local food options: beyond-organic fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, olive oil, wine, fish, fowl, and livestock. We even have a local mill that freshly grinds heirloom grains into flour! And if you can’t bake bread yourself, you can order it from a local baker.
As a busy chef, I deeply appreciate having the MendoLake Food Hub as a purveyor and delivery liaison. I wish that the entire country could have this model, and we do as much as we can to support this vital resource. Without the Food Hub, my chef life would be markedly more difficult, and I think the farmers would say the same. Fashioned much like a CSA, the Food Hub unites very small farmers with Mendocino and Lake County businesses and individuals by way of an online portal and distribution infrastructure. This business makes sourcing amazing, locally grown product incredibly easy. Like any business, it takes a while to smooth out the kinks, and I feel honored to have been with the Food Hub from the early days! As a fledgling businesses, we were patient with one another—another great example of local communities working together.
OK, but what does it actually mean to be “a local?” While some may ascertain whether a person in a locale is a “local” simply by proxy, I believe that it is much deeper than that. Is it simply how long one has resided in a place? Must one be born there to be truly local? Were the native Indians considered local? Like, if you live somewhere for 5 years, you’re somewhat local? 40 years you’re VERY local?
Over the years, we have come to create our own thoughts (and spelling) on the subject. To us, being “Loco(l)” is about how one interacts and contributes to a place and its inhabitants. It’s about contributing positively to society in one’s own unique way. It isn’t merely subscribing to someone else’s notions. It’s about respecting the world around oneself and being able to cherish and see the beauty of the immediate moment. Being “Loco(l)” is a state of mind, a way of living that embraces that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” for the true and greater good of the community.
Being considered a “local” in a small community takes more than just existing in a place. One must demonstrate that they possess shared values, are willing to participate in some positive way, and that they care for others in the community. Each community is a kaleidoscope of these interwoven principles, and each locale has individual differences based on its demographic make-up.
Coming here, we felt that we would nestle into a curiously diverse community of artists, rebels, sustainable farmers, winos, foodies, metropolitan expats, and people dedicated to “green” living. People here appear to enjoy music, dancing, and living mindful, responsible, bucolic existences. We appreciate Mendocino County because we enjoy farming and “living off the land.” We also crave quietness and solitude. Many who live here make great efforts to help one another in myriad ways: growing “stuff,” harvesting it, sharing equipment, exchanging time, sharing information and knowledge . . . the list goes on and on.
We continue to observe what the word “local” means to us as members of society, chefs, hosts, friends, gardeners, business owners, bosses, and human beings, both in this little hamlet and in the global “village.” In the world of food, supporting our community of farmers, foragers, ranchers, and fishing boats is of paramount importance. But we also enjoy introducing ourselves and our guests to delicious and unique delicacies sourced from our global community. We live in a beautiful world, and we want to celebrate its richness and diversity.
It took a little while, but we now feel comfortable with our place and view in this unique community, and we hope to continue as humble humans practicing what it means to be a positive part of this amazing place that we truly call home.
The Bewildered Pig | 1810 Highway 128, Philo
(707) 895-2088 | TheBewilderedPig.com
Check website for hours.
Chef Janelle Weaver, Co-Owner of The Bewildered Pig restaurant in Anderson Valley, has cooked professionally for over 20 years. She stays inspired by celebrating the local bounty of all things edible, cultivating a continued passion for the art of hospitality, and sharing her love of cooking with others. She and partner, Daniel Townsend, enjoy living a simple life on their modest farm with their “family” of chickens, rabbits, cats, and an occasional pig.
Constant Evolution
After 100+ Years, Emandal Farm Continues to Thrive by Adapting
by Anna Levy
The first time I drove from Willits to Emandal farm, I was 23 years old, moving to the West Coast for the first time and filled with an optimism that perhaps is most pronounced around that particular age, an age when possibilities are endless and independence is paramount. I’ve traveled the same road many times in the intervening years, returning to the hospitable farm along the Eel River that has operated as a guest ranch since 1908.
In the years since then, I’ve been privileged to visit the farm countless times, yet I’m always reminded of the way in which that first summer came to represent a beginning for me—a rebirth, if you will. So in this moment, when we’ve been in a pandemic for nearly a year, it feels appropriate to write about this special place, to talk with owner Tam Adams about upcoming changes for such a beloved institution in the midst of uncertain times.
Emandal—named after its first owners, Emma and Albert Byrnes—has survived through such uncertainty already. Though it’s hard to imagine needing an escape from the city in the early 1900s, it has existed as a family camp since then, taking on additional iterations over time: a children’s camp, a retreat for private groups, a source of brick oven pizza for the local farmers market. Its tendency toward reinvention invites visitors to consider something similar.
Tam has lived on the land since 1967, when she moved there from Ukiah to work for a summer. Emandal got under her skin, as did one particular person. She fell in love with Clive, the owners’ son. They married in 1968, under a plum tree not far from the dining hall and in the shadow of the iconic wooden barn.
“Clive wanted to stay here,” she tells me one afternoon as we sit, distanced, in the sun. “He knew he had to marry somebody who wanted to be here, so fortunately, it worked out.” We’ve just spent an hour walking through camp, with its cabins and outdoor showers, and I’m struck by how vivid my memories are of witnessing life unfold in this place, the families and the friends gathering night after night, children playing on the lawn.
Clive’s parents had owned the farm for about 20 years when Tam and Clive married, and it was time for some changes. They were both interested in not only maintaining the family camp, which by that point was already a tradition handed down through generations, but they also wanted to explore new possibilities. To that end, Clive had started a boys’ camp about four years before their marriage, “and then,” Tam says, “we offered a chance for girls to come.”
The children’s camp was a success. As Tam and Clive built their family, eventually welcoming four children of their own, so, too, did the camp grow, eventually attracting kids and counselors from all over the world. There was a particular sweetness in those days—singing in the dining hall after breakfast, whooping with delight in the river, holding hands in a large circle to say goodnight.
Even as they focused on children’s camp and family camp, though, Tam and Clive continued growing the farm. “We added weekends in the spring and fall for families to come,” she says. “And there was a period of time when we started doing our jams and jellies and did the mail order business. We were just trying to make it work.”
They made three meals a day for visitors and staff, as well as snacks in between, and became known for their wholesome, unforgettable fare, sourced from the farm whenever possible. The cuisine became part of the farm experience. Talk to just about any person who visited in the last several decades, and the meals they remember inevitably become part of the conversation: Blackberry Chicken, macaroni and cheese made with breadcrumbs from freshly-baked bread, cinnamon rolls, avocado ice cream.
Though it was hectic, they found their rhythm. “It was wonderful,” Tam says. “And then, in 2003, Clive died, and the farm had to be reborn.” His memorial, held at the farm, was attended by hundreds of people, including locals from the Willits area and folks from much farther away.
“It really changed everything,” she explains. She decided to end children’s camp and instead focus on family camp. Her own kids, adults by that point, had already been involved with running the farm in various ways and continued to influence its growth. “We’ve had ups and downs and ins and outs,” she says, “and so it was just bumbling along.”
The farm continued to evolve. There were cookbooks to write and immersive Art Stays to host. The Willits High School Peer Counselors held their training retreats there for a number of years, and people drove out for short excursions in the form of Cowboy Poetry and occasional Work Weekends. Throughout, Tam and her crew made changes by moving gardens, adding animals, building staff housing, tending to irrigation, and fixing the canvas hoop chairs that guests sometimes spent entire days lounging in.
And then, the pandemic hit. It had been a hard summer in 2019 because of smoke from nearby fires, but 2020 suddenly meant no guests at all. “It was really a stepping back and going—wait, can we weather this?” Tam looked back through the archives of photos and records and realized that it was the first summer that the farm hadn’t welcomed guests. Even the 1918 pandemic hadn’t stopped operations.
As a result, they’ve had to reimagine the farm yet again. In 2021, Emandal will open for groups who make reservations together as a cluster, with the biggest change being that Tam and her daughter Kashaya, who lives at the farm and who has played a significant role in the dining operations for years, will not be cooking for visitors. Instead, the guests themselves will be responsible for that, in their own kitchens near the parts of the farm they rent out.
In making this change, it seems that they’ve decided to, in some ways, take a clue from the past as they move forward. “If you look at older pictures of how it used to be, when people had to cook for themselves, the dining room wasn’t always available. So maybe it’s a circle.”
The pandemic has “. . . caused us to stop and rethink everything,” Tam says. “Were we ever going to do that?” With the world in such a state of flux, they’re not looking beyond the coming summer to know exactly how things will unfold.
Sitting on the back deck of the dining hall with Tam, looking out at the gardens as they wait for the plantings of spring, it’s striking to consider that Emandal is changing once again. It seems fitting, considering how the farm has provided a backdrop for countless people to grow ever more into themselves. “For some,” Tam says, “it’s a marker of where they are in their lives and what they’re doing. To come back year after year helps them realign for where they’re going.”
I think of the way I’ve known the farm through the years, how the seasons influence its pace, the countless times I’ve stood transfixed under the stars, and I know I’m one of the lucky people who has been shaped by this land. So many things here—the smell of pennyroyal or the feel of a fresh summer morning, the sound of the river or the scurry of chickens when I step across the cattle guard—remind me of who I once was, even as I still imagine who I might become. I know the land doesn’t miss me; I am one of thousands who have passed through. But Emandal itself is never far from my heart, no matter the changes that may come.
Emandal Farm | 16500 Hearst Post Office Road, Willits
(707) 459-9252 | Emandal.com
Anna Levy writes, cooks, and plans travel of all sorts whenever she can. She lives on the Mendocino Coast.
How to Garden for Bees
by Cornelia Reynolds
Every gardener wants to help bees. But many have a question I hear a lot. Can we really make a difference? Making a difference may not sound easy. Or you may feel your potential contribution will be too insignificant for the effort. Depending on your goals, you can make a difference, and it can be as simple as you need it to be. Efforts are valuable at every level and size to restore and preserve a thriving insect population. Gardening for bees is about growing forage—and restoring ecosystems.
For seven years, I have been mending seriously damaged land—an acre and a half of clay banks exposed by earth moving, extensive lawns formerly treated with herbicides, and a section of redwoods and other native trees, a former dumping ground for garbage. For the first two years, not only were there no bees, but to my shock, there were almost no insects at all, except mosquitoes. I told one local nurseryman that I was dismayed to have zero Diabrotica (the pernicious cucumber beetle), and I’m still on his list of crazies.
The land is not yet the bird and pollinator refuge I hope for, but there are thriving veggies, less lawn, and new native plantings. Native bumble bees nest in a small pile of logs. I’ve learned what I know about gardening for bees by doing everything wrong first, or at least less right than I would like. Here are the three basics, as well as some ideas to make a difference with native plants and your veggie garden.
Bee gardening basics are the same for every style and size garden. Container gardens may not be able to provide everything a large garden can, but they have an important role to play. Studies in suburban England and European cities demonstrated how urban and suburban container and doorstep gardens create vital passageways that help bees travel between larger forage sources.
Provide food and water. Ensure that bees have access to a constant source of nectar and pollen from February to at least November in our region. Plant three or more different flowers each season for continuous bloom. Large patches help bees find food and conserve energy. At least 3 square feet is ideal.
Provide sources of fresh, clean water, whether in a shallow bowl or a large birdbath supporting many species. Keep the container fresh so they can rely on it daily. Bees need a rock or stick to stand on while drinking. A birdbath on bare soil makes a small mud puddle for butterflies, honey bees, and bumble bees to sip water and extract minerals from the soil. Mix a bit of sea salt (not table salt, which has little mineral content) or wood ashes into the mud.
Use sustainable gardening practices. Learn about alternatives to harmful pesticides, such as Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Look for natural pest controls and fertilizers. Products for Certified Organic farmers, labelled “OMRI-approved,” are widely available.
Provide places for bees to nest and raise their young.Most native bees are solitary and burrow into the ground. Leave bare patches of soil in a sunny spot in or near the garden. Other bees nest in stems and pre-existing cavities. Logs and tree stumps in sunny spots provide sites, especially if riddled with beetle tunnels. Hang nesting blocks of untreated wood or bamboo. Clean your homemade or purchased nests annually to prevent disease spread.
Asclepias spp., Queen of Weeds
Once you have the basics down, make a difference with native plants. The first thing I did on the land was to plant a border of thirty non-native lavender, a Mediterranean herb I considered bee friendly. I would not do that today. By the time a friend later asked me if he should do something similar with buddleia, I’d learned a lot more. Buddleia and lavender, like many non-native plants, have only nectar for bees, so his garden would be lacking a source of pollen which bees feed their larvae. Also missing would be a host plant for the butterflies and moths attracted to buddleia. No native invertebrates reproduce on either buddleia or lavender.
Native plants are critical to diversity. Choosing native plants is where gardeners can make a big difference. Our choices directly impact the diversity of life in our yards and, by extension, our local community and beyond.
Certain native bees have life cycles timed to the bloom of specific plant species whose pollen is used to feed their larvae. But many other species are also dependent on a single native species. Most insect herbivores, including butterfly and moth species, eat only plants they have evolved with. A well-known example is monarch butterflies that lay eggs only on milkweed (Asclepias spp.).
The decline of moths and butterflies is tied to loss of their host plants. The resulting loss of caterpillars contributes to the decline of birds who feed caterpillars and other insects to their hatchlings. To rebuild a healthy ecosystem, your garden needs plants with both pollen and nectar—not always found together—and host plants where pollinators raise their young.
Don’t be afraid of native “weeds.” Many native plants with valuable resources for bees are called weeds: butterweed, deerweed, locoweed. They did not fit the settlers’ images of cottage gardens. But they are critical host plants for large numbers of butterflies and moths.
The queen of weeds is Asclepias spp. I am growing Asclepias speciosa, showy pink milkweed, native to Mendocino. It’s a beautiful 3’ tall stand of incredibly fragrant flowers, drought resistant, deer and rabbit resistant, highly attractive to pollinators for its pollen and nectar. Yes, it spreads by tubers. It can be invasive. Caterpillars eat it. It may look raggedy late in the season. Later butterflies emerge, and your garden may become part of a corridor in which butterflies and other wildlife can live and thrive. Plant it where its “weediness” won’t be a problem. But if you have room, plant it.
No monarchs yet, but this summer I saw a pair of Queen butterflies, Danaus gilippus, one of nine species dependent on Asclepias speciosa.
Many valuable plants have weedy reputations. Take goldenrod—the coastal variety, solidago spathulatai, provides nectar and pollen and is host to 53 dependent species (53 DPS) of moths and butterflies. With masses of yellow flowers on upright, slender 4’ stems, it does well in my clay. Like many “weeds,” in the right place—not a cultivated bed—it’s not invasive.
Native plants can be carefree if planned carefully. For an easy care native garden, make sure your plants are the right companions in the right place, ones that share soil, light, and rainwater needs. That is not your rose bed.
Many plants native to Mendocino County are drought tolerant and particular about soil drainage. Summer watering may kill or shorten the lifespan of some, such as Ceanothus spp, but this doesn’t mean they don’t need water to be established through at least the first summer. And always mulch your native plants.
Plan carefully to ensure continuous flowers each season. I’ve enjoyed learning from databases how many dependent species my plants support, but plantings are shaped through trial and errors in my garden. For spring blooms, I am now growing Nemophila menziesii Baby Blue Eyes (6 DPS), among other annuals, and three perennial host plants local to my zip code which flower into further seasons:
Erigeron glaucus Seaside Daisy (21 DPS), provides pollen and nectar, spring to early fall;
Fragaria chiloensis Beach Strawberry (64 DPS), provides nectar, spring to early summer;
Penstemon heterophyllus Foothill Penstemon (29 DPS), provides pollen and nectar, spring to summer.
I’ve listed some online reference sources where you can find native plants at the end of the article.
Pollinators and Your Victory Vegetables
A year round veggie garden provides year round blooms for bees. As I write in mid-winter near the coast, blooming in my garden are rosemary, native and non-native salvias—fought over by over-wintering hummingbirds—and flowering broccoli, where I saw the last bee in December.
Use a wide range of companion plants. Many medicinal herbs and culinary favorites attract bees. Plant rosemary, thyme, and other perennial herbs in or near your vegetable beds. Plant annual herbs like basil among your vegetables in large patches. Include edible flowers, as many deter pests: borage, marigolds, nasturtiums, chives.
Choose heirloom plants. Hybridized herbs, flowers, and veggies are bred not to seed and have little to no resources for bees. Heirloom plants can feed both you and your pollinators.
Let your veggies bolt. When your greens start to go, let them. Their flowers attract pollinators and beneficial insects. This increases your pollinator food supply without new plantings. And letting your greens flower also enables you to save seeds.
Add trees and shrubs for bees. Large shrubs or small trees provide masses of the same flowers in one place. Choose early flowering native trees such as Manzanita or California Redbud; for food, plant blackberries, raspberries, apple, and plum trees. Use them to replace your lawn.
Grow forage. Rebuild local ecosystems. It’s a real opportunity to make a difference.
Find plants native to your area at: Pollinator Partnership Ecoregional Plant Guides by Region at: http://pollinator.org/PDFs/Guides/ and National Wildlife Federation’s database by zip code at http://nwf.org/NativePlantFinder/Plants/
Cornelia Reynolds retired in 2017 from a career in nonprofit management. She is devoting her retirement to pollinator conservation and eliminating toxic pesticides from the food chain. She is Chair of Fort Bragg Bee City USA and active in the Elders Climate Action Nor-Cal Chapter.
Photo credits: Main photo by Linda MacElwee.
Asclepias speciosa by Matt Lavin from Bozeman, Montana, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Erigeron glaucus by Björn S..., CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
Nemophila menziesii by Eric Johnston (Ericj), CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Fragaria chiloensis by Franco Folini from San Francisco, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Penstemon heterophyllus by Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Bonterra
An Example for the World Rooted in Mendocino Traditions
by Elizabeth Archer
Mendocino County is geographically enormous, but its agriculture businesses tend to be on the small side—diverse vegetable farms of an acre or less, estate wineries, and now boutique cannabis growers—whose distribution is limited to locals and lucky outsiders.
Bonterra Organic Vineyards is one of the exceptions, with widespread name recognition and distribution of half a million cases via major retailers in all 50 states and 20 countries. This size and scale provide the strength to commit to something that is already familiar in Mendocino but relatively new in the winemaking world: biodynamic certification.
Founded by the Fetzer family, Bonterra has been committed to sustainability for decades. Its first certified organic wines debuted in 1993. The Fetzer family are well known as local pioneers in organic and biodynamic farming, alongside other notable families like the Freys. Stewarded today by Chile’s Viña Concha y Toro, a global leader in winegrowing sustainability, Bonterra continues its commitment to sustainability as part of the Fetzer Vineyards portfolio.
“Sustainability is embedded in Mendocino grape growing, more so than any other California county that I know,” says Sebastian Donoso, a member of Bonterra’s winemaking team. “Sustainable practices are part of what make Mendocino County wines so exceptional.” Donoso was born in Santiago, Chile, and moved to the US at the age of 14. He graduated from Fresno State’s enology program in 2007. He started his career at Saracina in 2008, where he was introduced to organic farming, and continued his career at Campovida, where he started their winemaking program, before moving to Bonterra in 2017.
All of Bonterra’s 930 acres are certified organic, and 419 of those are also certified Biodynamic by Demeter USA. To officially convert land from organic to biodynamic takes about a year, depending on how quickly livestock can be incorporated and 10% of the land set aside for riparian areas. Otherwise, organic certification must be earned first, which takes about three years. Donoso and Director of Winemaking for Bonterra, Jeff Cichocki, work together with Director of Vineyard Operations, Joseph Brinkley, to determine which vineyard blocks to convert to biodynamic.
Biodynamic practices go above and beyond organic requirements, prioritizing not only healthy crops but also a healthy ecosystem. At Bonterra this includes the use of cover crops, animal grazing, integrated pest management, and wildlife inclusion. Almost half of Bonterra’s acreage is conserved in its natural state, including more than 50 acres of riparian habitat along the Russian River.
There are two classes of Biodynamic certification for wineries. The first prohibits the addition of anything except sulfur and allows winemakers to label their bottles as “Biodynamic Wine.” The second—which is how Bonterra and the vast majority of all Biodynamic winemakers operate—gives winemakers more flexibility, allowing organic additives such as yeast and tartaric acid, and carries a “made with Biodynamic grapes” label.
Biodynamic certification is still quite rare. There are fewer than 1,000 such wineries in the world. But according to Donoso, “There is a growing market for these special wines, as consumers learn more about the beneficial practices used on the farm and in the winery. Our aim is to share these wines with those eager to explore and learn more.”
There’s a reason that Biodynamic wine can cost more than conventional wine: in addition to being rare, Biodynamic wines take time to make. At Bonterra, each vineyard block is fermented and aged separately, and then Cichocki and Donoso work barrel to barrel to assemble the blend that best expresses the vineyard site as a whole. Says Donoso, “If we have to skip a year for our single-vineyard wines from Biodynamic grapes because we don’t feel the result would be a pure expression of the ranch, we skip it. We could make thousands of cases of Biodynamic wine, but we choose to produce fewer single-vineyard expressions to maintain their unique sense of place.” Any remaining wine appears in Bonterra’s organic lineup, which means that the average bottle at Trader Joe’s or Costco may contain at least a portion of Biodynamic grapes, at an accessible price.
Bonterra’s line of wines made with Biodynamic grapes comprises three blends made on three ranches. The Butler and McNab ranches produce 250 cases each of red blends called, appropriately, The McNab and The Butler. The Blue Heron Ranch produces 500 cases of chardonnay called The Roost, named after the blue herons who nest in the protected oak grove. These cases are mostly sold online to consumers in the U.S., and to restaurants and high-end wine shops.
“We don’t have to convince anybody in Mendocino of the merits of what we’re doing,” says Donoso. “It’s a lifestyle for a lot of people here.” But thanks to its size and reach, Bonterra is setting an example for how to make great wines while also stewarding the land, which other wineries around the state and globe can follow.
Bonterra is not open to the public and does not operate tasting rooms. Its biodynamic wines can be purchased online at bonterra.com.
Elizabeth Archer is a local food and farm enthusiast. She and her husband own and operate Carson and Bees, an inland-Mendocino-based beekeeping business, and she volunteers with the Good Farm Fund.
Soil Carbon Cowboys
Adaptive Multi-Paddock Grazing Helps Ranchers Build Soil and Profit
by Torrey Douglass
Doug Peterson, a farmer and soil health specialist from Newtown, Missouri, used to rotate his cattle in a 35-day cycle onto different parts of his land in order to distribute their impact. But when a broken water tank caused him to skip a section, doubling its rest time, it led to a revelation. “That whole field was a mess,” he said, describing how the cows eventually came back through, ate down the grass, and were moved off again. Being a busy farmer, he didn’t think much of it until the following year, when that particular field produced twice as much forage as any other on his property. “That was a real a-ha moment for me,” he remembers. He didn’t yet understand how it had happened, but if there was a way to double the food for his herd without additional inputs from him, he was determined to figure it out.
Carbon Cowboys, a series of 10 short films by Peter Byck, are full of brain-sparking anecdotes like this. Men and women stand in fields thick with wildflowers and talk about how it wasn’t like them to change their ways, but they are so glad they did. In accents ranging from clipped Saskatchewan to a warm Georgia drawl, farmers share their stories of struggle and success. Rancher Gabe Brown of Bismarck, North Dakota, talks about the difficulties brought on by four years of crop failure. “I’m sure that I wasn’t a pleasant man to be around, in that it was extremely high stress. But my wife and I will tell you it was the best thing to happen to us … because it forced us to start looking at the soil.”
Soil health is at the heart of Byck’s films, as ranchers from all over tell different parts of the same story—once they start moving carbon from the atmosphere into the soil through regenerative farming practices, everything gets better. They can raise more cattle with fewer inputs on land that is left healthier as a result, retaining more moisture, flourishing with microbes, pushing up a “salad mix” of grasses (many once believed to be extinct), and mitigating flooding.
The primary method for achieving this farmer’s fantasy is AMP—Adaptive Multi-Paddock grazing, an approach that mimics the relationship between buffalo herds and pastureland. Ranchers move a single herd through sections of land portioned off by mobile electric fences, sometimes multiple times in a single day. The cattle eat down the grasses, leave nutrient-rich dung and urine, and trample what they leave behind to create a protective mat of “litter” that helps retain moisture and keep the ground cool. It’s then essential to get the herd off the land quickly and give it ample time to rest. Allen Williams of Starkville, Mississippi, sums it up by saying, “We graze it and then we get the heck off it.”
Combined with the increased moisture retention, the rest period allows long-dormant grass seeds to grow. The Ranney Ranch in New Mexico gets just 14” of rain per year, yet when they transitioned from continuous grazing to AMP, their previous menu of four to five grass species jumped to over 40. Those seeds were in the soil all the time, just waiting until the right conditions returned to blossom, conditions that would not be possible without the cows.
Cattle are often depicted as significant (if unwitting) contributors to environmental problems. Staying on a piece of land for too long exacerbates erosion, the methane they emit contributes to climate change, and beef has a notoriously large water footprint (although over 90% of that footprint is “green water,” or precipitation, not water from wells or municipal systems). Yet with AMP, livestock are essential to restoring soil health and reaping the many benefits that come with it. Gabe Brown recalls how, in 1993, his fields could only absorb ½” of rain every hour, while today they can hold over 8”. Increasing the soil’s moisture capacity means rain doesn’t turn into runoff, where it would deposit sediment (often contaminated with herbicides and fertilizer) into waterways, remove valuable topsoil off the farm, and cause flooding. And with higher moisture in the soil, grasses last longer into the dry season—Ranney Ranch reports their feed bill has dropped two-thirds as a result of adopting AMP.
And it’s not just the feed bill that goes down when a rancher shifts to AMP. The wild legumes it restores add nitrogen to the soil, removing the need for microbe-destroying fertilizers. Herbicides are also crossed off the shopping list, as some “weeds” can offer the foraging cattle more protein than alfalfa. The cost of equipment and labor for distributing those herbicides and fertilizers—as well as that time spent—go back in the rancher’s pocket. The animals are healthier, too, with some ranchers reporting a 90% drop in medicine costs. One could say that AMP is the poster child for the popular recommendation to “work smarter, not harder.” Rancher Neil Dennis of Saskatchewan captures it perfectly when he quips, “I’ve got more spare time on my hands than I know what to do with … If I was to start this when I was your age, I’d’ve had 15 kids by now ‘cause I’d spend so much time in the house.”
With Carbon Cowboys, Byck has tackled a near-impossible task—he’s made a climate change film series both beautiful and optimistic. A journalism professor and documentary filmmaker with Arizona State University, he started focusing on climate change in 2007. That led him to explore the impact of grazing practices, and in 2014 he released his first 12 minute short, Soil Carbon Cowboys, featuring ranchers from Starkville, Mississippi; Bismarck, North Dakota; and Wawona, Saskatchewan. Despite their varied seasonal conditions, land and herd sizes, and yearly rainfall, all of them credit AMP for improving their farms’ soil, herd, and financial health, as well as their overall quality of life.
Thanks to the success of Soil Carbon Cowboys, nine more films followed, many in response to the resistance Byck heard from more traditional farmers when sharing his findings, something he calls the “yeah, but” syndrome (as in, “yeah, but it can’t work on MY farm”). Think it can’t work in Kansas? Check out During the Drought (12 minutes). Think it’s not viable for a large Texas ranch? Take a look at Herd Impact (23 minutes). When asked what surprised him in the course of filmmaking, Byck shares, “If there’s a downside [to AMP grazing], I haven’t found it.” As a journalist, he expected to encounter some cons mixed in with all those pros of AMP, but so far his research has only revealed benefits.
Some ranchers report experiencing the benefits of AMP within months or just a few years, benefits like improved herd and soil health, increased financial stability, and reduced vulnerability to flooding, all while transforming destructive atmospheric carbon into constructive carbon in the soil. Doug Peterson sums things up neatly when he says, “We’ve been taught for a long time that we couldn’t change the land. The soil was what it was … we couldn’t change it significantly in a human lifetime. We don’t believe that any longer. With the things that we know now about organisms in the soil and adding livestock and diversity, we can make pretty significant changes in just a few years on the land.”
Each film is like a short walk down a country road, with a tale told in the farmers’ own words interspersed with before-and-after comparison images and enchanting slow motion shots—a flock of birds soaring over grassland or bees humming among the wildflowers. But the real heroes of the films are the ranchers, soil experts, and farmers, people who are equal parts plainspoken, warm, and wise. Byck captures their fortitude and humor, their devotion to the land and their love of the animals, both wild and domestic, that it supports. I bet, like me, you’ll be at least a little bit in love with each of them by the end of the series.
These days Byck and his team of scientists, many of whom work with consulting group Understanding Ag, are deep in a research project centered in the southeastern region of the US. Their findings will eventually generate both academic research papers and a full length documentary film. In the meantime, enjoy the shorts at carboncowboys.org, take a look at what you can do to improve soil health, and when you’re considering solutions for climate change, don’t discount the humble cow.
See the whole film series at CarbonCowboys.org.
Access consulting services at UnderstandingAg.com.
HappyDay Farms
by Mori Natura
Amber and Casey O’Neill of HappyDay Farms in Laytonville were exhausted but satisfied when I visited them just after they had completed their fall harvest of cannabis. Situated in the rolling hills of Bell Springs, the O’Neills have been creating a regenerative farming operation from their hillside terrain since 2010, along with Casey’s folks and brother, Lito. While cannabis has always been a critical part of the farm, there’s so much more happening at HappyDay. Over the last decade, this eco-forward couple has transformed a rocky, heavy, clay-laden, steep slope into a paradise that annually provides nourishing medicine and abundant food for their local farmers markets and CSA.
As we walked the land, the adorable KuneKune heritage pigs oinked for acorns from the surrounding oak trees. A rotating flock of chickens grazed an impressively steep pasture along the driveway. Rabbits contributed poop to the compost piles near the couple’s house. And black cats hunted rodents in the garden beds between huge stands of comfrey. Amber geeked out on the inner workings of caterpillar tunnels, while Casey discussed their changing methodologies that allow them to direct sow seeds earlier than ever before while simultaneously saving time on transplanting.
Amber had four years of experience interning and apprenticing on organic diversified farming operations when she fell in love with Casey, a self-identified “dope grower.” After getting busted for cultivation in 2008, Casey took agriculture classes at College of the Redwoods. He yearned for the coursework to be more approachable for small farmers, and he remembers raising his hand regularly to ask for conversions from acre-size volumes to garden bed-size volumes. Part of the O’Neill’s mission together has been to create something small but beautiful, productive but manageable, always striving to live up to their tagline, “Great Success.”
Combining elements of several different farming methods to foster healthy, life-giving soil, the HappyDay gardens are all intercropped. Essentially, every bed is brimming with multiple kinds of plants that complement each other. Plants that grow taller, like cannabis, are intercropped with shorter plants or ground covers to effectively utilize the space. Some beds have perennial borders that fix nitrogen, while others have spaces filled in with a diverse array of medicinal herbs. Amber gifted me a bag of Phacelia seed, promising “the bees will adore it.”
The O’Neills live where they work, always adapting to meet their site-specific needs. They save seeds from heirloom varieties, put food by from their garden, and spend their days constantly tending to and learning from the land. Everything they do attempts to honor an intrinsic birthright of connectivity. “I wanna know where my food comes from,” Casey shared, gazing over his garden of winter greens. Ironically, one of the biggest struggles facing the O’Neill team is scheduling time out from working on the farm to enjoy its bounty.
In addition to running and laboring on their own farm full time, Casey spent the last several years intimately navigating the changing politics of cannabis on the local level. Casey bemoaned that, although over five million dollars in tax revenue was generated from legal cannabis in Mendocino County this year, virtually none of that money has been allocated to help create a more sustainable and equitable cannabis industry. While the O’Neills strongly support ecological practices being put into policy in theory, they both admitted that the implementation has been problematic.
HappyDay Farms became a front runner in the legalization efforts in large part because they believed the regulations had the potential to create an evolving public conversation about acceptable practices from a formerly clandestine community. Unfortunately, the bureaucracy around legal cannabis has proven to be a continued headache, as county and state legislation don’t yet match. Today, Casey feels grateful that they’re personally pulling the reins in a bit more. Their focus shifted from the legalization process back to HappyDay.
After a stint working with Flow Kana, Casey expressed how thrilled he is to be back on the farm, full time, all year. He believes that cannabis served as a “back to the land portal.” Where not everyone who has a green thumb also has an idea about how to make a sustainable business plan, cannabis provides a lucrative crop that has helped subsidize a more holistic, small farm operation. When the O’Neills talked about creating smaller, more localized models of business, their eyes lit up. Moving towards collectives of farmers with “skin in the game” and away from the “monolithic industry agriculture” that puts profit first, Casey and Amber are finding their way in an evolving market.
For the O’Neills, knowing their Northern California clientele, meeting them at the local farmers markets, and putting high quality produce into their CSA became the highest priority. To facilitate similar energetics for their cannabis, they worked with other local farmers to create a cannabis brand called “Farm Cut.” Amber exclaimed, “It’s pretty much the highlight right now.” Farm cut cannabis is bucked off the stem, the big leaves are removed and the flowers are jarred in ounce and half-ounce jars. Casey added, “The flowers remain intact, with minimal processing. That protects the medicine in the buds, going out to the consumer in the same way we store it for our own consumption.”
With the autumn crops harvested, the O’Neills will enjoy the slower pace of life to manage their time and farmstead wisely. For the last decade they have been steadily increasing the number of garden beds and feel that some prudence now may save them from overworking themselves next year. Modestly, Casey admitted that, “Regenerative agriculture is not something you achieve, it’s something you strive towards.” Enjoying their homegrown crop of cannabis while musing on becoming better farmers in the months to come, the O’Neills have achieved nothing short of Great Success!
HappyDay Farms | Laytonville, CA
happydayfarmscsa.com | (707) 354-1546
Mori Natura is a homesteading author based in Mendocino County. Her debut novel Wildfire Weeds explores the lives of Mendo’s own cannabis farmers and California’s fire ecology.
Cattail Pollen
The distinctive velvet brown hotdog shapes of the cattail are hard to miss in the ponds and wetland meadows of Northern California. Considered a survival plant, in that most of the plant is edible including the green tender shoots, green flowers, and roots, the cattail offers an unexpected bounty. And for a very short window in early spring, the male flowers release a pollen that can be used as a flour substitute.
To harvest, grab a pollen coated flower and give it a sturdy shake over a container or clean brown paper bag. A handful of flowers will give you a healthy amount of pollen. Transferred to a clean jar, it will keep well for weeks. Use the pollen to replace half the amount of flour in your favorite baked good recipe. Nutritious and delicious, these biscuits are best eaten warm from the oven and drizzled in butter and honey.
Cattail Pollen Drop Biscuits
Preheat oven to 475°. Whisk together in a bowl:
1 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup cattail pollen
1 Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
Combine in another bowl
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
Add the wet to the dry ingredients and stir until fully combined, but don’t over mix. It will be very thick and sticky. Use a spoon to scoop golf ball-sized dollops of batter onto a cookie sheet. Bake until bottoms are a deep golden brown, about 9 minutes. Eat hot.
Photo by Jim Morefield from Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Great Plates
Delivering Restaurant Meals to the High-Risk and Home-Bound
by Holly Madrigal
At 85, Gail has a heart condition that could likely be fatal if she were to contract the coronavirus, so she took the shelter-in-place order very seriously. Her previously full life soon had shrunk to her small two-bedroom in the hills above Mendocino. But a knock on her door lets her know that a hot meal awaits her on the porch. The Great Plates Delivered program has become a friendly, nourishing lifeline for Gail and her peers who are medically vulnerable, providing three meals a day, and prepared by local restaurants at no cost to the recipient.
This same time last year, the pandemic shut-down had begun in earnest, and we were all sheltering in place, quite unsure of how the virus was spread, how we could continue to work, or how long it would last. “I found myself honestly not knowing how the restaurant would survive,” says Meredith Smith, owner of both Mendocino Café and Flow Restaurant. “I’m usually an optimistic person, and I’m used to the balancing act required by being a restaurant owner. You make your money in the summer season to carry you through the lean months of winter. But I honestly could see no options.”
Alfonso at Eggheads prepares and packs meals.
The shelter-in-place order came in March, when travel was already significantly down after a summer plagued by smoky skies from inland wildfires, and following the PSPS electrical shut down the prior fall, which had cost local restaurants thousands of dollars in losses. The pandemic spring of 2020 simply seemed like one challenge too many. “I became obsessed with watching the news and following the political process of the pandemic relief,” says Meredith. “When the PPP loans were announced, I jumped on that before the deadlines were even finalized.” But that government assistance was a double-edged sword. The money initially had to be spent within 60 days and only on certain categories such as payroll, but many employees were receiving more money to stay home (to keep the pandemic from spreading) through enhanced unemployment. “We made it work somehow. We were seriously in debt by that point. I had maxed out all my credit cards to keep the business afloat, vendors were losing patience, and I was at the end of my rope.” This experience was not unique to Mendocino Café, as most local businesses struggled to adjust to the crisis.
“When I heard that FEMA had funded the Great Plates Delivered program, we worked with Supervisor Ted Williams to get the program started here. It saved us,” says Meredith. Using the spacious kitchen at Flow Restaurant, also owned by Meredith, they were able to continue to employ eight people who otherwise would have been laid off. Flow has outdoor seating, but the layout requires guests to pass through the restaurant to reach the open space. “It just didn’t seem safe with the current restrictions, so we’re doing the Great Plates out of this space and it works really well,” says Lilah Nelson, Meredith’s daughter, who coordinates the program for 60-70 clients. The staff and chefs craft three quality meals a day, which are then delivered to the clients who are sheltering in place. For many, they not only receive nourishing healthy meals, but they also welcome the minimal human connection.
Many of the elderly clients have dietary restrictions such as gluten-free (GF), no grapefruit (interferes with blood pressure medication), vegetarian, and vegan. Flow’s kitchen has a gluten-free fryer, which is a huge asset. This means that they can make French fries, sweet potato fries, chicken tenders, and more that can be eaten by those with a gluten allergy.
During prep time at Flow one recent morning, Chef Jack was preparing GF mushroom gravy for roast chicken breast, vegetables, and mashed potatoes for dinner, quesadillas with fresh salsa for lunch, and fresh fruit, yogurt, and granola for breakfast. “I’ve been enjoying stretching my vegan dishes. We can use the Beyond Burger, which is quite good because I can crumble it up with my own spices. We have a vegan chicken breast we can use as well, and occasionally we use jackfruit. I like the challenge. There is a cool aspect to it where I can create something delicious that meets the needs of these clients,” says Jack. Lilah impressively tracks the daily changes to the client roster. “We’ve been doing this for seven months now, and it’s been great. It changes every day, so we work it like a puzzle. And it helps that we have so many dishes on our menu already here at Flow, so the cooks have a lot to work with. And we’re still doing take out for the public,” adds Lilah.
Anyone who has squeezed into one of the five booths at Eggheads Restaurant in Fort Bragg knows that they are pros at getting a lot out of a small space. The Wizard of Oz-themed breakfast and lunch spot regularly has a forty-minute wait for a table all summer long, but this year changed all that. Becky and Marvin Parrish, owners of this favorite local spot, saw all possibility of income drain away as indoor dining was prohibited. “We can do take out, but even when some places were able to partially open indoors, that was just not an option for us—25% would be only 10 people,” says Becky. “I was watching the Governor’s daily briefings, and he announced the Great Plates Delivered program. It came in the nick of time, as I had just spent the last dime of the PPP loan. I reached out to the County Adult and Aging Services, and they signed us up. Cucina Verona in Fort Bragg was already on board, and we were able to take on another 30-35 local clients.” The program not only allowed the staff of ten people to stay employed, but they were eager for a challenge.
Previous to this program, Eggheads had served only breakfast and lunch, but now dinner was on the table. “The kitchen staff stepped up, creating all sorts of dishes—stroganoff, soups, roast chicken served several ways . . . We have the best staff on the planet,” says Becky. “One of our cooks really wanted to try baking, so now they regularly produce zucchini bread, pumpkin bread, and pies.” They work with Food Runners to deliver three times a day. “One of the unexpected gifts of this program is the happiness it brings the clients,” says Marvin. “For some of these folks, it’s the only time in their day they see anyone. If the delivery guys notice that food has been left on the porch or not eaten, we will check on them to make sure everything is alright.” One client joked that her doctor said she is the healthiest she has ever been. It seems three sturdy meals a day has had a great impact. Becky chokes up as she remembers one client’s daughter reaching out to say that “Mom had beat cancer, and having wonderful food to eat each day helped make that happen.”
It seems the ripples of community reach far beyond the often precarious bank accounts of local restaurants. The employees, staff, and drivers that craft these meals each day have a way to safely continue to work, and the clients are receiving that human connection that can stave off not just hunger but loneliness and depression. An average 1,710 meals are served daily to 896 individuals. Seven restaurants in Mendocino County have participated in the program, including Angelina’s in Fort Bragg and Wild Fish in Little River, with $5,600,000 of direct contract payments coming into Mendocino County to help them weather this crisis, funding 221,519 meals to feed local seniors.
Unless something changes, the program is due to sunset on March 8th, 2021, after nearly a year of supporting countless local families. Great Plates Delivered has supplied meals, saved jobs, and provided human contact during a difficult time, more than earning the “great” in its title.
Call of the Kumquat
Cally Dym of the Little River Inn whipped up this recipe to sip on brisk spring nights. While kumquats may be thought of as a holiday fruit, they are only really kicking off in Mendocino County in the early spring. These bite-sized bitter-sweet citrus are the perfect addition to this delicious cocktail.
Call of the Kumquat Cocktail
For the cocktail:
2 oz Russell Henry Gin (dark if you have it)
1 oz pickled kumquat brine, recipe below (or ½ brine, ½ vermouth)
Dash bitters (cardamom or orange if you have it)
For the rim:
½ star anise
4 pink peppercorns
1 Tbsp sugar
Finely grind star anise in spice grinder. Add peppercorns and grind again. Add sugar and pulse once or twice, partially breaking down the sugar crystals.
To assemble cocktail:
Moisten the lip of a martini glass and dip in sugar mixture. Cut one pickled kumquat in half and place in the glass. Add gin, brine, and bitters to a shaker with ice. Shake gently and pour into glass.
For the pickled kumquats (per pint jar):
1 cup washed kumquats (or as many as you can smash into the jar—they’ll shrink)
2/3 cup vinegar (I use ½ cider and ½ fig)
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1 star anise
½ tsp pink peppercorns
4-5 cardamom pods
¼ tsp fennel seeds
2 ginger coins (no need to peel)
Following safe canning procedures, bring vinegar, water, and sugar to a boil. Add kumquats and simmer a few minutes until glossy. Place ginger and spices in the jar. Add kumquats and pour brine over. Process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes. Wait one month to use, then store in the fridge after opening.
Pickles and cocktail mostly stolen from Kate Ireland of Peck of Pickles. Queen of Cocktails, Virginia Miller, makes a version with bourbon and spicy pineapple bitters.
Little River Inn is open for lodging, take-out dining, and golf within full adherence to Covid safety measures. To learn more or to hear about their upcoming Purple Urchin Festival, visit littleriverinn.com or call (707) 937-5942.
Photos by Brendan McGuigan.
Drop In Donut
Fort Bragg’s Favorite New Sweet Spot
by Esther Liner
For twin siblings and co-owners of Drop In Donut, Jeremy and Heidi Wall, some of their sweetest childhood memories center around donuts. “Our background is Portuguese, so at Christmas, we’d make traditional donuts, malasadas, with our family. Our dad was a dentist, so we didn’t have a lot of sweets around growing up. When he’d take us for a donut or a maple bar at our local bakery, it was really a special treat,” says Jeremy. “Our father really loved donuts, it’s something he shared with us. We lost him a few years ago, but I know he would be so excited for us if he could see what we’re doing now,” says Heidi, pointing to a picture on the wall of their late father enjoying one of his favorites: a powdered sugar, lemon-filled donut.
Prior to moving to the Mendocino Coast to be closer to his sister and enjoy a quieter pace of life, Jeremy had spent a decade as a professional pastry chef in the Bay Area and San Diego. Noting that his new hometown didn’t have a mom and pop donut shop of the sort the Walls had grown up going to on special occasions, they sought to remedy that.
In May of 2020, Drop In Donut brought their colorful, contemporary takes on the classic raised donut to the Fort Bragg Farmers Market. After an enthusiastic reception by the public, in July they went on to open a brick and mortar shop in the storefront adjacent to the historic Golden West building. While it takes major chutzpah to open a business in the midst of a global pandemic, Drop In has become an instant hit amongst locals and tourists alike. Perhaps now more than ever, people have a need for comfort and traditions, something sweet to look forward to. Indeed, just as their father used to take them on special occasions to pick out donuts, the Walls get to enjoy new generations of grandparents, parents, and children coming in for a special treat. Local workers love donuts too, with people often stopping in to pick up a dozen donuts to share with their office or bring to a meeting.
The name “Drop In” is a triple entendre, a reference to the act of dropping donuts into the fryer to get them golden, dropping in on a wave, as surfers do, and dropping in to pick up donuts as locals do. Drop In’s decor reflects the siblings’ love of surf culture and mid-century classics, with vintage booths and tables sourced from a donut shop back east, and cheerful Endless Summer-style surf memorabilia adorning the space.
The Walls are looking forward to Drop In becoming a neighborhood visiting place once the coast is clear for dine-in establishments, and in the meantime they are happy to serve people for take-out service. Their flavor lineup changes weekly, incorporating the best of seasonal flavors and ingredients. Alongside classics like chocolate and maple-bacon, you can find intriguing offerings like orange-blossom ginger, PB&J, tropical glazes, Black Oak Coffee glaze, and Overtime Brewing Milk Stout. New creations like jam-filled donuts, apple fritters, cinnamon rolls, and donut bread pudding have been well received, and more new offerings are on the way, including cake donuts and Portuguese malasadas.
The shop is open Thursday through Sunday. Heidi serves the donuts from 8 am until the donuts sell out, often with the help of her boyfriend and her 14-year old son. Don’t forget to Drop In next time you’re in Fort Bragg.
Drop In Donut | 132 East Redwood Ave, Fort Bragg
(707) 962-3010 | DropinDonut.com
Pie Ranch
Striving through Thick and Thin for a Better Food System for All
by Torrey Douglass • photos by Lily Ruderman
Believing that we can collectively do better—for the planet, its creatures, ourselves, and our neighbors—is part and parcel of Pie Ranch’s guiding mission to bring “greater health and justice to our food system.” This ambitious organization is situated in the Pescadero coastside community, roughly halfway between San Francisco and Santa Cruz. Founders Nancy Vail, Jered Lawson, and Karen Heisler bought 14 acres in 2002 in order to build what their website describes as “a regenerative farming and food system education center.” Essentially, they want youth and the public to be able to experience a working farm, one that could grow every ingredient required to bake a pie. True to this original ambition, Pie Ranch has fruit trees, wheat and a mill to grind it, and an animal husbandry program that currently has only goats but has included a milk cow in the past, and hopefully will again in the future.
The drive to do better includes more than just hosting field trips to their CCOF certified organic farm. Pre-COVID, Pie Ranch offered summer internships, overnight farm stays, and venue space for private events like weddings and popular public gatherings such as the monthly barn dance and community potluck. In years past, the farmers and apprentices of Pie Ranch grew food for a 100-person CSA as well as for their year-round farm stand, but they handed the CSA off to their incubator farm, Brisa de Año Ranch.
Nina Berry was hired as the Programs and Events Coordinator for Pie Ranch in February of 2020, but within a month her job shifted radically. Berry went from managing weddings, school visits, and the farm’s public events to heading up the aggregation aspect of Farm Fresh Food Relief, a new program the ranch implemented with Fresh Approach, a Bay Area organization devoted to making healthy food more affordable. As a result, rather than spending time on the phone coordinating teachers and brides, Berry was calling farmers to get fresh produce for their boxes (10-15 pounds each), and the ranch’s outdoor kitchen transitioned into space for building and distributing them. “It was a sharp turn,” Berry shares. “A lot of people committed to making it happen and were willing to be flexible in order to make it possible. I learned that things can work when a lot of people believe in them.”
This program was possible thanks to a USDA grant awarded to Fresh Approach. At its height, more than 800 boxes per week were delivered to people experiencing food insecurity. Though the grant ended in August, Pie Ranch continues its efforts on a smaller scale under their Food Hub program, providing approximately 200 boxes a week to folks in the Pescadero area, as well as a few groups in San Francisco and East Palo Alto.
The hardships of August did not stop after the USDA funding was lost. The devastating CZU Lightning Complex Fires ignited, burning over 86,500 acres in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, including portions of Pie Ranch. They lost water tanks, fruit trees, their greenhouse, and the Steele Family Home, a 157 year old structure that included apprentice living spaces, offices, and the organization’s library. Some of the full time staff members lost their own homes, as did many neighbors. Yet the historic wildfire had not even been contained before the Pie Ranch team had decided to rebuild.
With fire recovery in process, and in light of the previous year’s challenges, the ranch leadership has chosen to simplify for 2021. The farm will focus on growing staple crops like wheat, corn, fruit, berries, tomatoes, and winter squash. Virtual learning is in the works, and resuming in-person youth visits remains a priority once that can be done safely. “We want to remain resilient throughout the rest of this time, stay grounded, keep feeding people, and growing things,” reflects Berry.
The overarching goal, though, is to return to food and farming education as soon as safely possible. It’s the essence of their mission, after all. In conjunction with their efforts to build a healthier and more just food system, Pie Ranch particularly chooses to work with first generation farmers, people of color, and women. They also have a cultural easement in the works which will grant land access to the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, descendants of the original inhabitants of the property. Even as they work to restore and rejuvenate internally, they continue to focus on all the good they can do outside the farm’s borders. After all, there is no limit to how much better we can do.
Pie Ranch | 2080 Cabrillo Highway, Pescadero
Office (650) 879-0995 | Farmstand (650) 879-0996
PieRanch.org