Subsistence Is Resistance
The Revolutionary Gardening Methods of John Jeavons
by Matthew Gammett
We don’t have to continue what we’ve been doing. We can be pioneers in an opening field of miniaturization of agriculture, of a sophisticatedly effective use of resources, of building up a fantastically abundant ecosystem on this planet . . . I may not change the world, but I want to vote for life with my life. If I wasn’t acting positively about these problems—good grief!—then I’d really be depressed . . . The question we need to ask is how can we easily raise our food with manual techniques. — John Jeavons
I was in my second year of the Boise State University Horticulture Program when I was introduced to the name John Jeavons. My instructor, Leslie Blackburn, took us out back of the greenhouse complex to some well-made raised beds. With shovels and forks in hand, we enthusiastically got our first lesson on double digging and biointensive potato planting. Ms. Blackburn told us she had learned about the techniques while attending a gardening and farming conference in California.
My classmates and I had a vague idea of the Grow Biointensive method because we had heard of the legendary potato yields reported from many folks who had implemented these techniques. But that was about as far as our knowledge went. After receiving a copy of The Sustainable Vegetable Garden by John Jeavons and Carol Cox from my instructor, I realized that the focus of the Grow Biointensive system was on attaining high yields and calorie production in a limited space. Hmmm . . . The aspect of calorie production rather than just “how to grow” really stuck with me and would guide my farming hand in the years to come.
A few years later, by some course of beautiful synchronicity, I found myself living near Ecology Action, a Grow Biointensive research and education site in Willits (and home to John Jeavons). I discovered this fact while listening to the only local radio station that made its way deep into the redwoods. I was tuned to The Farm and Garden Show on KZYX (shout out!), and the hosts were conducting an interview with John Jeavons on hand watering efficiency potentials on the . . . “What?! The double digging people?” I said aloud in the kitchen. “Ecology Action is just down the street from here?”
A note on double digging: Double digging is a widely used method of garden bed preparation and is utilized by the Grow Biointensive method. The idea is to aerate and loosen soil while revitalizing soil structure and microbial communities. It is usually only done for the first year or two, and then a transition can be made to only broad forking the beds, minimizing how much the soil is disturbed. The benefits are countless: it improves drainage, breaks-up the plow pan, improves soil structure and aeration for organisms, and creates a nice crumbly soil texture for planting transplants or seeds.
John Jeavons, founder of Ecology Action
Around that same time, I became quite enamored with Dr. Elaine Ingham’s work on the Soil Food Web and the topic of growing all of one’s own food, and I realized that this was a perfect moment of inspired synchro-mysticism. I was rediscovering my course material from school and noticing a great urge to learn and practice what I would later find is called “minimal area diet farming.” Historically, this would have been known simply as subsistence farming—farming to feed your family without much, if any, surplus for market. Is food production for making money or for building community, soil, and food security? Must they be mutually exclusive?
With the research he has been conducting for over 40 years, Jeavons claims that it is possible to make a modest income using the Grow Biointensive techniques while feeding yourself and your family. From my own experience, I have no doubt that this is true. Unfortunately, double digging (and thus Grow Biointensive) has developed a negative reputation in some circles. I hear time and again, from people of all ages, that it is just too much work, too much hard work.
First of all, not all soils require double digging. Double digging is about a kind of radical, restorative, and regenerative approach to revitalizing and oxygenating damaged or extremely marginal land—which, by the way, is the kind of land that most of the humans on this planet have access to. That’s right, double digging is a radical act and it can be restorative for body, mind, and soil! Second of all, it only takes a couple of solid hours, give or take, to dig a 100 square foot bed. That’s just a blink in a season of farming. It can be done in half this time with experience. Here’s what John Jeavons has to say:
“. . . I know that the most controversial issue of my work is labor. Most of us aren’t used to physical labor. We don’t want to farm, much less farm manually. And when we have those kinds of feelings, we set up mental blocks and decide, emotionally and understandably, that it can’t be done, at least not without overworking or stressing out. The question we need to ask is how can we easily raise our food with manual techniques. This question will bring the insights necessary to simplify the process to where it is humanly effective as well as resource effective.”1
The importance of the Grow Biointensive food production method was immediately obvious to me. I could potentially grow all of my own food on a very small section of this huge and glorious earth—without a tractor, without a tiller, with minimal labor, minimal investment, and low to no inputs! Some research by Ecology Action has the space requirement for feeding oneself down to 1000 square feet or less. (See Matthew Drewno’s upcoming publication, Achieving More with Less at www.Growbiointensive.com.)
As John said, “Perhaps partly because I’ve always been concerned with making the most efficient possible use of resources, I became curious about just how small an area could provide a complete living—including food and income—for one individual. The more times I put the question to people, though, the more different acreage figures or plain “don’t knows” I received. So one day I decided that, if I wanted to find the answer, I’d have to do the legwork myself.”2
Since learning these techniques that John Jeavons created, I have devoted as much time as possible each year to practicing and honing my skills on minimal area diet production and Grow Biointensive food raising techniques. Currently, my family and I operate a small scale oyster mushroom farm in Boonville. While the small space and low inputs of mushroom farming are exciting and promising for our future food security, for me personally, nothing compares to just getting outside with my face in the sun and my hands in the soil.
As I write this, humanity is in the midst of a global pandemic, and I think what has become most clear is the fragility of our food distribution networks. It has been on plain display how easily the artificially-inflated abundance of the supermarket can dwindle in just a few days’ time, even with all the might of our industrial system pushing it along. As the shelves sit bare of flour, beans, and rice (and tp), many of us have taken action by planting more food than we think we might need in an effort to “overgrow the system.” What better way to empower yourself and take control of the situation than to plant a garden? With Grow Biointensive food raising techniques, you can start your journey on the path to growing your own food. For example, you can grow all the garlic you need for a year in just 100 square feet of space. Of course, this one act of planting garlic is part of a larger synergistic whole which you can learn more about at Ecology Action’s website, GrowBioIntensive.org.
On the right sidebar are three crops to try with biointensive spacing and growing techniques that blew my socks off with their productivity of calories and nutrients in a small space. Try incorporating a 5 ft x 20 ft or 3 ft x 10 ft planting of at least one of these root crops into your normal gardening routine. If you are ready to try some of the more advanced biointensive food growing plans, check out some of Ecology Action’s publications like How to Grow More Vegetables, 8th ed. This is the hallmark book of the entire biointensive methodology, authored by John Jeavons and many researchers and interns over the decades. It provides some really nifty spacing and planting charts with data, as well as a jump-off point for your own subsistence farming guide in your own locale. They have translated and transmitted their guides, techniques, and books into dozens of languages all around the world.
We have an incredible resource right here in Mendocino County. Almost forty years after Ecology Action came to Willits, we find ourselves on top of a mountain of information related to food production specific to our local climate. In our rapidly changing world, we would be wise to utilize the knowledge and the tools to grow all of our own food in a small space and with limited resources. We can and we must strive to create a vibrant local food economy that nourishes our bodies and communities!
Sidebar: An Intro to Biointensive Gardening
Leeks that have been transplanted into their second flat with 1.5” spacing.
Leeks: In the early spring and throughout the year until mid-August, sow leek seeds in a 3” deep flat at ½” spacing in a hexagonal staggered pattern like a beehive. At one month, up-pot into a new flat that is 6” deep with 1.5” spacing. Transplant into the garden soil or garden bed one month later at 6” offset hexagonal spacing with at least 30” of bed width, and watch your investment in leeks grow mightily. Harvest begins at pinky thickness on up until flowering next year.
Rutabagas: In spring and early fall, sow rutabagas broadcast style into 3” deep flats and thin out to every 1/2”. One month later, transplant into bed at 6” offset hexagonal spacing with a bed width of at least 30” and watch these things grow into creamy, tasty, monster root crop goodness! Harvest starting at 3” tuber size up to 6” before they get woody.
Parsnips: In the early spring through the early fall, sow parsnip seeds into a 3” deep flat. Approximately one month later, transplant the parsnip plants into your garden bed at 4” inch offset spacing with a bed width of at least 30”. You will be rewarded by root crop goodness up until they begin to flower next year in the early spring.
All these crops can be left in the ground over winter if fall planted and harvested when needed, so no need for a root cellar! These are just a few of the crops that can become a lifeline during lean times.
(1) - https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/john-jeavons-biointensive-agriculture-zmaz90jfzshe
(2) https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/john-jeavons-zmaz80mazraw
Disclaimer: Matthew Nasser-Gammett is in no way affiliated with Ecology Action, its partners, and/or affiliates. He is just a fan of their very relevant time-tested gardening practices.
Matthew lives and farms mushrooms in the redwoods and grows vegetables in Anderson Valley with his family. One day soon they hope to move onto a permanent land base in Mendocino County, where they too can conduct research into subsistence farming and resource-scarce food raising techniques, and continue to contribute to our local food economy.
Summer's Gold
The joys of summer are legion, and up there with lazy afternoons in the hammock and dips in your favorite swimming hole is the sweet crunch of freshly picked corn. Like a good ground chile (such as local favorite Piment d'Ville) or a handful of parmesan, arguably most dishes can be improved with the addition of these tasty kernels of summer gold.
To get your hands on this seasonal delight, check out the farmers markets, farm stands, and independent grocers near you. The best ears are still snug in their papery husks, Madame Nature's thoughtful gift wrapping. At the height of summer, fresh corn is pretty easy to come by. The hardest part will be deciding which recipe to use, as it can complement all sorts of dishes or be enjoyed simply roasted on its own. Still, if you need a suggestion, we humbly recommend this fresh and zesty corn salad.
Elote Corn Salad
Ingredients:
3 ears of corn, husks removed
¼ c Mexican crema*
Juice of 2 limes
1 tsp cumin
½ tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp Piment d’Ville or chili powder
½ c cotija cheese, crumbled (sub feta in a pinch)
½ c red onion, minced
½ avocado, chopped
Small bunch cilantro, chopped
Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
Optional: black beans, chopped tomato, or red pepper
*in most groceries, otherwise sub 2 T sour cream + 1 T mayo
Instructions:
Grill the corn, turning occasionally until slightly charred on each side. Remove from the grill and let cool to the touch. Over a large bowl or cutting board, hold the corn by the small end and cut off all of the kernels. Using the back of your knife, scrape out all the corn-ness from the remaining cobs. Combine with onions and cilantro.
In a separate bowl, mix crema, lime juice, and spices. Pour over salad and stir gently. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Top generously with chopped avocado and cotija cheese.
Same Family, New Faces
Celebrated Chef Perry Hoffman chooses family over fame as he returns to his roots at The Boonville Hotel
by Torrey Douglass
If it hadn’t been for Frank Sinatra, Jr., Perry Hoffman might have never made his way back to The Boonville Hotel. Just over a decade ago, that sleep-deprived celebrity was staying at Napa Valley’s luxury resort, Auberge de Soleil, while a staff party raged in the room below his, packed with employees wholeheartedly refusing to provide the elegantly indulgent guest experience for which the destination was known. Frank was not amused. Management was not amused. Perry, who had opted to postpone driving until the night’s imbibement had metabolized, found a senior manager between himself and the parking lot when he was finally ready to head home the following morning. Heads had to roll.
To be fair, the staff had reason enough to blow off steam. The exclusive resort is renowned for peerless valley views, a lavish spa, top tier dining, and, above all else, flawless service, attracting A-list celebs from sports and entertainment to its idyllic property above the vineyards. Maintaining that level of perfection day in and day out can build up some pressure. Throw in a wide array of beverage options and a night off, and things, of course, might get messy.
Prior to that fateful night, Perry had worked for three years as the resort’s sous chef, managing the kitchen’s 45 chefs and devoting most of his waking hours to preparing wonderful food that kept those famous guests coming back. He’d started there at the age of 20, though his passionate dedication to food began many years earlier.
Typical for a child of two working parents, Perry grew up spending his after-school hours at his mom’s workplace. His grandparents, Don and Sally Schmitt, were the original owners of The French Laundry in Yountville—at the time a wildly popular eating establishment locals were doing their best to keep to themselves. His mom waited tables there, hand-lettered menus, and beautified the space with inspired flower arrangements—a talent she later spun off into her own flower business, providing weekly deliveries to keep the area’s popular restaurants decked out in blossoms until she retired in 2016.
By the age of six, little Perry would help his grandmother Sally roast peppers in the kitchen, and at 14 he declared his intention to work in restaurants for his career. His parents discouraged the idea, knowing first-hand the hard work, long hours, and endless difficulties awaiting a professional chef, but Perry’s sights were set. Not long after, his father visited a local strip mall for a haircut and noticed a new restaurant moving into one of the spaces. He mentioned Perry’s ambition to the owner, one thing led to another, and Perry was in the kitchen the day ZinsValley opened its doors. He worked there for two years and learned a lot, in between enduring the pranks the more seasoned chefs sent his way.
Perry’s second cooking gig was at The Boonville Hotel, begun the day after his high school graduation. He spent the summer couch-surfing and working in his Uncle Johnny’s kitchen. Perry says, “It took me 10 years working in other restaurants before I realized how special the Hotel was—the garden in the back, the light from the windows, the flowers. It was so different from the ‘hospital dungeon’ feel of other commercial kitchens. I always wanted to go back.“
After his first stint at The Boonville Hotel, Perry moved on to the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn, providing high volume resort cooking for guests of the 400-room inn and spa. Next he moved to another Fairmont property, this time in Hawaii, with 1500 rooms and nine restaurants. He circulated among all the restaurants, spending each night of the week in a different kitchen, and learned not only how to tailor his cooking for each particular menu but also how to navigate among the people and processes of a large organization.
One night, the phone rang on the kitchen wall where Perry was working. It was the head chef of Auberge de Soleil, Robert Curry, a pioneer of fine dining and protégé of renowned French chef Michel Richard. Curry was looking for a sous chef. In Perry’s early days of cooking, old school chefs had advised him to always make sure his next job was not just bigger and better than his last, but scared him as well. Auberge, a member of the hospitality association Relais & Châteaux, was known as one of the first spots in Napa Valley to offer outstanding food to match the area’s bounty of world-class wines. The position was a step up, and as intimidating as anything he’d yet done. Of course he said yes.
It was an exhilarating three years in the Auberge de Soleil kitchen. Dishes left his hands to be set in front of Dana Carvey, Michael Jordan, or Oprah. After the hubbub with Frank Sinatra, Jr., blew over, Perry worked for a sister property in South Carolina, followed by stints at other Relais & Châteaux properties in Calistoga, France, and South Korea, where he earned that establishment its first Michelin star. The accomplishment was a great feeling, but the increased pressure to over-deliver every day was grueling.
In 2011, Perry said his last goodbye to the Relais & Châteaux association and moved to the restaurant at Domain Chandon. He worked his way up to Executive Chef, won and maintained a Michelin star over three years, and discovered that the business side of running a restaurant could be just as compelling as the kinetic creativity of the kitchen. He began to dream of running his own restaurant some day. When the Domain Chandon restaurant closed on New Year’s Eve 2014, Perry knew he was ready for something different—he just didn't know what that might be.
In the meantime, Perry took a few months off for his wedding and honeymoon. During the preparations, he rented a cottage behind The Shed in Healdsburg. He loved what he saw—green salads, fresh small plates, and lots of sunshine—and would bring his morning coffee and paper to one of the picnic tables out front. When he met owners Doug Lipton and Cindy Daniel one morning, he expressed his admiration for the combination café, retail shop, and community center focused on food and farming. Later, while on his honeymoon in the Virgin Islands, Perry received an email from Doug and Cindy with a job offer. As he was crafting his polite refusal, he did some rethinking, and the email changed to an acceptance.
What followed was three years of pursuing and fulfilling whatever culinary inspiration caught his creative fancy: What’s in the garden that could be integrated into today’s dishes? How can more vegan dishes —that don’t announce themselves as vegan—be added to the menu? How about a day long outing with customers to forage the meadows, forest, and creek banks outside of Healdsburg? Perry had license to run the kitchen as he wanted, and he delighted in the freedom he was allowed as well as the authentic atmosphere the owners fostered. If he ever found himself stuck for an idea, he would browse the retail shelves until an intriguing jar or package caught his eye.
Although the work was inspiring and fulfilling, Perry was running on all cylinders, a work style that is ultimately not sustainable no matter how stimulating the job. After three years, it was time for something new, and he left The Shed in September of 2018. Sadly, the business closed its brick-and-mortar doors at the end of last year. It had weathered a difficult year following the Sonoma County fires and had moved all its operations online, where you can still find their yummy selection of food, garden, and homesteading items, as well as recipes, reflections, and interviews.
For Perry, the time had come to circle back to The Boonville Hotel. Though Auberge and other Napa luminaries made advances, his experience at The Shed had shifted his taste to a less corporate work environment. On top of that, he and his wife, Kristen, had a baby girl, Charlie. With her in the picture, choosing a path that included time with family was paramount. Perry mentioned his wish to return to the Hotel to his uncle at Christmas and then again at Easter. At first Johnny didn’t take him seriously, but it was a period of transition for the Hotel as well, since long-time cook Brennan Moore was leaving. As Johnny wasn’t keen to go back to cooking himself, Perry got his wish.
While he’s currently commuting to work from Healdsburg, the trip will shorten considerably when Perry and his family move to Philo. They’ve purchased a four-acre parcel on The Apple Farm, run by aunt and uncle Karen and Tim Bates, and are building a home there. Perry's son, Teddy James, was born in April and will grow up climbing the same trees Perry did while visiting the farm for family get-togethers as a youngster. The property is thick with inspiration for his foraging explorations, and the gardens both at The Boonville Hotel and The Apple Farm provide a bounty of herbs and flowers, two favorite flavor sources. Perry advises, “Never add a flower for the sake of it. It must add to the dish, it must makes sense.“ He goes on to recommend adding borage to oysters, since borage's oceanic cucumber flavor complements the oysters' salty brine, and mentions how spicy nasturtiums nicely complement steak tartare.
When a friend asked about his plans for the restaurant at The Boonville Hotel, Perry said that he wanted to do “as much and as little as possible.“ He has great respect for what his uncle created, Johnny’s honest approach to cooking, and the Hotel’s personable atmosphere that eschews decadence for simple delight. “I want the food to feel in the moment—simple, spontaneous, creative.“ Perry will continue the prix fixe menu, looking to the garden outside the kitchen as well as the harvest from local farmers, ranchers, and fish catchers to help inspire the dishes. Small plates can be enjoyed at the bar or outside, but guests will need to buy from the prix fixe menu to get a table—and, when you do, that table is yours for the night. Like Perry, diners will get a chance to slow down, experience wonderful food, and enjoy time with the people they love.
The Boonville Hotel
14050 Highway 128, Boonville | (707) 895-2210 | BoonvilleHotel.com
Dinner Thurs–Sat, Sunday mid-day meal
Photos courtesy of The Boonville Hotel.
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.
Six Generations Strong
Magruder Ranch Turns 100
by Kyle Farmer
A new swing hangs from old chains. The live oak, which holds the swing on its stately branches, has already re-grown at least once from a stump. My daughter’s tiny hands hold fast to the same cold links her mom’s once did. Her blue eyes beam with the thrill, and I catch her again and push her gently forward. “I’m taller than you!“ she squeals, and in a way she is right. For a transient moment, thanks to that great big tree and her grandfather’s chains, a green toddler swing and a push of my arm, she is taller than us all.
This year, Ingel-Haven Ranch turns 100. Though many of you might know us as Magruder Ranch, our land, still named after the first two generations to call it home, is called Ingel-Haven. This year we celebrate its centennial, but as I push the sixth generation to live on this land on this new swing with old chains, I am not just thinking about the last 100 years—I am thinking about the next.
If you are one of those Americans who pays attention to the same media sources that I do, there is, at the moment, a collective yowl, a lament for our children's future. The Earth, we read, will soon be “uninhabitable.“ The “Human Game,“ writes Bill McKibben, has “begun to play itself out.“ This is a hard thing to stomach as you push your almost-kindergartener on her swing.
These dire predictions haunt my thoughts as I consider the small green hut adorned with a large crescent moon situated next to the stately Victorian that serves as the headquarters of our ranch. The west-facing wall is full of bees. Another wall holds a few generations' worth of saddles. In the winter, this little hut is piled full of inner tubes and beach chairs, hibernating until spring.
These are the quarters my son and daughter’s great-great-great-grandfather built to live in while orchestrating the construction of the Big House next door. It is a reminder that progress frequently relies on a series of small steps, and it is emblematic of our stewardship of the land. There is not a crop or species of livestock we have raised for market that we did not first experiment with on a homestead scale. At today's Magruder Ranch, we don't invest in a new irrigation system without trying it out on a few acres first to iron out the kinks. Our approach to agriculture and land management is based on constant experimentation and adaptation. We aren’t afraid to try something new, but when we do, we will likely build it out of old parts.
There is a balance between honoring a legacy and adapting to the future. After two generations of raising sheep, my wife’s grandmother and grandfather sold the whole flock, observing that “sheep wake up each morning and try to die, and you wake up and try to save them.“ Instead, they planted pears, a tree crop better suited to our heavy wet soils than most but highly susceptible to frost and to the whims of a cosmetically obsessed consumer market. Pear trees, it seems, might not wish to die, but they do dream of wormholes. So after a childhood spent caring for those trees, lighting smudge pots by night and refilling them with diesel fuel by day, my father-in-law, Mac Magruder, quite literally took a bulldozer to a portion of his heritage, and instead focused on what the land had always seemed to want to grow. Grass.
There is perhaps no better example of the art of experimentation and adaptation than the reluctant rancher himself, Mac Magruder. A ceramic artist by avocation and training, Mac made the difficult decision to return home to manage the ranch at the age of 27, when his father fell ill. Dissatisfied with a volatile cattle market and, like any artist, unenthusiastic about allowing others to put the finishing touches on a calf that he had cared for from before it was born, Mac began grass-finishing his beef before “grass-fed beef“ was a thing. In fact, he helped make it a thing by giving it away to skeptical customers. After a blind taste test at Berkeley’s Chez Panisse confirmed the superiority of Mac’s approach to raising cattle, Alice Waters invented a name to put on the menu, and “Magruder Ranch“ was born.
In our hearts, though, we are still Ingel-Haven Ranch. Magruder Ranch is the way we raise our cattle, sheep, and pigs, but Ingel-Haven is this old chain and new swing. It exists and evolves no matter what crops we produce for our community, and it will continue to exist as long as there are people loving this land.
The challenges my daughter, June, and son, Walter, will face, if they choose to steward this land, are daunting. They will likely see more flooded barn lots before they reach their 40s than did all of the generations before them. Wildfires will continue to disappear a season’s worth of grass feed in an afternoon, and on bad years, fires will produce more greenhouse gases than global fossil fuel emissions. Excess carbon dioxide will continue to make grass less nutritious, and extreme weather swings will make summer pneumonia in our cattle and sheep more of a problem.
Writers and thinkers living in urban centers are full of techno-utopian fixes to the monsters we have borne. But grandiose predictions that farmers will leave the soil and move into elaborate skyscrapers with petri dishes is like a flea jumping off the back of a dog and announcing that he is off to see the world. We are that flea, and nature is that dog. The extravagant generosities of soil are our once and future wealth, and we will not begin to heal this planet until we acknowledge that debt.
There is an emerging science demonstrating that landscape and soil restoration may be our greatest hope both to adapt to and mitigate our climate crisis, which means that those of us who live in rural counties like Mendocino are sitting in the closest thing to a driver's seat that the anthropocene has to offer. At a Russian River Science Forum a couple of years ago, I was surprised to see Lorraine Flint, a climate scientist with USGS, end her presentation with the picture of a cow—not as a demon but as a solution. The science, she insisted, had progressed. Progressive grazing, forest restoration through ecologically informed thinning and prescribed fire, wetland restoration, and farming techniques that increase “the amount, the area, and longevity of the green carbon drawdown by nature,“ to quote Australian soil scientist Walter Jehne, will all play a role. All 2,243,840 acres of this county have their place in this fight.
When I watch these children of mine, their wild hair full of leaves and their hands covered in dirt, looking through toilet paper roll binoculars to identify birds whose names I didn’t know I didn't know until I was well out of college, I can’t help but feel hopeful. In We’re Doomed. Now What?, Roy Scranton argues that such optimism is its own kind of climate denial. If there is an alternative pragmatism to be offered in his last chapter, I have yet to get there. In contrast, I consider mine the optimism of an electrician who suddenly realizes that no one has yet checked the fuse box. Our entire climate change debate has taken place in an era dominated, economically and politically, by what high school economics classes call the secondary, tertiary, and quaternary sectors of the economy (manufacturing, service, and “knowledge“). The primary sector (agriculture, forestry, fishing, and mining) has been for the most part approached oppositionally through regulation and, implicitly, through offshoring. This is why good intentions have not been enough—why we have contributed more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere since the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change than through all of preceding human history. The first step toward conserving our forests, for example, was to protect them from mindless exploitation. But even progress can become self-defeating when it does not adapt. We will stop felling old growth western hemlocks in the Canadian Caribou Rainforest when we conjure a pricing mechanism to fund ecological and fire resiliency forest thinning here at home. Polecraft Solutions in Laytonville, for example, is building fire-adapted homes out of small diameter trees. The Redwood Forest Foundation is experimenting with biochar production. Innovations in cellulose nanocrystals could allow the stunted trees and shrubs thinned from our overburdened forests to quite literally replace plastic. Lawsuits, regulations, and traditional activism can shift the geography of exploitation, but only productive engagement with the resource sectors of the economy can secure our future.
Apologies for leading you down this rabbit hole into my own neo-agrarian economics. But to write about my children, anyone’s children, in any other way feels dishonest.
Any late season plot twist needs a wildcard, and in our case that wildcard is my kids' Great-Aunt Helen. Known to those who participated in the Redwood Valley Outdoor Education Project known affectionately as “Mother Nature,“ Helen is a biophiliac par excellence—an avid birder, a lover of plants, someone for whom ecological knowledge transcends trivia and enters into the spiritual. She prowled these hills as a child just as my wife, Grace, and sister-in-law, Martha, did; just as Mac did; and just as my kids will do once they are old enough to avoid the snakes. Her love for this land goes beyond my neophyte understanding of “love of place.“ And yet her environmentalism is complicated by the fact that she is, and will always be, a rancher’s daughter. She must hold the tension between the human need to use nature and her love of nature. She knows that the intimate knowledge of our role in the ecosystem is not a rationale to retreat from its uses but an expansion of the possibilities. I believe that when a critical mass of people holds this impossible tension in their minds, and can debate honestly and vigorously within that framework, previously unimaginable futures will arise like cream from fresh milk.
The work we are doing today involves both past and present visions and infrastructure. We are increasingly integrating Helen’s ranch vision in the form of Audubon hikes and botanical inquiries. We are augmenting Mac’s lifelong practice of prescribed fire with new partnerships and explorations of traditional ecological knowledge. Before the recent wildfires focused our attention on the patient work of recovery, we completed a Carbon Farm Plan through a partnership with the Resource Conservation District and the Carbon Cycle Institute. Rebuilding fence in the burn zones and observing the stark contrast between tree survival on the grazed and ungrazed side of the fence intensified our interest in fire grazing, culminating in a grazing collaboration among three ranches along the Willits Grade that will not only slow the spread of future fires that start along the highway, but will help to safeguard vital Mendocino County communications infrastructure on Laughlin Peak.
After ten years of experimentation with a small flock of sheep, fine-tuning our predation prevention strategies and testing the suitability of different breeds to our particular place, we have begun to scale up the sheep flock that first characterized Ingel-Haven Ranch. Not only does multi-species grazing hold the potential for even more ecologically attuned management, but the sheep’s size—less imposing than cattle—means we get to bring the kids to work. Which, in the end, is what it is all about.
You can find Magruder meats at Ukiah Natural Foods and Harvest Market, and on the menus of Stock Farm (Campovida), The Golden Pig, Poleeko Roadhouse, Cafe Beaujolais, and Harbor House. Contact the ranch at MagruderRanch.com for half and quarter portions of beef, lamb, and pigs.
Kyle Farmer is a rancher, father, and volunteer firefighter who uses livestock to manage land in Potter Valley, Redwood Valley, and Navarro Ridge.
Photos courtesy of Magruder Ranch.
Surf Market in Gualala
by Holly Madrigal
It took all of two days to turn me into a Chile Crunch convert. I had heard tell of this condiment from friends in the tiny southernmost coastal Mendocino town of Gualala. A lightly spiced chile oil infused with garlic and onions, the creators manage to make the garlic both crispy and crunchy. One taste was all it took to convince me to buy a small jar of the stuff. I promptly drizzled it over that evening’s tacos, followed by an Easter morning where we poured it over scrambled eggs and used it as a dip for breadsticks. Just like that, I was hooked!
Surf Market holds an oversized collection of delicious offerings like this. The BBQ stands out front of the store and serves up a mouthwatering selection of ribs, rotisserie chickens, and prime rib, as well as fresh corn on the cob slathered in—you guessed it—Chile Crunch (plus parmesan cheese, butter, and fresh squeezed lime).
Caroline Ducato’s eyes twinkle when she describes all the wonderful products, foods, and farms that they work with at Surf Market. As Marketing Director and a Specialty Food buyer, she goes out of her way to provide a venue for local products. This support of local farms and purveyors is baked into their ethos. The shelves are filled with bright, eye-catching “Made Local“ stickers. Stories of the craftspeople that make these items and grow this food are placed strategically around the store.
Discovering great local foods and providing the stage for them to shine is a role that Surf Market excels at. Farmers Markets, though a more immediate connection with the farmer, are not always convenient for shoppers. Surf Market, with its regular hours and refrigeration, provides additional access to really great food. For example, Allan Hogle lives up on the ridge with his wife, Astrid, where they grow a full complement of micro greens, radish greens, sunflower sprouts, and more. At the summer Farmers Market, Astrid makes thin German waffles to order—“no maple syrup,“ Allan laughs, “just fresh fruit and cream tops these waffles.“ Not to be left out, their son, Michael, is now working at the Surf Market BBQ out front.
In case you want more decadence, Pazzo Marco Creamery is the Gualala-based creation of Marco Moramarco and Paul Vierra. The pair are passionate about gelato and cheese. Surf Market is the only retail location outside of the Gualala Farmers Market or their mobile gelato cart where you can taste this dairy divinity. The five handcrafted seasonal gelato flavors in the cold case tantalize the mind: Toasted Almond Chai, Huckleberry Chevre, Bergamot Orange, Meyer Lemon, and Mixed Berry Sorbetto. I dare you to try and make it home before popping the top off the gelato carton for a taste. Or you could pick up a wedge of Pazzo Marco’s award winning cheese. The Monsieur Phillipe, made in the style of a Manchego, is a personal favorite. They use milk from organic jersey cows from Stornetta Dairy in Manchester. Pazzo Marco is committed to working with local restaurants and businesses, like Surf Market, that mirror their appreciation for good wholesome food.
Surf Market is always bustling with activitiy. They tend to be a bit of an outpost for Sea Ranch, Irish Beach, and Gualala. When I stopped by recently, Deborah Schatan of Edible Complexe was providing tastings of her mahjoon, a savory Moroccan condiment with ground pistachios, figs, and cashews, combined with middle eastern spices and aromatics. Wild strawberry, sour cherry, as well as traditional fig and date mahjoon were also on hand. The Blenheim apricot flavor uses a fruit which is on the Slow Food list of endangered foods. By supporting the farmers growing these apricots, Deborah contributes to its conservation, and it provides the mahjoon with a deep, tart, rich apricot flavor. Deborah recommends mixing the mahjoon into softened butter, wrapping and chilling the concoction in the fridge, then slicing it into rounds to top fish before cooking. Or it can be spread over a layer of local fresh cheese and encased in crust for a savory tartlet.
Surf Market offers an impressive array of these home grown, unique items for their customers. When you bite into a loaf of Pelican Bread, it tastes like what bread was always meant to be—full of whole grains but still soft and chewy. James McKenna makes all his bread fresh the day he sells it, and it sells out fast. Based out of Point Arena, you can pick up loaves at Surf Market when available. Hand-ground rye from the Mendocino Grain Project, a freshly ground spelt loaf, an olive rosemary round, or even coastal sourdough may be on offer. When you grab one of these breads and it is still warm to the touch, you know that you are making good life choices.
Of course, not all of the products carried at Surf Market are local (did I see smoked chocolate chips and Kentucky bourbon syrup one aisle over?), but developing these local relationships both enhances the offerings at the store and leads to lasting community friendships. Now, where did I put that jar of Chile Crunch?
Surf Market
139250 Highway 1, Gualala | (707) 884-4184 | SurfSuper.com
Open daily 7:30am–8pm
Holly Madrigal is a Mendocino County maven who loves to share the delights of our region. She’s fortunate to enjoy meaningful work with the Leadership Mendocino program and takes great joy in publishing this magazine.
Kuzamura Ubuzima “Grows Health” in Rwanda
Feeding the Sick through Biointensive Farming
by Medie Jesena Parrott photos by Emmanuel Manirarora
Imagine this: You’re a mother of five children and are still breastfeeding your youngest baby when your husband gets injured while working on your farm. The local hospital doesn’t have surgeons, so he has to go to the referral hospital three hours away. You are subsistence farmers and do not have any cash for bus fare, let alone hospital fees. You grow your own food on your small plot of land and trade crops for firewood, rice, clothes, and other essentials for your family, and what little money you earned from selling woven mats has already gone to buy school uniforms for your oldest three kids. Even with the new baby, you, like the majority of Rwandan women, spent more time farming than your husband did. Neither one of you will be farming anytime soon, and you cannot afford to pay someone to take care of your crops. You borrow bus fare money for your family of seven, and you leave your house and farm behind.
You could not bring much food with you, so when you arrive at the hospital, your children are crying of hunger. You are also very hungry and are worried that you may not have enough breast milk for your baby. Your husband has to have surgery on his leg, and they tell you that he will be in the hospital for over one month. You cannot leave him because the hospital does not have enough nurses to care for all the patients, so the families have to feed, bathe, and take them to the toilet, as well as buy medicines and pay for tests. You initially rely on the kindness of other patients’ families, who share some of their food with you and the children, but there are days, several of them, when your family eats hardly anything. This is nothing new—you went hungry at home, too, especially in the dry season. But being so far away and not being able to glean leaves from neighbors’ bean, squash, and moringa plants has made you feel weak and desperate.
Then you hear about a program at the hospital that feeds patients and their families, and think: it’s too good to be true. You put your name on the list, and they give you a generous amount of wholegrain sosoma porridge (soy, sorghum, and maize) with milk the next morning. For lunch you get a heaping plate of healthy vegetables with ground peanuts, an avocado, an egg, and ubugali (cassava porridge), and you feel as if you’ve been saved, and your children will be all right after all. Every day you receive a slightly different but equally healthy meal that tastes surprisingly good, especially considering it’s free! You find out that the same smiling people who provide you with food also teach families how to cook balanced meals from food that they grow themselves, even with very little water and no pesticides. Other beneficiaries who live in town have been given small livestock, and you receive a bag of moringa seeds with instructions on how to grow your own once you return to your village. A few times a week, you go down to the kitchen and help out with cooking, and they explain what kinds of foods are best eaten together and what you should eat while you are breastfeeding. Sometimes, when other mothers watch your kids, you even join with the morning stretching and exercise. A month goes by, your husband is discharged, and you head back home with your children, ready to apply all you have learned from the kind folks at the hospital.
This scenario is often repeated with slight variations at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire du Butare (CHUB) where Kuzamura Ubuzima (KU) does most of its work in the Southern Province of Rwanda. The organization has expanded services to the maternity ward of a nearby district hospital and has been asked to replicate its program in two other nearby hospitals, including one that serves a large population of refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
I was teaching nurses and nursing students at CHUB and the University of Rwanda while living with my husband in Butare from 2015-2017, but I had been in Rwanda since 2013. A pediatrician colleague and I observed that some patients mysteriously deteriorated, and some passed away, regardless of proper therapy. We discovered that Rwandan hospitals did not have the resources to provide food, so families were expected to feed the patients. Those who did not have family, or who were very poor, often did not survive. Moved by this discovery, we met with hospital administrators, a prominent nutrition professor, and an environmental activist to create Farming for Child Health that started feeding 30 children and breastfeeding mothers in May 2015. After a few months, we partnered with a German organization that was providing restaurant food to patients in the surgery ward, and we renamed the Rwandan non-profit organization Kuzamura Ubuzima, or Growing Health, which is a 501(c)(3) organization in the US.
The large referral hospital, where KU started in 2015 and where it continues to provide services, has allotted over 10 acres of farmland, including more than one acre of banana plants and several avocado trees, for this project. Having adapted some biointensive methods to its climate and terrain, KU grows organic crops that are cooked by staff onsite with the help of able-bodied family members. They serve two highly nutritious meals per day to patients and their families; conduct teaching sessions about sustainable agriculture, healthy and hygienic food preparation, and balanced meals; and demonstrate stress management exercises, including yoga and qi gong. After four years, KU has not only expanded programming to include 125 patients at two hospitals, but has hired agriculture and health trainers, with the goal of having a more sustainable impact on the lives of the patients and families that we serve. The organization helps them survive the difficult period of hospitalization, but also wants them and their families to thrive after they return home, hopefully disrupting the self-perpetuating cycle of poverty and illness.
In a tiny country as densely populated as Rwanda (the third most populous in Africa), where farm plots have been shrinking exponentially with every generation, subsistence farming using traditional methods has failed to provide adequate nutrition to families, and 35% of Rwandan children are stunted from chronic malnutrition. Biointensive farming was implemented by KU starting in 2015, working from my much marked-up and dog-eared “How to Grow More Vegetables“ book signed by John Jeavons. It took some effort to calculate measurements from English to metric and to match up seasons of the year, but the principles of enriching and not exhausting the soil, conserving through composting and seed-saving, and following nature’s own example through companion planting and crop-rotation made sense to adapt to local soil and crops. Most Rwandan farmers do use animal waste as fertilizer, but kitchen and garden waste are typically buried or burned. We broke a strong taboo and attracted attention with our mixed plantings on a large scale at our 10-acre hospital farm, so much so that our agronomist feared being cited for it. We continue to teach about keyhole kitchen gardens, which originated in Rwanda, as a way to employ biointensive practices.
There is intense pressure in many parts of Africa to use pesticides and GMO seeds, and KU takes a non-GMO stance on our farm in solidarity with our biggest seed donor, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, which has been donating seeds to our project annually since 2015. We trial new varieties and save the seeds of crops that are well adapted to the soil and climate of Rwanda and, in doing so, promote both crop and diet diversity.
Captions:
Main image: Agronomist Athanasie Uwitonze and farmworkers prepare the soil for planting.
Row, left image: KU beneficiaries enjoying lunch
Row, center image: Emmanuel Manirarora, agricultural trainer, holds a purple cabbage (unusual in Rwanda).
Row, right image: Laurette Mushimiyamana, program coordinator and KU’s first employee, holds an infant.
Kuzamura Ubuzima is looking for community partners and individuals in Mendocino County to help with its efforts. For more information, please visit kuzamuraubuzima.rw.
Medie Jesena Parrott co-founded Kuzamura Ubuzima while teaching nursing in Rwanda, before moving to Ukiah with her husband. She now works as a pediatric nurse practitioner at the AHUV Rural Health Clinic. Contact BruinPNP@gmail.com for additional information.
Kid Approved!
Mendocino County's Happy Snack Spots for the Short Set
One friend says her son is obsessed with Oco Time in Ukiah. We are too! What is not to love about exquisitely crafted sushi and edamame, not to mention the namesake-noodly Oco.
At Poleeko Roadhouse in Philo, you will never leave hungry. But the most kid-fun thing about this place is that when you snack on the complimentary peanuts, you throw the shells right onto the floor! This is common in many Texan or east coast bars, but it is a revelation of harmless rule-breaking for many munchkins.
Just down the road at Lauren’s, all tables have a stockpile of white paper and a little bucket of colored pencils, so eaters of all ages can be creatively engaged while they wait. If you have a particularly squirrelly little person with you, head over to the kids’ corner, where books, toys, and games can keep them busy until food arrives.
On the other side of Philo, turn onto Philo Greenwood Road and you'll soon come across the self-serve farm stand at The Apple Farm. When the apple season is in full swing, you can often sample a variety of their heirloom apples before grabbing a bag of your favorites, or reach into the cooler for a sweet, crisp apple juice for the road.
Princess Seafood Fish Market in Noyo Harbor is the perfect combo of quick food that does not skimp on quality and a warm, family-friendly space. The all-female fishing crew can often be found taking turns at the grill. Kids can watch the crustaceans in the crab tank or scamper around the heated outdoor seating. Dog-friends are welcome outside as well.
Also in Noyo Harbor, Sea Pal Cove is hands-down the most satisfying meal after a long day playing at the beach or hiking the hills. A contender for best fish 'n' chips in town, this tiny spot has an enormous outdoor deck. Sit by the giant fire pit and watch the boat traffic. Young ones can spot sea lions or even a river otter. Keep an eye on your meal, though, or the super quick gulls will help themselves.
On summer weekends in Fort Bragg, the line for Cowlick's Ice Cream can stretch out the door, but there is a reason for that. The ice cream is crazy good! It's made in-house with wonderful, seasonal flavors like peach sorbet or black cherry. Be brave and try the ice cream made with local candy cap mushrooms. It tastes like creamy, vaguely apple pie-chai-ness. Surprisingly kid-approved!
If you're looking for a quick bite or a slice of well made pizza (or more Cowlick's Ice Cream), look no further than Frankie's in Mendocino. Indoor and outdoor seating and a locally inspired menu with vegetarian, gluten free, and vegan options make this a great stop for eaters of all stripes.
If you're in the mood for Cajun fare, The Big Chief in Laytonville has a welcoming, enclosed garden patio where kids and furry companions can soak up the sun while enjoying the best po' boys around. Grownups can take advantage of the top notch beer selection at the Draft Punk bar, and the littles will appreciate the kombucha on tap.
Photos:
Top left — Sisters Katherine and Clara Barcelo enjoying their Cowlick's ice cream.
Top right — Apple options at The Apple Farm
Bottom left — Art from a young diner at Lauren's
Bottom right — Fresh salad, fries, and battered fish at The Chief
Homemade Tortillas
Easy as Pie and So Much Better Than Store-Bought
by Holly Madrigal
It is so rewarding to make your own tortillas at home. And the process (if you invest in a $20 tortilla press) is super easy and fun. Making tortillas is the perfect process to bring the family together to craft a meal. Watch pride bloom on children's faces as they make these delicious food-holders with their very own hands.
If you are thinking about tacos or quesadillas for dinner, make the tortilla dough first so it can rest 40 minutes while you prep the filling (beans, ground beef, or cheese) and toppings. When the fillings are ready, begin cooking the tortillas, because once started, the tortilla-making goes quickly. Most people want to eat them right away.
Salvio Senerchia (age 8) and his mom, Spring, demonstrated their tortilla making skills recently when I joined their family for supper. Salvio deftly pressed each disc, peeled it off and laid it on the griddle, watching carefully as it cooked. Using a spatula, he flipped and then removed each tortilla into a cloth-lined basket. Wrapping the cloth closed ensures that the tortillas continue to steam while you finish cooking the rest, Spring explains.
The kitchen activity drew other family members into the mix, as Sylvana (age 12) finished up crafting her own perfect rounds. Mine occasionally rumpled as I added them to the griddle, but they tasted just as good. As we sat down at the dinner table, we marveled at the ease of creating this simple, flavorful meal. The tortillas were perfectly toothsome yet soft, the toppings escaping to drip onto our hands. Extra tortillas were ready to scoop up every last morsel. Making your own tortillas almost takes less time than reheating store bought ones, but you can be certain that they contain pure ingredients, and the process is way more satisfying.
Homemade Tortillas
Ingredients:
3 c masa, available in most groceries
2 c water, more if needed
1 T olive oil
Tortilla press
Plastic produce bag cut down the sides to lie flat, or heavy duty plastic wrap
Mix masa, water and olive oil. Add more water if needed, scraping down the sides of the bowl until just combined and the batter is the texture of biscuit dough. Let rest for 40 minutes. Roll into 1-½“ balls.
Heat the griddle until hot then lower to medium.
Take the tortilla press, lay half the plastic open across the press, place a ball of dough in the center, fold over the other half of plastic, close the tortilla press, and apply pressure until dough is flat. Remove the flattened tortilla from the plastic and place on the griddle. Flip once and cook until just before browning. Remove from heat to a cloth-lined basket, wrap and cover as you work. The tortillas will continue to steam in the cloth wrapping until you are ready to eat.
Family-Friendly Destinations in Anderson Valley
by Anna Levy
An afternoon spent meandering along the winding roads of Anderson Valley is certainly a joy for adults in the summer. The region, known for its small-town feel, beautiful vistas, and beloved wineries, is often celebrated for its Pinot Noir and Gewürztraminer varietals. Yet increasingly, places along Highway 128—including wineries—are looking for ways to appeal to a broader set, such as those who travel with children, the designated drivers, and people who simply prefer not to drink alcohol.
Towards the western end of Anderson Valley, Husch—with the oldest tasting room in the valley, housed in a small wooden cabin framed by bright roses and a wide back deck—offers a non-alcoholic grape juice if you're seeking something sweet and light. Along with the rest of their choices, the tasting of the 2017 Gewürztraminer Juice is complimentary. The juice is delicious on its own but also provides a strong foundation for a mocktail at home. Metah Green, the Tasting Room Manager, suggests mixing it with iced tea for a standout version of an Arnold Palmer.
Husch makes sure that children feel welcome in other ways. There’s a self-guided walk around the vineyards that highlights both the grapes used for the juice and the Owl Box, which welcomes varmint-catchers to the neighborhood. Picnic tables outside and a small desk inside offer young people a place to relax, and there’s even a small coloring book—created by third-generation owner Amanda Robinson Holstine—and crayons for some of the youngest visitors.
Up the road a bit, Navarro Vineyards has long embraced the non-alcoholic scene, offering Gewürztraminer and Pinot Noir juices, the latter resplendent in its deep rose hue, along with Verjus, a green juice made from either varietal. Again, tastings are complimentary, as are tastings for all of Navarro’s lineup. There are tours of the vineyard and winery twice each day, and it is a simple joy to buy a bottle, along with snacks from the case in the tasting room, to have an impromptu picnic at the tables outside. Well-behaved dogs are welcome to join, and the large blue blocks on the patio are a draw for kids, making this an easy outing for the entire family.
Navarro’s sister winery, Pennyroyal Farm, also makes sure children and other non-imbibers are not left out. There are regular tours of the farm available—at certain times of year, the baby goats are a particular draw. At the tasting bar, Navarro’s grape juices are offered alongside Pennyroyal’s own wines, and food options include cheese pairings, meats, olives, and seasonal delights.
Pennyroyal is also looking at new ways to tailor activities to children, and it’s worth keeping an eye out—or calling the tasting room directly—to find out which upcoming events are open to younger folks. In the spring, the farm hosts Good Farm Day, traditionally held on Good Friday. Past highlights included a bouncy house, wagon rides, and popsicles made from that distinctive, delicious grape juice.
Toulouse Vineyards, tucked away on a hill on the northern side of 128, offers gorgeous views from its patio and also welcomes families. In addition to a refrigerator full of snacks, visitors can bring their own food to make a picnic on the property. Anyone skipping the wine is offered local, organic apple juice from Anderson Valley’s Apple Farm.
Of course, there are all sorts of stops throughout Anderson Valley that make a summer day one worth remembering. From restaurants to redwoods, ice cream to swimming holes, taking the family out for a day of fun is easy. Stopping by some of the tasting rooms that have, perhaps unexpectedly, tailored their offerings to include the younger set just makes it that much more special for everyone to tour this unique region of Mendocino County.
WHERE TO GO (summer hours):
Husch Vineyards: www.huschvineyards.com
Tasting Room open 10am–6pm
Navarro Vineyards: www.navarrowine.com
Tasting Room open every day from 9am–6pm
Toulouse Vineyards: www.toulousevineyards.com
Tasting Room open every day from 11am–5pm
Pennyroyal Farm: www.pennyroyalfarm.com
Tasting Room open Mon–Thu, 10am–5pm; Fri–Sun, 10am–6pm
Anna Levy writes, cooks, and plans travel of all sorts whenever she can. She lives on the Mendocino Coast with her husband and two dogs.
Village Hearth
Covelo's One-Stop Wellness Center
by Sara Stapleton
Back in 2012, a group of local women came together in Covelo to dream up a beautiful community concept that would eventually come to fruition as the Village Hearth Cooperative Marketplace. Five years and many passionately volunteered hours later, they opened their doors, eager to share the bounty with their community. The co-op was born out of these women’s hope to create a space that would promote and nurture a vibrant local economy, one that would nourish and sustain the community by providing a space for “creativity, prosperity, education, and wellness,“ and it is clear that they have succeeded from the moment that you walk in.
The Village Hearth sits on the corner of Covelo and Rife Road in “the little red house,“ built of redwood in the late 1800s—a sweet spot for many local residents who have fond memories of one or another of its previous incarnations. You can’t miss the beautiful old craftsman with the white picket fence and the big black walnut tree in the corner of the yard. Their sign out front will beckon you in with promise of local produce, delicious fruit smoothies, and artisan goods.
Step inside to a sunny space with a bright, palpable energy, and you will be met with locally crafted goods aplenty: artists' prints on cards, hats, and reusable canvas tote bags, jewelry, ceramics, hand-forged knives, handcrafted leather goods, and framed photography hanging upon the walls. Even if this is not exactly the reason you came, I can almost guarantee that it will be hard to leave without a little something that will support the more than 50 artisans who have their work displayed on consignment at the market.
The cooler is filled with organic local produce coming from farms such as Covelo Organics, Folklife Farm, and Summit Valley Organics—all located within Round Valley. The best of what is in season is what you’ll find here, so look for vine-ripened tomatoes and sweet summer melons in the coming months. There is also local meat on offer—beef, pork, lamb, chicken, and other staples such as pasture-raised eggs. Head in to the bulk room and discover beans and grains, granolas, oils, herbs, and spices. Within the coming months, almost all of the herbs at the cooperative will be sourced from founding board members' farms: Patricia at Sun Roots Farm and Monelle Riley of Gaia Spirit Farms. There are plans to offer the Mendocino Grain Project’s flour as the market continues to hone in on and expand its hyper-local initiative.
Before heading into the back for that delicious house-made scone and pour-over coffee or seasonal veggie frittata, don’t miss the incredible apothecary space. It is no secret that our county is filled with many passionate and talented herbalists, and you can find many of their hand- and heart-crafted products here. Tinctures, salves, teas, and self-care products abound, including items such as the Vitality Tonic from the Mendocino Herb Guild, a volunteer-run organization working to create full circle herbalism in our county. Since wellness is a large part of their mission, the co-op also offers a space for local practitioners to offer massage, midwife services, and Ayurvedic consultations in a private cottage out back.
On entering the cafe, you will find super fresh and healthy salads, hearty soups, and delicious sandwiches, alongside baked goods, teas, and fresh juices. As you might suspect, many of the ingredients are grown or crafted locally, and if you’re lucky, one of the daily specials might include a delicious preserve from founder Isabelle LeMeiux’s company, Goodlife Canning and Catering. Enjoy your meal outside at one of the picnic tables under the old trees or in the shade of the quaint side porch. The market recently brought on board a new chef, Kayla Rutherford, who trained at the Culinary Institute of America. Kayla will be offering espresso beverages, as well as rolling out a full kids menu. There is plenty more delicious excitement on the horizon.
The Hearth hosts their own farmers market on Tuesdays, furthering the accessibility of local produce, in addition to many fun, family-oriented events throughout the year, most of them celebrating cross quarter traditions such as the seasonal equinoxes. Easter brings true, plastic free egg hunts, and May Day is filled with flower crowns and a maypole for all to gather around. In the heat of summer, barbecues with water play for the kids are a common sight, and Halloween brings the Haunted Yurt, which takes place in the structure behind the market that is otherwise offered to local groups, such as the Eel River Recovery Project, as a meeting space or a place to offer classes and workshops.
The Village Hearth is a powerful force, and it is hard to leave without feeling inspired. Through the co-operative, area residents have access to organic, healthy foods and are, in turn, supporting the people who grew them. The Hearth promotes wellness through so many avenues, encouraging reverence for this beautiful, wild county that we call home and serving as a place for people to gather together. The Hearth has its own heart, is its own entity, and is something that these women hope will continue on for many generations to come. That is truly what community is all about.
Village Hearth
76101 Covelo Road, Covelo
(707) 354-4437 | TheVillageHearthCoop.com
Open Mon–Sat 10am–6pm
Sara Stapleton lives high upon Greenwood Ridge and feels most at home in the tall trees, alongside meandering streams and birdsong. She is a passionate eater, seeking out local food wherever she goes. You can find her serving up farmer tales and deliciousness at the Bewildered Pig in Philo.
B. Bryan Preserve Point Arena's Sanctuary for Endangered African Ungulates
by Holly Madrigal
photos by Bobby Cochran
Long, feminine eyelashes waft languidly before the black tongue, impossibly long, reaches out for a slice of sweet potato. “The giraffe's tongue is about 21 inches,“ says Eunice Contreras, the Head Animal Keeper at B. Bryan Preserve. Mendocino County is known for all sorts of things: wine, waves, wilderness . . . but giraffes?
For many people, both tourists and locals, the 100-acre ranch is something entirely unexpected in a county that already defies predictability. Frank Mello, PhD, and Judy Bryan Mello originally started this wildlife preserve on a working cattle ranch in Mississippi, but they moved the operation to a large historic home and ranch in Point Arena in 2004. They created a first-class preserve for “African hoof stock“ within reach of the coastal breezes. The ranch is home to 80 or 90 animals at any one time, and currently includes three varieties of zebra (each distinct in temperament and behavior), three types of antelope, five male Rothschild giraffes and, new to the group, a cape buffalo.
“Our goal here is to breed these animals and conserve them by growing our own herds, as well as participating in Species Survival Plans,“ explains Eunice. They hope to preserve 100 years of genetic diversity so that if something happens to the wild population, healthy genetics can be reintroduced.
Guests can tour the working preserve in the morning at 9:30 or afternoon at 4:00 (3:30 in winter), trundling along the ranch roads in vintage Land Rovers. The process culminates in an opportunity to feed the tallest living animal on earth. The giraffes know you are coming, and their heads bob gracefully nearly twenty feet above you. Used to plucking the leaves of tall acacia trees in their native African environs, their enormous heads swivel down, sensory hairs on their muzzle alert to detect what is food and what is not. Soft lips nuzzle the delicious sweet potato slices from the fingers of delighted visitors. The brave place the treats in their mouths for a giraffe kiss.
Rothschild giraffes have five ossicones on their heads (most other species have two or three). These nodules are not antlers or horn, but rather bone covered in skin and hair. Their beautiful patchwork coats ripple with muscles holding up those long necks. All the giraffes at B. Bryan Preserve are nine years old at the moment—the species can live up to 28 years in captivity. The tallest of their kind, male Rothchilds can reach 19-20 feet tall. Transporting them to the preserve at two years of age involved finding a safe route with high enough underpasses!
Giraffes are victims of what conservationists call a “silent extinction.” There are fewer than 100,000 giraffes left in the wild. For contrast, there are around 300,000 endangered African elephants in the world, and their plight is more well publicized. The Rothschild giraffe population had declined to 700 individuals due to both habitat loss and poaching. Through conservation efforts, the numbers have rebounded to more than 2,000 individuals.
“At college in San Luis Obispo, I was able to volunteer at a zoo and do some wildlife rehab work with Pacific Wildlife Care, and I knew I wanted to work with exotic animals,“ says Eunice, as she maneuvers the ancient Land Rover down the dusty track. “I applied here as an intern, which is a three-month program. Interns have to complete an enrichment project and a training project. At the end of my internship they hired me on as permanent staff.“
Genna Little, a keeper at the preserve, stays with her grandmother in Sea Ranch. “This was a dream that I never thought would actually happen,“ she shares, as Jagger (one of the tallest boys) tugs at a long branch of acacia she holds up for him. “Every day I come to work I think . . . I am living my dream.“
Guests can come for just the tour or spend the night in one of the cottages on site. It surprises them to hear that this area is within 4 degrees of the temperature in South Africa. The rangeland is perfectly suited to these majestic animals, and they have settled easily into the fabric of south coast life. Their manure is shipped down the road to Oz Farm so the “zoo poo,“ as they call it, can fertilize their crops. All the animals at B. Bryan Preserve are herbivores or ruminants, so they make nutritious manure.
Along the northern perimeter of the preserve live the greater kudu antelope, also known as the Grey Ghost of Africa. Their dun colored coat and unique markings allow them to disappear amongst the trees. Their spiraling horns reach far above their heads. During a recent hoof trim (under sedation for safety) staff was able to measure the horns of the eldest male—an impressive 45 inches long. At 14 years, he is the oldest male in North America. Thanks to B. Bryan Preserve, his valuable genetics can be passed on.
The preserve is also home to three endangered zebra species—Plains Zebra, Grévy's Zebra, and Hartmann's Mountain Zebra. Eunice poses a question: Are the zebras white with black stripes or black with white stripes? Both, she declares. If you were to look at the skin under the zebra hair, it would be grayish, whereas the underlying skin of the giraffe holds the same stunning umber patchwork as their hair. And many of the zebras we saw, upon closer inspection, were not strictly black and white but deep shades of dark brown.
The health of all the species at B. Bryan Preserve is under threat in their natural habitats. The preserve's owners are doing their part to raise awareness through education and improving genetic diversity. Learn how you can visit or help at their website. Meanwhile, step up and place that slice of sweet potato between your lips—a huge black tongue is swooping down for a kiss.
B. Bryan Preserve
130 Riverside Drive, Point Arena
(707) 882-2297 | BBryanPreserve.com
BY RESERVATION ONLY
Purslane
Delicious Superfood
by Holly Madrigal
Purslane is considered a weed by many since it grows readily in the hot spaces between garden beds. Each plant will release hundreds of thousands of seeds, so if you grow one, it's basically with you forever—which could be wonderful, since one person's weed is another person’s superfood.
Purslane leaves are tiny green gems of vitamin C, antioxidants, magnesium, calcium, potassium, and omega 3 fatty acids. Known around the world, it can be found in cuisines in India, Spain, and Turkey, among others. We are lucky that it grows abundantly in Northern California.
Since it grows along the ground, rinse well and add to a water bath with a teaspoon of vinegar. Agitate to remove grit and drain. Pick leaves from thicker stems and add to salads, puree in dressings, or use to stuff fish. The flavor of fresh purslane is like bright green lemon pepper. What a weed!
Easy Purslane Summer Salad
Ingredients:
1 tomato, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
½ c purslane leaves, thick stems removed, chopped
1 jalapeño, seeded and minced
½ c small fresh mozzarella balls, chopped
2-3 T fresh squeezed lemon juice
Drizzle of olive oil
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Combine all the ingredients by stirring gently, and eat up.
Horchata and Aguas Frescas Delight Diners of All Ages at Los Gallitos
It’s been about a year since Los Gallitos moved from its 36-seat spot in Fort Bragg to a much larger location that now seats nearly 90. With a lively atmosphere that is filled with families, friends, laughter, and conversation, it’s clear that the change has been overwhelmingly positive. Dotted with bright colors and custom chairs, the restaurant feels eternally festive, which is often reflected in the groups that visit. “We pretty much have a birthday party in here every day,“ Jesse Valenzuela, the owner’s son, explains, pointing out that groups love to reserve the larger back rooms.
Perhaps it’s the food, traditional and satisfying, that draws people, or maybe it’s the new Dulce de Leche ice cream that local ice creamery, Cowlick's, makes just for Los Gallitos. More than that, though, it might be the pervasive sense that there’s something here for everyone. Owner Margarita “Lety“ Valenzuela explains, “When we moved, we envisioned a bright, cheery place for all ages, where the adults could unwind with a nice drink and the children could be in a family friendly place enjoying homemade Mexican food.“
Though there’s now a full bar, the options for non-drinkers are extensive. A variety of aguas frescas are made each day in seasonal flavors like Hibiscus Tea, Watermelon, Pineapple, Tamarind, and Cantaloupe. The housemade horchata is also a favorite. Flavored with a touch of vanilla and a hint of cinnamon, it is a smooth rice drink that somehow feels nostalgic, comforting even, no matter the age of its consumer. Of course, you can mix up your own horchata to enjoy on a warm summer day, but stopping by Los Gallitos to have one among friends can make the whole experience that much sweeter.
Summertime Horchata
Ingredients:
1 c white rice
1-1/3 c sugar, adjusted for your sweetness preference
1 cinnamon stick
1 T vanilla
1 can evaporated milk (12 oz)
1-1/2 c milk
4 c water
Instructions:
Soak the rice and cinnamon in a bowl of water overnight. Strain out the water from the mixture and dispose of it. Combine the remaining cinnamon and rice in a blender with the evaporated milk and blend until smooth. Pour the liquid into a pitcher, and add the sugar, vanilla, and milk. Mix until everything is well combined. Add water. Pour over ice and serve. Add a cinnamon stick or dash of cinnamon to garnish. ¡Viva la horchata!
Los Gallitos
230 N Franklin St, Fort Bragg | (707) 964-4519
Open Sun 10am–7pm, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue, Wed 11am–8pm
Odin's Organics
Treats Made with Local Ingredients for Your Dog's Inner Wolf
by Jackie Cobbs
Shannon Furr of Willits went on a mission to find her dog, Odin, a healthy food that didn’t contain harmful ingredients. She soon realized that if she wanted a safe option, she was going to have to create it herself.
Odin is a Bernese mountain dog that contracted parvovirus as a puppy and developed digestive issues as a result. “He barely survived,“ Shannon shared. “I had to figure out a way to feed him because he went through all these different foods from the vets and he was allergic to them all. Once a dog develops an allergic reaction, they start developing allergies to any little thing. It’s just a chain reaction.“
So Shannon spent countless hours researching and experimenting with ingredients, and she tried them out on her dog. She eventually created a freeze-dried treat of raw meat, vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Odin liked them so much, and his health was so improved, that Shannon decided to share them with the world, creating the brand Odin’s Organics dog treats.
Odin’s Organics contain game meats sourced from Mendocino and Sonoma county farms, including lamb from New Agrarian Collective and Inland Ranch, bison from J Bar S Ranch, liver from Wavelength Farm, turkey from Mendocino Organics, Rosie and Rocky Range Chicken, and rabbit meat from retired 4H rabbits sold by Lost Brundage Rabbitry.
In addition to raw meats, the treats contain plenty of fruits like cranberries and blueberries; vegetables including carrots, pumpkin, and kelp; and herbs such as hemp seed, powdered nettle, turmeric, parsley, and chicory root. All fruits and vegetables are local, non-GMO, and CCOF or Renegade Certified Organic. The herbs come from Mountain Rose Herbs in Arcata.
You may be thinking, “Don’t dogs in the wild only eat protein? Why do they need all the fruits, vegetables, and herbs?“ I was wondering this myself. But contrary to popular belief, wild dogs are omnivores, not strictly carnivores. Canines in the wild will search out grasses and fallen fruits, and “they would be eating the stomachs of their prey as well, which are filled with all kinds of fruits and herbs,“ adds Shannon.
Trust me, this lady has done her research figuring out what dog treats should and shouldn’t include. Odin’s Organics are free of dairy, soy, corn, sugar, and preservatives. In order to retain all the nutrition from the high-quality ingredients, she freeze-dries the treats instead of baking them. This gives them a shelf-life of 20 years and allows for the meat to be preserved in its raw form, which is closer to the diet of a wild dog.
Shannon, a native of Humbolt, spent much of her adult life in Sebastopol and moved to Brooktrails in Willits seven years ago. She is a certified nursing assistant, has studied herbs with internationally renowned herbalist Rosemary Gladstar, attended many herbal symposiums, and worked for Trinity Herb out of Sacramento (now Starwest Botanicals), helping them to write a guidebook of remedies.
The furry face of Odins Organics
In addition to the research and time spent perfecting the recipes, this local entrepreneur has spent a lot of time just learning how to run a successful business. She’s taken classes on finance, web design, Instagram, and Etsy. “It has been an intense learning curve. Every step of the way has been a challenge, and anyone who knows how to do it is in the business, too, and they’re not going to tell me anything,“ Shannon said. Becoming certified, printing the bags, figuring out how to sell the treats, and at what price have all been issues to tackle.
Shannon started selling Odin’s Organics in April 2018. “The first year,“ she explained, “I just did them at farmers markets because I wanted to find out what the dogs wanted—if they liked it, if I needed to change it, how to run a business.“
Shannon makes each treat by hand in a commercial kitchen located inside the Little Lake Grange in Willits. She works about 12 to 15 hours a day, seven days a week. So needless to say, her goal for the future is to have a few employees. Her five-year plan is to be in 200 stores and to own a commercial kitchen. She’d also like to create a CBD treat.
Her business is growing, and Shannon has had very positive feedback from customers. Her main goal is captured in her mission statement, “Giving Dogs Longer Lives.“ Shannon said, “I’m not out to make a fortune. I won’t compromise my product. There are people out there looking for the highest quality that are willing to pay for it. I certainly am. At this time I break even. If it remains that way, so be it. I will continue to help dogs as long as I can push out the biscuits by hand.“
Recently, Shannon expanded sales to retail stores, online sites, and dog shows. Odin’s Organics can be found throughout Mendocino County, including Harvest Market in Fort Bragg, Harvest at Mendosa’s in Mendocino, Rainbow Ag in Ukiah, JD Redhouse and Mariposa Market in Willits, and Geiger’s Market in Laytonville. Shannon still attends farmers markets weekly in Fort Bragg, Mendocino, Ukiah, and Willits. Online they can be ordered directly through the company’s website, www.odinsorganics.com, or from Shannon’s Etsy store.
When Jackie Cobbs isn’t wrangling words, she is busy running after her two boys, Henry and Marshal, and helping her hubby, Kale, complete their cob home.
Sidebar: Doggie Destinations
Word of Mouth knows that some of our kids come with four legs and waggy tails. Mendocino County is here for you with some locations that will make your pup's heart soar.
poloroid shots of four-legged visitors at Circa ‘62
Circa ’62 in Little River has indoor dog-friendly seating, as well as a sun-dappled patio. The “Stop, Drop & Drool“ menu includes a scramble of ground beef and dog cookie crumbles. The doggie lounge is decorated in polaroid snaps of canine visitors. The names are as varied as the furry faces. Clearly this place is dog-approved!
Beachcomber Motel in Fort Bragg rolls out the red carpet for your pet. Special rooms and treats keep everyone comfy, and the Coastal Trail runs for 10 miles along the waves just outside the door. A huge dog park awaits near the Noyo Headlands end of the trail, complete with views of the sea so you can watch whales while you play.
Sheepdung Ranch in the hills above Boonville has miles of hiking trails to tire out your pup. The location provides access to local tasting rooms, many of which, like Lula Cellars and Navarro Vineyards, welcome four-legged guests.
The Willits Dog Park on E. Commercial Street near Roots of Motive Power and the county museum has views of Mount Sanhedrin and tons of space. Swing by The Book Juggler in town to say hi to Zeus, the Jack Russell terrier, while you browse the aisles. A tie-up leash bar and dedicated water dish in the shade keep canine visitors happy. JD Redhouse is right next door, if you want to grab an ice cream cone after your walk.
Share your favorite Mendocino County dog spots at #WordOfMouthMagazine on Instagram
Strangers at the Table
Connecting Cultures & Building Community
by Lisa Ludwigsen
What if there was a recipe for raising children? Two parts this, one part that, a pinch and a dash, some careful kneading and voilá, a happy, successful adult is rendered. Though it might take considerably less effort, that’s not how it works. In fact, there are many paths to take on the journey toward adulthood.
As my two children were growing up here in Northern California, we didn’t have the resources to travel the world as the great adventurers I had envisioned. We lived in a funky little farmhouse, surrounded by natural beauty and within striking distance of a world-class city. But day-to-day, the recipe of our lives revolved around work and school and sports practices. We did our respective chores and fought over screen time, folding laundry, and dirty bedrooms—all the normal stuff. The question remained for me as the parent: how can our little family look beyond the everyday to elevate, just a little, the daily conversation to include the cultures, people, and places not represented in our largely homogenous environment?
That’s when I started inviting people over for dinner. Squeezed around the large table in our small kitchen, I discovered that exposing young people to distant cultures and places can actually be accomplished through the simple act of sharing good food with welcoming hearts.
My strategy was simple: whenever I encountered someone interesting, especially if they were from a far-off place, I invited them to dinner. And surprisingly, most of them accepted. These dinners did not require slow, all day cooking. They included very basic kid- and visitor-friendly food—pastas, roasted or fricasseed chickens, big simple salads, seasonal veggies, and good bread. The more basic, the better.
The kids were always an integral part of the process. They set and cleared the table, lit the candles, and took turns raising their glass of water or milk and toasting to the food and the visitors. Then the talking began.
When sharing a meal with adults, especially guests from another place, young people, even those as young as six or eight, learn about both their culture and other cultures. They navigate the intricacies of conversation, figure out how to listen, form new thoughts, and contribute in ways that put them on equal footing with everyone around the table. Occasionally, conversations became uncomfortable, and my job was to hold the safe space for all involved. Never did it go completely off the rails.
We worked to make our guests feel welcomed, understood, and connected. In turn, we were able, as a family, to ask questions, hear stories, and expand our world. The vintage globe on a shelf in the kitchen provided perspective about the distance of the places we were exploring.
Over the years, our guests included, among others, an organic farm manager from Florida, a young dancer from Ethiopia, a leadership consultant from Australia, a young woman from Hungary, a worldly martial arts master and his pre-teen son, and a wide variety of interesting neighbors and friends.
Back to the food: The way we cook and share food can be generous and filled with love, without pretense or complication. First and foremost, drop all expectations that the house, yard, food, and drink need to be in any way remarkable. A house with little kids is messy. Period. Remember that all a visitor really wants is to feel welcomed and that their hosts find them interesting. I relied on a small collection of recipes, usually from my Marcella Hazan Italian cookbooks or the Joy of Cooking, that I could pull together in about an hour. I roasted so many chickens that I got really, really good at it.
As my children matured, their girlfriends joined us, extending the family. My part of guiding the conversation shifted as I watched the young people step up.
In hindsight, this was one of the smartest and most enduring aspects of raising these two good young people. They’ve grown up to create their own community of friends who cook and eat together and travel the world. And I consider those fun times around the kitchen table an important ingredient in the recipe for building a strong, inclusive global community, one platter of food at a time.
DOs & DON’Ts
DO
Make easy food that can be prepared in an hour.
Include young children. Don’t underestimate their level of attention.
Involve the kids—setting and clearing the table, lighting candles, giving toasts/thanks before the meal.
Include friends, if you think it will work, when you invite a new acquaintance.
Ask about dietary restrictions.
Wine/beer/cocktails in moderation help ease the mood.
DON’T
Do not attempt perfection. You will not achieve it, and it will ruin your enjoyment.
Don’t make a meal with more than four dishes—main, veggie side, salad, and bread really is all you need.
A simple dessert, like fruit and cookies, helps the evening last a little longer.
Don’t let guests do the dishes. I think it complicates.
Resources: Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan—Marcella Hazan can turn 5 ingredients into a masterpiece—and so can you! The Joy of Cooking—anything & everything you ever need to know about just about any food.
Lisa Ludwigsen is marketing manager at Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op. For the last 25 years, she has worked with families, farms, and food through school garden programs, small scale farming, and the media.