Summer 2020 Publisher's Note
As we were planning for this issue a few short months ago B.Q. (Before Quarantine), my mind was filled with thoughts of imminent warm weather and the coming election. At the time, it seemed a good theme would be “digging in, persistence, and resiliency.” Little did I know how relevant that theme would become.
None of us could have guessed that the world as we knew it would be plunged into uncertainty. As COVID-19 spreads through our nation, we have entirely upended our economy as we shelter in place. The seismic economic shifts feel seriously foreboding. As we here at Word of Mouth try to navigate this tumult, we simply do not know if the restaurants we love will be able to re-open, if the farms will financially survive, if the tasting rooms and inns will again welcome visitors to our gorgeous county. How many of our local businesses will still be here when the dust settles?
Years ago, long before the birth of this publication, I spent a summer doing various homesteading activities with our family friends, the Bradfords. In an effort to learn new skills and prepare for the impacts of climate change, we tried our hand at many things including cheese-making, apple cider pressing, and hyper-local cooking using the Brookside School Farm CSA. What I remember about that summer was not the struggle and effort to master these skills to become more “self-sufficient.” Rather, I have vivid memories of the long lazy hours in easy conversation while we processed cheese curds, and the laughter we shared sitting in our friend’s apple orchard after a hard morning’s harvest. When I started Word of Mouth, I realized that I wanted more of that—more connection, more community, and all of it full of deliciousness. More of what life is supposed to be.
Returning to our core beliefs as a publication, we know that we are here to celebrate our community. Our role is to highlight the innovation and determination that permeates this place we call home, a goal that remains unchanged during this pandemic. Like the native bees, we pollinate Mendocino County by sharing the tidbits overheard at the farmers market. Did you know someone has a herd of fire prevention goats (p 13), or that Victory Gardens are popping up on the coast (p 17)? We sing from the rooftops when a new generation of farmers embraces the work of John Jeavons, who revolutionized backyard gardening (p 10). And we represent our community to a larger audience when we send this magazine out into the wider world.
We do not know what the future will hold, but we know that our work here at Word of Mouth is more important than ever. This pandemic has revealed, like the ocean’s retreat before a tsunami, the frailty of our supply chains, the importance of our mental health, and the failures of our healthcare systems. Mendocino County has made great strides in cultivating our local food infrastructure. Now is the time for all of us to dig in and participate in making this community stronger and more resilient. We can all do our part to ensure that, as the memory of this experience fades, we emerge stronger and better prepared, but most importantly, grateful for all that we hold dear.
Holly Madrigal, Publisher
Keep Health Blooming
Herbal Delights from Mancinelli Farms
by Holly Madrigal
Flecks of rose petal and bright orange calendula swirl in the piping hot water as the flower tea from Mancinelli Farms is steeped to release its essence. “This tea helps create peace,” says Melissa Mancinelli of her popular signature blend. “And could we all use a bit more of that right now?” Murmurs of agreement, and the tension and anxiety of the day drift away in the unfurling steam. She elaborates,“The flower tea is a relaxing blend but also a tonic, it heals the whole body. Instead of 5-hour energy, I’m promoting 5 hours of relaxing.”
The tea variety brings to mind an old-time apothecary. It can be found at the Trading Post, a corner store in downtown Covelo, along with a full complement of Mancinelli Farms teas, dried herbs, and tinctures. Melissa and her husband, John, have spent a lifetime learning the skills of wildcrafting and herbalism, taking the plants, seaweeds, and fungi of our environs, harvesting them at the peak of ripeness, and drying or processing them into bio-available forms.
John gained his initial herbal education from his Italian grandmother. (Side note: His family was famous in New York for making raviolis and pastas under the Salantano name.) John’s grandma taught him not only to cook, but seeded in him an appreciation for culinary herbs and their benefits. John went on to study herbalism at Dominion Herbal College in Canada.
Herbalist Melissa Mancinelli
Mancinelli Farms encompasses two acres cultivated in culinary and medicinal herbs. The farm was initially an overgrazed piece of land on the outskirts of the Covelo valley. Melissa and John fell in love with the space and set to work transforming it into their passion and livelihood. They built a strawbale house, living in the drying barn until the house was completed, and they have planted about twenty fruit trees and scores of herbs and vegetables, doing everything with very little money. The couple grew their own food, as well as herbs for their fledgling business. They raised their family and nurtured the business slowly, cultivating and selling their herbs and teas throughout Mendocino County and beyond.
Currently, Melissa and John work the farm on their own. The plants are sustainably grown using the Edenic Principle, without the use of chemicals, pesticides, or GMOs. Vines, bushes, fruit, nuts, vegetables, and herbs are interplanted and grown in a semi-wild habitat resulting in high quality, nutrient dense food and medicine crops produced in partnership with nature and the creative force of the universe.
Although their farm is in Covelo, the Mancinellis have cultivated coastal relationships as well. Their good friends Lee and Dorine own the Westport Hotel, and they have been working together to promote workshops and events. Melissa feels that “. . . our farm needs that coastal connection. We do wildcrafting for the nettles and coltsfoot and some other things on the coast. It gives us balance.” Their flower tea has also been well received there. Melissa explains, “I’m selling now at Corners of the Mouth in Mendocino. We have a great relationship with them.”
Mancinelli Farms encompasses two acres cultivated in culinary and medicinal herbs. The farm was initially an overgrazed piece of land on the outskirts of the Covelo valley. Melissa and John fell in love with the space and set to work transforming it into their passion and livelihood. They built a strawbale house, living in the drying barn until the house was completed, and they have planted about twenty fruit trees and scores of herbs and vegetables, doing everything with very little money. The couple grew their own food, as well as herbs for their fledgling business. They raised their family and nurtured the business slowly, cultivating and selling their herbs and teas throughout Mendocino County and beyond.
Currently, Melissa and John work the farm on their own. The plants are sustainably grown using the Edenic Principle, without the use of chemicals, pesticides, or GMOs. Vines, bushes, fruit, nuts, vegetables, and herbs are interplanted and grown in a semi-wild habitat resulting in high quality, nutrient dense food and medicine crops produced in partnership with nature and the creative force of the universe.
Although their farm is in Covelo, the Mancinellis have cultivated coastal relationships as well. Their good friends Lee and Dorine own the Westport Hotel, and they have been working together to promote workshops and events. Melissa feels that “. . . our farm needs that coastal connection. We do wildcrafting for the nettles and coltsfoot and some other things on the coast. It gives us balance.” Their flower tea has also been well received there. Melissa explains, “I’m selling now at Corners of the Mouth in Mendocino. We have a great relationship with them.”
Mancinelli Farms encompasses two acres cultivated in culinary and medicinal herbs. The farm was initially an overgrazed piece of land on the outskirts of the Covelo valley. Melissa and John fell in love with the space and set to work transforming it into their passion and livelihood. They built a strawbale house, living in the drying barn until the house was completed, and they have planted about twenty fruit trees and scores of herbs and vegetables, doing everything with very little money. The couple grew their own food, as well as herbs for their fledgling business. They raised their family and nurtured the business slowly, cultivating and selling their herbs and teas throughout Mendocino County and beyond.
Teas by Mancinelli Farms
Currently, Melissa and John work the farm on their own. The plants are sustainably grown using the Edenic Principle, without the use of chemicals, pesticides, or GMOs. Vines, bushes, fruit, nuts, vegetables, and herbs are interplanted and grown in a semi-wild habitat resulting in high quality, nutrient dense food and medicine crops produced in partnership with nature and the creative force of the universe.
Although their farm is in Covelo, the Mancinellis have cultivated coastal relationships as well. Their good friends Lee and Dorine own the Westport Hotel, and they have been working together to promote workshops and events. Melissa feels that “. . . our farm needs that coastal connection. We do wildcrafting for the nettles and coltsfoot and some other things on the coast. It gives us balance.” Their flower tea has also been well received there. Melissa explains, “I’m selling now at Corners of the Mouth in Mendocino. We have a great relationship with them.”
The Mancinellis have been in Covelo for 20 years and have borne witness to the environmental devastation from logging and overgrazing. They have noticed that the wild herbs are finally beginning to return. Plants such as Yerba Santa, which used to grow everywhere and was regularly used by the indigenous people of Round Valley, had all but disappeared. Now John and Melissa see it making a comeback. They also harvest wildcrafted plants like stinging nettles. “Most people do not know that the majority of nettles used in herbal remedies are grown and imported from Croatia,” Melissa shares. That is a whole lot of carbon footprint for something that grows quite well here in Mendocino County.
As John and Melissa get older, they are looking for creative ways to retain help on the farm in exchange for learning the herbalist trade. During this Shelter-in-Place, their son has returned to help out, creating a website and getting their products online. “It has been so wonderful to have him home,” says Melissa. “And having the retail space downtown has really been great, so that people can buy our products in the same place that they can buy clothes, artwork, and stop by for a haircut or beauty treatment.” Hopefully, they will open for the public again soon.
Melissa is developing a cookbook which will serve as her master’s thesis for Dominion Herbal College in Canada. “I’m basically teaching people how to eat real food again and how to incorporate herbs. Simple recipes that are easy to prepare and utilize. For example, cabbage is one of the best healers you can eat. It’s anti-viral, anti-cancer, anti-ulcer. In the 1920s and 1930s, they used to juice it and drink a quart a day!” Melissa also described the benefits of garbanzo beans, which “grow like crazy here at our farm. And if you make a broth of those beans and add some wakame, or dulse seaweed and kelp, that broth will have such fortifying goodness to help rebuild your bones. And winter squash! That is the perfect ‘end of the world crop’ because you can grow it and it stores so well.”
Melissa believes that people think pills and pharmaceuticals are going to cure them, when what they really need to learn is the benefits of healing plants right in their backyards. “Nobody knows these skills anymore,” Melissa mourns. “The information is everywhere and it’s nowhere. So much knowledge has been lost.” She rattles off various herbs that match with any ailment under the sun, including a smoking blend which improves lung health, and the wild carrot, which is an antidepressant.
In these trying times, ancient skills are experiencing a resurgence. Mancinelli Farms will continue to craft their teas and herbs, and they will educate on the importance of whole foods. These skills, so rooted in the past, have arrived at a new moment of usefulness and will arm us with resources to move into an uncertain future.
Mancinelli Farms products are available at the Trading Post in Covelo and the Covelo Farmers Market, at the Corners of the Mouth in Mendocino, and Downhome Foods in Fort Bragg. Their tea is served at the Westport Hotel. MancinelliFarms.com
Flower tea photo by Ree Slocum. Other photos by Holly Madrigal.
The Elk Store
Adapting and Innovating During COVID-19
by Elise Ferrarese
The Elk Store is a small general store and deli in the town of Elk (population 250). In the days before the county order was issued, there were loads of tourists in the store telling us they were “escaping” the Bay Area because of COVID-19. The weekend of March 14th and 15th, business was up significantly, and we and our staff were feeling unsafe with the influx of people coming into the store from around the state and the country, especially given the long incubation period of the virus and the high percentage of asymptomatic carriers. We were one of the first businesses on the Coast to close our doors to customers because of the pandemic.
One of our biweekly takeout dinners: house-smoked ribs, roasted brussels sprouts, and baked beans.
We closed the store at the end of that weekend and took a few days to determine our next steps. Within days, we had to lay off all of our staff except for one. This was a difficult decision because these people are some of our dearest friends. Everything began changing really fast at that point, and it’s kind of a blur. One thing that is clear: our net sales for April are down by about 70% when compared with the same time period last year.
Let’s back up a bit. Grocery margins are notoriously thin during normal times, because large national chains like WalMart, Target, and Safeway have huge market share and buying power. They dictate prices, and as an industry they also drive down costs by paying their employees minimum wage. Grocery net profit margins are typically 1.5-3%. This presents a challenge for small markets such as ours.
Our approach has been to focus on locally-made foods and specialty products, organic staples, and of course, our famous deli sandwiches. We strive to pay our employees well, recognizing that they are our top asset and this is an expensive place to live. Our business is about community—supporting other local businesses, supporting Elk families, and supporting the Elk community. We have invested everything we have, living and raising our kids here. We love this community.
Prior to COVID-19, most locals would pop in for an occasional sandwich, a dozen eggs, or a bottle of wine, but we weren’t viewed as a one-stop shop. There are a number of locals who have prioritized supporting our business over the past five years by adding us to their regular weekly shopping stops, and we appreciate them very much. But the truth of the matter is, our income depends heavily on tourism. And now that that has been removed, we need more locals to ramp up their support and change their shopping habits. One of our distributors reports that the bigger grocery stores along the coast have had large buying surges and steady local support. This is to say that those stores will manage to get through this crisis. People will continue to shop there. But a small store like ours is barely coming up for air right now. If you want to see The Elk Store survive, please act now. From what we can tell, the government aid packages aren’t going to save us. It’s up to all of us.
The Elk Store in Elk, California
We have implemented stringent measures for community health and safety. We recognize that we are serving an older population that is at high risk of complications from the disease. Because we are such a small space, customers and vendors are no longer allowed inside. Sean and John are the only people who have been in the store since March 15. They receive all deliveries outside and remove products from outer boxes before bringing them into the store. Masks are worn and hands are washed frequently.
We have set up online sales and are in the process of getting all of our inventory entered into our online marketplace. You can order online by visiting theelkstore.com. We have fresh produce, hormone- and antibiotic-free meats, cheeses, pantry staples (including yeast!), personal care products, beer and wine, and much more! Our prices are competitive. If there is something you’d like but don’t see on our website, please email us and we will do our best to serve you. Groceries can be picked up curbside or delivered on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.
We are also making dinners two days a week (Wednesday and Saturday, $20 per person), featuring our house-smoked meats. Order online anytime before noon the day of pickup.
We are particularly proud of our community for coming up with an innovative way to support our business while helping those experiencing food insecurity in Elk. We are working with the Greenwood Civic Club, the Greenwood Community Center, and the Mendocino Coast Children’s Fund to spearhead an effort to put together food boxes for local families in need. We are working closely with this group to help order, provide, and re-package food and to help reach out to locals in need. Please email if you live in Elk and have a need (your information will remain confidential). To make a donation to the Greenwood Civic Club to support these efforts, contact thelittletownthatcan@gmail.com.
Retired Mendocino County Sheriff Allman famously quipped that when he needed something done, he’d ask someone from Elk. One of our friends referred to Elk as “the little town that can,” because this is a community that steps up when there is a need. We need you now.
You can make a donation on our online marketplace (theelkstore.com) if you would like to help us out. Or you can mail us a check to The Elk Store, PO Box 16, Elk CA 95432. This situation is constantly evolving—check our website and social media for our latest updates. Contact us at elkstoreca@gmail.com.
Holy Goats
A Local Program Exploring the Edifying Relationship Between Goats & Humans
by Holly Madrigal
The sign almost stopped me in my tracks. It was hung across the gate of the beautiful old cemetery in Little River and read, “The Goats Are Coming!” Since sudden stops on Highway 1 are not recommended, I safely did a U-turn to make sure I read that right. Sure enough, the banner proudly declared that “Holy Goats—Your Fire Prevention Angels” would be starting at the site soon. This innovative business idea turns out to be a community collaboration with spiritual roots, practical leadership applications, and a visionary future.
The idea was initiated by Dr. John Gallo, Reverend Matthew Davis (Pastor Matt) of the Presbyterian Church in Mendocino Village, and Elisha Yager of Fort Bragg High School. It was fiscally sponsored by the Conception Coast Project, whose mission is to protect and restore the natural heritage and community resilience of our regions through science, planning, and community involvement. The group started a “Goat Fund Me” (yes, seriously) campaign to raise the seed money to launch the project.
Three beautiful dogs welcome me as I arrive at the Holy Goats coastal pen in Little River. “These are Anatolian shepherds,” explains Pastor Matt. “There are mountain lions and coyotes around here. One was spotted across the road from the cemetery. So these dogs keep our herd safe, but they are ok with people too.” The dogs take turns exploring the perimeter fence but keep returning to Pastor Matt and the herd as we talk. The owners of the Little River Inn, Marc and Cally Dym, heard about the goat project and offered a small piece of property just behind the gas station for the goats to live. The goats have eaten down the coyote brush and poison oak on the property, and they enjoy a panoramic ocean view while they do it.
Pastor Matt has been interested in the relationship between humans and flocks of goats for some time. Growing up near Tucson, Arizona, he was influenced by the Sanctuary Movement in the 1980s along the southern border, where political refugees from Nicaragua and Honduras fled war and violence to the U.S. Some of the activists involved in that movement became disillusioned, and a Quaker friend decided to help by pairing each person with a goat and sending them out into the Sonoran desert to meditate and “just be.” The spiritual solitude and absolute dependence on another being helped heal their spirits. Pastor Matt realized that collaboration with these animals could go beyond agriculture.
Later, when he was training at a little country church in New Jersey, a microfloral rose was taking over the state. “I suggested to my congregation that if we had a herd of goats, we could take this thing out. But they didn’t go for it,” Pastor Matt said. “Of course, now you have this whole industry of goats across the nation who are doing invasive species removal and fire prevention brush removal. I was here in Mendocino Village for a year or two when the awful wildfires hit Santa Rosa and Redwood Valley. I realized that it was a perfect time to start a project over here. At the same time, I was working to engage the youth of our community.”
The Holy Goats project was modeled after a similar program in Oakland, where the first official commercial goats-as-fire-prevention operation was started in the 1990s after the Oakland Hills Firestorm. A moveable 12 volt electric fence lets the goats browse in a particular area, eating down the vegetation that could otherwise become wildfire fuel. This method is much cheaper than having to remove fuels by hand, and goats can often access areas that are too steep or hard for humans to reach. The fifteen-strong Holy Goats herd is made up of different breeds including La Mancha, Nubian, and Swiss. Many were rescue goats from a high-end dairy in Napa, where they would have been put down after they were no longer of breeding age.
Pastor Matt wanted to provide leadership experiences for local kids (the human kind, not the goats). Often churches have fellowship groups, but Matt sensed that kids are over-programmed these days. Working with the elders of Mendocino Presbyterian, he started a leadership program. He connected with a local teacher, Jenni Windsor in Fort Bragg, through teaching kids classical guitar (you can’t make this up), and the two envisioned the Iona Project.
Matt explains, “Iona is a little island in Scotland that became the center of Celtic Christianity back in the 600s. It was redeveloped in the 1930s as a kind of justice center. Their themes are hospitality, peacemaking, gender justice, environmental justice, political activism—all themes where, if you are religious or not, you know what these things are.” So Matt and Jenni arranged for this diverse group of local kids to form a peer group that meets regularly and participate in discussions around these themes. The group hosts a few evening gatherings where they share with the community what they have learned. The incentive at the end of this program was a trip to Iona, Scotland in a pilgrimage type experience. “Some of these kids have never been out of the country. And this has been a huge leadership opportunity for them.”
This style of creative guidance is a hallmark of how Pastor Matt weaves his philosophy into his work. One goal of the Holy Goats program is to develop to the point where these local students, as part of the Iona project, can spend segments of time tending this flock.
Pastor Matt says, “We are tying this back into the Holy Goats project because, what I would really like to do is to create a national fellowship opportunity where we train students from San Francisco Seminary, Princeton, Yale, Duke, rabbinical schools and create an opportunity for students to learn through wilderness. One of the rotations, similar to a medical residency, is that the students would live with the goats for a time and immerse themselves in the local community.” Coming full circle, this harkens back to the idea of shepherding as spiritual practice.
Elisha Yager, who is a recent graduate from Fort Bragg High School, is a founding partner in Holy Goats. She grew up here and has been doing 4H since she was a little kid (pun intended). Elisha is the “ranger.” She knows the goats and trims their hooves, helps feed and care for them. The plan is to grow the number of contracts for brush clearing services to provide a modest income for her. The Mendocino Cemetery District has been collaborating with Holy Goats around helping with their brush maintenance needs. The community of Caspar has a significant, invasive gorse problem. Goats happen to love the thorny brush, so the Holy Goats project is in conversation to see if they can help.
Conversing with Pastor Matt is like a Renaissance immersion course. He is writing a grant to help fund this idea of the fellowship through experiencing wilderness, pulling in other groups to partner with, like the Noyo Center for Marine Science and B. Bryan Preserve in Point Arena. The latter is exploring starting an endangered black rhino breeding program. Matt would like to have the students visit and volunteer at these places to grow their environmental knowledge as well as to round out their spiritual practice. He is also applying for a large ecumenical grant that would help fund these multiple collaborations.
At the heart of this wide-ranging tapestry of community relationships is the peace-centered practice of tending a herd of goats. As Shasta, the elder Anatolian Shepherd, sits regally in the meadow watching the goats graze the hillside, a quiet descends. Looking out over the wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean makes me think these goats, and their mission, may be holy after all.
For more information or to discuss hiring Holy Goats for your brush clearing or fire prevention projects, contact Pastor Matt at 20holygoats@gmail.com. To donate, checks can be written to Conception Coast Project with Holy Goats in the memo line: 1241 Willow St., Fort Bragg, CA 95437.
Fort Bragg Pursues Food Security with Victory Gardens
by Matt Drewno
Twenty-six percent of the children in Mendocino County experienced food insecurity in 2019. In that same year, one out of every four people in Fort Bragg utilized the food bank, and the Ukiah food bank reported a 23% increase in usage. Mendocino County has around 88,000 mouths to feed three times each day—that’s 264,000 meals daily! Locally, we struggle to make sure everyone has access to food, and the pandemic has only increased these challenges. You may be surprised to learn that only about 1-3% of the food grown in Mendocino County stays in Mendocino County. How will this pandemic and the economic hurdles to come impact our food security, and how can we, as individuals, become more resilient in these challenging times?
With COVID-19 shutting down the global and local economies—and with the beauty and vitality of spring in full bloom—what better time to start a garden! Gardens improve nutrition, ease depression, fortify immune systems, enhance education, reduce incidences of violence, and bring a sense of wholeness, peace, and beauty into our lives. They remind us that we are all connected and that a beautiful and abundant future lies right in our backyards.
Throughout history, during times of peace and war, gardening has kept us strong and nourished. During World War I and World War II, the United States government enacted a series of policies aimed at reducing our resource consumption while increasing production to meet the demands of war. Many of our farmers were sent overseas to fight, and our citizens and troops needed to be fed. “Victory Gardens” were promoted as a way to meet the demands of war and increase food security during times of scarcity, because there is no form of agriculture more direct, efficient, and sustainable.
This mass mobilization for the war efforts engaged all industries and communities. Trains and buses previously used for transporting food were shipped abroad to move soldiers, and so Victory Gardens became an important component of localization. Public parks were opened to community gardens, and people began growing food everywhere—on rooftops, window boxes, and backyards. School gardens sprang up to provide food for lunch programs, government agencies printed recipe booklets, and food preservation pamphlets encouraged people to eat less meat. Victory Gardens not only increased our food security during these times, but they also gave citizens a sense of pride in acting as a part of the solution. Gardening made them realize they could do something to help.
Perhaps the greatest challenge of today and the future will be achieving and maintaining peace, and it’s no coincidence that the current resurgence of the Victory Garden movement is about peace rather than war. What better way to create and celebrate peace than in the garden and sharing food with neighbors? The Victory Gardens for Peace Initiative is a project of Ecology Action, an organization that for the past 50 years has worked with individuals in over 150 countries, demonstrating the power of small scale sustainable gardening through the development of the Biointensive Method of Agriculture. The initiative is about reclaiming that part of ourselves that loves to work with nature, and to experience the nurturing of life which gives back and nourishes us.
To put our local food security in the light of the global outlook, The United Nations offers these three alarming figures: (1) by 2030, two-thirds of the global population will lack adequate water resources to grow food; (2) in 2050, there will be 10 billion people on the planet; and (3) in roughly 50 years, we will completely run out of soil. These stresses could result in the breakdown of systems both locally and globally, which provide for our most basic needs, including access to food and water.
Added to these worrisome predictions is the concern about the impacts of climate change. A recent study showed that Americans contribute between 4 and 8 tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year through diet alone. Harnessing the power to grow our own food means that we can keep that carbon where it belongs, in the ground!
Last year, Victory Gardens for Peace initiated a study which demonstrated that, within a few years, Fort Bragg could grow all of its calories for 7,000 people within its own city limits, on land that is already in lawns, and not including the toxic mill site. If we were to attempt to feed Fort Bragg locally with commercial farms, we would have to clear-cut a swath of forest one mile wide all the way to Willits, and this would require an additional 47-95 million gallons of water. Wouldn’t you rather grow a garden in your yard?
In 1943, when Victory Gardens were at their peak with over 20 million gardens, they produced 44% of the food consumed in the U.S. We believe this can be done again—it’s just a matter of being proactive and resilient rather than waiting until it is too late. The solutions of the future will be attainable solutions that do more with less, simplify the situation, and engage everyone in becoming stakeholders to create a stronger community. We can do it! ¡Sí se puede! Start a Victory Garden for Peace today!
Last year, Victory Gardens for Peace worked with Fort Bragg to pass the Garden Friendly Community Resolution declaring the importance of home and community gardening for community resilience. For information on how you can pass the Garden Friendly Community Resolution in your community, visit growbiointensive.org. You can also find out more at VictoryGardensForPeace.com.
Matt Drewno runs the Victory Gardens for Peace Initiative, a project of Ecology Action, a 501(c)(3) non-profit helping individuals worldwide empower themselves to grow healthy food while conserving resources and building soil.
Thank You: Appreciation for the Heroes Among Us
Parents
We know that you did not sign up for this. Loving your children, yes, but wrangling them into completing assignments, possibly on a topic you are not stong in, or in another language, all while balancing your own workload! We salute you, parents!
Local Business Owners
Doing the painful work of rapid adaptation, implenting online and curbside services that didn’t exist before. Some businesses have even ceased work entirely for the safety of employees and customers. Your patience and sacrifice has not gone unnoticed.
West Business Development Center
No sooner had the county been plunged into chaos by the pandemic than Mary Anne Petrillo and all the crew at West Center dove in to help, digitally convening businesses to provide information and tools to move forward with empathy and new skills.
Frontline Workers, Grocery and Delivery
We simply could not do this without you. Your smiles and recognition beneath your masks have not gone unrecognized. You show up, putting yourselves at risk so that we can stay at home to eat, work, and live. Thank you.
Health Care Professionals
Our local clinics have completely changed how they see patients. With a premium on safety, patients can now get a check up or prescription curb-side or via telemedicine. Your expertise, care, and compassion help keep us safe.
Crafters and Creators
Our famed Tamar Distillery shifted from making gin to sanitizer for nursing homes. Anderson Valley Brewing Company donated a portion of sales to the COVID-19 Relief Fund at the Community Foundation. Individuals have sewn literally thousands of masks from their homes. We have such pride in your ingenuity.
Community Action Nonprofits
There are too many to name them all! Fort Bragg Food Bank has successfully transitioned to drive-through service. Plowshares feeds hundreds of people in need with strict safety guidelines in place. NCO’s many programs have pivoted to help their clients weather this crisis. The Community Foundation of Mendocino County has also stepped up to coordinate funds and keep all sorts of programs operational. Thank you for all you do!
Teachers and Schools
Talk about super heroes. Never before has the critical role our school staff and teachers play been so apparent. In a matter of days, they completely transitioned to distance learning, as well as creating a massive food production and distribution operation. Our students and parents are sincerely grateful for you.
Farmers, Ranchers, and Producers
Grocery shelves bare of flour? Mendocino Grain Project can help you out. Global meat shortage? Mendocino Meats, John Ford Ranch, Magruder Ranch, and others may have what you need. The CSA for Nye Ranch sold out immediately, but you can still stop at their farmstand on Saturday to grab armfuls of flowers to feed your soul. Thank you for keeping food on our tables!
The Mysterious Carob
A Bean-Sized Piece of Sicily’s History and Cuisine
story and photos by Cynthia Ariosta
There’s a funny thing about perspective. Sometimes you don’t acknowledge how lucky you are until you are faced with how fortunate you have been. I have been so lucky to have had the opportunity to travel to many places in the world in the last decade. Yet there has been one place I’ve been to twice and would return to again and again—Sicily.
Sicily is intoxicating. One could attribute that feeling to a carafe of Carricante shared over lunch at a local osteria, or the bottle of Nerello Mascalese consumed after two glasses of bubbly from Etna at a Michelin-starred restaurant. But the euphoric feeling I experienced during a recent two weeks in Sicily came from so much more.
Many travelers prioritize visits to local museums in search of exhibits to give them some sense of place and its history, culture, and community. Post-travel, friends will often query about our museum visits. We’ve been fortunate enough to stumble across a Dali exhibit in Matera, a Bruegel exhibit in Vienna, a Kahlo exhibit in Budapest. But those exhibits, while educational and enchanting, have left us with no more sense of place than a man-made lake in the Gobi or a Starbucks in Japan. What gives us the most sense of a place are the smells and tastes of the food, the harvests of farmers and fishermen, and the chefs, winemakers, and producers of edible treats and all that they prepare. It’s the feel of the nubby rind of a blood orange followed by the taste of its candied peel in a cannoli, the sounds of the fisherman hawking his silver-skinned sardines at the market followed by a plate of fritte sardine at the local trattoria, and the tartness and brine of an olive as its flesh first breaks on the tongue.
Our drive through Sicily took us from bustling old town Palermo to the secluded Temple of Segesta, from medieval Erice to the Greek ruins of Agrigento. We wandered the cobblestone streets of Ragusa Ibla and Ortygia and meandered from the Mar Mediterraneo to the ever-percolating Mt. Etna—or A Muntagna, as the Sicilians call it. Sicily reminded me so much of my beloved Mendocino County, similar in its diverse topography–with her lush valleys with serpentine rivers stretching between snow-capped inland mountains and the crashing ocean. But what was so intoxicating, and what impressed me the most, was the concentration on seasonal and regional food ingredients, the diversity of the agricultural landscape, and how the cuisine of even the smallest towns reflected it.
On one day in particular, we took a drive from old town Ragusa to enchanting Noto on a narrow country lane, a vanedda, through a stunning farmland landscape, the rolling hills along the road bordered with prickly pear and fieldstone walls. Our mouths were agape in wonder as we passed one farm after the other, each with a different crop: citrus trees next to olive groves next to nut trees, hoop houses filled with squash plants bursting with fiery blossoms, fields of carciofi violetti side by side with vineyards, sheep and cattle grazing the grass in between. But there was a “gem” in the midst, unknown to us. We passed fields of gnarled trees towering with dense foliage and slowed at each field to try to identify its crop, but the giant trees continued to puzzle us. It was December, and while citrus trees were supporting low hanging fruit, pistachio and almond trees were bare of leaves awaiting spring. This tree held its leaves but sported no blossoms, no fruit. Its flat, rounded leaves shone in the afternoon Mediterranean sun.
In Noto, we ate an epic lunch at Ristorante Manna, seductive dishes reflecting the bounty of the season. Our delightful server was so engaging, fluent in English, Italian, and French, we decided to ask her about our elusive albero. “Leaves or no leaves?” she inquired. “Leaves,” we answered. “Fruit?” “No, no fruit.” She inquired about the size, the trunk, the bark. We told her of its gnarled trunk, its large stature, its thick foliage. “Ah, sì. It is the carob tree.” Carob? It had occasionally crossed our palates but was not high on our radar. “Sì. We use it in baking, in sauces, in bars like chocolate.”
It turns out the Provence of Ragusa is particularly renowned for its carob trees, and they are considered a protected species. In September, the ground beneath the trees is draped in nets to catch the falling carob pods. Farmers whack at the trees to release the pods, collecting them for the local mill in Modica. The seeds are collected for flour and sweetening agents while the pods are separated and broken into sugary pieces often used in animal feed. The pods can also be eaten raw, like licorice.
After lunch we strolled along Largo Porta Nazionale and found ourselves at Pitittu di Sicilia, a small shop offering Sicilian prodotti artigianale and degustazione gratuita, free tastings! We entered and perused the offerings. Blood orange preserves, almond wine, pistachio crema, olive oil, pasta, Modican chocolate and alas, bars of carrubato “senza cacao”—without cocoa—available for tasting. As the fragrant and nutty bricks from the carob bar melted on our tongues, the owner approached us. “Do you know the real mystery of the carob?” she asked, as she handed us two small beans. “The carob seed was used as a standard for weighing small quantities,” she continued. “Can you guess now?” It turns out that carob seeds, due to their uniformity, were used as a measurement of weight in jewelry. The word “carat,” derived in the 15th century, comes from the Italian word “carato,” borrowed via Arabic from the Greek word “keration,” referring to both “carob bean” and “small weight.” The carat was used for measuring diamonds beginning in 1570. As it turns out, though, the carob seed is no more uniform in mass than any other seed, making it an inconsistent unit for measuring, particularly precious gems. Subsequently, the measurement of the carat also fluctuated, often by location, from “187 mg in Cyprus to 216 mg in Livorno,” according to one source.1 It wasn’t until the 1900s that the weight of 200 mg was standardized for the carat.
We held the beans in our hands, chuckling as we imagined an Italian gemologist hunched over his balanced scale, placing the seeds on one plate and his diamond on the other, knowing the beans’ clever little secret. The shop owner placed a pod in our hands. “Un regalo,” she said. A gift. It was true. The entire day had been a gift. The journey through the countryside. The meal at Manna. The stroll through Noto. The discovery of Pitittu and the story of the carob. This day had satisfied our travel cravings, the knowledge we seek through our palate. These were the gems we would have never found in a museum that day. This was the story of the place where we were in that moment, a story that wove together the people, the culture, the food, and the landscape in magnificent Sicily, the “gem” of the Mediterranean.
(1) How to use the terms ‘karat’ and ‘carat’ correctly. Merrill Perlman, May 6, 2019. https://www.cjr.org/language_corner/carat-karat.php
Cynthia Ariosta is a restaurateur (cross-fingers for post COVID-19 success), avid traveller and food enthusiast, and former Mendocino County resident and business owner. She currently resides in Healdsburg, CA. For help planning your own trip to Sicily, contact Cynthia at girleatswhat@gmail.com.
Pandemic or No, Smith Story Keeps Hustling
by Torrey Douglass
It’s not easy running a small business during a pandemic, especially a winery run largely on creativity and grit. But daunting challenges are nothing new for owners Alison Smith-Story and Eric Story. As Alison is quick to point out, their winery is their living, not a vanity project—a reference to the scrappy beginnings and ongoing challenges for this family-run winery that put everything on the line to chase their dreams.
A peek into Smith Story reveals a kaleidoscope of unusual pairings. California and Texas. Kickstarter and the wine biz. Instagram and antiques. Irreverent seriousness and candid optimism. And, of course, dogs and socks.
It all started when Texas-born Alison moved to the California Bay Area so she could be closer to wine country. She found work as a wine buyer and marketing manager for K&L Wine Merchants, and it was there that she met coworker and California native Eric, a wine buyer specializing in wines from Germany, France, Greece, and Austria. Alison and Eric connected over their shared passions—wine and travel—and the two would escape the city on weekends, often to Anderson Valley, to discover new wines. Eric was no stranger to the valley, where he’d been coming for years to seek out unique vintages during his time off. He had even assisted with a vineyard planting that grew fruit for Husch Vineyards.
The two eloped to Hawaii in 2013. They’d already decided to take the leap into building their own wine business, and had most of the details figured out—except for what to call the venture. As they traced their combined names in the Hawaiian sand, that last piece fell into place. They returned home and got to work launching their new brand.
While the pair had big dreams for their future wine business, their budget was more of the shoestring variety, leading them to create a kickstarter campaign called “Farmers First” in the fall of 2014. Prioritizing family farms is a natural fit for Smith Story. Their wines are crafted in the Old World style, where the hard work is done in the vineyard to produce optimal fruit, and the winemaker’s job is to unveil those flavors with minimal manipulation. The campaign raised $26,000 in a month and made Smith Story America’s first crowd-funded winery.
A self-described workaholic, 2014 was also the year Alison started Socks for Sandwich. Lord Sandwich, an 80 pound goldendoodle, is a gentle giant who, even on all fours, is taller than your average toddler. Like his humans, Lord Sandwich is a busy guy, serving as the (fuzzy) face of the nonprofit which collects donations of socks for those in need and entertaining his 70,000 followers on Instagram—many of whom helped out with the kickstarter campaign.
True to their values, the newlyweds used the kickstarter funds to buy fruit from small family farms throughout Sonoma and Anderson Valley, and the first Smith Story wines were released in the spring of 2015. For production infrastructure, they turned to Grand Cru Custom Crush, a Windsor facility used collectively by small craft wineries for both winemaking and bottling, and home to an on-site tasting room where the delicious results are poured for the public.
The first years were a roller coaster of hard work and heartbreak. Navigating permits and TTB compliance, getting the e-commerce system in place, building their audience through their mailing list, social media, and wine events—the tsunami of details involved in running a winery led to more than a few sleepless nights. And not everyone in their wine industry circle was supportive of the new venture, with some dismissing it as inconsequential, while others felt threatened by perceived competition. Seismic life changes can show a person who their true friends are, and the winery’s periodic blog posts often express heartfelt thanks to those who’ve stuck with them through thick times and thin.
Tight budgets leave little room for error, yet Smith Story has survived and grown in an unforgiving industry by combining fantastic wines with unflagging customer engagement. They publish blog posts, send newsy emails, and remain active on Instagram and Twitter, all with a tone of lighthearted sass and gratitude, throwing in a warts-and-all honesty about the ups and downs of their business as well as a healthy dose of humor. “I can be fun because the wine is so good,” recognizes Alison. It clearly resonates with their customers. “When I send an email out to 5,000 people, usually a couple hundred write back,” she shares.
This robust customer engagement has paid dividends now that shelter-in-place orders have put the kibosh on in-person visits to their tasting room. Located in The Madrones complex just outside of Philo, the tasting room opened in 2017 and sells Smith Story wines, merch, vintage treasures Alison picks up in thrift stores, and an excellent line of quality teas. It all contributes to the welcoming atmosphere—no austere minimalism here—and when you throw in a friendly goldendoodle the size of a Shetland pony, it makes a visit to Smith Story a somewhat weird and wonderful experience. Thanks to diligent online efforts, many visitors walk in as “old friends newly met.” In fact, Alison readily cites meeting and connecting with people as her favorite part of running Smith Story. “Wine lovers who love dogs tend to be great people,” she observes. “That’s our audience.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, all that face-to-face time with customers disappeared. The timing was terrible (though really, is there ever a good time for a pandemic?). A January San Francisco Chronicle article had listed Smith Story as one of the 52 top wineries to visit in 2020, causing a welcome spike in tasting room traffic that promptly dried up once shelter-in-place orders were issued. The situation called for a double helping of Smith Story’s trademark grit and creativity, and Eric and Alison delivered by hosting some of the first online wine tastings in the business. Their initial attempt involved some technical glitches and was a bit of a disaster, yet true to form Alison copped to the “hot mess” in a blog post with her usual candor and humor, vowing to do better next time. And they did, hosting a “breakfast for dinner” wine tasting via Zoom that featured dishes prepared by their new neighbor across the patio, the restaurant Wickson.
Besides the online wine tastings, Alison and Eric have been making free porch deliveries in the Bay Area on a weekly basis. What could be better than a case of wine delivered to your doorstep when you’re stuck at home? There’s curbside pickup available at the tasting room for locals, and website orders continue to come in as well. “In a way, Smith Story was built for this,” says Alison. “Since we didn’t have a tasting room for our first few years, we had to rely on online sales.”
Those online sales are up an impressive 400%, success directly attributable to all the hard work they’ve put into this family collaboration. It brings to mind a many-armed diety, its different hands pouring wine, posting to Instagram, tracking shipments, writing a blog, offering a clean pair of socks, and, of course, petting a certain goldendoodle named Lord Sandwich.
Keep up with Smith Story on instagram @SmithStoryWines, @SandwichTheDoodle, and
@SmithStorySundries. Purchase wine at SmithStoryWineCellars.com. When time allows, visit the tasting room at The Madrones, 9000 Hwy 128 in Philo.
The MendoLake Food Hub
Connecting Farmers and Eaters During Shelter-in-Place
by Torrey Douglass
“I realized early on that this was going to be intense,” commented Caroline Radice, director of MendoLake Food Hub. Her sister lives and works as a product manager for a healthcare analytics company in the Bay Area, so while most of us still thought of COVID-19 as an illness bedeviling China, Italy, and a handful of cruise ships, she saw it as an oncoming crisis that would land on our doorstep eventually—and wreak an unprecedented amount of havoc when it did.
Caroline is at the helm of the MendoLake Food Hub, an organization created in 2015, under the auspices of North Coast Opportunities, to facilitate food orders and deliveries between farmers and wholesale customers. Their customers buy in bulk and include restaurants, schools, and grocery stores. It was mid-March and the end of her work week when it became clear that Mendocino County would soon implement its own shelter-in-place order, effectively shuttering local restaurants and, by extension, a large percentage of Food Hub orders. The MendoLake Food Hub operates on a tight budget in normal times, and past experiences with wildfires proved that it’s difficult for the organization to bounce back after a temporary closure. Caroline began the weekend in low spirits.
Yet by the end of that weekend, Caroline’s perspective had shifted. Grocery shelves were empty, and the demand for staple goods like grains, beans, and rice were high. Headlines were warning of fresh fruit and vegetable shortages down the road as reduced movement of migrant farmworkers impacted supply. Even in rosy times, farmers are spread thin, with little time to market and deliver the produce they grow. The Food Hub was uniquely suited to rise to the challenge of the moment.
Their solution was to quickly shift to a different business model, a daunting task made a little easier by the fact that, in its early days, the Food Hub had experimented with bulk food sales to buyers clubs. Each club consisted of 6-10 people whose collective order had to exceed a minimum dollar amount, giving farmers the ease of selling in bulk and the Food Hub the order size needed to sustain itself, while providing private citizens with nutrient-rich, beautifully produced local food.
That initial project didn’t last, though. The leadership decided to focus exclusively on wholesale customers since the extra complexities of selling directly to the public added unnecessary strain on the nascent organization’s staff and systems. But the bones of the pilot program were still in place, as was the understanding of what it would take to implement it on a larger scale, giving the Food Hub a head start in reworking operations to serve the public when the COVID-19 crisis hit.
Even with this head start, the metamorphosis still required many hours of staff meetings and lots of overtime to discuss options, reach consensus, hammer out details, and finally apply the required changes to existing systems. “It’s been a wild crazy ride,” reflects Project Coordinator Kelly Hansen, adding that they persevered because the team felt “a duty to bring food to our community.” The following week and weekend went by in a blur, with Kelly publicizing the new setup just 72 hours before the online store opened to the public. The hard work paid off—the first week’s sales exceeded expectations and have increased every week since then, with business coming in at three to four times the normal levels.
This is an impressive feat for an organization with a tiny staff, all of them part-time. “We went from 30 orders placed once a week to 80 orders placed two times a week,” salesperson and driver Rachel Laase shared as she was dropping off a small mountain of boxes at River’s Bend in Philo. It was just one of the 38 deliveries she was making that day. “People are amazed. They go to the store and can’t find flour, only to realize it’s grown right here in our county and they can get it from us.”
It helps that the Food Hub has partnered with two other regional food hubs: Capay Farm Shop to the east and FEED Sonoma to the south. This gives Mendocino County farmers access to additional customers who live in those areas, and provides Food Hub customers with a wider selection of products. Local food efforts typically bring to mind farm-fresh produce, and the Food Hub has that in abundance, but its online portal also sells grains, bread, olive oil, walnuts, and mushrooms from Mendocino and Lake farms, rice from growers in Capay Valley, and beans, eggs, honey, and cornmeal from those in Sonoma. Customers can even get a box of mixed items from different farms.
As food handlers, the Food Hub staff were already trained to observe the health and safety regulations required by state and local agencies, so the COVID-19 measures simply added to practices already in place. There are now handwashing stations and sanitizer at each of the refrigerated storage nodes, located throughout the county, where farmers drop off their goods. Drivers wear masks and gloves, and trucks are disinfected after each trip. Ukiah and Willits residents can receive home delivery, and for high-risk folks who don’t want to be out in public, the safety and convenience of “no contact” order deliveries is a welcome solution.
Among those customers is a senior with a pacemaker living in Willits, who found shopping in public so stressful that her pacemaker began acting up. Also grateful for the delivery service are those who are immuno-compromised, pregnant women, and a retired farmer and cancer survivor in Lake County, who says the Food Hub deliveries have been “a lifesaver.” Buyers clubs as far away as the south coast are placing online orders, while some of the older customers prefer to call in, ask what’s available, and order over the phone.
Delivery arrangements have to be individually discussed for people living outside of Ukiah and Willits areas. Due to the increased distance, the order minimums are higher, requiring customers to self-organize into buyers clubs. Purchasing fresh food in bulk means organizing a group of six to ten people, coordinating their requests into a single order, receiving the order, and splitting it up for the members. “The first week took almost 20 hours,” says Laurie Adams, owner of River’s Bend and organizer of one of the first buyers clubs to use the Food Hub. “We continue to work on making it more efficient, and everyone is excited to have access to all this beautiful local food, but it does take time and flexibility.”
These unprecedented conditions have made a lot of people rethink what systems are in place, who they benefit (and don’t), and how they can be reworked to generate better results. The food system is under particular scrutiny since our lives literally depend on it. “By supporting local economy and farmers, we are creating the future we want to see on the other side of this thing,” observes Kelly Hansen. “Local farms and restaurants—those things will not continue if we don’t support them.” With so much change in such a short time, everyone in the food supply chain is experiencing a lot of uncertainty about what lies ahead. But with the Food Hub working hard to bring delicious and nutrient-dense locally produced food to our doorsteps, Mendocino County residents have an opportunity to strengthen our local food system, build community resilience, and eat well as together we face whatever the future brings.
Main photo caption: Ana Victoria, Marc Schwass, Kelly, Rachel, and Caroline keep the Food Hub humming.
Team photo and delivery truck photo by Gabriella Cobb. All other photos by Torrey Douglass.
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.
Eco-Culinary Activism
Eat Your Pest
by Robby Bruce
We are lucky to live in an area that is abundant in local organic and healthful food sources. A rural population and a bounty of farmers give us a security in food supply that is not available in many other parts of the country. Our Mediterranean climate, our forests, and the oceans are also a source of sustenance through foraging.
The ocean, especially, can supply us with a wide variety of choices, from plant matter such as kelp to animal protein. As the Southeast Alaska native Tlingit say, “When the tide is out, the table is set.” For practical purposes, almost everything you see at low tide is edible and enjoyed by various cultures around the world. One of the unlikely edible creatures found at low tide are sea urchins.
The part of the urchin that is edible is called uni, considered a delicacy in Japanese cuisine. Uni is growing in popularity in America primarily in sushi bars, but it is also increasingly prevalent in a variety of nouveau cuisine. Its flavor is most often described as creamy—rich and buttery, melt-in-your-mouth, with a taste of the sea without being fishy. According to researcher Phillip Hayward, a Japanese colleague of his said that “Eating raw sea urchin is like sharing an intimate kiss with the ocean.”
The use of uni as a food source also has a long tradition in Europe, from Norway to southern Spain and along the Mediterranean coast. In these regions, uni is often consumed in its most basic form—raw, fresh out of the shell, with a sip of the local liquor, cognac, pernod, or ouzo. Uni has also been combined with caviar, spread on toast or crostini, or used with such neutral tastes as eggs or rice as a backdrop to accentuate the flavor of the sea. Much the way anchovies are used as an additive, uni is used to add a delicate richness to sauces for pasta, risotto, or ceviche. In the South Seas, urchin is a staple of the islanders’ diet. It is high in Omega 3 fatty acids, low in calories, and reportedly an aphrodisiac (there is some evidence that it contains chemicals similar to cannabis that, when ingested, can cause a state of euphoria).
For many years, the California coast has enjoyed a productive commercial fishery for red urchin, supplying the domestic and export markets and providing a good living for many families in our small coastal communities. A healthy and vibrant kelp forest is essential to productive coastal fisheries. Kelp forests are nurseries of the ocean. They sequester carbon, dampen wave related erosion, produce oxygen, and provide a food source for humans. However, the kelp forests on the Pacific Coast have been struggling with warmer than normal ocean temperatures for some time now. Then in 2013, a mysterious wasting disease began wiping out the sea star populations. There is some evidence that both temperature increase and the wasting disease are both linked to long term climate change.
The sea star happens to be the only real predator in our area of the hardy and voracious purple sea urchin. With the sea star numbers devastated, the purple urchins increased by 60 times their typical numbers. The main food source for purple urchin is our abundant kelp forests, so within a few years, 90% of those kelp forests were devoured. In many areas, underwater surveys showed nothing but beds of purple urchins, with little life of any other kind. However, this hardy species will eat almost anything, including each other, to survive. They can even go dormant if food sources disappear, living for years without sustenance.
Kelp is also the primary food source for both the abalone and the red urchin populations. In 2016 and 2017, after the sea-star die-off and the destruction of the kelp forests, the recreational abalone fishery began to land a record number of large-sized abalone on the Mendocino coast, as the marine mollusks moved up out of the deep to the intertidal zone in search of food. Though their shells were much bigger than normal (because these animals were more mature), the bodies were tiny and emaciated, evidence of starvation. By 2018, the sport abalone fishery was shut down and has been closed ever since.
As John Muir said, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” The loss of the sea-star is an example of how removing a keystone predator upsets the balance of an entire ecosystem. Essential to our local ocean ecosystem, the restoration of the kelp forests will have formidable obstacles. We can hope the sea-star will recover and re-establish its critical place in maintaining the balance of the ocean ecosystem. There is certainly no shortage of their preferred food, the purple urchin.
Another possible solution would be to introduce another apex predator of the purple urchin, such as the sea otter. Once plentiful from the Aleutians to Mexico along the Pacific coast, they were hunted to near extinction by fur traders in the 18th and 19th centuries. Otters eat urchin but also many other kinds of shellfish, so it is wise to look carefully and cautiously at reintroduction to avoid unintended consequences, even if it is an indigenous species.
We all know that the primary global apex predator is human beings. We have a long history of being efficient when it comes to resource extraction, often to the detriment of our environment and ourselves. Enter Urchinomics, a company that specifically focuses on resource extraction, but with the intention to improve habitat and provide food. Their goal is to “restore ocean habitats to feed the world.” Brian Tsuyoshi Takaeda, CEO and founder of Urchinomics, explains, “Urchinomics is about turning an environmental challenge into an economic, ecological, and social opportunity.” Urchins are resilient, versatile, and destructive, so harvesting them provides the company with a restorative seafood product while helping the kelp forests recover from their decimation.
Urchinomics capitalizes on using both aquaculture and commercial fishing capabilities. Often these activities are in opposition to each other, but in the Urchinomics system, the fishers collect the urchin under the authority of their commercial dive permits. The urchins are then transported to a shore-based facility where, over a 10 week period, they are fed a nutrient-rich feed designed to maximize growth. The uni is then processed and entered into the commercial domestic and export markets, and sold at a profit. One of the underlying objectives of Urchinomics is to restore coastal kelp forests, and to support that effort, they return a portion of profits for urchin eradication, outreach, and education. Full circle.
Urchinomics is active in many places worldwide, such as Scandinavia, Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America. Here in Northern California, Urchinomics has formed a partnership with the Noyo Center for Marine Science in Fort Bragg and UC Davis at their Bodega Bay Marine Laboratory. In this trial phase, the purple urchins are harvested out of Noyo Harbor, transported to the aquaculture facilities at the marine laboratory, and made ready for market. “The trial was very successful, and Urchinomics has recently obtained the lease on an aquaculture facility in Bodega Bay to start commercial production,” says Sheila Seamans, executive director of the Noyo Center for Marine Science. Sheila explains that the Noyo Center will help administer the funds for kelp recovery, and the hope is that it might, in the future, be a source of income for promoting other research.
The Noyo Center for Marine Science is an organization based on the Mendocino coast dedicated to “advancing ocean conservation through education, exploration, and experience.” The Noyo Center has recently opened the downtown Discovery Center at 338 North Main Street in Fort Bragg, as well as an informational center called the Crows Nest on the north side of the Fort Bragg coastal trail. The Noyo Center has a goal of opening an aquarium/research center on the coastal trail site as an economic driver for the coast through research, education, and tourism.
The Noyo Center for Marine Science is also a partner in the “Help the Kelp” campaign that includes California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Reefcheck, the Greater Farrallones Association, UC Davis, the Ocean Protection Council, and the Watermen’s Alliance. This is a collaborative effort to hire commercial divers and utilize volunteer citizen scientists to remove urchins from designated conservation areas, to investigate the most efficient methods for removal, and to monitor the success of those methods.
The restoration of the balance of our ocean habitat is going to take a combination of all our resources. If we can turn the over-abundance of the purple sea urchin into an economic boost for our coastal communities and environmental salvation for our oceans, then the eco/culinary activist adage “eat your pest” will be part of the solution. So everyone please—eat up, eat uni, and kiss the ocean.
Find out more about Noyo Center for Marine Science, the Help the Kelp program, and how to get involved as a citizen scientist at NoyoCenter.org.
Robby Bruce is a long time Mendocino County resident, commercial fisherman, and general man of the sea. He has served on the board of the Noyo Center for Marine Science for three years.
Summer Sipping
Make a Tasty Cider from Manzanita’s “Little Apples”
by Torrey Douglass
For years I only appreciated manzanita berries for their color—ruby red, pea-sized pearls that make festive homemade tree garlands come holiday time. They start to ripen in late July and August, a cheerful splash of red on the forest’s edge where manzanitas grow, a joyful outburst of pretty as nature does her bling thing.
So I was surprised when, on a walk with friends, their forest-savvy daughter ran up to a manzanita tree and began snacking. My friend assured me they have a sweet-tart flavor and starchy texture, and as long as you avoid champing down on the seeds, the “little apples” (manzanita’s meaning in Spanish) are a safe and tasty find. Like all fruit with fleshy skin and a single seed stored within a central “stone,” the manzanita berries are technically called drupes. They brighten their branches well into fall, just when critters like deer, racoon, quail, and coyote are foraging to fatten up for the cold months.
Besides the carbohydrates that calorie-hungry animals are craving before winter, manzanita berries are rich in Vitamin C and potassium. But like regular apple seeds, their pips contain hydrocyanic acid, or cyanide, which is dangerous if consumed in quantity. So be sure to spit out the seeds if eating the berries straight from the tree, or, if you’re using them in a recipe, be careful to just bruise the fruit to release its flavor—don’t crush or blend since that could break open the seeds. As long as you exercise a little caution, you can easily concoct a refreshing summer sipper when poured over ice (front porch not included).
Manzanita Berry Punch
Collect manzanita berries and wash thoroughly—putting them in a colander and gently stirring them by hand while running water over them works well. Using a mortar and pestle, gently break up the fruit while being careful to keep the stones whole. Some people remove the stones at this stage, but it is not necessary.
In a 4:1 ratio of water to berries, heat water to just below boiling. (Don’t boil the water, as adding boiled water to the fruit can destroy the vitamins.) Add your sweetener of choice to the water at this stage. Honey dissolves nicely, but cane sugar works as well. You can also add a few sprigs of mint as the water heats, but remove before the next step so the flavor isn’t too strong.
In a clean container like a carboy or other large, glass jug, add the berries and then pour the heated water in. Let sit for 24 hours. Strain the juice into a different jug. Taste to test for sweetness and adjust if needed (a little goes a long way). Refrigerate and use within a week.
For a bubbly treat, simmer the juice to reduce it down to a quarter of its volume, then add the concentrate to carbonated water.
Photo by John Rusk available under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. https://www.flickr.com/photos/john_d_rusk/17998226283/
Drinks with Friends
Tips to Rock Your Zoom Happy Hour
In this brave new world of social isolation, technology has offered us a sort of lifeline. Zoom happy hours and parties have taken the edge off our growing desire to give ourselves a haircut. Here are some tongue-in-cheek tips for making the most of your virtual soirée.
Concoct something special. For one recent online birthday party, we all toasted with a Sazerac. Our local market procured some exquisitely blended Fluid Dynamics–1850 Cocktail from Tamar Distillery. Crispin, the distiller himself, joined us remotely to describe how he crafts the perfect blend of Low Gap Whiskey, Germain-Robin Brandy, with a hint of absinthe. So good!
Dress up. Pants may not be required in any head and shoulders Zoom meeting, but you never know when you might have to get up, exposing your Tinkerbell PJs to your friends. Raise the bar and wear a fabulous hat, tiara, or ascot.
Have a topic. It’s easy for Zoom conversations, especially if alcohol is involved, to devolve into friends talking over each other and confusion. Put out a fun question and take turns sharing your quarantine philosophy, post-pandemic party plan, or (thanks Lia) best coronavirus movie titles: Germs of Endearment, Edward Washyourhands, Coughablanca, 10 Things I Hate about Flu, The Great Gaspy . . . ok, we’ll stop.
Don’t be afraid to mute. As host, you can ensure that everyone has a nice time by muting the person whose dog won’t stop barking or who has forgotten online party etiquette. Just don’t forget to unmute them at some point.
Play a game. Whether using an app like Jackbox.tv or Houseparty, loosen people up with some silly competition. Quick: What three countries count as an “enclave” or a nation completely surrounded by another nation? No Googling. First person to message Word of Mouth magazine on Facebook or Instagram gets a fun prize.
Toast in gratitude. Each of us is experiencing our own challenges and stress while we shelter in place. Be sure to give thanks for the gifts that we have and the friends and loved ones that we will hug to pieces as soon as we safely can. Cheers to that!
Classic Sazerac
The official cocktail of New Orleans, the Sazerac has been around since the 1800s. Originally it used a brandy base but switched over to rye whiskey as that spirit became more available. Full of complex depth, if you put on a Preservation Blues Band album and close your eyes, you just might be transported to the streets of the Big Easy.
2-3 large ice cubes
½ oz Absinthe
1 sugar cube
4 dashes bitters
1-¼ oz rye whiskey
1-¼ oz fine brandy
Fresh lemon peel
Rinse a chilled tumbler with the absinthe, discarding any excess. In a cocktail mixing glass, muddle sugar cube and bitters. Add ice, rye, and brandy, stirring until fully chilled. Strain into prepared glass. Twist lemon peel over the drink to release oils and place atop the cocktail as garnish.
The Mendocino Grain Project Changes Hands
by Rachel Britten
photos by Ree Slocum
In March of this year, with the onset of a global pandemic, Americans returned to the pastime of home baking in unprecedented throngs. As many witnessed empty shelves in the flour aisles of supermarkets both big and small, The Mendocino Grain Project’s sales grew more than ten-fold, and April doubled that. The company grows grains in Mendocino county like wheat and rye, which are then stone milled into whole grain flour, providing flavor, nutrition, and as it turns out, local food security.
In 2009 the project’s founder, Doug Mosel, set out with a vision to provide locally grown grain to Mendocino consumers. His vision was in part a response to an assessment of local food security by the Anderson Valley Foodshed group. They determined that, while Mendocino County was providing local sources of fresh fruit, produce, meat, and wine, there was a notable gap in our local food system—grains. Or in other words, high calorie, staple crops.
In different times, it might take more nuanced convincing to assert the importance of local production of these crops. Given the current reality, the precarious nature of how food gets to our supermarkets and, in turn, on our plates is a personal experience for many. Why has the Mendocino Grain Project been able to stock shelves when larger flour producers have not?
It is not just an issue of inventory. First, hyper-localized production means that local distribution is prioritized. In times when a company with a larger distribution network is dividing their limited product to outlets all over the U.S., our products are delivered straight to shelves in the county. Second, a David and Goliath phenomenon allows the relatively small scale project to respond quickly to major shifts in demand. When demand skyrocketed and inventory projections ran low, it took three phone calls to local farmers the project has worked with to restock the inventory and ensure supply through the next harvest.
Unfortunately, inventory is not the only limiting factor to getting flour to supermarket shelves. The whole grains need to be milled. The Mendocino Grain Project is only able to mill about 150 pounds a day before the millstones heat up too much to make high quality, nutritionally dense flour.
On Tuesday, April 28th, Rachel Britten, the new owner of the grain project, found herself on the side of Highway 101 putting a spare tire on a 4,000-pound custom-built trailer. Inside was a mobile flour mill on loan from Honore Mill, a non-profit project in Sonoma County that promotes the use of local grains. The local grain network, a mutually supportive relationship with Honore Farm & Mill, and the borrowed mill has allowed the Mendocino Grain Project to double their daily milling capacity, the final piece in responding to the surge in demand.
This experience has been a lesson in nimble response, the power of relationships in local food networks, and the actualized importance of keeping at least some of our staple food production in our backyards. It has also been a lesson in what is left to learn. While the above helped aid a rapid, scaled-up response to local need, the amount of available local grain is still relatively small.
For the Mendocino Grain Project, this is just the beginning. The company is on track to harvest 30,000 pounds of grain this year. Because the project has the capacity to harvest and clean grain for other farmers, the ultimate goal is to provide what is necessary so that other local farmers can join the effort to grow more staple crops in Mendocino County.
Products of the Mendocino Grain Project can be found through the MendoLake Food Hub, the Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op, and are available with a CSA membership
Community Food Drive Project in Lake County
Times of uncertainty and crisis can give birth to whole new ways of collaboration and service. Unfortunately, COVID-19 is just the most recent crisis to hit Lake County. Multiple rounds of devastating wildfires and massive power shut-offs have tested even the most hardy residents. But, as Mr. Rogers’ mother famously said, “In any disaster, look for the helpers.” And these helpers have arisen in force in Lake County.
North Coast Opportunities (NCO) is the community action agency for Lake and Mendocino counties, as well as parts of Humboldt, Sonoma, Del Norte and Solano counties. NCO has been working for years to help residents of Lake County rebuild from the fires. When this current public health crisis hit, NCO was already well invested in reaching vulnerable populations. Robyn Bera, Director of Community Projects in Lake County, immediately put out the word that NCO was there to help. Utilizing their contacts through New Digs, a Housing First program, as well as other local NCO projects, they quickly learned that food access was a major concern.
This issue has become alarmingly apparent across Lake County and beyond. Many area children normally eat multiple meals at school, so the districts have stepped up to fill that void with take-home meals. Senior citizens can often access food through their senior centers and Meals on Wheels, but that leaves many, many people to fall through the cracks. Financially vulnerable, those without transportation, and undocumented locals were seeing their food supplies dip dangerously low. Robyn and her coworkers heard this need loud and clear and jumped into action. “Our aim was to bring organizations together with similar goals and the right resources to bring this idea to fruition,” says Robyn. “Soon enough we had a virtual table of exceptional partners ready to brainstorm and contribute to the project.” Lake County is no stranger to creative collaborations to address a crisis, and so the Community Food Drive Project (CFDP) was born.
This effort to deliver food to the homes of local residents in need brought together an amazing group of partners: Hope Rising Lake County, Lake County Office of Education, Lake County Tribal Health, Partnership Health Plan, Lake County Department of Social Services, and Hope Crisis Response Network—all pitched in to make this happen. Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa, with many years of experience with food distribution and food pantries, quickly offered their expertise with food ordering, transportation, and packing. And some wonderful unforeseen heroes stepped up. Lake Transit Authority offered to support food delivery. “Bus drivers have a strong connection and commitment to the residents of Lake County, and we’ve been looking for ways to support the needs of the community in this crisis,” says Lake Transit’s executive director, Lisa Davey-Bates. The essential drivers were able to keep up their hours while helping provide needed nourishment to their neighbors.
It inspires the heart to see multiple agencies pull together to meet a community need. This collaboration has successfully provided food and nourishment to many Lake County residents. The CFDP currently delivers groceries to over 50 households around the lake each week and is considering adding a second delivery day to meet the increasing demand.
Any resident may call the Community Food Drive Project Hotline at (707) 993-4644. Priority will be given to those who are symptomatic, medically vulnerable, without transportation, or with lost wages. NCO is actively engaged in other ways to support the community including coordinating food deliveries with senior centers, providing childcare for essential workers, funding respite care, volunteer coordination, and more. Community Food Drive Project requires ongoing financial support, so consider contributing if you are able.
For more information, to volunteer, or to donate contact Robyn Bera at 707-278-8696
Photo courtesy of NCO.