Winter 2019 Publisher's Note
The mountains and valleys of Mendocino County have long been home to rabble-rousers, misfits, and those who choose to do things a little differently. The original native inhabitants of this place endured forced relocation and persecution, and yet they continue to fight to heal and grow their cultural legacy. The homesteaders crafted a hardscrabble living from abundant local resources like logging, ranching, and fishing. The “back to the landers” found off-grid acreage from which they sought to build community, birthing a solar revolution far before it was mainstream. We do it differently here.
It must be something in the air in these parts that causes residents to think there must be another way to do it. Our activist heritage is deep. Independent-spirited homebuilders battled the building department for years, eventually developing “Class K,” a completely innovative way to permit a building—even those made of straw, cob, or patched together with recycled wood.
When Organic Certification was taken over by the USDA and standards began to slip, local food advocates created “Mendocino Renegade” certification, which went beyond organic. Farms that achieve this certification are rigorously peer-reviewed to ensure their crops are grown to the highest biological standards and are chemical, synthetic, and GMO-free. Mendocino Renegade is a tax-exempt, educational working group which helped launch Measure H, a successful initiative to ban GMOs in Mendocino County (learn more on page 25). Fifteen years ago, Mendocino County became the first in the nation to pass such a law. The agrochemical corporation, Monsanto, poured $750,000 of advertising and legal dollars into a campaign to defeat Measure H, but the local activist spirit won out.
I appreciate this local tendency to upend the status quo. As a longtime resident of Mendocino County, I know that visitors can occasionally be startled at the frankness of our dialogue at community meetings, the brashness of our activism, the orneriness of our residents. But I know that this is part of what makes this place so unique. If you want cookie-cutter ideas or groupthink, this is not the place to find it. But if you want mostly vegan southern food (page 6) and fried green tomato sliders that will make you yearn for more, then this is the place for you. If the problems of the day seem insurmountable and you want to see a group of raucous young farmers who are forging a new collective path, then Mendocino County is the right place. If the self-sufficiency lifestyle floats your boat, then get out to our tempestuous coastline and harvest your own salt.
The local ethos is what makes Mendocino County so interesting. So, I choose to celebrate the firebrands, the activists, the vocal curmudgeons. Life would be so much more boring without them. Lord knows the greater world could use some creative thinking to solve some of the daunting global problems. Word of Mouth has collected these stories of people doing things differently to inspire action in the year to come. Let’s get to it.
Holly Madrigal
PS: We sometimes are asked if back issues are available, so we’ve launched the Word of Mouth Year-End Flashback Sale! Available as single issues, year bundles, or the full collection of all 15 issues.
Hooray for Hazelnuts!
by Ellen Bartholomew
Ellen Bartholomew is a biointensive gardening maven who makes her home with the Church of the Golden Rule at Ridgewood Ranch near Willits. She planted three hazelnut trees back in 2003, and they now produce enough hazelnuts to fill a fifty-gallon drum on a good year. Ellen loves this recipe for Hazelnut Ice Cream. She says that hulling the nuts is a perfect cold weather activity, a time to sit around a warm fire while catching up with friends.
Hazelnut Ice Cream & More
After gathering hazelnuts from the ground, give them a day or two for the little leaves on the top of the shell to dry and rub off. If you can’t get to them right away, they should be fine on a dry shelf for a month or more. Put the raw nuts in the shell on a cookie sheet in a 275 degree oven and roast for 15-25 minutes. When you pull them out and crack one open, the nut should be a golden color and taste roasted. Many recipes suggest peeling the skins that might be left on the hazelnut, but we never have (we love that extra fiber!). So delicious.
To make hazelnut ice cream:
Take your roasted hazelnuts and simmer them in milk (or water, for vegans) at a 1:2 ratio for about half an hour. Put the mixture in a Vitamix or sturdy blender and process until the nuts are mostly liquified. Strain the mixture for a delicious hazelnut milk. Put the milk mixture in a tabletop Cuisinart ice cream maker (or similar) and add rum liquor, cherries, and chopped up candied hazelnuts (recipe below), along with some half and half. Turn on the machine as directed. The resulting ice cream is KILLER!
To make candied hazelnuts:
Take the shelled, roasted nuts and soak them for an hour or so in sorghum syrup (I make this on the ranch, but you could use simple syrup). Strain off the liquid and put the coated nuts on a cookie sheet in a 275 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. They store well, taste so good, and make a thoughtful gift.
More places to use hazelnuts:
Hazelnuts and bananas are a perfect pairing, especially if the hazelnuts are roasted, and the nuts are better in banana bread than walnuts. I love the hazelnuts with mashed up bananas in cream as well. Hazelnut Biscotti is crazy good and also makes a great gift.
Fog Eater Cafe
Mendocino’s Favorite Flashback
by Anna Levy
It doesn’t take long to feel charmed by Fog Eater Café, the near-vegan restaurant that’s tucked away in a weather-worn building on a side street in Mendocino. With its light-filled dining room and ten-seat bar, its teal-and-rose color scheme and backyard dining, it’s easy to see why this newcomer—open since June 2019—has drawn locals and tourists alike.
That, of course, is before tasting the food, which, with its vegetarian spins on traditional southern cuisine, is even more beguiling than the restaurant itself. Paired with drinks from a carefully-chosen list of natural wines, local beers, inventive wine-based cocktails, and teetotaler standouts, it’s evident that everything that goes into this little gem is done intentionally, thoughtfully, and well.
For Haley Samas-Berry and Erica Schneider, the duo behind Fog Eater, this labor of love has been a long time coming. In some ways, they’ve been preparing for the restaurant since they met back in 2010, when they were hired on the same day to work at a bakery located on the Lower East Side of New York City. “We worked very, very hard and developed a work crush and a friend crush on each other,” Haley says, laughing, “and then became very close friends and stayed in touch throughout moving to New Orleans.”
A few years later, when Haley and her partner, Nathan Maxwell Cann, moved to San Francisco, within striking distance of Haley’s childhood home on the Mendocino Coast, it only made sense to drive Erica up to Mendocino when she came to visit. “She brought me on a tour here,” Erica notes, nodding towards Haley, “and was like, ‘I’m going to show you all the best things’.”
The introduction to Northern California worked. By the next summer, Erica, a Nashville native, was ready to move to Mendocino. “We agreed that Erica would live here a year before we opened the restaurant, because she had never lived anywhere small before,” Haley says. Fortunately, Erica fell in love with the remote village, making the adjustment to small-town life. “I love it here,” she explains. “The community’s so good, people are so supportive. I always thought I would hate going to the grocery store and seeing people that I know every time, but I actually love it. It’s really fun.”
Both Erica and Haley have also felt buoyed by the support for the restaurant, which grew through a series of pop-up dinners well before Fog Eater was ready to open. They reached out to local farmers, like Nye Ranch and Fortunate Farm, to host the occasional events. “These are good people,” Haley says in talking about the community members that cheered them on. “They’re really, really helpful.”
Building that buzz and the sense of community meant that, by the time they opened, they had a solid group who were ready to become regulars, though it took longer to open than either Erica or Haley had anticipated. After a year of searching for the space, they needed nearly another year to navigate the process of permitting, renovations, menu design, and other preparations. “It gave us time to make it perfect,” Erica notes.
That time allowed Erica and Haley to design and realize their dreams for the restaurant, and it shows. In the bustle of the dinner rush, for instance, there’s a sense of camaraderie that pulsates through the evening, from the servers who put down a small bowl of boiled peanuts at each table to welcome diners, to Nathan happily chatting away with customers from behind the bar, to the buzz of conversation that lifts above the room, mixing stories together from each of the tables.
And though the restaurant exudes warmth, it would be impossible to sustain without the food that brings people back again and again. With everything from hush puppies and deviled eggs to biscuit sliders and banana pudding, the menu is designed to appeal to a wide range of people, all done in a way that can honor the traditions of Southern food. Top sellers include the pimento cheese appetizer and the grits and grillades at brunch, though other standouts—such as the beignets, or the red beans and rice complete with shiitake bacon—have garnered a loyal following. With its vegan, Cajun roots, the menu has surprised some people. “The whole point for me, for all of this, is to make food so delicious that people don’t think about it being vegan,” Erica explains. “They just think about having really delicious, nutritious, beautiful food.”
The beverage program is similarly built, so that drinkers of all types can enjoy carefully selected and crafted pairings with their meals. Fog Eater has chosen to focus on local, organic, and natural beer and wine, which was a challenge in some ways for Haley, who has a long history of working with cocktails. But she did her research and became increasingly interested in what they would be able to do. Eventually, she says, “We were able to roll into this idea, like how Erica has a limited selection of farmers and producers to work with on the food; we can get as creative [with the bar].”
Haley now talks about how fun it’s been to focus only on beer and wine, particularly when it comes to their cocktail program. “We wanted to work with the herbal bounty of the area,” she explains, “so we had a drink with seaweed in it that Nathan harvested. And we opened with a drink that had coastal herbs that are normally found in gin, but we infuse them into sherry.” They regularly feature four alcoholic cocktails that focus on creative flavors, local sourcing, and careful execution. The same intention and care are also infused into the non-alcoholic drinks.
That focus on local and organic is part of a deep sense of awareness for the larger world that walks hand-in-hand with just about every angle of Fog Eater. Choosing to open a vegetarian restaurant, for instance, was a conscious choice made in part to honor their commitment to the environment. Though Erica has been mostly vegan for years, Haley and Nathan are omnivores. Other decisions—such as using vintage dishware and glasses, and choosing to buy even their office supplies locally rather than from a large distributor—similarly speak to their interest in building a business that keeps sustainability very much at the forefront of all they do.
In that spirit, they say that cultivating an organic and highly-local menu was a straightforward decision. “With the world in the state that it’s in, buying tomatoes from your neighbor instead of some place like Michigan is obvious and easy,” Haley says, “and much more delicious.” And when there is more than enough, the local connections mean that Erica can put food up for the winter as well. “We have hundreds of pounds of produce canned for the winter,” she explains. “We’re so lucky.”
An added bonus of buying from within the county is the symbiotic relationship with others in the area, which has become a theme of the restaurant overall. “We have all these people that make beautiful things pop out of the ground,” Erica says, “and then we get to play with them.” Haley finishes, “And then they come in and get to eat and drink, and it just fills your whole heart.”
That symbiosis similarly spreads to the ways in which the kitchen and the bar complement one another within the restaurant. Haley points to a cocktail Nathan created as an example. “Erica made a maque choux with corn and had all the corn bones left. Nathan boiled the corn bones to make a broth, then infused sherry with Palo Santo and sage and made a cornwater-sage-Palo Santo sherry cocktail that was unreal.”
“And it’s so fun,” Erica continues, “to marry our programs in that way.” She gives an example of smoking carrots for a round of cocktails, and another of preserving lemon rinds for drinks. “We can use each others’ waste,” she says, “so that we don’t actually throw that much away.”
Though the restaurant is still months away from its first birthday, there has been a lot to celebrate. “We have amazing regulars,” Haley notes. “We have a group of people that comes in every single brunch, and they have a great time, and they’re ideal people, and they like to drink and eat a lot of French toast.”
As they look toward the future, Erica and Haley are excited to find more ways to involve the community in their success. From working with new farmers and producers to encouraging locals to pop in for a quick snack or drink at Happy Hour, and from hosting private parties to making Fog Eater a place where people dive into festive holiday cheer, this sweet, cozy, and satisfying spot is well on its way to becoming a local institution. Though the building’s weathered exterior may make it seem like Fog Eater has been part of the landscape for a long time, it’s clear that what’s happening inside is completely, deliciously new.
Fog Eater Cafe
Open for Happy Hour Wed–Fri 4–5pm, Dinner Wed–Sun 5–8:30pm, and Brunch Sun 10am–2pm
45104 Main St, Mendocino | (707) 397-1806 | www.FogEaterCafe.com
Anna Levy writes, cooks, and plans travel of all sorts whenever she can. She lives on the Mendocino Coast with her husband and two dogs.
Strong Roots & Open Circle Seeds
by Ree Slocum
Surely you’ve had this experience: You’re out with friends and trying out some new foods. At first bite, your ability to listen to words falls away because your taste buds are bursting with exquisite flavors. Well, that experience is something that recently delighted me with one of Strong Roots’ Sharlyn melons. “It’s so sweet and juicy with undertones of pineapple and coconut,” farmer Sorren said, “People swoon!” I can attest to salivating for more once I tasted the beautiful, luscious fruit. The melon, like all the plants on the Strong Roots farm, is open-pollinated and carefully chosen. Besides being a favorite with the Strong Roots farmers, Gina and Sorren, the Sharlyn has become a local legend.
Gina began selling vegetable seeds from her Laytonville gardens fifteen years ago as Laughing Frog Seeds. Her style as a grower was permaculture-influenced, with curving raised beds and nary a straight row. Sorren spent 25+ years learning organic farming in far-flung locations, riding her tractor wherever she went. Her style is all about efficiency and production, and curving raised beds are not even imagined. When the two joined forces in 2014 on a farm that had grown only grass hay for decades, they began not only converting hay fields to food crops, but integrating market growing with seed production.
“It’s been a learning experience for both of us,” Gina says, adding that for her it’s been “a completely unlooked-for gift and an opportunity to do things on a larger scale.” For Sorren, adding the special requirements of seed propagation—isolation distances, extra time in the field—has been a logical next step and a welcome challenge. The partnership works, she says, because “we’re both passionate plant people.”
Sorren’s farm business, in all its locations, has always been called Strong Roots. Gina’s seed company changed names with the move to Potter Valley and is now Open Circle Seeds. In addition to produce sold around the county through the Mendo Lake Food Hub, Strong Roots runs a thriving business selling spring and fall garden starts at the Ukiah Co-op, Mariposa Market in Willits, and Weathertop Nursery in Laytonville. The farm still sells grass hay to customers who come to the farm for it. And everything is certified organic.
All this activity could be a chaotic jumble if the parts were all separate, but each informs the others.
Promising new varieties, like Huerfano Bliss orange honeydew melon, are grown to sell as starts. If they’re vigorous and fast-growing, they’re trialed in the field—often alongside other varieties for comparison, as Huerfano Bliss was in 2018 with a total of 20 melon varieties—and the fruit is sold as produce. Gina says incredulously, “Picture this—Sorren’s minimum for any variety is a hundred-foot row.” Sorren gives her a look that seems to say, “Well, that’s obvious.” If the variety proves to be delicious and productive, it’s grown for seed the next year in an isolated field at the back of the farm, as Huerfano Bliss was in 2019. Then the seeds grown on the farm are used for starts as well as for Open Circle Seeds. Even the hay plays a part. Over a hundred bales are used every year as mulch for garlic and onions, asparagus and artichokes.
Melons are definitely a theme at Strong Roots, and each variety grown for produce and for seed was chosen because it stood out for its fabulous taste combined with vigor, productivity, and resilience to climate stresses. “We found, as we got to know Potter Valley more, that it used to be known for its melons and watermelons and was a central point for melon and watermelon seed growing,” Gina says. Sorren adds, “So we’re trying to revive those traditions.” Some years they have a watermelon or melon tasting party where people choose their favorite. “Usually there’s no surprise as to the favorite. It’s frequently the one we chose, too,” Sorren says. Winners so far are Mountain Honey cantaloupe, Huerfano Bliss honeydew, and, of course, Sharlyn. Among watermelons, Crimson Sweet holds the #1 spot, with Early Moonbeam as the best yellow variety, and an orange heirloom called Sweet Siberian—a small apricot-colored watermelon with floral undertones to its sweetness—as the winner grown for seed in 2019.
Seed comes first at Strong Roots Farm, both in details—seed crop locations for the next year are planned first, and other crops fit in around their requirements—and in the big picture view. “Without seeds, we’ve got nothing,” Sorren says, “and just like everything else, the world of seed is in a dire situation.” Gina adds, “Over 90% of all the seed resources in the world are tied up in just three multi-national chemical companies. But it’s one of those rare things where ordinary people can make a huge difference. What could be more important than our food supply? And the most actual good you can do is go out and plant a garden.”
And pay attention to the source of your seed. “Seeds are the one aspect of agriculture few people think about,” Sorren says, “Even organic farmers often overlook where their seed comes from.” To be sustainable as the basis of our food supply, seeds need to be from open-pollinated varieties, meaning they can be grown true from seed year after year. Organic seed makes a difference, and Gina points out, “Organic seed produces plants with better built-in defenses against pests, and they’re better able to take up nutrients from the soil and air. Seeds grown with chemical fertilizers and pesticides are adapted to need those inputs.” For even more garden success, look for locally adapted varieties like the ones offered by Open Circle Seeds, or use seeds you save yourself. “The truly amazing thing is how quickly plants adapt,” Gina enthuses. “They can make changes in their DNA in just one growing season,” Sorren elaborates. “We start with the best varieties we can find, and then every year we grow them they just get better adapted to our region.”
Potter Valley provides challenges that are perfect for adapting plants to the widening range of stressful conditions the changing climate presents. “We go for short-season varieties whenever we find them,” Sorren explains, “because those are the plants that jump out of the ground and grow fast, and we don’t know what the season will bring.” Recent years have included the 115-degree days of 2017, the 2018 summer of smoke, and 2019’s short colder season. Gina and Sorren have confidence that the plants they grow can meet the challenges and adapt to the changes. You can help grow a resilient local food system with your food choices—by planting your own garden with locally adapted seed, or simply by eating the produce of our local farmers.
Strong Roots sells their produce, starts, and seeds at the Ukiah Co-op and Mariposa Market in Willits. Their open-pollinated seeds are also available online at opencircleseeds.com. To find out more about seed saving, visit seedalliance.com
Ree Slocum is a fine art freelance photographer and writer who calls the edge of the wilds in Mendocino County “home.” She takes pleasure living with bird song, the breathing fog, and wildlife’s cast of characters when not on assignments. See her work at ReeSlocumPhotography.com.
Diversity is Resiliency at the New Agrarian Collective
by Sara Stapleton
Wendell Berry writes in his essay, “The Pleasures of Eating,” that “eating is, inescapably, an agricultural act.” His statement implies that the way we eat—the way we source our food and the way we cook—“determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used.” If eating is an agricultural act, then farming can surely be a revolutionary one. And when you bring together on the front lines some of the most spunky, passionate, and fearless young agrarians in our county, diverse, spirited, resourceful, and powerful things are bound to unfold.
It’s an autumn morning on Ridgewood Ranch, and Ruthie King and Joshua Sternberg are processing the beets that Joshua just harvested, grown from seed with thoughtful intention. The wilted greens that they pull off of these deep red, nutrient-dense root crops will be fed to the sheep that Ruthie grazes and raises with her fellow collective member, Eliot Hartley. Those sheep will feed members of the collective, as well as members of the community through the farmers market and through their meat share program. The hides are tanned, the wool often sheared and spun, and sometimes even utilized by Jes Pearce and Keith Michalak at their Buttercup Compost Lab to experiment with the many ways of creating microorganism-rich compost that will help to build healthy, working soil. Everything is connected and nothing is wasted, and it is that interconnectedness that is the spirit of the collective.
Traditionally, a collective is a group of entities that shares or is motivated by a common interest or goal. The objective that brings these agrarian rebels together is their desire to change the way that we interact with our food and with our environment through sustainable agricultural practices—to live in reciprocity with the land that provides so much. All of the members bring different skills, interests, and businesses to the table, and the collective acts as an organic support network. It is the glue that holds them accountable, encourages creativity, gives time for reflection, and binds them together as a team. It is the backbone that supports their radical endeavors, both physically and emotionally.
The members of the collective came together largely through the School of Adaptive Agriculture in Willits, a hub that has brought together many like-minded folks from farms and organizations all over the county since its inception. After a number of years working closely with the school, though, the members of the collective were seeking a greater sense of autonomy, ownership, and security. They wanted to express their own individualities while still working as a team. “Many minds make for more interesting dreams” after all, said Ruthie and Joshua, and diversity is resiliency. The school offered the opportunity to immerse in theory, while this project would bring deeper understanding and knowledge through experience and experimentation.
They aren’t looking to reinvent the wheel, but rather to do new things in old ways and old things in new ways, to call back upon a time when communities joined together in meaningful work. Joshua, who co-manages the Mendocino Renegade Certified vegetable and flower farm with Caroline Radice, brings his skill for deep observation and attentiveness, as well as his sometimes dark and often sarcastic humor, to the group. Caroline Rehrberger leads the harvests and organizes their abundant, mile-high tables of produce for the farmers market, greeting customers with friendly warmth.
Dedicating themselves to small scale, organic vegetable farming and providing thoughtfully grown food is their form of activism. Ruthie and Eliot head the livestock operation, she becoming one of our area’s most enthusiastic shearers and he the local bread wizard, making hearty loaves from locally grown grain, some of which he cultivates himself. Through their grazing strategies, they work to improve water, energy, and nutrient cycles, increase biodiversity in the soil, and reduce fuel for wildfire. Jes and Keith manage the waste stream and work passionately to close the loop, creating both beautiful produce and compost through their labor of love, farming biodynamically and by hand, focusing on the efficiency of scale.
The crew also includes local renaissance woman Caroline Radice, who manages the Mendo Lake Food Hub and co-founded the Good Farm Fund. She provides everything from office management to harvest help, and she particularly loves managing the cut flower program and planting. When reflecting on her role, Caroline says, “I also love unique and heirloom varietals of produce, so I tend to be the one who sneaks the “weird” things into the field.“ She does all this in addition to owning Black Dog Farm and Catering, where they utilize the amazing produce and meat grown and raised by the collective.
All of their titles aside, it is what the general public might not get to see that truly makes them a dynamic team—repairing a broken water line in the midst of blazing summer heat to make sure crops don’t buckle under the hot sun; herding sheep and setting fence lines before dawn; finding ways to cope and bounce back from predation; constantly striving to find a balance between agriculture and the wild. Jes and Keith recently laid 43 hens to rest in their compost after a bobcat found its way into their pasture and made a kill that weighs heavy on the crew. Farming is incredibly hard, brutal, and sometimes disheartening work, but to have the support of comrades in this valiant cause, to sit down once a month and share a meal, to break bread, talk shop, and find solace amongst the struggles and the triumphs—it is messy magic, but shared between them is a deep love of what they do and a hope to create change, to have a positive impact on the world around us.
With so many creative minds, the team is constantly working to improve operations and solve problems that come up in the day-to-day, because with farming, we know that the work is never complete. The element of surprise is thrilling, and a streak of healthy competitiveness in the group adds to the fun. The collective is a constant practice of relationship-building, communication, and self-growth, a reminder to be open to the process.
If they are the revolutionaries, let us be the army behind them. Consider strengthening your commitment to building a stronger local food economy—to learn the skills of generations past, to learn and to love every part of the animal, and to eat with the seasons, preserving the bounty and sharing with your neighbor. Talk to your farmers, shake their hands, and let their work inspire you to join them in moving toward a more resilient tomorrow.
Sara Stapleton lives high up on Greenwood Ridge and feels most at home in the tall trees, alongside meandering streams and birdsong. She is a passionate eater, seeking out local food wherever she goes. You can find her serving up farmer tales and deliciousness at the Bewildered Pig in Philo.
Home to Michoacán for the Holidays
by Mayte Guerrero
When I think of the holidays, I think of three-day road trips down to my father’s hometown, La Laguneta, a small town in Michoacán, Mexico. I think of lighting fireworks with my cousins on the sidewalk outside of my aunt’s house, of waiting for the New Year together and hugging everyone—which takes a while when you’re one of twenty-one grandchildren (and that is just my dad’s side of the family).
The holidays have always signified a time for good food and great times with family. Even in the years when we haven’t all been in the same place, the foods we share remain the same, holding us together, tying us to our culture and traditions.
In Mexico, the holiday season begins on December 12th, which is the day honoring la Virgen de Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico. The festivities extend until January 6th, which is el Día de Los Reyes Magos, Three Kings Day.
During the weeks we spent in Mexico over Winter break, we typically stayed a week in Mexico City with my maternal grandparents right before Christmas Eve, which allowed us to participate in las posadas, which are a part of the Christmastime celebrations in Mexico. Las posadas begin on December 16th and are a nine-day celebration which commemorates the journey of Mary and Joseph looking for a place to stay before giving birth to baby Jesus. I remember fondly an evening when my grandma hosted la posada. We stood behind her and listened as the neighborhood sang villancicos, traditional Mexican Christmas carols, before she opened up the doors to let everyone inside to celebrate. Since my grandma has the spirit of a child, which is one of my favorite things about her, she bought five piñatas for that day—one of them perhaps the largest I’ve ever seen. The piñatas were filled with toys and candy for the neighborhood children. Seeing the smiling faces and hearing the children’s laughter that night really highlighted the importance of community during the holiday season.
Nochebuena, or Christmas Eve, is perhaps the most celebrated night of the holiday season for my family and holds true for many Latinx families. There is usually not much done on Christmas day itself, except for heating When I think of the holidays, I think of three-day road trips down to my father’s hometown, La Laguneta, a small town in Michoacán, Mexico. I think of lighting fireworks with my cousins on the sidewalk outside of my aunt’s house, of waiting for the New Year together and hugging everyone—which takes a while when you’re one of twenty-one grandchildren (and that is just my dad’s side of the family).
The holidays have always signified a time for good food and great times with family. Even in the years when we haven’t all been in the same place, the foods we share remain the same, holding us together, tying us to our culture and traditions.
In Mexico, the holiday season begins on December 12th, which is the day honoring la Virgen de Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico. The festivities extend until January 6th, which is el Día de Los Reyes Magos, Three Kings Day.
During the weeks we spent in Mexico over Winter break, we typically stayed a week in Mexico City with my maternal grandparents right before Christmas Eve, which allowed us to participate in las posadas, which are a part of the Christmastime celebrations in Mexico. Las posadas begin on December 16th and are a nine-day celebration which commemorates the journey of Mary and Joseph looking for a place to stay before giving birth to baby Jesus. I remember fondly an evening when my grandma hosted la posada. We stood behind her and listened as the neighborhood sang villancicos, traditional Mexican Christmas carols, before she opened up the doors to let everyone inside to celebrate. Since my grandma has the spirit of a child, which is one of my favorite things about her, she bought five piñatas for that day—one of them perhaps the largest I’ve ever seen. The piñatas were filled with toys and candy for the neighborhood children. Seeing the smiling faces and hearing the children’s laughter that night really highlighted the importance of community during the holiday season.
Nochebuena, or Christmas Eve, is perhaps the most celebrated night of the holiday season for my family and holds true for many Latinx families. There is usually not much done on Christmas day itself, except for heating up the leftovers (and maybe nursing a hangover), but nochebuena is filled with a morning of prepping and cooking tamales, pozole, and buñuelos, followed by an evening full of celebration. We often stayed up together until midnight to mark the arrival of Jesus Christ.
The nochebuenas spent in La Laguneta, Michoacán often begin with attending the Christmas Eve mass. Afterwards, the community all gathers in la plaza, which is right outside of the church. The adults share stories with each other, and the children run around playing different games and lighting fireworks. Eventually, most families disperse to their homes for their own celebrations.
For me, nochebuena means walking back together from church to my aunt’s house, making a bonfire in the backyard, and fighting heavy eyelids to try to stay up until midnight, because nobody wanted to be the primo who fell asleep first. It means a time when even the teenage cousins who thought they were too cool for the younger kids joined them in games of hide-and-go-seek. It means seeing my abuelita lean her head against my abuelito’s shoulder as he reaches out to hold her hand, both watching what their 60 years of love has created. Nochebuena means eating tamales and drinking ponche. The sweet smell of tejocote, caña y canela [hawthorn, sugar cane, and cinnamon] filling the room, along with our love for one another.
Ponche Navideño (Christmas Punch)
Ingredients:
12 c of water
3 fresh apples, any type, chopped into small pieces
1 can (8 oz) of guavas
1 cinnamon stick
½ c hibiscus flowers*
24 sticks of sugar cane
2 lbs of tejocote (Mexican hawthorn)*
2 ½ c of sugar
*Check your local Mexican markets.
Directions:
Put your pot of water on the stove. Add the apples, the can of guavas, the cinnamon, hibiscus flowers, sugar cane, and the tejocotes. Cover the pot and cook over medium heat until it boils. Continue boiling for half an hour, then add the sugar. Stir well and simmer for another 15 minutes. ¡Buen provecho y felices fiestas!
Mayte Guerrero was born and raised in Anderson Valley, a place that allowed her to develop a deep love for the natural world. She is a naturalist who hopes to continue to do work that creates wider access to public lands and engage in conversations that expand the definition of what it means to love the earth.
Get Involved: Holiday Time Giving Guide
This holiday season, some of our favorite things are not things at all. Great reward comes from pitching in to help with your favorite cause. Get involved and join the fun at these organizations, or kick in a donation as a gift to help them do their work. ‘Tis the season to get involved!
Learn how you can Help the Kelp at Noyo Center for Marine Science in Fort Bragg. Take a morning to count purple sea urchins, or volunteer to help create the life-sized earthen blue whale at their Crows Nest location on the Noyo Headlands.
Noyocenter.org
The Caring Kitchen helps to heal those fighting cancer by providing free, healthy meals made with love. Volunteer yourself or bring the whole family and join the team of teen chefs prepping and cooking. Volunteer angels deliver the meals across inland Mendocino County. Can you feel the LOVE?
ncoinc.org/programs/caring-kitchen-project
Get out the Vote! No matter your electoral leanings, we can all agree that more people voting makes our democracy stronger. Take a turn registering voters at your local post office or gathering place. Make it a family affair with red, white, and blue top hats. The California primary is sooner than you might think, so contact your local Registrar of Voters to ensure you are signed up.
Though it’s a small community, Round Valley has a whole lot going on. The hardworking volunteers of Friends of the Round Valley Library can always use a hand hosting fundraisers and other activities. Join in, or donate to KYBU, the Black Berry Festival, the thriving Documentary Series, Seed Library, Art Exhibits and more.
frvpl.org
If you like to get outside for your volunteering, consider connecting to the Redwood Forest Foundation, owners of the almost 50,000-acre Usal Redwood Forest at the start of the Lost Coast and King Mountain Range. Pitch in to help build trails, plant trees, or improve access to the forest. You can give the gift of preserving a redwood grove in a family member’s honor.
Rffi.org
The folks of Acorn Partners in Point Arena love to get kids outside. Kayaking, turtle-counting (in Baja), and hosting a 5K run on the Stornetta National Monument headlands are just some of the efforts undertaken by this dynamic group. They seek to provide education about the environment and cross-cultural learning through experiences and the arts.
acornpartnersineducation.org
Measure H
How Community Activism Overcame the Odds
by Holly Madrigal
In the days before Christmas 2003, Mendocino County court chambers were filled to overflowing. Corporate attorneys were easily recognizable in a room otherwise filled with farmers and local activists. Earlier that month, word had come that Els Cooperrider, Janie Shepard, Dr. Ron Epstein, and County Clerk-Recorder, Marsha Wharf (as the county elections official) were being sued by California Plant Health Association, a conglomerate made up of biotech companies including Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Syngenta, and others, demanding that Measure H—the citizens’ initiative to ban the growing of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)—remove specific language in support of the measure from the ballot.
Late the same evening that the lawsuit was filed, Attorney Susan Jordan called Els Cooperrider in her office at the Ukiah Brewery and offered to support the Measure H group pro-bono. “She and Janie Shepard did such a bang-up job defending the case and whipping up expert local testimony over the weekend, because we had almost no lead time. And when the court took a brief recess, Katrina Frey passed a hat in the crowd and got $650! She was a peach,” laughs Els.
“The room was packed. You could feel the tension just before the judge’s verdict. When he read the ruling, the room exploded!” says local photographer, Ree Slocum. “Our grassroots opposition ended in victory! People were hugging, and there were tears . . .” Superior Court Judge LaCasse ruled that the language included in the “argument in support” of the measure would be allowed, and that the voters would decide the outcome of Measure H, not the courts.
Most of our county’s agricultural acreage is in timber, pears, and wine grapes, not crops like corn or soybeans which are most commonly affected by the GMO industry. If our area was more like the Salinas Valley or Kern County, perhaps the political pushback would have been overwhelming. But the community here is small enough that neighbors talking to neighbors is how things get done.
“I knew there would be opposition to what we were doing,” says Els Cooperrider, co-founder of the Mendocino Organic Network and owner of the Ukiah Brewery, the first organic brewpub in the country, “but I had no idea of the level of national attention it would bring.” A small group of the Ukiah Co-op board—Johanna Cummings, Dave Smith, and the late John Milder—had originally proposed a GMO labeling initiative, but Els, in a pique of frustration, said “Why can’t we outlaw the damn things!” And the group agreed, forming the Mendocino Organic Network in 2002. Johanna sold organic tea and snacks at the farmers markets to help raise $1,700 to file the initiative so it could be added to the ballot.
Around this time, the USDA was put in charge of the National Organic Certification standards, and the changes suggested to the program were alarming. The USDA wanted their organic standards to allow GMOs, as well as the use of sewage sludge and radiation of crops. So the Mendocino Organic Network decided to craft their own—beyond organic—standards that local farmers could adhere to if they chose.
Working with farmer Tim Bates from Anderson Valley, Thurston Williams from Lake County, and other local experts, they unveiled Mendocino Renegade, a certification based on the CCOF organic guidelines from 1994. The Mendocino Renegade group soon turned their attention to preserving the agricultural purity of the county’s crops. Others joined in, like Janie Shepard, Bill Radtkey, and Lee Rossavick. Mendocino Renegade is still going to this day, and over sixteen entities have been certified.
“We knew it would ruffle feathers,” says Els. “We kept it very quiet while we strategized and came up with the language.” They had it vetted by lawyer friends and scientific colleagues. Els was a cancer researcher in a previous career, so she knew a lot of experts. Marc Lappe and Dr. Ron Epstein came on board to help. Els continued, “Some of the best advice Marc gave us was to keep the ballot language very simple. It could fit on one page. It was really straightforward.” Janie Shepard is an attorney and translated the measure into legalese. The group knew that the ban would likely be challenged in court, and simplicity offered fewer vulnerabilities.
Once the papers were filed to put the measure on the ballot, the group began to organize in earnest, talking to prominent community members like Sheriff Tony Craver and Dr. Marvin Trotter, who then signed their names to the ballot statement. Word began to get out, and the David versus Goliath battle had begun.
Allen Cooperrider began tracking the committee funds; Laura Hamburg and Sid Cooperrider coordinated media; Steve Scalmanini was the secretary; and Katrina Frey took on fundraising. Doug Mosel came on board to be the campaign coordinator when it became clear there were not enough hours in the day for Els to be campaigning, fielding phone interviews from all over the country, and running a business. “We were grassroots. We had field coordinators in each part of the county, and they had a lot of autonomy,” adds Els. “We could not have done it without them. They gathered their own signatures, ran their own ads, hosted events, and we would send them support.” Ree Slocum remembers, “In Willits, as in other communities, we set up ironing boards at Safeway and the Post Office for months, passing out information, explaining the issues, and getting thousands of signatures.” Many people who had never before been engaged in a political effort signed on.
In their review process, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors asked Els to explain the difference between plant hybridization and genetic engineering. “One has to do with plant sex and the other one never did,” she laughingly clarified. “Hybridization and plant selection has been going on for thousands of years, but you leave it up to the plants, through cross-breeding, to make the changes. Genetic engineering involves scientifically inserting or altering the genes and chromosomes, putting in genes from other organisms.”
There was a great deal of local concern that genetically altered plants could pollinate or cross-contaminate organic crops. GMO seeds are patented so that if, for example, pollen from RoundUp Ready Corn drifted into your field, Monsanto could sue you for infringing on their property. Many European countries had already banned the import of GMO crops. While the impacts of GMOs continue to be studied, Measure H sought to preempt unknown consequences from occurring locally.
The court victory gave a boost to the extensive grassroots organizing already underway by the committee. The field coordinators included Liz Haapenen and Gail Daly in Mendocino and Fort Bragg, John Spitz in Laytonville, Ellen and David Drell in Willits, Tim Bates in Anderson Valley, Steve and Gloria Decater in Covelo, and Marc Lappe and Britt Baily in Gualala. Each community was hustling to get the word out in their networks. Church groups got involved because they had concerns about scientists “playing God” in an agricultural context. The Measure H committee printed full-page ads in the Ukiah Daily Journal, covered in ten-point font, listing thousands of names of individual and business supporters.
The story of this tiny community in northern California winning a lawsuit against a massive biochemical company was big news. Articles and interview requests started pouring in from around the globe. “That lawsuit ended up being one of the best things that could have happened for our little measure. They sued us just before Christmas, and the election was in March. We talked to NPR and the AP. The Boston Globe sat in the Ukiah Brewery and interviewed us! The timing was perfect.”
The election fundraising broke county records, bringing in $145,000. The CropLife International conglomerate raised over $700,000 in opposition to Measure H, dwarfing the local efforts. Yet when election day arrived on March 2, 2004, Measure H passed with 57% of the vote. Organizers were seen whooping with joy, especially in the brewery, which served as “election central” that night and held a standing-room-only crowd. The pride felt by the community was palpable on the streets, at the post office, and in the grocery stores. Our sparsely populated county had passed the first ban on GMOs in the nation. And the victory was, in large part, due to the commitment and hard work of participants like Doug Mosel, who reminisces, “My motivation had a lot to do with my friendship with the Cooperriders and my confidence in their integrity, along with my gut-level aversion to casual tampering with Nature’s genetics.”
In the years since the passage of Measure H, several other areas, like Humboldt and Sonoma counties, have tried and failed to replicate Mendocino County’s success. And technology marches onward.
CordovaCan, a Canadian cannabis company with property in Covelo, recently announced plans to use the gene-editing system CRISPR to enhance their cannabis products. Activists quickly cited Measure H as prohibitive to such a process. The Board of Supervisors has put an additional moratorium on this type of activity as they review the legal status of the new technologies.
“We were elated,” says former field coordinator David Drell, speaking of the original campaign’s success. “I don’t think we would be able to do the same thing today. I worry that, as Baby Boomers are getting older and passing on, the younger generation does not have the same level of civic engagement.” He worries that, though he sees glimmers of hope in the high school-age children getting involved in climate action, it will take people of all ages, particularly those who can vote, to step up.
Measure H is an example of successful self-determination, and newcomers to Mendocino County may not be aware of this activist history which caused people from opposite sides of the political spectrum to form coalitions. The diversity in the types of community members working toward a shared cause was part of its strength. The small Measure H committee was underestimated by the opposition. The intrepid band of organizers out-strategized them at every step. It remains to be seen if a similar result will come from the political actions of the future, but the residents of Mendocino County have shown they can rise to the challenge.
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 Leadership Mendocino, a North Coast Opportunities program, and takes great joy in publishing this magazine.
Corners of the Mouth
by Anna Rathbun
Corners of the Mouth natural food store has been serving the coast since 1976. Located in the village of Mendocino, Corners is housed in a 19th century former Baptist church. In between ancient stained glass windows, a vaulted ceiling, and a choir loft, the store is brimming with fresh local produce, bulk herbs, and organic groceries.
Corners of the Mouth was established as a worker-owned collective. Each worker is a member, and business decisions are made in a bi-monthly meeting of all collective members. If the store is closing at 7pm instead of 8pm, that’s because we are preparing to sit in a circle and talk through business decisions in a collective meeting. There are no bosses, but there is a rotating council of five to seven long-term collective members who make the day-to-day business decisions. This business structure can result in a longer decision-making process, but it also creates great freedom and inspiration in the work environment.
Corners is a “not for profit,” which means that any profits realized are invested back into the business, divided among employees, or donated back to the community. Corners’ profits will never make one person wealthy, but will benefit each collective member and the community. Corners supports the community with gift certificates and raffle items for every good cause: the hardworking firefighters, school fundraisers, or a fundraising dinner for a local sick resident.
Produce is the pride of Corners, featuring local farms as often as possible. You will find fluffy red butter lettuce as big as your head from LR Farm in Albion and crunchy, sweet onions from Root Down Farm on Navarro Ridge. During apple season, The Apple Farm in Philo brings in a dozen heirloom varieties of apples, from big red Spitzenberg to tiny red Wickson and the soft sweet Philo Gold. As Christmas approaches, look for fresh crop walnuts from Pardini Ranch in Anderson Valley and Fuyu persimmons from Albion. “It has a beautiful vegetable selection. Everything is really local and fresh. It’s a thoughtful store,“ says Heidi, a regular customer, as she checks out the local chestnuts.
Corners has over 250 bulk herbs and spices to choose from. Bring your own container or buy a pretty glass jar to get just the right amount of the freshest herbs and spices. Locally, you will find a selection of SB’s home grown herbs from Flynn Hills Opening in Anderson Valley and wild harvested sage bundles from the Santa Barbara mountains.
Organic heirloom dried beans grown in California, frozen treats, raw vegan organic chocolate, and everything else under the sun is crammed into this tiny building. You will find Singing Dog Vanilla, which comes from a profit-sharing company in Pennsylvania. Corners supports Hummingbird Wholesale in Eugene, Oregon, which delivers local dried beans, grains, nuts, and granola by bike. Mendocino is a bit far, so Corners doesn’t qualify for bike service or they’d be all over it!
Customers of all ages appreciate the wide variety of healthy foods, spices, and beverages available. “I like upstairs (in the choir loft) where we get tea. I see my friends here sometimes,” says Corners of the Mouth shopper River, age six. “And when you grew up here, every other natural food store in the world is measured against it,” chimes in Fern, River’s mom, as she dashes up the stairs to grab some bulk herbs.
With this wealth of good food, herbs, and supplements, Corners also provides wellness consultants to help you decide what to buy. Monday through Friday from 3-5pm, Corners offers consulting with a Master Herbalist, Registered Dietitian, or Nutrition Consultant. Ask for a personalized tea blend to match your health needs, ask how to make a healing soup, or let Corners consultants help you choose the right multivitamin for you personally.
“The Corners of the Mouth—Perseverance brings good fortune. Pay heed to the providing of nourishment and to what a man seeks to fill his mouth with.”
The name, Corners of the Mouth, comes from the 27th lesson in the ancient Chinese book of lessons called the I Ching, and the lesson is to pay attention to what we put into our mouths. Whether you’re a history buff, a foodie, an herbalist, or just visiting Mendocino for the day, you have to eat. Stop in and see the wonders at Corners of the Mouth, a 125-year-old former Baptist Church overflowing with local, organic, sustainable foods.
Corners of the Mouth | 45015 Ukiah St, Mendocino
Open daily 8am–8pm | cornersofthemouth.com | (707) 937-5345
Anna Rathbun is a nutrition consultant specializing in digestive and autoimmune food therapy out of her office in Mendocino Village. Learn more about what she offers at foodtherapy.us.
From Napa to Mendocino
The Organic Journey of Long Meadow Ranch
by Shana Clarke
I knew this wouldn’t be an ordinary vineyard tour when Stéphane Vivier, winemaker for Long Meadow Ranch’s Anderson Valley Estate, enthusiastically ushered me into an ATV. Far from the usual leisurely stroll through the vines that’s often part of a winery visit, there was a lot of ground to cover on Long Meadow Ranch’s expansive Mendocino County property.
Sustainability has always been at the forefront of Long Meadow Ranch’s ethos. Started 30 years ago by Ted and Laddie Hall, the business remains a family affair, with son Chris now in a leadership role. The Halls first purchased land in the Napa Valley’s Mayacamas Mountains, a former vineyard and ranch that had been neglected since prohibition in the 1920s. It has now been restored to vineyards and a working family farm, exclusively employing organic farming methods. Several years after the original purchase, the family planted additional vineyards in Rutherford, a warmer valley floor counterpoint to the cool Mayacamas mountain sites.
“When my parents first started the winery, they didn’t want the Ranch to start and end with wine,” said Chris. Instead, their vision was to incorporate a working family farm and allow the different elements to operate together holistically. Chickens eat fruits and vegetables that aren’t sold at the farmers markets or cooked in their restaurant and, in turn, their manure goes into compost for fertilizers. Bees pollinate the vineyards and are also a source of honey. Horses and cattle graze the fields and contribute to this ecosystem the family refers to as “full-circle farming.”
The Halls’ work and mission is on display at Farmstead, their always-packed St. Helena restaurant and neighboring cafe, where fresh produce, along with grass-fed beef and lamb, are sourced directly from the ranch. Steps away, the nearby general store is stocked with pantry essentials and provisions produced on the ranch. The tasting bar within the shop doesn’t just offer wine flights. Various olive oils produced from 150-year-old groves—revealed during the resurrection of the Mayacamas site—can also be tasted and compared.
Long Meadow Ranch is somewhat of an anomaly in Napa’s monoculture- dominant wine industry. In 2015, the family ventured to another part of the state—Mendocino County, which the Halls believe is the top region in California for growing Burgundian grape varietals—with the acquisition of 70 acres of Anderson Valley vineyards planted to Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris.
One of the first changes the Halls implemented was a conversion to organic farming. According to Joseph Hardin, the Director of Agricultural Operations who managed the vineyard’s move towards organic, “a lot of conversions are simple but take time.” Switching to organic treatments instead of synthetic fertilizers was a top priority, and they started incorporating compost in their annual fertilization plans.
“A major focus is how you manage the strip right underneath the vine row,” he said. “As organic farmers, we have to be a little more creative, so we instead utilize mechanized methods for managing the delicate vineyard floor.”
It’s not just below the vines that matters; canopy management, such as pruning, also plays a vital role during a grape’s development. “Again, it’s all about timing, and if you’re diligent and paying attention to what a vine needs at what time, you can proactively mitigate problems without the use of conventional methods,” says Hardin. After the standard three-year transitionary period, the vineyard was certified organic in 2018 by CCOF.
In Anderson Valley, cooler-climate grapes provide a counterpoint to Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, and other Bordeaux varietals that thrive in Napa’s terroir, and the Hall family wanted to bring an expert perspective to these valued vines. Vivier, a Burgundy native, was the ideal winemaker. His enology and viticultural training at Université de Bourgogne, and his stints at wineries in both Burgundy and around the globe meant he could marry knowledge of Burgundy’s famous grapes with winemaking skills garnered from younger wine cultures like New Zealand.
Vivier’s passion for the Anderson Valley site was evident as we whizzed around the property. Periodically, he slammed on the ATV’s brakes, nearly jumping out before we came to a full stop, to point out the idiosyncrasies of the vineyard, such as the curious bunches with both white and red grapes, which are evidently natural mutations within the Pinot family.
“I am the interpreter. I am trying to tell the story about what is going on here through the wine,” he said. That means paying attention to the nuances in soil parcels. Long Meadow Ranch goes one step further than vineyard-designate wines by bottling select wines based on soil micro-sites. We tasted Chardonnay berries from Feliz’s gravelly loam soils, then we bit into Pinot Noir fruit from the dense Perry Gulch and Pinoli sites—both different densities of loamy soils—and marveled at the variances in flavor.
Back in the tasting room at The Madrones in Philo, the Anderson Valley vineyards are on full display. Here, the concept of full-circle farming becomes tangible. Many of the pantry items sourced from the Ranch line the shelves, such as honey from those aforementioned bees, organic extra virgin olive oil from the historic groves, as well as succulent seasonal jams made from estate-grown fruit.
Of course, the wines are the focal point here. I thought back to the characteristics of the grapes we tasted from the micro-sites and marveled at how clearly my experience in the vineyards showed the same distinctive qualities in the bottle. The wines truly showed their sense of place, also known as terroir, and are a testament to how “full-circle” organic farming can truly elevate what is in the glass.
Long Meadow Ranch Tasting Room
Open Thursday through Monday 10:30am–5pm
Located at The Madrones, 9000 Hwy 128, Philo, CA
Phone: (707) 963-4555 | longmeadowranch.com
Shana Clarke is a freelance wine, sake, and travel journalist.
The Forest People
Mushroom Farming for the Future
by Torrey Douglass
Small spaces can produce big results. Just ask Lama, Matthew, and Leela, the family behind The Forest People, who grow oyster mushrooms in two repurposed shipping containers alongside their home in the redwood-forested hills of Anderson Valley. The Forest People’s guiding aspiration entails growing a high volume of nutrient-dense food requiring minimal space and inputs. Those two containers, a combined total of 700 square feet, have the capacity to produce up to 4,000 pounds of oyster mushrooms per year—a powerhouse food operation with a tiny footprint.
Lama and Matthew originally met while living in Idaho, where they connected through their shared interest in regenerative agriculture (an approach to growing food that leaves the soil healthier rather than depleted). They began to dream about ways to build a small urban homestead and started experimenting with mushroom production. Soon after building their first mushroom house, a wholesale buyer offered to purchase the entire crop, providing an early and heartening dose of encouragement while also illuminating the impressive potential of a successful mushroom operation.
After marrying, Lama and Matthew decided to relocate to Northern California. Not only did Lama have family living in and around the Bay Area, but the two wanted to pursue a land-based lifestyle in a progressive community where they could raise their daughter. They ended up at Frogwood—in times past both a restaurant and resort, but now a neighborhood of sorts tucked in the redwoods outside of Boonville—and began growing mushrooms in earnest in 2018.
Matthew’s interest in mycology stemmed from mushroom forays along the Boise River and in the foothills with his uncle and brother. Lama’s interest was sparked after reading Paul Stamets’ book Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World, published in 2005 by Berkeley’s Ten Speed Press. She reflects, “I realized immediately I had to become an ally to the mushrooms because of their role in the ecosystem. Mushrooms act as a communication network, as healers, as decomposers. They move nutrients through the forest and are great recyclers.” On a more basic level, they help keep her daughter fed—one of Leela’s favorite snacks is oyster mushrooms fried in butter until crispy and served with a touch of salt.
The “pros” of growing oyster mushrooms are numerous. They grow on materials—sometimes byproducts that would otherwise be wasted—produced by the agricultural and food industries: straw, coffee grounds, beer mash, paper products, and grasses as varied as rice, bamboo, rye, wheat, and corn. Compared to other food crops, they require considerably less water and space. They are not vulnerable to pests that plague other mushroom species and are rich in protein, B-vitamins, and lovastatin—a molecule known for reducing cholesterol. Some studies have even indicated oyster mushrooms might possess cancer-fighting properties (see Paul Stamets’ article “The Mighty Oyster Mushroom” for more on that topic on the HuffPost website).
The “cons” they’ve encountered deal more with running a business than with the oyster mushrooms specifically. “We are food producers at heart and want to provide for the community,” Lama considers. “It’s challenging to try to have a business-minded outlook, but it’s something we need to do in order to keep going.”
It’s a challenge Lama faced head-on when she applied for the 2019 Startup Mendo competition, created by West Business Development Center (also known as West Center). The organization offers free business consulting to local entrepreneurs—if you have a business idea, they can help you think through if it’s viable and, if it is, help you put together a plan to make it happen. The 2019 competition finalists included five businesses whose owners participated in a series of West Center workshops covering topics like marketing, accounting, social media strategies, and writing a business plan.
The business concept that earned Lama her place in the competition? Mushroom jerky! Oyster mushrooms only last about a week once harvested. The Forest People have been successful selling their delectable goods through farmers markets, wholesale accounts, and the Mendo Lake Food Hub, as well as to favorite local eateries like The Bewildered Pig, Oco Time, Harbor House Inn, and Cultivo. Yet sometimes there are more mushrooms than they can sell, and turning those leftovers into mushroom jerky is yet another way to transform something that would otherwise be wasted into a desirable delicacy.
The jerky allows The Forest People to utilize their entire crop by creating a shelf-stable, ready-to-eat snack. It’s also vegan, and while only 3% of Americans overall identify as vegans, the rate grows to 12% for the much-coveted millennial demographic. The recognition that a plant-based diet is best for our health and the planet has inspired interest in veganism, spiking the market potential for snacks like mushroom jerky in the process. Lama explained this potential during her presentation for the Startup Mendo judges at the final stage of the competition, where she also laid out her strategy for product development and deployment. Thanks to her hard work and preparation, the judges awarded her first place and the $10,000 prize, providing much needed capital for bringing their mushroom jerky to market.
It’s fitting that this new endeavor for The Forest People is funded (at least partially) through winnings from a community business competition sponsored by local businesses—so much of what they do is rooted in a love for community. The organic straw used to grow their mushrooms is sourced locally when possible, with the current batch of rye straw purchased from the Mendocino Grain Project. Lama volunteers with the Not-So-Simple-Living Fair, a homesteading and agricultural skills event organized by the Anderson Valley Foodshed each summer. She also manages the Boonville Farmers’ Market Friday evenings from May through October—a generous commitment of time and energy that helps Mendocino County farmers and food producers connect with their customers.
Lama, Matthew, and Leela hope to ultimately create and sustain a closed-loop system for growing food that is both regenerative and waste-free. As such, they are enthusiastic proponents of the Johnson-Su Bio-reactor method of compost creation, using the post-mushroom-production straw to create “high quality fungal-dominant compost.” The resulting material is high in microbial diversity, increases the soil’s water retention and carbon sequestration, and improves seed germination, growth rates, and crop yield.
Essentially it’s double espresso for your crops. This magic mixture is applied to their large subsistence garden, where Matthew and Lama grow veggies and other food for themselves, constantly refining their techniques while learning and applying new strategies. Like soil regeneration, building expertise to realize their goals is a long-term endeavor that requires patience and consistent effort, but can eventually yield astounding results.
Mushrooms are the current focus of The Forest People, but don’t expect them to stop there. The lessons they learn now will inform more ambitious projects down the road, delving deeper into the many ways food production can stop harming the planet and instead play a role in its healing.
Find The Forest People at the Fort Bragg, Ukiah, and Boonville farmers markets. ForestPeopleMushrooms.com.
Torrey Douglass is a web and graphic designer living in Boonville with her husband, two children, and a constantly revolving population of pets and farm animals.
Salt! Gift of the Waves
by Torrey Douglass
With over 90 miles of coastline, Mendocino County is lucky to have the Pacific Ocean along its western edge, leaning its rocky shoulder against the bulk of blue (or grey, or green, depending on the prevailing weather conditions). It’s an ever-changing behemoth we can gaze at, dip in, sail on, and feed from. When considering how the ocean factors into your menu, your mind probably lands first on all the sea creatures we love to eat—Salmon, Rock Cod, Lingcod, Albacore, and Pacific Halibut, to name a few. But there is another food we can forage from our rocky shores, an elemental one: SALT.
Foraging always requires a little effort, and it might be tempting to ask, “Why bother? Salt is just salt, right?” If only. Processed table salt is kept dry and pourable due to anti-caking agents, which can contain aluminium (pro-tip: don’t eat aluminium!). Its manufacturing process also destroys the naturally occurring alkaline minerals our bodies need, including iodine, so a synthetic iodine is added back in. (Flashback fact: synthetic iodine was added to table salt in the 1920s to reduce goiters occurring in the Midwest as a result of mineral-deficient foods caused by depleted soil.) Both the aluminium and the synthetic iodine are known hormone disruptors, and the bleach used to turn naturally grey salt bright white is not recommended for consumption, either. OH MY GOSH, ALL THE BAD NEWS! Let’s go get some sea salt.
There are two methods for gathering salt—you can pick up the naturally evaporated deposits left along the rocks, or you can collect salt water and bring it home to make the salt yourself. For the first approach, you need to be comfortable with some bonus items in your salt—sand, driftwood specks, possibly even seagull poop, you get it. Walk along the rocks and look for crystalized salt on the edges of tidepools or along the high tide mark on flat rocky outcroppings. With a thin metal spatula, delicately break away the deposits and lift the pieces into your container. At home you can spread the salt onto a cookie sheet and pick out whatever hitchhikers made their way into your harvest, then store in a cool, dry spot.
The second method takes more time but it’s easier to avoid contaminants. Find a pollution-free location to collect sea water (think cove, not harbor). Bring a clean, lidded container to fill. Once you’re back in your kitchen, pour the water through a sieve into a large pot, bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer until there is an inch of cloudy water left in the bottom. Next, pour this mixture into a large shallow pan or cookie sheet with a lip, cover with cheese cloth or a fine screen, and leave it in the sun until completely dry. At this point, you can use the salt in its natural flake form or put it into a food processor to grind into a finer grain. Consider adding herbs like rosemary, dried garlic, dill, and/or oregano to make your own salt blend. Your imagination can roam as wild and wide as the ocean itself.
Photo by Aylin Coban courtesy of Unsplash.
Bloody Marys & Bacon at Little River Inn
If you are looking for something different, fresh, and fun to do for your next visit to the Mendocino Coast, consider the Bloody Mary and Bacon Contest at Little River Inn. A new addition to the Little River Whale Festival activities, this event is sure to warm your bones with new and creative Bloody Mary recipes. And what goes better with a Bloody Mary than bacon? Last year’s winner, “Millionaire’s Bacon,” was cooked up by Jo Bradley, former owner of Dennen’s Victorian Farmhouse, who guards her recipe fiercely. You won’t mind though, when you get a taste of her salty, sweet, smoky bacon perfection.
Proceeds of this popular contest go to support Mendo Parks (mendoparks.org), which helps keep our local state parks awesome with interpretive walks, educational tours, and preservation efforts. So go ahead and grab a drink for a good cause. Little River Inn has provided the recipe below to tide you over until then.
Little River Inn Bloody Mary
Bloody Mary Mix:
2oz Deep Eddy Vodka
½ inch fresh ginger, grated
½ oz fresh lemon juice
2-½ oz tomato juice
1 T wasabi powder
¼ oz Ponzu sauce
¼ oz Worcestershire sauce
For the Rim:
½ T finely chopped Nori
½ T Togarashi Spice
For the Garnish:
Jicama + Hawaiian Teriyaki Bacon Wonton (wonton wrap, fresh sliced jicama wedge, and bacon marinated in brown sugar, soy sauce, and fresh ginger), a lemon wedge, jalapeño-pickled carrot, and Daikon Radish.
Preparation:
Combine the chopped Nori with the Togarashi spice. Wet the entire rim of a 16 oz glass with a lemon wedge and dip the rim into the Nori/Togarashi spice blend. Set aside.
Combine ginger, lemon juice, Ponzu, and Worcestershire sauce with tomato juice in a small bowl. In a separate small bowl, add drops of water to your wasabi powder and stir until it becomes a thick paste. Add the wasabi paste to the tomato mixture and blend ingredients well.
Add vodka to rimmed glass along with tomato mixture, and fill with ice. Stir. Garnish with a freshly deep fried Jicama & Hawaiian Teriyaki Bacon Wonton, lemon wedge, jalapeño-pickled carrot, and Daikon Radish.
Recipe courtesy of Melissa Shaw and Kaitlin Burkey, with help from Corey Paiva. Photos by Brendan McGuigan.
Little Green Bean
by Dawn Emery Ballantine
Tom Neth’s biggest surprise on opening Little Green Bean, a Mendocino Coast Coffee Roastery located on Highway 1 in Point Arena, was “how welcoming the community was.” He realizes that his timing was perfect. The Shop Local movement was growing in popularity, and his venture, initially launched from his grandparents’ garage, fit beautifully. Still, Tom appreciates how the community has been “very positive and extremely supportive”—not surprising since the business contributes an essential element to Point Arena’s beauty and charm, and, for coffee lovers, roasts with taste unrivalled by competitors.
Though Tom grew up in LA, he visited his grandparents in Point Arena regularly and loved it so much that he moved up full time after he finished college. Initially, Tom worked in the Point Arena schools in the Home Study program and lifeguarded in San Diego during the summers. He then accepted a position as a lifeguard at Salt Point State Park, working nine months of the year for the next fifteen years, until an injury and the too-frequent casualties of the abalone season “took a toll” on him, and he left the park system.
Tom worked for friends for a while, moving between small jobs, until he decided to experiment with something he had always wanted to try—roasting coffee at home, just for fun. He started out with a Behmor 1600 roaster (similar to a toaster oven, says Tom), and he traded the results with neighbors for goat cheese and eggs. Tom recalls how his kids hated it when he was roasting coffee at home, as they often came home from school to hear the fire alarm blaring and the house smelling like smoke. This encouraged him to consider finding another location and take his hobby to the next level.
Tom’s wife, Rebecca, a teacher at Point Arena Elementary, had worked for Taylor Maid coffee, and it was she who suggested that Tom seriously consider roasting coffee as a business venture. She pointed him in the direction of the Diedrich Roasters (the gold standard of coffee roasting machines), and Tom took a 3-day class in Sand Point, Idaho, learning the basics of coffee roasting and making life-long connections with other neophyte roasters. They formed a collaborative and supportive Facebook group to share ideas and coffee notes, and the members started small businesses all over the country.
For the first year, the business was housed in his grandparents’ garage, and any money earned was poured right back into the operation. Tom decided to purchase specialty coffees (arabica beans are his preference) from all around the world, using a couple of different importers. All the coffee beans he sources are certified organic, fair trade, or Rain Forest Alliance, where the farmers are paid more and the focus is on sustainability of the forest, the farmers, and the the workers.
Tom had never run a business before, and he soon discovered what most small business owners know—“Money is just numbers moved back and forth . . . we don’t receive too much out of it.” The business was originally wholesale, with no public access, and Tom used that time to suss out the possibilities of growth and to see if he enjoyed all aspects of it enough to make it his daily work.
When Little Green Bean first expanded, they moved the operation into a space in the Outback Building across the street from their current location. Tom continued to refine his roasting techniques, preparing and tasting different coffees at various stages (called “cuppings,” somewhat like wine tasting) to discern the best flavor point for himself and for customers. He focused on growing his wholesale customer base, slowly beginning to add pour-over coffees so that they could sample his offerings.
In the meantime, Tom, also an avid chocolate fan, became curious about the process of roasting cacao beans and crafting chocolate. After visiting a cacao farm in Kauai, he began experimenting with roasting cacao beans, and decided to expand his business to include “bean to bar chocolate.” He initially roasted the cacao beans at home (sorry, kids!), working with information provided by the Chocolate Alchemy website and related YouTube videos. He quickly learned that “there are no shortcuts to making good chocolate . . . but I tried them all anyway.” (Seriously folks, there are no shortcuts.)
After experimenting with multiple bean varieties, Tom decided that Haitian chocolate was his favorite for it’s very fudgy flavor and feel. Little Green Bean partnered up with The Singing Rooster, a non-profit which sells Haitian cacao beans in a way that benefits both the farmer and the field worker. The beans might be more expensive, but as Tom says, “We use organic beans and want to support the small farms around the world . . . We are GREEN as our name suggests!”
Their Outback Building space was not set up for a retail business, so in order to create chocolate and expand their pour-over opportunities, they decided to grow again. The store-front next to Franny’s Cup and Saucer went on the market, and they purchased it in July of 2018, renovating the space and passing all the necessary building and health inspections to qualify them as a restaurant. They moved into the new space in February of 2019.
With the addition of the retail aspect, Little Green Bean has become a full-fledged family affair. Tom manages all aspects of the business himself. He spends 4 days a week in summer and 3 days in winter roasting coffee, and he handles all packaging, shipping, marketing, and deliveries. Tom’s wife works in the shop during summer break, and his sons help out regularly after school and on weekends. Tom’s mom designed the company website and works the shop whenever Tom is roasting, as well as on Sundays, coming in almost daily to help with operations. The addition of chocolate has only added to the schedule complexity.
The new location was a great success; Tom says that their business has increased by 50%. The challenge is to accommodate the increased foot traffic with a temperamental roasting schedule, which requires 30-second monitoring and recording. Even 15 seconds away from the roast-in-process at the wrong time can result in a burnt final product, so they will likely have to hire a second person to be in the shop so that Tom can dedicate himself to roasting both coffee and cacao beans to perfection.
The new shop boasts glass-fronted display cases, stainless steel counters, cork and vinyl flooring, Bunn coffee grinders, and drip coffee makers (for morning folks in a hurry). There are five pour-over stations for coffees and loose-leaf teas, and they also offer cold-brew coffee, where the grounds are soaked in cold water overnight, yielding a smoother, less acidic flavor. Little Green Bean merchandise is sold, including their own chocolates and bulk coffees, as well delicious treats from Franny’s Cup & Saucer on Mondays and Tuesdays when that bakery is closed.
Adjusting to a retail shop has been a process. Tom notes that he had no posted hours in the first five years of his business, so he had more freedom to come and go. When customers depend on your presence, it can feel a bit more “tied down.” An avid and excellent surfer—one community member states that “Tom is the best long-board surfer there is”—Tom’s least favorite part of the job is “having to work when the surf’s good.” The Point Arena cove is his favorite surf spot. One day this summer, the cove had the best swell in years. Tom closed the shop and went down to catch the waves, finding himself in good company with “the tile guy and a few local contractors.” Still, he opened the shop by noon—such is his dedication to his customers.
Point Arena is famed for its wild beauty and for its resilient and supportive community. Tom says he feels more at home in Point Arena than any other place he has lived. Little Green Bean filled a niche in the community, which has welcomed the venture with open arms. Local restaurants and cafes—Franny’s Cup & Saucer, Bird Café, Cove Coffee, White Cap, Gualala Hotel, and Headlands Inn—serve his coffee to customers, as do many AirBnBs and VRBOs in the area. Little Green Bean coffee can be purchased by the bag at Arena Market, S&B Market (Manchester), Surf Market (Gualala), Matson’s Mercantile (Elk), Harvest Market (Fort Bragg), and, soon coming to Boonville with the new pizza joint, Uneda Eats, which got its start in Point Arena.
Little Green Bean chocolates are only sold in their storefront in adorable, seascape-themed molds or by the bar. Also offered is various logo-themed merchandise featuring the rip-curl surf mashup of the Little Green Bean, created by a buddy of Tom’s, who “got it right on the first try.”
Tom says that roasting beans—coffee or cacao—has been a process of learning the craft, though he says, “I still don’t think I’m a master of it yet.” A modest man, indeed, as his coffee is pretty close to perfection.
Little Green Bean Roastery is open M-F 9am-4pm; Sat 10am-4pm; Sun 10am-2pm. 211 Main Street, Point Arena (on Hwy 1). Order online at LittleGreenBeanRoastery.com
Dawn Emery Ballantine lives in Anderson Valley, where she sells books in her boxcar bookshop, Hedgehog Books, edits this magazine and other wordy tomes, and fights a losing battle with her addiction to good coffee.
La Cocina: A Delicious Revolution
Can a Nepalese momo create economic freedom? Can Oaxacan plantains help transcend the severe barriers facing women of color and immigrants living in poverty? Can a pho as diverse in flavors as the city itself launch a culinary career? La Cocina’s founding premise is that, by helping empower those who are already hustling to get their food out there—offering access to a shared commercial kitchen and business acumen—they could cut through the red tape needed to grow. Enter La Cocina business incubator, which emerged from the Mission District as a pathway for informal, somewhat underground setups to develop into culinary businesses that support both their owners and the greater community.
It is a reality that women of color and immigrant populations are instigators of economic growth, and yet they are often denied access to loans and financing. This leads many home chefs to seek more informal situations where they might sell tamales out of their apartments or hand-deliver baked goods to neighbors and friends to make some extra cash. La Cocina has developed an innovative way to connect this underserved community with capital and connections to gain economic freedom in the competitive and expensive San Francisco landscape.
Since 2005, this progressive nonprofit has conducted three rounds of applications per year, seeking delicious, unique foods that will withstand the competitive Bay Area marketplace. Qualified applicants are required to provide a business plan. La Cocina works with applicants through a six-month pre-incubation period, where they receive technical assistance to further develop their plans. After that, they have access to an affordable commercial kitchen and ongoing business development support, launching into the next phase of opening their own storefronts, food carts, or restaurants when benchmarks are met.
Emiliana Puyana, Program Director at La Cocina, has a local Mendo connection. She is a long-time friend of the crew of the Big Chief in Laytonville. Each summer you can find her alongside Mat Paradis, Troy Terrill, and (returned to visit this year) Clay Carpenter, cooking up a ridiculously good Cajun feast for the annual Crawfish Boil. Emiliana has serious culinary chops, having learned to cook in her family’s kitchen in Venezuela, followed by the Culinary Institute of America, before settling in San Francisco. La Cocina helped her launch Jarred SF Brine, her business specializing in seasonal pickles, and she has now returned to work for the organization. The staff at La Cocina is as diverse as the clientele, with many members sharing in their history a passion for good food.
If hearing about these bad-ass culinary heroes makes you want to taste their food, stop by one of their many alumni businesses like Los Cilantros in Berkeley, owned by Dilsa Lugo, or Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement in Emeryville, which now employs ten people. Bini’s Kitchen on Howard Street makes Nepalese dumplings called momos, served searing hot and ready to munch. Bini is originally from Kathmandu, and through working with La Cocina, she was able to bring the complex spices of the Himalayan foothills here to northern California.
La Cocina has had a significant local impact, including $15 million in sales last year, incubating 40 businesses, and helping open more restaurants than any for-profit culinary group. But now they are reaching even higher. A capital campaign for the La Cocina Municipal Marketplace is under way.
Gentrification and lack of affordability are dominant factors in the Bay Area economic landscape. This pioneering, women-led marketplace will provide a concentration of low-cost food stalls in the heart of the Tenderloin, one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in San Francisco, where many residents occupy single rooms with no access to a cooking stove or oven. The Municipal Marketplace will not only serve as a showcase for local entrepreneurs, but it will also function as a community gathering space.
Pushing back on entrenched historical economic inequality is not easy, but this group of chefs, eaters, activists, and entrepreneurs is making it happen—one delicious bite at a time.
Pitch into the Capital Campaign at bit.ly/LaCocinaMM. They are close to meeting their goal. The estimated opening date is Spring 2020. They also have a wonderful new cookbook available at lacocinasf.org/cookbook. Photo by Eric Wolfinger.