Grass Roots, True Country
This piece originally ran in the Redding Record Searchlight in April 2002.
Darce Chriss and The Travellers
I recently found myself pondering the transcendent nature of roots music at the Shasta Senior hall on Benton Ave. This may seem like an unlikely venue for a 28 year old to have a philosophical experience, but this was a Friday night, and the weekly Senior dance was underway. There was a band playing but it was not a bandstand configuration that I expected to see at the senior hall. This band was comprised of four electric guitar players and it had neither a bassist nor a drummer.
One might expect that a band of four electric guitars might insight a riot at the Senior Center, or at least antagonize all in attendance. However, the police were not called and I was transported to a foreign but comfortable place. The music was so good that it warmed the marrow of my bones. It made me feel as though I was in a movie. I wanted to thank the director for the soundtrack.
I was in the presence of Darce Chriss and the Travelers and I was experiencing what Darce calls “true country,” music marked by an implied groove and beautiful ensemble playing. With all of the attention focused on Roots music these days, seeing Darce and the band play is a timely yet timeless experience. The lead guitar lines of Darce and Bill Dale add the high and low end dynamics to the song, while Mary Chriss and the other guitarist, recently Dwayne Walker or Dan Locke, add the cymbal and the drum aspects of the rhythm section.
The Travelers perform in the positive and improvisational fashion that is the hallmark of seasoned music professionals. All the players are encouraged to sing and there is no setlist. The players sing songs they love and there are highlights to each players performance that exude an energy and a feeling that cannot be faked; Darce Chriss channeling Hank Williams on “Jambalaya,” Bill Dale making every note sound perfect on every guitar solo, Dan Locke singing “There goes my everything” in a rich sonorous basso profundo, Dwayne Walker filling the entire room with Merle Haggard’s “The Bottle Let Me Down,” and Mary Chriss sending the house asunder with Marty Robbins’ “Beyond the Reef.”
This is roots music of the highest order. “Roots” has become a very popular label since “O Brother Where Art Thou.” Chriss and the Travelers are an embodiment of this term. Their instruments seem to be a palpable extension of the trees under which Hank Williams Sr., Hank Snow, and Ernest Tubb and a myriad of other writers penned the classics of Country Western Music.
There is a grass roots quality to this music as well. Chriss and the Travelers play primarily for seniors, choosing to play the senior center circuit as opposed to the bar circuit. Their music is an elixir for the young at heart and they minister to the areas seniors through their song. If you are a fan of music you need to catch this band.
Note to editor: The ladies of the Shasta Senior Center wanted me to put out a call to all men over the age of 50 who can fog a mirror. “Get them to come down here and cut the rug,” Gladys exhorted… “It only costs 2 bucks, and they might get lucky.”
Darce Chriss and the Travelers are a grass roots, true country band. They play weekly on Wednesday and Thursday at the Senior Nutrition Center and the first Friday of the month at the Shasta Senior Hall. They will be performing at 12:00PM Saturday April 20, 2002 at the Cottonwood arts fair.
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One Man's Poison Is Another Man's Meat
This piece is scheduled to run in the Capital Press in Summer 2006.
Every once in a while I find myself engaged in conversations with strangers where the talk is unsettling and the stranger is… well, strange. Such was the case the other day when I was discussing the state of our food systems with a biotechnological entrepreneur in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
I was in search of the best hamburger in San Francisco and my quest had led me to the De Young Museum, in Golden Gate Park. One of my clients, Bon Appétit Management Company, runs the café at the museum, which buys all its beef from a small grass-fed producer from Point Reyes, California called Marin Sun Farms.
“Daniel Long, the chef at the café, buys as much of his food as possible from within one hundred miles of the museum,” I enthusiastically explained to the stranger. “Bon Appétit is a forward thinking company, and this Marin Sun Farm burger is reputed to be one of the best around.” The stranger looked at me in stunned silence, with an attitude that betrayed his impression of me; another ignorant lemming, a member of the uninitiated mob.
“Well,” he cleared his throat, cocking his head slightly to the side, “if they were really forward-thinking, they would adopt a more humane way of procuring their protein. Raising animals for their flesh is unnecessary and barbaric. With all of the advances in stem-cell technology, there is no reason why they couldn’t create or replicate different cuts of meat or different parts of animals instead of having to kill that animal to get them.”
My slack-jawed look of disbelief betrayed my need for further explanation. “Look,” he continued, “elephant trunk is a delicacy in certain cultures. You could take one elephant trunk and replicate it with stem cells, then you could use more stem cells to propagate it. This method would allow you to create your protein without all of the ethical dilemmas associated with slaughtering animals. Monsanto is doing something similar with their Round-Up ready seeds. We are at a point now where we don’t need to raise our protein in the fields any more; we can grow it in labs.”
As I stood listening to the stranger’s monologue, the old cliché rang true; one man’s poison is another man’s meat. While the stranger held out stem-cell derived elephant trunk as a model of perfect protein, I struggled to imagine a circumstance under which I would ever consume it.
The beauty of engaging in deep, philosophical discourse with random strangers is that you never know what you might hear. Sometimes, you are privy to the private, anonymous musings of great minds while, other times, you are blown away by lunatic science-fiction fantasia. Whatever the case, the view into the reality of a stranger is always edifying; just don’t worry about crackpot theories until you hear them for the tenth time.
The Marin Sun Farms hamburger at the De Young Museum, by the way, was indeed the best that I have ever had.
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You Can Learn A Lot From An Ice Cream Flavor
This piece is scheduled to run in the Capital Press in the summer of 2006.
Everything at the table got silent as soon as the oysters arrived. We were having lunch at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, and the wiater had suggested that I try the oysters. “Wavy,” I inquired of my lunch partner, “Do you want one of these oysters?”
“No way, man,” he exhorted. “Oysters are too weird for me.”
“It’s really hard for me to believe,” I chuckled, “That anything could be too weird for Wavy Gravy.”
“You’d be surprised,” he replied gravely.
In addition to being a humanitarian, a sage, a comedian, and a great dining companion, Wavy is a retired ice cream flavor. In 1991, Ben and Jerry’s, the populist ice cream company from Vermont, created the flavor “Wavy Gravy,” a combination of Caramel & Cashew Brazil Nut Ice Cream with a Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge Swirl & Toasted Almonds. Wavy became a “living flavor” and Ben and Jerry committed to dedicate a portion of the profits from the flavor to Wavy’s circus and performing arts camp, Camp Winnarainbow located three hours north of San Francisco, in Laytonville, Mendocino County.
“It was a great deal for about eight or nine years,” Wavy explained over lunch. “Ben and Jerry’s was sending us $30000 a year and it was a good part of our revenue stream for providing scholarships for economically disadvantaged youth to come to our camp. Then, Unilever bought the company in 2000, and a few months later I was informed that I was being de-commissioned as a flavor because I was not cost effective. I was the number two best-seller at the time, by the way.”
I remarked that the mindset of “cost effectiveness” generally embraces more homogenous products. “Those were bank-breaking ingredients,” I opined as I slurped down a kumamoto oyster. “The only way to make it less cost effective would have been to add a swirl of 24 caret gold to the mix.” We both laughed.
“Yeah,” he mused, “But cashews, toasted almonds, and hazelnuts are so good in ice cream. You can’t beat it.”
We turned our attention to the complexity of simple food and the beauty of a well-prepared, thoughtful meal. “In the summer, up at the camp,” he explained, “We grow a lot of the food that we feed the kids right on the farm. The salads are about two hours out of the ground: most people have never had food that fresh before, which is sad, really.”
I remarked that Chez Panisse stood as a monument to simplicity and flavor. “Those two things are so uncommon that they are frequently over-mystified,” I explained. “Wavy,” I inquired, “where do you think agriculture is headed?”
He pondered the question for a moment. “It’s not all bad news,” he stated. “I have nostalgia for the future and I get it from the kids. I see young people that are inspired to take up the plough and be creative. Things are moving in new directions and the times are changing for the current paradigm.”
He savored a bit of his fish before completing his thought. “Farmers need to partner up with chefs and they need to take chances together,” he said with aplomb. “To me that is a bright future for the farmers, the chefs, and the eaters.”
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Farm-To-Fork with Marin Sun Farms
This is part of a series of briefs that I wrote documenting Bon Appétit Management Company's Farm-To-Fork program.
Marin Sun Farms - Bon Appétit Farm Brief
David Evans of Point Reyes, California started Marin Sun Farms in 1999 to produce and market sustainable, humanely raised, great tasting, grass-fed beef. Evans, whose grandfather began farming in Northern California in 1889, is both genetically pre-disposed to ranching and deeply committed to sustainable agriculture. Although his family had sold their cows on the open market, as a commodity, for as long as he could remember, Evans decided to market all his beef under his own brand directly to his customers in his local area.
“There is a dramatic shift underway in the food industry,” Evans explains. “We are moving away from the perfect competition paradigm of the commodity market toward a more brand-oriented paradigm. In order for me to continue to ranch cattle, I had to either dramatically increase both the size of my herd and my reliance on chemicals, hormones, and antibiotics, or I create a sustainable, quality product and differentiate it as its own brand.”
Of the numerous challenges that Evans faced in his new venture, creating a scalable sales channel for beef was the most daunting. Whereas conventional ranchers rely on powerful, fast working, antibiotics and hormones to keep their animals from dying or growing too slowly, Evans’ method dictated that he work with nature to achieve these same goals. Since nature seldom moves as quickly as humans would like, Evans’ product wound require a great deal more time and effort to produce and would be significantly more expensive than conventional beef. Thus, he would need quality-minded, discerning customers to sell his beef at the prices that would be profitable to him.
After working the Farmer’s Markets for a few years, Evans realized that increasing his food service sales would allow him to grow his business significantly. However, as a small producer he was not able to ensure that the same cuts of meat would be available in the same quantities every week. “Unfortunately,” Evans states, “cows are not comprised entirely of prime cuts. One of my biggest challenges was to build my business to the point where I could sell all of the middle meats as well as all of the ground beef. For my business to survive, I would have to be able to sell the whole cow.”
Evans began working with Bon Appétit, through the Farm-to-Fork program, in his third year of business. “He was immediately impressed by the Bon Appétit chef’s level of dedication to sustainability. “Bon Appétit is the perfect example of a large company that is willing to sacrifice convenience in order to do the right thing,” he observes. “After our first meeting, Chef Thom Fox at the Acme Chophouse asked me what cuts I was having the most trouble selling. The fact that he thought about my business needs really blew me away.”
Working with Marin Sun Farms has presented the Bon Appétit chefs with both a challenge and an opportunity. “Early on in the relationship we really had to work on incorporating the whole cow into our menu,” explains Bon Appétit chef Thom Fox form the Acme Chophouse in San Francisco. “Their ground beef is spectacular, and we go through enormous amounts that, but we really had to work at integrating the more obscure cuts of meat into our menu. The great thing about this is that we have become much more creative and flexible in the kitchen.”
“I buy all of my raw beef from Marin Sun Farms,” states Bon Appétit chef Daniel Long of the De Young Museum café in San Francisco. “Since David only harvests a small number of cows per week, we have learned to use nearly everything that he produces. As a result we have discovered a number of great cuts that you just can’t get anywhere else. The velvet steak, for example, a cut that I had never heard of before I began working with David, is one of the best steaks to use in a cold salad. These are the sorts of discoveries that thrill our diners as well as our chefs.”
For David Evans working with Bon Appétit has been both a tremendous personal experience and a fundamental business opportunity. “When I started working with Bon Appétit,” he says, “I really needed a few consistent, large-volume accounts. Even though I have demand from all over the country, I don’t ship my product anywhere. In my mind that sort of business is just not sustainable. Bon Appétit’s support and flexibility has really allowed me to succeed on this local level.”
The future of the Marin Sun Farms-Bon Appétit relationship is bright indeed. “We want to help David grow his business,” Thom Fox explains. “Buy paying his premium price now, we are helping build his future. As his market grows, we will benefit from a little more flexibility in his prices.”
“Bon Appétit is so far ahead of the curve,” Evans states. “They have essentially told me that they will open up more accounts to me as I scale to serve them. This is such a progressive stance. They truly practice what they preach through the Farm-to-Fork program. They bend to work with me in order that I can scale to better work with them. It is a rare and beautiful thing.”
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Farm-To-Fork With STOGROW
This is part of a series of briefs that I wrote documenting Bon Appétit Management Company's Farm-To-Fork program.
STOGROW - Bon Appétit Farm Brief
Day Burtness, student at St. Olaf’s College in Northfield, Minnesota, had a formative agricultural experience in the summer of 2004 during her internship at Foxtail Farm. The process of producing food at the organic vegetable CSA (community supported agriculture) located in rural Wisconsin was something of a revelation to her, so she decided to find a way to share that same experience with the St. Olaf’s community at large.
After some discussion, Day, along with her friend, Dan Borek, decided to start a farm on St. Olaf’s campus in the fall of 2004. The two wanted to give their fellow students a chance to connect with their food in a tangible fashion. “We wanted them get their hands dirty,” she explains, “And also provide fresh, local, organic produce for the St. Olaf’s community. Dan and I are both passionate about increasing the sustainability of the St. Olaf’s campus. We wanted to provide the college with an agricultural education. Starting a student-run, working farm was really the best way to do that.”
The two found a perfect location for their nascent project, STOGROW in a field behind the historic James Farmhouse, which had once served as a horse corral. Day and Dan mustered a dedicated band of volunteers to prepare the site, which was badly overgrown with grasses, vines, and small trees. As they readied to plant their first crops, they focused their attention toward developing a sales channel for their produce.
“One of us decided that we should approach Bon Appétit,” Burtness explains. “We actually just approached General Manager Hays Atkins and Chef Peter with our idea. I was really nervous about being able to predict our yields or deliveries, but Hays and Peter said that Bon Appétit would purchase 100% of whatever we could deliver: a guaranteed market is every farmer's dream.”
With their sales prospects in order, STOWGROW worked toward their first harvest. “We planted a whole range of crops the first season,” Burtness explains, “ From early brassicas and lettuce mixes to later season crops like squash and tomatoes. It wasn't a good summer for brassicas and I don't think we got a single head of broccoli or more than a few bunches of kale!”
However, St. Olaf’s Bon Appétit chefs encouraged the STOGROW farmers to keep up their hard work.
“The BAMCO partnership gave us the freedom to really concentrate on farming organically instead of technical details about what we'd have for them and when. The chefs kept us working until our summer squash, eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes came on; they flourished and they were amazing.”
By the winter of 2005, the STOGROW-BAMCO relationship was in full bloom. “We ran into some hurdles that first season: a nasty invasion of squash bugs that killed off our winter squash, a hail scare, and the occasional Colorado potato beetle. But none of those things set us back all that much. The food that we have delivered was really good.”
“We love working with, fresh local produce; that is our thing,” explains Peter Abrahamson, Executive Chef at the Café at St. Olaf’s. “STOWGROW is the quintessential Farm-To-Fork situation. We are giving the students outstandingly fresh and flavorful, food grown by their peers, less than a mile away from the café. We are also composting the food scraps from the Café for STOGROW to use at the farm. So we have begun to make the STOGROW-Café relationship a self-contained loop.”
As it nears its two-year anniversary, the positive impact that STOGROW has made on the St. Olaf’s environment is clearly apparent. “Most students know that St. Olaf’s has an organic farm,” Burtness says, “and while they might not know the finer details of what it means to be organic and why local foods are better for the environment, words like "organic" and "local" are entering the dialogue on campus. I know one student who even decided to stick with college because STOGROW gave him the opportunity to maintain a connection with the land and gave him something to be hopeful about.”
Although St. Olaf’s Faculty and Administration have both played vital roles in its success, STOGROW continues to be student-driven. “Currently there are four main STOGROW student farmers,” Burtness relates, “Dan and I are training two younger students. Although, our volunteer base is always changing we are never wanting for help. Whenever we ask for help, at least 20 students reply. This summer we’re focusing on crops that we can deliver while school is still in session, like eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, and squash. In the future, we might also include edible and decorative flowers; the sky’s the limit.”
By agreeing to purchase all of STOGROW’s produce, Bon Appétit has provided the community at St. Olaf’s College with the ultimate Farm-to-Fork experience. For Day Burtness, STOGROW has been a life-shaping experience. “I plan to work on farms all over the country to gain more experience,” she says. “Then I hope to either start my own organic farm or continue my education and work on agricultural policy and food security issues. I will definitely be involved in agriculture in some way for the rest of my life.”
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The Starbucks Explosion, Artisan Roasters, and the American Farmer
This piece is scheduled to run in the Capital PRess in the summer of 2006
One of the most explosive areas of the food industry in the past several years has been gourmet coffee. One need not look any farther than the baffling proliferation of Starbuck’s outlets for proof that American consumers are increasingly turning to specialty coffee drinks as their primary vehicle for caffeine ingestion.
In 1986, coffee aficionados would really have to hunt to find an espresso-based beverage outside of a major metropolitan area. In 2006, there are nineteen hundred and sixty-five Starbucks in California, with four outlets in the city of Lodi alone. The ubiquity of Starbucks ensures that the aficionado is never too far from their next white mocha frapuccino, affogato style with one pump of hazzlenut and one pump of toffee nut syrup.
Although one may expect the opposite, the Starbucks explosion has been patently good for many small roasters. One of my favorite coffee purveyors is Peerless coffee of Oakland, Ca. Peerless was founded in 1920, by John Vukasin, a Yugoslavian immigrant with a dream to become the premier supplier of European style coffees in the Bay Area. The company, currently headed by John’s grandson, George Vukashin, Jr. has flourished in the shadow of Starbucks.
“One of the greatest things that Starbucks has done,” Vukasin explains, “is educate consumers about coffee. They have really built the market for the smaller roasters. They are tough competition but we are artisan roasters. We only buy Aribica beans, we don’t use any Robusto beans as filler, and we roast our beans in small batches to enhance the flavor of the beans. Our customers are looking for flavor so we offer more than one hundred and twenty-five different types of coffee including varietals, estate coffees, and flavored coffee beans.”
After watching Peerless’ roasters at work, it struck me that coffee, like wine, olive oil, scotch, and so many other specialty foods, possesses its own world of flavor. Each bean has it own natural dominant flavors and the beans can be blended with other beans to create a blend flavor that is stronger than the sum of its parts. I asked Vukasin how he differentiates his product from commodity coffee. “The quality of our beans and our roasting is our signature,” he replied. “We don’t try to compete with industrial roasted beans. We have also developed our organic and fair trade offerings.”
I asked him to what degree fair trade helps coffee growers. “Interestingly enough,” he stated, “there has been a glut of fair trade coffee recently. Some fair trade growers are actually selling their coffee on the open market when the conventional price is higher than the floor Fair Trade price. This is a classic example of the fact that adjectives like organic and fair trade do little to insulate growers from oversupply issues.”
I asked Vukasin what advice he had for farmers. “Commodity farming in the United States is a dead end right now,” he opined. “To stay competitive, commodity growers will have to get bigger. Otherwise, they should plan on getting smaller and developing their own markets and channels. Adjectives won’t protect them from market problems but relationships can.”
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