Publisher's Note

By Torrey Douglass

The young folk have a saying—“touch grass.” It’s usually deployed towards someone who is perceived to be too online and out of touch with reality that exists beyond screens. Scolding tone aside, the advice is sound, though I would replace grass with dirt. When my mind becomes crowded with headlines created by people with big microphones and little sense, going out into the garden and breaking off a sugar snap pea to chew on while I check on the tomato plants reboots my outlook. The warm sun, the smell of damp earth, the sweet crunch of the pea—it’s a good reality to come back to.

In Mendocino County, our particular reality is collectively created by all sorts of different people, some of whom have come a great distance to make their home here (and many of us come from descendants who themselves came a long way to be here). These global transplants bring their ideas, their energy, and their effort, all informed by their cultures of origin.

In this issue, we share the story of Terra Sávia, a Hopland winery created by a Dominican and Swiss German couple that employs an Argentinian wine maker to produce two distinct lines of organic wine (p37). A bit to the north, Ukiah native Bailee and her Argentinian husband Peter have opened an empanada food window on Clara Street, where they sell savory pockets of spiced deliciousness (p11). The popular Italian restaurant, Luna Trattoria, was started by Italian Massimo Melani and his wife, American Marissa Rey, in 2014 (p8). Immigrants and their good work (and good food and wine!) are all around us.

Also in this issue is the story of Molino Campo Noble, the first tortillería in Japan (p26), started by Mexican national Geovanni Beristain and his Japanese partner, Reiko Matsumoto. Closer to home, Mexican immigrants in Mendocino County identified needs within their community and responded by creating Nuestra Alianza de Willits (p39), a nonprofit that provides 14 different programs to serve local Latinos.

Concepts can be imported too, and used to inform, improve, and uplift. Wild Hare Farm, of both Willits and Fort Bragg, use a Korean natural farming method called JADAM to cheaply and organically grow clean, nutrient-rich herbs, fruit, and vegetables (p23). Syd’s Tempeh, based in Fort Bragg, was inspired by the Indonesian tempeh movement to create plant-based burgers with local quinoa and other ingredients (p43).

Just like monoculture is a bad idea in agriculture, it doesn’t do us any favors sociologically, either. A diversity of plants on a farm brings balance, longevity, and resilience. The same can be said of society at large. I no more want all my neighbors to be like me than I want every restaurant to serve up the same menu. If you find yourself worked up about any group of people—and I mean any group of people—trace where you got your information about them. Then go and meet a few of those folks in real life. I guarantee they will be different than you expected. And when you’re done, touch dirt—and, ideally, grow something in it.

Torrey Douglass
Co-Publisher & Art Director

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Photo by Phil Hearing courtesy of Unsplash.

Chipotles!

Smoke Your Own for Perfect Adobo

by Holly Madrigal


The smoky deep flavor of chipotles in adobo sauce is as unique as a New Mexico sunset—complex, intense, rich, and subtly spicy. Some may not know that chipotle is actually ripe jalapeño peppers. Most commercial jalapeños are sold while still immature and green, but when left to grow in the garden, they ripen into a fire engine red. It’s these ripe red jalapeño peppers that are used to create the smoky chipotle. The ripeness adds a layered sweetness to the spice, but the pepper needs to be smoked and dried to achieve this signature chipotle flavor. Once you create your own, its uses in your culinary dishes—and even mezcal cocktails—are endless.

Wash and dry the peppers while keeping on a bit of the stem to use as a little handle. Wearing gloves is a good idea to avoid the accidental searing eye-touch. Arrange on the tray of your smoker and set to 200 degree smoke. Pecan wood chips are traditionally used in Mexico, but most smoking chips like apple or cherry will be fine. You will need enough wood material to smoke for three hours. The peppers should be leathery but not mushy, still firm to the touch.

Once smoked, chipotle peppers can be used as-is, dehydrated for long term storage, or added to an adobo sauce like the one here. When you see canned chipotles at the grocery, they are preserved “en adobo,” or in the sauce, which is made from a blend of puréed peppers, tomatoes, onion, garlic, vinegar, and spices. If you have an adobo recipe you like, the chipotles should be simmered after smoking in the sauce for at least 20 minutes to combine the flavors. This summer, elevate your Mexican-inspired dishes with this knockout Chipotles en Adobo made from jalapeño peppers you can easily grow right in your own garden.

Chipotles en Adobo
by Adrán Medrano

Adrán Medrano is a chef, food writer, filmmaker, and author of Truly Texas Mexican: A Native Culinary Heritage In Recipes, which includes this recipe.

INGREDIENTS

4 ounces chipotle chiles (about 20-22 chiles)
2 chiles anchos
2 chiles pasilla
1 cup white onion, small diced
1 clove garlic
2 ripe tomatoes, boiled
1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 bay leaves
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1⁄2 cup white vinegar
1⁄4 cup piloncillo (Mexican unrefined cane sugar)
6 black peppercorns
6 cloves
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
1 cup water

INSTRUCTIONS

De-seed and de-vein the chiles anchos and chiles pasilla. Place the chiles in a saucepan and cover them with water. Bring to boil, turn off the heat and let the chiles soak for 20 minutes. Set aside.

Place all the chipotle chiles in a large saucepan and cover them with water. Bring the water to a boil. Then turn off the heat and let the chipotles soak for 30 minutes to an hour to rehydrate. Make sure the chipotles remain intact. They can also soak in cold water overnight.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and then add the diced onion, cooking it for about 3 minutes, until it becomes translucent. Set aside.

In a blender, place the rehydrated guajillo and ancho chiles, tomatoes, garlic, black peppercorns, cloves, salt, and 1 cup of water. Blend on high for one minute or longer, until the mixture is a completely smooth purée. You can add 1⁄4 cup more water if needed. If the purée is still grainy, strain it through a fine-mesh sieve. It should be smooth and velvety.

In a dutch oven, heat 3⁄4 cup olive oil on medium heat, then add the chile purée and cook it for 8 minutes. You will see the color deepen.

Add the vinegar, onions, piloncillo, laurel leaves, oregano, and rosemary and stir to combine well. Cook for five minutes on simmer, stirring gently to make sure that the piloncillo is completely dissolved.

Add the rehydrated chipotle chiles, stirring gently so as to keep them intact. Cook on a gentle simmer for 45 minutes so that the flavors blend. The chipotles will add flavor to the adobo, and the adobo will penetrate the flesh of the chipotles.

Let the chiles cool, then store them in a glass container. They’ll be even more delicious the next day. They will keep in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 weeks. You can also freeze them in tightly sealed plastic bags for up to 3 months.

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Find out more about Adrán Medrano at adanmedrano.com.

Photos by Hari Krishnan and Rafael Albaledejo courtesy of Unsplash

Luna Trattoria

“Over the Moon” Italian Cuisine

by Terry Ryder Sites


It is easy to miss Luna Trattoria while walking the charming streets of Mendocino since the restaurant is not visible from the sidewalk. One must keep an eye peeled for a wooden archway framing a narrow path, a sign reading “Trattoria Luna - Northern Italian Cuisine - Open Tonight,” and an Italian flag. They are found at 955 Ukiah Street, which may sound familiar since a restaurant by that name operated in the space for 25 years, closing in 2018. The timing was fortuitous for Massimo Melani and Marissa Rey, since the Fort Bragg building that contained their own restaurant— Luna Trattoria—had just been put on the market. Massimo remembers, “At first it wasn’t so nice. I don’t like change, but we did like Mendocino.”

So they relocated to Ukiah Street, down a pathway that feels a little like falling down a rabbit hole. The walk is flanked by signs reading “Stay Positive,” “Good Vibes Only,” and “We’re all quite mad here, you’ll fit right in.” Eventually you arrive at the door of an unassuming wooden building with a vintage stained glass window and a crescent moon shaped mosaic. Look to your left to see a glimpse of the outdoor garden complete with fairy lights, fanciful garden statuary, and European-style black and white striped umbrellas.

Mendocino’s bohemian influence is evident throughout the restaurant. Various art pieces adorn the wooden walls, whimsical knick-knacks are tucked here and there, and beautiful coastal light streams in the windows. Husband and wife team Massimo (chef and wine advisor) and Marisa (front of house organizer) are the welcoming committee, available to make sure guests are comfortable and happy. The space has a vibe that is decidedly playful. Massimo, with his Italian movie star accent, could charm the birds out of the trees. Marisa, with her infectious warmth and alert eyes, doesn’t miss a thing as she oversees everything that happens in the restaurant.

These two are a match made in heaven. Massimo is from Romagna in the province of Ravenna in Northern Italy. He began his culinary career as a waiter in Italy, working his way up through experience, “I learned to cook using my family’s recipes. The food business—it’s in our culture. It is what we grow up to know. It is kind of our life.” He liked what he saw when he visited California in 1995 and decided to move to the U.S. in 1996 to “give it a shot.” He shares, “I miss my family and friends but life is better here. It is possible to get ahead. We never could have done this in Italy.” Marisa had lived and worked in Italy, running a bed and breakfast from 1992 - 2008. The two eventually met in Newport Beach, California, at Dolce Ristorante where Massimo was working at the time.

After they met and fell for each other, they began to dream of opening their own restaurant. They decided to explore Northern California, where it is much less expensive to get started. They opened the original location in Fort Bragg in 2014, then moved to Mendocino in 2018. The move boosted business to the point where reservations are a must, since the place is often packed to capacity.

The menu at Luna focuses heavily on pasta. I counted 15 different kinds of regularly offered pastas, nine “special of the week” pastas, and four entries of “Homemade from Romagna” pastas—Orecchioni, Lasagna Bolognese, Lasagna Vegetariana, and Gnocchi. They also offer several steak and chicken dishes, along with five different salads and eight appetizers. The three biggest customer favorites are Spaghetti Carbonara, Linguine with Clams, and Lasagna. The wine list includes both Italian and California selections.

As an artistic person, Marisa is especially proud of the artwork displayed on the restaurant walls, primarily pieces that have been given to them over the years by both Italian and American artists. While Massimo used to be in the kitchen, he is proud to say that his staff does everything now—pasta, bread, desserts, and meat. “I tell them what I want and they do it, we have a very good crew.” They have 20 employees, most of whom are also immigrants. During the interview the kitchen staff made regular appearances, looking relaxed and happy as they served coffee and prepared for the night’s dinner service. Marisa says, “Our staff is like a family, we laugh a lot here.”

Massimo advises all to “Come to Trattoria Luna for the Italian experience without the passport!” When asked about her favorite part of Luna, Marisa says, “On a good night, when all the seats are filled and everyone is having a good time— especially seeing them enjoy the garden—makes me happy.” At night when the fairy lights are twinkling and live music fills the air, when people are enjoying themselves and Luna’s delicious food, it is easy to imagine the feeling of satisfaction that would bring.

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Luna Trattoria
955 Ukiah Street, Mendocino,
(707) 962-3093 | lunatrattoria.com

Open Tuesday - Sunday
Reservations: 5pm, 5:30pm, 7pm, & 7:30pm

Terry Ryder Sites lives in Yorkville with 4 cats and 1 husband. A graduate of Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Clown College, until recently she wrote a weekly column for the Anderson Valley Advertiser.

Exterior sign and celestial decor images by Terry Rider Sites. All other images courtesy of Luna Trattoria.

Farola

From Argentina, with Love

by Holly Madrigal

There are times when a love of country is best described by a food. Culinary offerings form the taste memory of a place. The empanada fills this space in the heart of Pedro Herrera Rovetta, locally known as Peter Farola. When he met his wife, Bailee, they traveled to Argentina together and she had her first taste of Argentinian empanadas.

This magical food, served across the globe, has key consistent components—a half-moon of dough with filling. These small hand-held pastries are known by many other names, but the empanada originated in South America.

“I always recommend the Argentine beef, which has the flavors that we remember.“ Bailee describes her suggested order at the Farola Argentinian Empanada’s walk-up window on the corner of Clara and State Street in Ukiah. “And a fugazzetta! People usually take my recommendation,” she quips. A fugazzetta is similar to a pizza, with dough covered in multiple high-quality cheeses topped with oregano and sweet onions that are charred slightly by an open flame. Peter and Bailee have made this into an empanada that draws rave customer reviews. “If we ever enter an empanada contest, I think we should submit this one,” says Bailee. ”The charred onions add an umami depth that is so good. It would win all the awards!”

“This business came from love,“ adds Peter. ”We love to spend time together and because of our other jobs, we didn’t get to see each other very much.” The pair opened Farola to allow them to combine their love for each other and delicious bites. “I was working full-time in another restaurant, and it took up so much of our time. Deciding to do this together meant that we could work together. Peter has always had a love of food, and so the idea of working together was a natural fit,” says Bailee.

“I’ve eaten empanadas since I was a little kid,” shares Peter, whose family heritage is a mix of Italian, French, and Spanish. “Our family moved to Buenos Aires and I was able to try all different types. So many different cultures mix in the city.” Buenos Aires is the historical port of much of South America, leading to vibrant and rich culinary traditions. Peter would try different empanadas wherever he visited. The flavors shifted and changed from one province to another, since Argentina is geographically large and encompasses so many different climates and terrains. The ingredients and methods of cooking the empanadas could differ depending on where he found himself. When he met Bailee and brought her to visit, she fell in love with the snack too. “Everywhere we went I was like, can we get empanadas tonight?” remembers Bailee. “It's one of my favorite foods,“chimes in Peter.

Bailee was raised in Ukiah and has worked in several culinary establishments in her time. The couple met and fell in love in Ukiah, and despite traveling widely, they decided to make their lives here. “As soon as we met, I could tell she was passionate about food, and so was I,” adds Peter. “That was one of our first connections,“ Bailee recalls, a smile lighting her eyes.

The couple realized that there was no restaurant specifically offering empanadas in the area. She had previously worked in a Greek restaurant in the same spot their business now occupies. Peter notes that he always had a good feeling about this corner spot on North State Street. “I could see something there. It is a sunny spot, and I could envision the sun mural on the wall. Our friend painted that and the logo above. I thought a walk-up window would make it even nicer. I approached Stacy, the owner, and she asked for a business proposal. She liked our project. We remodeled the space to work for us,“ explains Peter. “We ended up with this idea of empanadas because of the versatility of it. You can put any kind of filling in them and really experiment."

The word Farola describes a type of lamp, the old-fashioned kind that graced the streets of Buenos Aries in colonial times. Peter remembers, “At the same time, my favorite restaurant as a kid was called La Farola, so ours is a little different as a matter of respect, but it honors that place. I like the simple parallel. It represents a little bit of the essence of Argentina in that it’s a Spanish word that sounds Italian but still Spanish.”

For the business, Peter developed a signature dough. “I have so many memories making dough with my grandma, mostly for pasta, but I realized that we could make this for empanadas,“ he shares. When describing the perfect empanada dough, Bailee says you want it to be crunchy and buttery but not too flaky. It must be light and not bready, but sturdy enough to hold up to the filling. While refining their recipe, Peter turned their dining room table into a test kitchen. “One day I came home from a long day, and he had covered our dining table with dough and flour everywhere. Peter had been making dough all day. This went on for weeks until he got it just right—buttery but doesn’t disappear in your mouth,“ Bailee shares.

They officially opened on 7/7 at 7:00pm in 2023, and they have been growing and evolving ever since. The couple invested in a custom press mold so that each empanada is identified by letters (like a CK for chicken or a SM for spinach and mushroom) to show what type of filling is in each pastry. You are still allowed to taste each type if you prefer, but the markings are an ingenious way to identify all the way through from baking to the first bite. Versatility and creativity infuse each offering. Imagine Fried Buffalo Chicken, or Steak & Cheddar, Quesabirria (their favorite Mexican dish in empanada form), or the Mojo Pork empanada, which has a citrus marinade-bathed pork with black beans to create a taste of Cuba.

Bailee likes a bit of spice, so they created the Rocoto Crema which includes a Peruvian pepper. “I wanted to use a pepper from South America, and this one has just the right flavor and level of heat,” she describes with a grin.The flavors available change and build on what is in season or what tickles the chef's fancy.

House-made sauces are available upon request, including the traditional Argentinian chimichurri. “It's good on everything!” says Peter. “We make a garlic aioli which is creamy and garlicky, many people love that.”

It is clear that the couple is passionate about what they do. They want to expand to selling their empanadas to the rest of Mendocino County and even beyond. “It is so wonderful to be invited into people's celebrations,” Peter says. “When customers order our empanadas for a party, wedding, or winery event, we become part of that. It feels really good.” Peter and Bailee plan to continue to grow and work together. Peter’s parents just came for a long visit, and it is clear that the love of family and each other is what powers this restaurant. You can taste the love in every bite.

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Farola Argentinian Empanadas
585 N State St, Ukiah
(Walk up window on Clara Ave)

Open Tues - Fri 12pm - 9pm, Sat 12pm - 8pm
Insta: @farola.ukiah

Couple and exterior photos by Zach Samphsel. Emapanada photo courtesy of Farola

Winesong!

The Coast’s Iconic Food & Wine Event Turns 40

by Holly Madrigal

Living on the rugged and remote Mendocino coast, easy access to healthcare is not a given. Instead, healthcare here involves a delicate curation of wonderful local practitioners, out-of-town specialists, and often long drives to connect with the services our sometimes-fragile bodies require to keep going. Back in 1984, the Mendocino Coast Hospital Foundation (MCHF) was created to support and fundraise for the Mendocino Coast District Hospital—the only hospital on the coast. The original idea for Winesong came swiftly thereafter, as Barbara Bessler, the chair of the Development Committee, suggested they hold a benefit wine-tasting and auction at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens.

The Botanical Gardens spans 47 acres from Highway 1 to the sea, and was less than 20 years old when the first Winesong was held. The stunning gardens showcase rhododendrons, dahlias, ferns, and plants of every type that continually shift with the seasons. Because of their longstanding partnership, Winesong is the only fundraiser benefiting an outside organization held at the gardens.

The event has evolved over the years. Originally a small affair limited to the Dahlia Garden, it soon expanded to encompass the event lawn and beyond. The organizers worked hard to improve the event year after year, building the wine auction and developing a loyal group of attendees, some of whom would fly into the Little River Airport for the occasion. Less than ten years in, the celebration surpassed $200,000 in gross income in 1993, a significant milestone and evidence that the annual fundraiser was on the right track. The popular Winesong poster, a collector’s item for many, showcases commemorative artwork painted for each celebration’s year, usually by a local artist. Seeing this artistic legacy through the decades is its own body of work.

With any function as long-lived as this, there are bound to be changes, not all of them comfortable. Though the initial staff consisted entirely of volunteers, the organization transitioned to paid staff to maintain continuity and professionalism. The pandemic years required the group to pivot to virtual online auctions, but dedicated supporters continued to donate. Winesong weathered the challenges and has endured, continuing its important fundraising work for the hospital.

To help with the 40 year celebration of Winesong, coordinators Janis MacDonald and Jamie Peters have returned to produce this year’s event, along with Jonathan Darrow. Jamie shares, “You know Winesong as the must-attend event in September, where you can taste wines from regions all over Northern California and beyond, sample foods from local restaurants and chefs—all in the glorious beauty of the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens.” When asked why this event is so important in the community, she adds, “Every ticket helps provide healthcare and wellness through the Coast Clinics services, Street Medicine programs, food banks, nursing scholarships, and so much more.”

Jamie describes the Grand Tasting as a wine lover’s fantasy, allowing guests to taste award-winning wines and bid on special items at the silent auction. But the excitement reaches new heights during the live auction as guests compete for trips to international locales, regional adventures, original artwork, whiskey experiences, and a few incredible rare and collectible wine collections. Auction winner Greg Burke won a trip to Africa in 2024. He shared, “The dedication of MCHF and their selection of such a quality tour company helped make what could have been a stressful travel situation into truly a trip-of-a-lifetime experience.”

The gardens are bountiful in September, so guests can stroll down the path for a peek at the begonias or the giant Staghorn fern. Music from local musicians add to the celebratory atmosphere.

Living in a somewhat remote area requires creative problem solving, which is exactly why Winesong was created. Healthcare is a basic human right, and initiatives like Winesong help our hospital continue to serve its patients. Coming together to enjoy fantastic wine and food, all in a gorgeous setting, makes for an exceptionally good time—that also does a lot of good.

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Winesong Weekend is the weekend following Labor Day:
Grand Tasting, Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens Saturday, September 6th, 11am - 2pm
Pinot Noir Celebration, Little River Inn, Friday, September 5th, 1 - 4pm
Live Auction Lunch, Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens Saturday, September 6th, 2 - 5pm

For more information and tickets, visit winesong.org.
Insta: @winesongmendocino

Holly Madrigal is a Mendocino County maven who loves to share the delights of our region. She’s fortunate to enjoy her meaningful work as the director of the Leadership Mendocino program and takes great joy in publishing this magazine.

Photos courtesy of Winesong

Fish, Forage, & Feast

A Cookbook From the Host of ‘Outdoor Chef Life’

by Momo Chang

This article was originally published by Civil Eats.


In a Pacific tidepool in Northern California, Taku Kondo squats down, seawater sloshing around his ankles, and examines the rocks below the water. Kondo, a fisherman and forager, uses a knife to detach a purple sea urchin from a large rock. He cuts open the spiky shell, splits the urchin, and discovers a perfect sliver of orange roe, or uni—worth at least $80 a pound. “Let’s try it,” he says to the camera, then slurps up the roe. A smile spreads across his face. Success.

This was Kondo’s first YouTube video, “Camping + Coastal Foraging for Uni,” uploaded in May 2018. It’s hard to know whether Kondo foresaw what other successes awaited him and his channel, “Outdoor Chef Life.”

Today, though, the former sushi chef, 33, has guided millions of viewers on his journeys, whether he’s throwing a fishing line from a rocky coast or pedaling a hands-free kayak to catch king salmon. He’s clearly built a business from what he loves. In most of his videos, Kondo spends nearly a whole day catching seafood—digging for clams, foraging sea urchins, catching crabs—then setting up an outdoor kitchen. There, he’ll create meals like crab ramen or fried-fish sandwiches, dressed with pickles made from foraged kelp.

Now he’s releasing a cookbook, Coastal Harvest, which dives even deeper. Coastal Harvest, to be published March 25, is both a culmination of his years of YouTube videos and a beautifully photographed and illustrated cookbook, with detailed instructions for sushi, sashimi, whole-fish cooking, and more. The book starts with the basics—how to fillet fish, knife skills, and how to store fresh fish—and then takes the reader through the wild foods Kondo loves: fish, shellfish, wild mushrooms, and coastal plants. Most of the photographs were taken by his partner, Jocelyn Gonzalez, a forager and angler herself.

There’s no shortage of fishing YouTubers, but, as a chef, Kondo stands out. He spent a few years working his way up in restaurants in San Francisco, progressing from line cook to sushi chef at a popular omakase restaurant, before he left that life to become a full-time fisherman, forager, and YouTuber. In Coastal Harvest, Kondo demonstrates a deep knowledge of Asian cooking through recipes that work in the wild as well as at home.

In a conversation with Civil Eats, Kondo discussed how Japanese culture has shaped his views on food, the best ways to eat seafood, and the importance of local ingredients.

You seem to really like being in nature. Why is that so important to you?

I was born in Osaka. Growing up there, we went camping with my dad, usually in the summertime, and we would go fishing. That was our thing.

We did a lot of largemouth bass fishing, and we also fished off the piers for baitfish like mackerel and sardines. Just like a regular kid, I played video games too, but it wasn’t a huge part of my life. I always would rather be outside doing something else.

When you’re off the grid, especially camping and you have no reception, you’re focused on who you’re with and what you are doing—making food or fishing, or focused on stoking the fire. It’s really important for us, especially nowadays, to get away from some of the outside noise that we’re facing.

What made you want to become a sushi chef?

I always enjoyed cooking, but when I moved to San Francisco for college, I wanted to have good food but couldn’t afford to eat at restaurants. So I was cooking for myself pretty much every single meal. And I thought I was getting good at knife skills.

Sushi chefs are so skilled with the knife; it’s so surgical and precise. I wanted to see if I was up to the level of a professional. I started working at a Japanese restaurant just to see if I could hang with the pros.

I was quickly humbled. On my first day, they asked me to bring in my own knives, and I [brought] my $3 Daiso knife with a little plastic handle. That’s what I used at home. I thought, I can cut pretty well with this! They let me borrow their knives. From there, the learning began.

How did you end up making YouTube videos?

In college, I didn’t have a TV. All I had was a laptop. So I just watched YouTube videos and a lot of fishing content. But a lot of the cooking was just an afterthought.

That’s when I decided, you know what, maybe people will like videos if you do the fishing and catching, but also put more attention to detail on the cooking. That’s what I had been doing anyway when I went camping. So the first half of the videos would be the catching of the fish or sea urchin or clams or mussels. And then the second half would be focused on cooking, and at a much higher level than anybody else was doing it.

I was helping a friend open an omakase sushi restaurant in San Francisco when I started making YouTube videos. When I had, like, 20 subscribers, I told my boss, ‘Alright, boss, 200,000 subscribers and I’m out of here.’ And he was like, ‘OK, sure, buddy, good luck.’ About a year and a half later, I was up to 160,000 subscribers.

I loved working at the restaurant as a sushi chef; there were just three chefs. We were interacting with the customers, and that’s where I refined my skills. What was missing for me: Even though I loved cooking, I loved being outdoors, too. In that restaurant environment, you’re always inside. I wanted to incorporate the outdoors into my life a bit more.

I decided to quit the sushi restaurant in 2019 and go full time making YouTube videos, and traveled from Hawaii to Japan to Thailand. When we got back, that’s when COVID hit and we did a lot of local stuff. In 2021, I built out my own sprinter van and traveled to Alaska in the van. We had an amazing few months in Alaska.

What’s one thing people have said to you about your videos that stands out?

One of the things they say is they get to watch it with their significant others. So the guy’s gonna be like, “Oh, yeah, this is the only fishing channel my wife or my girlfriend would watch with me, because they know there’s some food in there and some good cooking.” I always thought that was kind of funny. So I get a lot of couples involved in watching the videos.

Your partner, Jocelyn, who’s in a lot of your videos, is sometimes the one who catches the fish, even when you’ve been skunked.

She catches big fish. She has the right energy for the fish. They can sense it, you know?

In your cookbook, you focus mostly on California coastal fishing. What can readers in other parts of the country learn from it?

A lot of the recipes are interchangeable with different types of fish and shellfish. So it’s applicable to anybody that eats seafood.

What’s the overall philosophy behind your recipes and the way you catch and cook?

One of the more important philosophies that I like to highlight is using all the different parts of the fish. There’s a lot that usually goes to waste, even with people who catch their own fish. A lot of the time, you’re only using the fillet. I see it like chicken, when you’re just using the breast and leaving everything else. A fish is kind of similar. You have the head, which has a ton of meat, the collars, which still have meat, and you have the entire skeleton, which has a ton of flavor. Boil it down to make a little fish stock, just like making a chicken stock.

I can make miso soup just by making a fish stock, straining it, incorporating dashi, and mixing in some miso paste. It’s a pretty simple thing to make, and you can add in mushrooms, tofu, or seaweed. You get multiple meals out of [a whole fish].

I have recipes in the cookbook where I use tuna stomach to make menudo. There’s a recipe using fish head to make birria tacos. Those are some of the more delicious pieces. Once you get used to cooking them, it’s a no brainer. Why would you ever waste that or throw it away?

What’s your go-to way of cooking a whole fish?

My go-to is not cooking it, since I’m a sushi chef (laughs).

If it’s a fish that’s suitable for sashimi, I’ll portion off [the fillet]. And then with the rest of [the fish], I’ll take the collars off. Depending on how many fish I have, I smoke or grill them. It’s a really delicious way to add a bit of smokiness and an easy way to cook them. [The fish] just falls off the bone.

You talk a lot about sustainability, local food, and knowing as much as we can where food comes from. What does the ideal future of food look like to you?

That’s it: local ingredients. It’s the most inspiring, as well. You let the seasons dictate what you cook, rather than your cravings. Going with the seasons, getting to enjoy what is available at the moment in the area—ideally, that’s what we’d do.

Catch the fish and sell it locally. It’s not the way the world works, but ideally catch it and sell it locally. Right now, a lot of the fish being caught in Alaska and even here in California gets shipped to Asia, processed, and shipped back here to sell as frozen fillets. It’s a lot of traveling that our food is doing, and that’s not the most eco-friendly way of getting seafood.

In the world we live in today, it’s almost impossible to trace where your seafood comes from, or even your meat. Gathering your own food connects you to the environment and makes you realize that these are important parts of our ecosystem that need to be taken care of. Otherwise, if we’re just wasting all these fish for nothing, they’re going to be gone sooner rather than later. It makes you understand the preservation of it and appreciate the bounty that we have in the moment—and to hopefully keep that same bounty as we move into the future.

Okonomiyaki

from Catch and Cook

Excerpted from Coastal Harvest and reprinted by permission of DK, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2025 by Taku Kondo.

serves 4-6 | prep 10 minutes | cook 20 minutes

Okonomiyaki is a savory Japanese pancake that’s famous as street food in Osaka, which is where I was born and spent the first half of my childhood. Okonomi translates to “as you like,” meaning there are infinite ways to customize it to your preference. It’s a great dish to clean out the fridge and use up any ingredients that need to go.

INGREDIENTS

For the okonomi sauce:

1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1⁄2 cup ketchup
1⁄2 cup oyster sauce

For the okonomiyaki

1 lb. green cabbage, finely chopped (or use 1⁄2 lb. each of green and red cabbage)
2 bunches green onion, thinly sliced
11⁄4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1⁄2 tbsp. hondashi powder
4 eggs
2 tsp. salt
2 lb. raw squid, cleaned and cut into pieces (or substitute sliced pork, beef, bacon, or thinly sliced mushrooms)
Kewpie mayo or regular mayo, to serve
Katsuobushi (bonito flakes), to serve

INSTRUCTIONS

To make the sauce, in a medium bowl, combine the Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, and oyster sauce. Mix well to combine, then set aside until ready to serve. In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, green onions, flour, cornstarch, hondashi, eggs, salt, and 2 cups cold water. Mix well so that the consistency is like pancake batter. Heat a skillet over medium heat. When hot, ladle in the batter to create a pancake roughly 6 inches in diameter. Place several pieces of raw squid on top. Cook for 8 minutes on one side, then flip it over and cook for another 6 to 8 minutes with the squid fully touching the hot skillet. To check if the okonomiyaki is cooked, push down on it occasionally; if you hear more of a sizzle, the pancake is still raw. When fully cooked, flip the okonomiyaki onto a plate. Repeat with the rest of the batter (or use a second skillet to cook both pancakes at the same time). To serve, top each pancake with drizzles of the okonomi sauce and Kewpie mayo, plus a sprinkling of katsuobushi.

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Originally published by Civil Eats:
civileats.com/2025/03/18/a-cookbook-from-the-host-of-outdoor-chef-life-entices-us-to-fish-forage-and-feast

To follow along and learn more, visit outdoorcheflife.com.
Insta: @outdoorcheflife

Momo Chang is a Senior Editor at Civil Eats. She is the former Co-Director of Oakland Voices, a community journalism program of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. She has written for many publications such as the San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, Wired, and other outlets.

Wild Hare Farm

Harnessing the Korean Natural Farming Practices of JADAM

story by Torrey Douglass
photos by Nik Zvolensky


Food farmer Jason Jannone grew up in New Jersey, where his family always had a garden in the backyard. He and his friends would sit on the patio and smoke cannabis, tossing seeds into the garden bed alongside it. One year some plants popped up. “That cannabis was so much better than what we’d been smoking,” he remembers. It planted the seed that he might want to be a farmer someday.

At the time he was pursuing engineering, but his cannabis epiphany inspired him to leave that program for Evergreen College in Washington, where he studied natural history, ethnobotany, anthropology, ecology, organic farming, and natural systems instead. He even interned at a local farm, guiding plants from starts through selling the produce at farmers markets. After he graduated, he did construction and landscaping for a time before moving to Humboldt to grow weed. He was married with a one-year-old at the time. “It was the best thing to be home with our baby and farm all day,” Jason recalls. “In 2010 we bought the property in Willits, which was a cannabis farm until 2022.”

Jason’s partner in both business and life is Darcie Krueger. Darcie was raised in a family of avid gardeners and loved all aspects of growing plants—except for the weeding her dad required of her. She wasn’t particularly interested in cannabis farming, but her former husband had been, and the two of them had moved west because of it. “I kind of fell into it,” she shares. “I never thought my hobby of gardening would or could turn into a way to make a living.”

Jason and Darcie‘s shared love of growing things got a boost a couple years ago when Jason took an intensive 2 1⁄2 day course on JADAM in Sebastopol, taught by its founder, Youngsang Cho, who came from Korea to teach a series of courses in the U.S. JADAM is a Korean natural farming approach where farmers create their own fertilizers and pesticides with materials found right on their farm. The idea is that the resulting plant food is already optimized for the particular climate and conditions of that location, so the plants grown there will respond enthusiastically to its locally specific, nutrient-rich inputs. JADAM is flexible, effective, and best of all, affordable, replacing purchased additives with homemade ones. It takes the fundamentals of organic gardening and points them in a scrappy, MacGyver-inspired direction.

Last year, Jason and Darcie took the plunge and converted their old cannabis operation outside of Willits into Wild Hare Farm, growing food exclusively. The existing infrastructure was easily adapted to growing things like tomatoes, parsley, and cucumbers. The experimental and forgiving style of JADAM was a good fit with their “let’s see how this goes” approach. “We learned so much last year,“ Darcie recalls. “There were lots of fails, but I was really surprised by how well we did.“

They credit JADAM with the better-than-expected results of their first year. One of the primary tools it uses is JLF— JADAM Liquid Fertilizer. When harvesting or clearing, the farmer collects plant trimmings, grass cuttings, weeds—any plant waste, really—and puts them in a container with non-chlorinated water. Damp leaf mold is added, which can be found at the base of trees under decaying leaves or logs. That leaf mold provides an inoculant that kick-starts the putrefaction process that breaks down both the sugars and the proteins in the plant scraps. Once all of the plant matter is submerged and the leaf mold is added, the container is covered left to do its magic. (Warning: it can get a little stinky.) The length of waiting time varies. Typically, if the mixture contains plant matter from a fast-growing plant, it will break down relatively quickly into JLF, perhaps as soon as 10 days. Other crop-specific formulas, for example for corn, will utilize corn leaves, stems, and kernels and can take as long as 3-6 months. The resulting solution will contain the microbes, minerals, and nutrients the new plants will love, resulting in a healthy, abundant, pest- and disease-resistant new generation of corn. Once the solution is ready, dilute with 1 part JLF to 100 parts water before adding it to the soil around plants.

One of the recipes Jason learned about in his Sebastopol course was how to make a natural pesticide from California Bay trees by boiling the leaves in water then combining that liquid with surfactant (known as JWA—JADAM Wetting Agent, which you can make yourself). The wetting agent allows the concoction to stick to leaves, killing aphids and other pests. “I couldn’t believe the results with just one spray,“ Darcie remembers. “It’s non-toxic and we don’t have to pay for it.” Jason adds, “It’s cool to implement the practices and see the results.”

Another important part of using JADAM is JMS—Jadam Microbial Solution. This combines local leaf mold, cooked potatoes, and sea salt or sea water as a source for all the micronutrients. The mix is brewed for a day or two depending on the temperature, then applied directly to the garden, undiluted if there are no plants and diluted if there are plants. The JMS innoculates the soil with billions of local microbes that have naturally evolved to address ailments that target plants in that area.

While Wild Hare Farm benefits from the inland heat and abundant sun, making it perfect for hot weather crops like tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers, Jason and Darcie live on the coast where they also have a big backyard garden where they grow cool weather crops like kale, lettuces, and herbs. Between the two locations, they have a variety of produce they can bring to the Fort Bragg and Mendocino farmers markets.

For their first year, Wild Hare Farm sold produce through the MendoLake Food Hub and also to restaurants, catering companies, Mendocino Outland Bar Productions, and even a Montessori school run by a friend. But most of their harvest was sold at the farmers markets. Friend and fellow farmer, Mic from Mulligan Gardens, helped them navigate the paperwork and also answered various questions to prepare them for market selling. “It was such a great environment to be in,” Darcie recalls of the Fort Bragg Farmers Market in particular. “Everyone is so supportive and community-oriented.”

Darcie especially appreciated the regulars who came back week after week. “It just reinforced that we are good at what we do even though [it was] our first year,” she shares. She particularly liked introducing customers to new things. At one point they had an abundance of somewhat rare Japanese eggplants that are ripe when they are green. She and Jason had been eating and loving them, but customers were confused by the green coloring until she took the time to explain the variety. She would often throw one in for free with the rest of a customer’s purchase, asking them to try it. A lot of those customers would add some to their basket the next time they came back.

The two hope to support themselves just with farming someday, but until then, they both have other jobs. Jason does construction full-time while Darcie tends bar during special events held on the coast. Often Jason works those gigs as well, transporting supplies and helping with the setup and teardown involved in weddings and other big to-dos. It’s a busy life but they make it work, and both are optimistic for the 2025 growing season, eager to put all the lessons learned during their first year into practice.

They would like to expand, but as Jason says, “It’s a delicate dance. If we expand it will take more manpower. We both have other jobs and it’s already busy enough. If things go well this year, next year we might find a helper who can stay at Willits.” After a pause he adds, “I know I would rather be a farmer all day than go do construction.”

The name Wild Hare Farm was inspired by the wild hares spotted on the farm and also from the expression to get a wild hare, meaning to have a sudden, impetuous desire to do something out of the ordinary. Darcie admits, “Our wild hare outbursts are not as frequent as they used to be, but we still do have them.” Followed up with some Korean natural farming techniques, a lot of hard work, and a passion for growing clean, nutrient-rich food for the community, those wild hares have lead to some exceptionally tasty results.

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Wild Hare Farm
Insta: @wildharefarmmendo

Torrey Douglass lives in Boonville and is a card-carrying cat lady as well as a web and graphic designer.

Tomato photo courtesy of Wild Hare Farm
All other photos by Nik Zvolensky

Molino Campo Noble

Japan’s First Tortillería

by Dawn Emery Ballantine


In today’s fragmented world, I find it comforting to look for the things that unite us. We all breathe air and drink water, we all hope and strive for a better world for ourselves and our loved ones—and hopefully all on the planet— and we all must eat. Though many cultures’ cuisines are highlighted by their differences in flavor, texture, and heat, there are basic underpinnings which link them. Take, for example, the flatbread. Around the world, it has myriad manifestations—the Indian chapati, Southeast Asian roti, Turkish and Middle Eastern pita, Italian pizza and focaccia, Ethiopian injera, Venezuelan arepas, and the humble Mexican tortilla. They all serve as a scoop or a dipper or a base for great deliciousness heaped upon them. It’s hard to imagine any country’s cuisine that doesn’t have some form of “something simple, warm, and nourishing held in your hands,” as Geovanni Beristain says.

So imagine our surprise and delight when we learned of Geovanni Beristain and his Japanese tortillería—Molino Campo Noble—featuring heritage Mexican corn and located in Chiba, Japan. Mexican national Geovanni and Reiko Matsumoto, his Japanese partner, launched Japan’s first 100% corn tortillería in Japan in 2019.

After having immigrated to Japan and lived there for seven years, Geovanni realized that he deeply missed the textures and flavors that he grew up with in Mexico. “Food is such a powerful connector,” he says, “and I realized I wanted to stay close to my roots while living here, especially through the food I love most. That’s where the spark for Molino Campo Noble came from.” He also saw a clear opportunity to introduce corn as a third staple in Japan—staples one and two being rice and wheat—but he particularly wanted to showcase the nixtamalized corn, corn which has undergone a process of soaking in lime or ash, rinsing, cooking, and grinding. Nixtamalization has been in use for over 4,000 years in numerous Mesoamerican cultures, and it improves both the flavor, aroma, texture, and available nutrients in the corn.

“Molino Campo Noble is much more than just a tortilla business,” Geovanni explains. “Our mission is to unite two incredible culinary cultures, Mexican and Japanese, through one of the most humble yet powerful foods: the tortilla ... It’s a celebration of heritage, craftsmanship, and cultural exchange.” Molino Campo Noble is committed to working with Mexican farmers and using only non-GMO, native, heirloom corn for their products, supporting the farmers of Geovanni’s homeland while also promoting sustainable agriculture for a crop that has been tragically hijacked by the GMO seed racket. By doing everything from kernel to tortilla themselves, they are hoping to raise awareness about the experience of eating 100% real unprocessed corn, not powdered masa harina. Their hope is to both support their farmers while also introducing Japan to the “true essence of Mexican culture.”

Upon sampling their first attempts at creating their product, Geovanni recalls that “... the moment we took a bite, we were transported back to our beloved Mexico. The scorching Mexican sun, the laughter of family gatherings, the lively plazas in the early afternoon, and the captivating sound of mariachi songs—all of it came rushing back. Our Mexico had found its home in Japan.”

Curiosity and appreciation for their products is growing, and Geovanni notes that what catches peoples’ attention is the diversity of the corn itself, particularly the colors. Most people in Japan have not seen the brilliant red, pink, or black corn types, and they are fascinated to learn how they not only look different but also taste and behave differently.

Their primary focus has been wholesale business-to-business, working with restaurants, chefs, and small shops which value authenticity and quality. But their online sales have been growing steadily as the general public finds them on Instagram and their website (where you can see their popularity by how many of their products are currently “sold out”). They have also begun to collaborate with other food creatives during cultural events, helping them to introduce the tortilla experience to an expanded audience. I can only imagine the culinary experiments—and gustatory outcomes—marrying Japanese cuisine with the nixtamalized corn tortilla.

Geovanni explains, “We embarked on a remarkable journey to bring a slice of Mexico to the world, one tortilla at a time ... It’s a celebration of heritage, craftsmanship, and cultural exchange. Every tortilla we make carries a story, not just of where the corn came from, but also of the people, the process, and the connection between two parts of the world that you might not expect to meet in a tortilla.”

Molino Campo Noble’s future goals include addressing some of Japan’s own self-sufficiency challenges. Corn is already one of Japan’s primary agricultural products, and Geovanni is considering promoting the launch of homegrown Japanese corn for their products, with their ultimate goal being to support sustainable agriculture not only in Mexico, but also in Japan—a novel path, a bridge between cultures, by way of the humble tortilla.

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Molino Campo Noble
molinocamponoble.com/en | Insta: @molinocamponoble

All photos courtesy of Molino Campo Noble

Own-Grown

Backyard Gardening is Easier Than You Think

by Lisa Ludwigsen


My 87-year-old mother clearly recalls helping her grandfather tend his Victory Garden in Wisconsin during WWII. They grew tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, and other veggies, delivering the harvests to her grandmother’s kitchen and sharing with neighbors. Mom remembers the excitement throughout the neighborhood as everyone planted and maintained their own gardens, sharing tips and harvests, to support the soldiers overseas. Neighbors tended the gardens of drafted men while they were away.

Victory gardens were a galvanizing source of pride for Americans during difficult times. The gardens supplemented food for the war effort and generated a sense of purpose and collective contribution as they popped up in public parks and filled vacant lots. Victory gardens boosted morale.

Today we see a new type of Victory Garden, spurred on by ever increasing food prices and general uncertainty about the state of the nation. Suddenly, putting that small space out back into production, or expanding what is already there to increase variety and quantity, seems like a pretty good idea. Backyard gardening is both an act of self-sufficiency and therapy. Fortunately, growing a little food is easy, and our Northern California climate boasts a long growing season. So why not get growing?!

For beginners, it’s possible to start small and keep things manageable. At its most basic, a ‘garden’ can consist of a single tomato or zucchini plant growing in a large pot filled with high quality organic soil. Placed in a sunny spot and properly watered, that single plant will reward you with pounds of tasty tomatoes bursting with flavor or elegant long zucchini perfect for summer meals. In cool seasons, do the same with chard or kale or herbs like parsley or cilantro. Chances are that you’ll be swept into the big world of backyard gardening, inviting you to continue learning, experimenting, and sharing. For anyone looking to improve their gardening game, Mendocino County is rich with experts to both inspire and provide practical know-how.

Tucked into the redwoods in Willits, Ecology Action has been steadily revolutionizing small-scale agriculture around the world since John Jeavons founded it in 1971. The group’s work is focused on the model called Biointensive Sustainable Mini-Farming. The mission: maximize productivity in minimal space, with few external inputs. Jeavons’ Biointensive Gardening model has reached 153 countries and more than one million people because their practical blueprint, developed through their academic work, benefits backyard gardening enthusiasts, too. Jeavons advises gardeners to use the best compost available. Creating healthy, vibrant soil is key to organic food production at all levels—it allows the gardener to space plants closer together, save water, and improve the nutrient density of the food.

Starting with good quality seeds or transplants is also key. Newbies may want to purchase transplants for a solid head start, but growing food from seed is immensely satisfying. Again, start with healthy, organically grown plants or seeds. Care for your plants daily, providing adequate water and sunlight, and you are on your way. And don’t forget to share a few words of encouragement to the little growers while you’re out there.

Ecology Action’s project, Victory Gardens for Peace, aims to bring the spirit of Victory Gardens into current times. Victory Gardens for Peace helps establish community gardens, teaches workshops, and oversees a large seed bank which teaches seed saving and houses 1600 varieties of locally grown seed varieties available for free to the community. Matthew Drewno, Director of Victory Gardens for Peace, explained, “We tap into the Victory Gardens cultural memory of rallying to overcome the challenges of our times by working together to stabilize local food access, grow local food economies and reskill populations who have lost touch with their agricultural past.” He added, “Gardens have been proven to bring peace, help people heal, increase health and quality of life, and are the ultimate form of local food.”

For gardeners needing more space or wanting to mix and mingle with like-minded folks, community gardens are the answer. Community gardens are centrally located gardens where each participant is assigned a plot of their own for planting. There has been some form of communal gardening throughout history, and in the United States, community gardens began to emerge in the 1890s during economic recessions. Resources and expertise are often shared between plot owners, who all contribute to maintenance and upkeep of the overall space. In essence, a community garden is a place where people connect with nature and each other through the shared activity of gardening. Lovely!

The Gardens Project, a program of North Coast Opportunities, has established over 55 successful community gardens in Mendocino and Lake counties since its start in 2007. If you live in Mendocino or Lake counties, there is probably a community garden near you!

There’s no denying the great satisfaction of pulling a bright orange carrot from the ground, giving it a rinse, and taking a bite, or snapping a few leaves from a head of lettuce for the evening meal. Homemade pesto from backyard basil is transcendent—a fragrant mix that shouts of summer, even if it’s pulled from the freezer during the dark winter. Backyard gardens open up a whole new world of culinary opportunities. They also invite us to get outside, increase our self-sufficiency, and enjoy this beautiful place we live. What are you waiting for?

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All of Ecology Action’s offerings, including Victory Gardens for Peace, can be found at www.growbiointensive.org. Find out more about the Gardens Project at ncoinc.org

Lisa Ludwigsen has been working in environmental education and small scale agriculture for 25 years. She chronicles her experiences and travels at Food, Farms & Families at lisaludwigsen.substack.com

Thorny Neighbors

The Bane and the Benefits of Gorse

by Gowan Batist


Settlers came to the Mendocino Coast in the late 1800s. They grazed cattle and razed forests and drove away and murdered Native inhabitants on a scale that I still can’t fully imagine, even with as much of my life as I’ve spent studying it. With those settlers arrived seeds of gorse—stowed away in a bale of hay, or in a bag of grain, or perhaps even brought to the New World intentionally, given its cultural importance in the farming communities of the British Isles.

Caspar, where I live, became a bustling boom town of thousands. There was a railroad trestle in the woods behind our farm, and where there was once noise and motion, now there are only crowded sword ferns and the closely spaced fir trees that sprang up after deforestation. The boom turned into a bust, as they always do. The mills closed by the late 1930s, the loading docks collapsed and eroded, and the multitudes ebbed away to other booms. Left behind were a few stragglers, who were later joined by a wave of Back to the Land settlers in the 1970s.

In the midst of all this tumult, gorse was doing what it does best—growing rapidly and propagating itself wildly. If you’re not familiar, gorse is the punk rock older brother of Scotch broom. It has similar golden pea flowers, but where Scotch and French broom have long thin branches with shiny or fuzzy leaves respectively, gorse has thorns. An understatement, honestly—gorse is riddled with incredibly sharp, long, dense thorns.

Caspar is the center of what is considered a serious gorse infestation. Our farm has been involved in gorse remediation for ten years, on our own land and in surrounding landscapes. Gorse is difficult to control for many reasons, but a central challenge is its ability to adapt to almost any condition. Gorse can grow like a vine up into a tree, like a ground cover where it’s mowed (I’ve seen seeds and flowers on 3” tall plants), and into an impenetrable hedge 14’ high where it has sun and water.

It is also a very dense hard wood full of volatile oils, and as such burns incredibly hot. It can explode with heat in a fire (while also releasing explosion-propelled seeds), and the roots can burn underground. There have been several gorse fires in Caspar, both intentional and unintentional, but the fields that burned didn’t stay fallow long. Gorse seeds are fire-adapted, and they germinate quickly and well after a fire. Gorse is also allelopathic, meaning it releases chemicals that inhibit the germination and growth of other plants. Ground that has grown gorse will produce only yellow, stunted blades of grass if it produces anything, even after the gorse is all ripped out.

The traditional European culture of gorse management did not take root here. In fact, gorse is so successful in our coastal climate because it is so similar to where it originated, but it lacks any of the evolved ecological checks and balances one typically finds in a native ecosystem. Ironically, many of the strategies we use to control gorse, like mowing and burning, are also used in the UK to conserve and expand patches of gorse. Gorse sends up long, straight sprouts when the base is cut, making it suitable for coppicing. Hedges were traditionally laid with gorse this way—a branch would be partially cut through, then twisted and pinned diagonally near the ground. This process of leaning branches would be repeated around the area where a fence was wanted, and in the next few seasons, the sprouts that grow straight up would lattice weave between these diagonal posts, and then fill in with spikes.

Gorse can be a hard neighbor to live with, prone to fires, aggressively taking up space and pushing out native plants, and drawing blood from any who bump into it. (Only the brave and foolish wear sandals in Caspar.) The prickly nature of gorse has led to multiple and sustained efforts to eradicate it. The documents created by the County, State, National Resource Conservation Service, and citizens themselves, tend to be very martial—”a war on gorse” is the general idea, with the stated intention of “eradication.”

The problem with these eradication projects is that, one or two seasons after the grant money is gone, the gorse is back. People have spent their lives mowing and spraying and burning and pulling, and there have been very few permanent successes. Gorse is the kind of opportunistic plant that just loves living with humans in the disturbed soil we tend to create with our roads and houses and gardens, and most of the attention we give it just encourages it. I was once shown an example of successful gorse eradication. The result was a flat field, with 2” high grass—nothing else grew, no native shrubs or trees, no tussocky native bunch grasses. In fact, it’s highly likely the grass in the field was itself not a native. There was no gorse there, but there was also no biodiversity.

The herbicides used to control gorse are problematic bordering on horrifying. One of the herbicides is cited in ongoing litigation about the cancer it causes. Another has been linked to horrific birth defects in mammals. Persistent toxicity to bees, including ground dwelling native bees, is also of extreme concern, as well as the risk of toxins accumulating in larger mammals, including the humans and dogs who use hiking trails. We have never and will never use herbicide on the gorse on our farm, and State Parks have gone out of their way to avoid it, but I know it was sprayed on this land in the past.

A fellow farmer once told me that if we never did anything to manage the gorse, in one thousand years we would have a biodiverse and thriving native landscape. I think that’s likely accurate, as the gorse eventually thins itself out because it is a nitrogen-fixing legume that enriches the soil past the point that it thrives in it. However, in the process of letting evolution balance itself out, many native species that I love would likely be lost, and I would also be long dead. So if I’m unwilling to pave Caspar to get rid of the gorse, and also unwilling to let it have the farm... what are my options?

Over the last ten years, I have come to embrace a kind of messy conservation that believes that if a field is 10% gorse, but also has vibrant native plants growing and native animals thriving, then that’s good enough for me. The consequences of total removal are unacceptable—too much else would be destroyed in the process. Preventing the gorse from dominating everything will have to be enough.

We’ve accomplished this mainly by encouraging dense growth of grasses, and with planned grazing. We looked at how gorse is contained and managed where it actually comes from, and mulching, covering, and grazing are the preferred methods. Our sheep love to eat it, and once they’ve stripped the plants, we can more easily cut the stalks down. Gorse actually dies in dense pasture, especially pasture mixes including legumes. Most of those mixes aren’t native either, but after a few years of heavy cover cropping, native grasses can be introduced, and often just come in on their own.

Fields that were a total blanket of gorse are now full of native plants—the red threads and ridged leaves of potentilla, the feathery bushes of elderberry, the crawling wild strawberry, and tall graceful blue wild rye. Many of these I planted, but they are now showing up everywhere, moved around by animals. Yes, we still have gorse, but under a particularly dense patch there must have been hiding ancient seeds, because we now have a patch of a beautiful red coastal lily, which a biologist informed me is extremely rare. Now that they have come back, I can’t just mow the gorse without hitting them as well, so we carefully time grazing for when the lilies are beneath the ground, and we cut back the bigger gorse plants if they are getting too pushy.

In the process of learning to live with gorse, I found deep cultural mystery and magic, and practical utility. In Irish mythology, gorse wood is sacred to the sun god Lugh, and was the first wood used to start a ceremonial fire. Gorse was burned at transhumance festivals twice per year, when herds were driven up to highlands for the summer and then brought home for the winter. The flocks were run through the smoke for purification. There is some science behind this—gorse is anthelmintic, meaning it kills worms that infect livestock. A diet of chopped gorse is not only high in protein (gorse is in the same family as alfalfa), but also protective for animals in close quarters during the cold time of year.

So many uses have been found for this difficult plant. Gorse, being dense, fast growing, and burning at a high temperature, was often used to fire commercial bread ovens. Gorse branches thatched granaries because the thorns kept rodents from burrowing in after grain. Gorse flowers make a beautiful yellow dye (we’ve tried it on our wool), and some people make tea and mead with the flowers. Gorse stems have bast fiber, especially the long thin sprouts that come up after the main stalk is cut. An artist friend of mine cut these, soaked them in water, extracted the fibers, and made paper with them. Another friend, a natural builder from the UK, followed the same process on a larger scale and, with the addition of some earth elements, created a natural plaster wall out of gorse. My mother’s office is a cozy nest entirely finished in polished gorse fibers.

And not least, the amount of gorse on a field was a factor in determining its value, because it was used in so many ways. In a real sense, it was the gold of the pastoral communities that relied on it.

Then it came here, and it has acted poorly. Gorse has driven out native plants and animals, made land inaccessible to humans, caused dangerous episodes when it burns and explodes, and generally taken up too much space. What a metaphor for the settler experience. I want to live in a biodiverse landscape where the speckled trumpets of red lilies can bloom, the wildlife is safe from herbicidal harm, and the coastal prairie grasses are free of the grey, tick-infested thatch of neglect—a landscape of dynamic change.

The gorse could offer a mirror to some of us, should we choose to look in it. How much do we need to step back to make room for others to live? What does environmental justice look like without any party needing to be eradicated? What systems of cultural accountability does this landscape need in order for everyone to live here in peace?

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Gowan Batist of Fortunate Farm is a Post-Industrial Pastoralist following sheep around the skeleton of a boom town. She is seldom seen, but sometimes glimpsed with a baby on her back, propagating native plants, spinning wool, hand shearing sheep, or meal prepping baby food with local bulk food via the MendoLake Food Hub.

Sustainably Delicious

Organic Wines by Terra Sávia

by Terry Ryder Sites


When I arrived at Terra Sávia Winery at 9:00 on a Monday morning, things were already bustling. Pallets of wine and olive oil were moved past the olive mill, through the tasting bar, under the art gallery, and into an adjacent storage area. I noticed a snappy looking vintage Porsche parked inside, while a large grandfather clock ticked nearby. As their website states, “There is a lot going on under this roof.” Current owners Jurg Fischer and his wife, Yvonne Hall, have a great love for everything living including people, animals, and plants.

As a reflection of this multifaceted love, Terra Sávia Winery is just one aspect of an operation that includes an olive oil mill, an animal sanctuary, a native plant nursery, and an art gallery. Their 65 acres are located in the Sanel Valley of Hopland. The winemaking operation includes two distinct labels: Terra Sávia and Ettore, and all the wines are organic, estate grown, and hand-harvested.

Resident winemaker, Sofia Rivier, is also the vineyard manager, and she explained how she has been privileged to work side-by-side with the two veteran winemakers who established these labels. Sofia chatted with me warmly as we headed to the Ettore House further back on the property for a tasting. As we drove, she filled me in on the recent history of the property, which was established by Jim Milone, a winemaker and previous owner of the property with four generations of family history in the area. Jim stayed on for a transition period with Sofia, and she has maintained his “Mendocino style” for the Terra Sávia label wines, incorporating a bold structure, sharp tannins, big mouth feel, and strong aging potential.

Wine has always been a big part of Sofia’s life. Her grandparents immigrated to Argentina from Switzerland to establish vineyards and a winery, one her father continues today. She decided to pursue a winemaking career in 2006, ultimately earning a degree in Agricultural Engineering in Argentina before moving to Switzerland. There she continued her education by adding a B.S. in Viticulture and Enology, followed by a Master of Life Sciences in Enology and Viticulture degree, which she completed in 2017. During her education, she used internships to balance out her academics with “boots on the ground” experience.

Sofia came to Terra Sávia through her acquaintance with Ettore Biraghi, an Italian man she met in Switzerland. Ettore was looking for someone to help with the new wines he was planning to make in California with Jurg and Yvonne. His Ettore wines married old world Italian winemaking to new technology, resulting in lighter, higher in acid, and very fruit forward wines. Ettore Chardonnay Pure, Ettore Chardonnay Reserve, Ettore Red, and Ettore Cabernet Signature are all organic wines. Ettore Chardonnay Zero and Ettore Merlot Zero go one step further by allowing only naturally occurring sulfites using a method called “Purovino,” which controls the hyperoxygenation of grapes, as well as a CIP (Clean in Place) process on all the equipment with ozone-enriched water, eliminating the need for any additional sulfites. For those wishing to avoid sulphites, the “zero” wines are a great pick. Sofia manages the developing Ettore wines day to day, with Ettore visiting from Europe every two months for a check-in.

The Ettore wine catalog states, “One hundred miles north of San Francisco in the timeless California frontier of Mendocino, wine finds a nuanced new expression seen nowhere else in the Golden State. In a vast expanse of wilderness that has for centuries captured the imagination of California’s farmers, environmentalists, winemakers, and mavericks alike. Terroir is the key to crafting wines of character and distinction and here. Ettore Biraghi brings old world Italian wine heritage to the new world in the pursuit of exceptional organic wines.”

Sofia’s Swiss grandfather originally considered settling in California instead of Argentina, so her new life in America feels a little like fulfilling a family dream. She oversees both of the developing wines as well as the grapes produced by the estate vineyards. Her work comes with a lot of responsibility, but she relishes the challenge. As a modern winemaker, Sofia takes advantage of new technology, utilizing computer analysis to gather and chart data. Yet she relies on the people who walk through the vineyards everyday for their insights and advice because, as she puts it, they “really know the grapes.”

Terra Sávia is a business owned, created, and managed almost entirely by immigrants. Jurg is from Switzerland, Yvonne from the Dominican Republic, Sofia from Argentina, and Ettore from Italy. Carlos, the olive oil manager, and Fernando, the “reader of plants,” are both from Mexico, as are many of the other staff. Together they’ve created a company that is multifaceted and dynamic, providing a multitude of benefits for the living people, plants, and creatures involved in and impacted by their work— which is exactly what Yvonne and Jurg had in mind when they created Terra Sávia in the first place.

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Terra Sávia
14200 Mountain House Rd, Hopland
(707) 744-1114 | terrasavia.com

Tasting Room Hours: Mon -Sat 10am - 5pm, Sun 11am - 5pm
Families welcome. Pet-friendly.

Photo top left by Terry Ryder Sites. All other photos courtesy of Terra Sávia.

Nuestra Alianza

Practical Support and Community Solidarity for Local Latinos

by Torrey Douglass


Sergio Perez came to the U.S. not long before his 13th birthday in 2003. He spoke no English, and the class at the public school designed to help him learn had only one teacher providing assistance for all the Latino students struggling academically. Only Sergio and one other new arrival spoke no English whatsoever, but with so many other students needing help in English, they didn’t get a lot of attention.

Fortunately, a new nonprofit in Willits called Nuestra Alianza de Willits—Our Alliance of Willits—was launching its first project, a free summer program for Spanish-speaking children ages 6 to 12. Plan Vacacional instructed children and their parents about Mexican language, culture, art, and sports. It was taught in Spanish, and provided 40 minutes a day of academic support from a credentialed teacher. With this help, in addition to the English as a Second Language (ESL) classes also offered by Nuestra Alianza, Sergio was able to learn English, make friends, and start to feel at home in the United States.

The concept for Nuestra Alianza de Willits (NAW) was born in 2000, when ESL instructor Dina Hutton was teaching a Mendocino College class at the Willits campus. The students, primarily Spanish-speaking immigrant adults, were conversing after class one night, discussing the services their kids needed, including a summer program and after-school help with homework. “Nobody is going to do that for you,” Dina observed. “You have to do that yourselves. I think we can do it with a nonprofit.”

Of the 16 people who started NAW, only one—Dina—spoke English, and none of them had experience with starting and managing a nonprofit. But they knew what they wanted to provide, and step-by-step figured out how to get it done. Three years later in the summer of 2003, the first program, Plan Vacacional, provided summer fun and instruction for 40 students and their parents. Twenty-two years later, the program continues, sometimes able to host a teacher from Mexico, and always ending with a ballet folklórico performance and celebration dinner for as many as 250 people.

Plan Vacacional is just one of the 14 programs NAW provides. They also offer free tax preparation during tax season, where volunteers help anyone who needs assistance to file their personal taxes. In 2024 they helped 450 people—60% were Latinos, 10% were Native Americans, and 30% were other locals. With this free service, clients can access their tax refund, providing much-needed additional income for them and their families.

The organization has also partnered with the Willits public school system, arranging for bilingual helpers to be in the classroom for homework support during Kids Club, the after school program. According to the former superintendent, it used to take six years for new English speakers to get up to grade level. With the bilingual aides NAW provided, it took just two. The program was dropped during the pandemic and has yet to be reactivated.

Helping immigrant workers—documented or not— understand their rights is another aspect of NAW’s work. They bring lawyers from around the region, including Sacramento, Santa Rosa, and San Francisco, to speak and answer questions. Sometimes NAW staff and volunteers go out into the fields to talk to workers, bringing food and potentially life-saving information, like how they are entitled to drink water and take breaks in the shade.

One of the most in-demand programs right now is the Emergency Food Bank, created during the COVID pandemic after the Willits Food Bank noticed Latinos were not accessing their services. NAW investigated, discovering that a combination of pride, shyness, and reluctance to complete the required paperwork discouraged local immigrants from showing up. So NAW started their emergency food bank, open Monday through Friday from 9:30am to 4:30pm, where anyone can stop by up to once a week to get food if they have an emergency. People are asked about their family size and income, but no paperwork is required. The bank helps 62 families every month, getting food donations from both the larger Willits Food Bank and the Redwood Empire Food Bank. Originally all food donations were free, but recently the unfunded Emergency Food Bank has been asked to pay for any donations of proteins like canned fish, meats, and eggs.

Twenty-four years after its inception, Nuestra Alianza is still going strong. Programs include free bilingual mental health services; classes and presentations around health and parenting, sometimes in collaboration with other organizations; immigration and translation support; referrals for social services; math tutoring in both English and Spanish; help accessing substance abuse counseling; and even just access to an internet-connected computer and copy machine for general use. Dina shares, “A lot of county workers have said to me, ‘We’re so glad you are working with the Latinos. We hope you can talk them into becoming citizens.’ So they see lack of citizenship as being willful, when in truth they would do anything to get it. It’s a very long, difficult, expensive process—and it is not open to everyone.” In the meantime, NAW provides a place where they can get questions answered and needs met, where they can learn information to help their health, their families, and their prospects.

Now grown, Sergio Perez became the first full time Executive Director at 32 years of age. Besides attending Plan Vacacional and ESL classes over the years, Sergio joined the organization as a volunteer when he was 17. Reflecting on the promotion, he self-effacingly claims, “The title does not mean anything. It’s a grassroots organization. There is just one other paid full-time staff member, and four part-time. We all do all of the same work.” The board is composed entirely of first generation immigrants. Dina acknowledges that they don’t have traditional board skills, but “they know what people need and how to present it. They are the community.”

Dina still teaches ESL twice a week at NAW, though she has retired from the college. Wednesday is for beginners and Thursday is for more advanced students. Sometimes she brings food, sometimes other people do, but there is always food, and often the first thing someone does when they walk in is look around and see what’s on offer to eat. When presentations are held in the evening—like a recent one that taught parents what drugs look like and that they might be among their kids’ belongings—people will sometimes stay to make and share dinner together. “They are good cooks,” Dina says. “They don’t measure anything. They like to cook, and they are very jolly when they are cooking—and even jollier when they are eating!”

When reflecting on her time with NAW, Dina shares, “I like hanging out with the employees and the board—I like being a member of it, one of the gang. They like teachers and they like old people, so it’s a good place for me to hang.” She smiles and continues, “And I love teaching. It’s a hilarious job. People feel free enough to make mistakes that turn out to be hilarious. They will go for it, head down laughing and slapping the table. At the beginning of the class they will talk about a few recent horrors, and then I say, ‘Okay, mijos, let’s get happy.’ And we change the scene.” Which is just what Nuestra Alianza did when it started—envisioned a different scene for its community and made it happen, embodying the resourcefulness, compassion, and grassroots grit this country has long purported to admire.

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Nuestra Alianza de Willits
291 School St, Suite 1, Willits
(707) 456-9418 | nuestraalianzadewillits.org

Group photo by Michael Deer. All photos courtesy of Nuestra Alianza.

Syd’s Tempeh

Locally Produced Meat Alternatives Just in Time for BBQ Season

by West


Sydney Grange blew into town around the same time I did. It was an uncertain time in an environment with seemingly insurmountable challenges on a global scale. She came to the Mendocino Coast to learn about and research biointensive agriculture. She says, “I was working on growing a whole diet in the smallest amount of space possible while building soil and conserving resources in a closed loop system,” a method developed and inspired by John Jeavons.

Sydney was growing calorie-dense staples like beans, wheat, barley, rye, quinoa, and fava beans, feeling that they had the best potential. She had noticed a lack of sustainable and locally sourced protein options, so she did a deep dive into learning about tempeh, typically made from soybeans. As it turns out, the process can be applied to most beans, grains, and seeds.

In 2020, I joined a pandemic-shaped pod of youngsters that included Sydney. We rode those odd years out together by having the sweetest beach days, surf sessions, bonfires, supportive chats, hikes, and celebrations. Among us, there was a feeling of community care, hope, and grief in a rapidly changing world. There was, and is, a depth of commitment here that is determined to innovate joyfully into the future and out of our steep predicaments, such as staggering biodiversity loss and a warming climate, among others.

If you talk with Sydney, a beautiful, caring, and friendly person, you will realize that a conversation can lead in directions that could literally save the world. Victoria Joy, Sydney’s former co-board member at the Garden Friendly Community Fort Bragg (the group that created the South Lincoln Street Community Garden), explained to me that “Sydney is the leader of our future.” She adds, “She’s cracking the code on what we will need to do.”

I went to my first of many gatherings at Sydney and Katie’s, Platonic Life Partners (PLPs) who started an agriculture project called Earthlings Veganic Farm in Fort Bragg. Sydney told me she was learning to make tempeh with quinoa that she grew herself. As partygoers danced above, she showed me the cooler in which she was growing the food. “It likes to be between 85-90 degrees,” she said, smiling over the thundering bass. This temperature happens to be similar to the climate in Indonesia, the birth- place of tempeh, and where Rhizopus oligosporus got its big break a few hundred years ago. This fungus knits together grains with tiny strands of mycelium. What’s left is a patty composed of mushrooms and partially processed quinoa, all adding to the bouncy cohesiveness. The thick texture is divine, and it is naturally nutty in flavor. The effect of fermentation reduces antinutritional factors in the grains and improves protein bioavailability. Syd’s Tempeh is rich in Vitamin B, iron, micronutrients, fiber, and contains all nine essential amino acids.

The Indonesian Tempe Movement (it can be spelled tempe or tempeh) is an organization that seeks to spread the love and knowledge about tempeh throughout the world. The movement’s website declares, “Tempe is the food of hope from Indonesia for the world.” They list its best attributes as “Healthy, Sustainable, and Affordable.” I couldn’t agree more and will add that it’s also delicious! Sydney is on board with this mission and encourages everyone to try tempeh- making. “What’s great about it is that the process is accessible to all people.” She adds, “On a home scale, it doesn’t require any fancy equipment or tools, and you can easily grow or source the ingredients locally. It’s something people can make for themselves if they want. There are no secrets in what is involved. In fact, I want to be a part of the movement of spreading tempeh through education.”

As a lucky member of her friend circle, I have been the sampling committee at many beach bonfires. Sydney would always bring her latest batch of burgers to share. Sometimes the marinade was extra spicy and sometimes the texture was a little gooey. “I was experimenting with what worked,” says Sydney. She has since graduated from a cooler in her bedroom to working in Chubby’s Commercial Kitchen in Fort Bragg to make large batches using industrial tools— steamers, incubators, silicon forms, and tumblers. Her products are made of completely locally grown, dry-farmed, staple crops using organic methods, with low impact to the land. They are fermented into a protein-dense, delicious, nutritious burger that can compete with any others for its rightful place between the buns. If this is the future of food in the face of disaster, it’s not so bad. And it’s both vegan and gluten free.

Over time, Sydney perfected her own recipe for quinoa- based tempeh. Launched in 2023, and after two years from inception to store sales, Syd’s Tempeh offers a line of frozen, ready-to-cook delights. Sydney details the process she uses on her website—steaming, inoculating, mixing, and incubating. Air, humidity, temperature, and sterility are important to make sure the correct spores grow and that other organisms don’t cut the line. Twenty-four to forty-eight hours later, she shrink-wraps, boxes, and freezes them for the local grocers and the Fort Bragg farmers market.

Sydney emphasizes that sourcing local beans and grains is a key part of the mission of her business. “It’s about supporting sustainable agriculture and local producers and making a local healthy protein option available for folks that requires minimal processing,” she says. Fava beans are grown by Rachel Britten, who runs the Mendocino Grain Project in Ukiah. The quinoa is grown by Blake Richards of Wild Rose Farm in Arcata. She uses the Boonville Barn Collective’s “Seconds Quality” heirloom beans, utilizing what customers may find too ugly to buy at a store. “Using a variety of heirloom beans allows us to contribute to diversifying the seed genetics in our food systems, whereas large tempeh makers are using one kind of soybean,” says Sydney, adding, “I started to find local producers of those crops since I needed them on a larger scale than I was able to grow myself.”

Veronica Storms, a local farmer and farm educator who has been in the county for two decades, says, “Locally grown food in the grocery stores around here was unheard of back then. Now, everyone is really connected, and we get to support local food. It’s good for the farmers and good for the community.”

I knew we had to save the world, but I didn’t know it would be so delicious. Thank you to Sydney and all those working toward a sustainable future for all beings on earth.

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Syd’s Tempeh
sydstempeh.com | Insta: @sydstempeh

Available at Corners of The Mouth, Point Arena Co-op, Mariposa Market, Ukiah Natural Foods Co-Op, and Fort Bragg Farmers Market

When West is not adventuring along the coast, they are building things and finishing their natural earthen home.

KuneKune Pigs

A Grass-Fed & Gentle Breed from New Zealand

by Holly Madrigal


Ask a toddler to describe a pig, and they may describe a pink, oinking, curly-tailed animal from Old MacDonald’s Farm. But stop by Sean Armstrong’s farm in the rich farmland of Arcata, California, and you will see something different. KuneKune pigs are hairy, with colorful spots ranging from gold to chocolate. Their upturned noses and slightly squished faces are as distinctive as their short stature and round bellies, and they have distinctive wattles that hang down from their chins. They oink happily as they forage around the enclosure, and Sean Armstrong smiles broadly at his KuneKune as they snuffle around looking for treats.

Sean is a renaissance man who is deeply passionate about affordable housing, the clean energy transition, indigenous justice, and small scale organic farming. His interests have always been wide ranging and eclectic. Reflecting that, in 2008, he turned his focus toward importing a little known breed of pig to the U.S.—KuneKune—one of only two types of grass-fed pig in the world, and so small and tame they could be safely farmed outside of barns.

KuneKune have an interesting history. They originated in New Zealand, where they were bred by Māori farmers in the 1800s (“KuneKune,” in fact, is a Maori word meaning “fat and round”). They are known for their docile temperament and ability to graze on pasture, while producing high-quality meat. They are unlike any other breed in the world.

There is no certainty about how the pigs came to the island, but they are not the same breed as those brought by Captain Cook. Ancient middens of the Māori do not show pig bones, so it appears the original pig population may have been brought on Chinese whaling ships in the late 1700s. The Māori are master farmers, descending from Polynesians who bred bananas, chickens, sugarcane, citrus, and more crops that were brought to New Zealand in roughly 1250. The founding stock of pigs was dramatically altered by the Māori breeders, ultimately shifting its digestive system to eat just grass, shrinking its legs to half size, its nose into a near-pug, and its personality so sweet you can pick up shrieking piglets without upsetting the mother.

In the 1970s, when they were facing instinction, two New Zealand biologists brought the breed to the wider world, buying roughly 10% of the existing stock kept by Māori farmers, creating a breed standard and registry for purebreds, and showing them at a zoo amusement park to the New Zealand public, where one-third of the population still live on small farms wells suited for KuneKunes. The pigs first arrived in Britain in 1992, brought by a couple charmed by the KuneKune while visiting New Zealand. They realized the importance of having a population in a different country as insurance against disease on the islands or similar catastrophes.

In the early 2000s, Sean became interested in the breed and traveled to New Zealand with the intention of importing them to his diversified farm in Arcata. It is likely he would have brought in more investors if he had known what he was getting into. It was a huge investment—two years and $70,000—to get 10 of the pigs to the United States and then to Arcata, when the piglets only cost $50 each in New Zealand. Exporting animals from New Zealand, an island nation that takes biosecurity exceptionally seriously, took a year of paperwork followed by a year of multi-stage quarantines. The United States then required one month of USDA-overseen quarantine in upstate New York, on the other side of the continent from Arcata. Sean spent extra effort, time, and money to get genetically diverse, healthy piglets, selecting the best 10, nine of which survived.

Sean worked with a New Zealand couple that has raised the pigs themselves as part of their permaculture food forest. He visited eight farms and multiple breeders that were providing the piglets, taking voluminous notes on how to care for these unique pigs. “We think that this can be an almost revolutionary product in the United States,” says Sean. “The KuneKune is an ultra-tame, tiny pig that can eat grass like a cow and has a pug nose so it can’t root up the pasture.”

Now, more than twenty years later, those first pigs that were brought to Arcata have been bred and their offspring sent all over the U.S. and Canada, and there are now tens of thousands of descendants. Sean’s herd, originally owned with his ex-wife, once numbered one hundred. Life changes and new farming priorities—a three-acre fruit forest—have shifted Sean’s focus, and now his herd consists of just four pigs.

KuneKune enthusiasm has exploded across the U.S., with hundreds of breeders dedicated to maintaining and improving the breed. The KuneKune Facebook group is lively, friendly, and full of advice and camaraderie, and includes not only breeding tips and standards but also troubleshooting.

When I ask Sean if he would do it again, he replies, “I actually dream about doing it again, but only approaching Māori farmers next time, and paying them well for what they have—far more genetic diversity in their herds. White farmers in New Zealand that we sourced from only had access to 10% of the Māori’s KuneKune herd, and the resulting inbreeding shows up in birth deformities and health issues that we have to work hard to weed out. So I’d like to do it again in collaboration with other U.S. breeders and Māori farmers, with a redoubled focus on genetic diversity.”

Sean’s investment has paid off, if in no other way than in the proliferation of a species in danger of extinction a mere 50 years ago. Thanks to his efforts, American farms and homesteads can now include KuneKune. Cute, docile, and grass-fed, they are a truly unique breed of pig.

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