Volume 1, Issue 2 Winter 2023–24
edible
Member of Edible Communities
MENDOCINO & LAKE COUNTIES Celebrating Local Food and Drink, Season by Season
Winter Cocktails
Ganjiers | The Dream Team at Elk Cove Inn | Love & Lettuce
What’s Cooking Winter 2023–24
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mendocino & lake counties
2 PUBLISHER’S LETTER 4 THE DREAM TEAM OF THE COAST
PUBLISHER & MANAGING EDITOR
He’s a chef, she’s a sommelier. They’re also the managers and co-owners of Elk Cove Inn in Elk. Read about how they combined their talents to transform the inn into an exquisite farm-to-table wining and dining destination.
Karen Elowitt DESIGNER Cheryl Koehler CONTACT US To reach us by mail: Edible Mendocino & Lake Counties 705 N. State Street #191 Ukiah, CA 95482
12 GROUND ZERO FOR THE GANJIER As the cannabis industry has grown and matured post-legalization, the “cannabis sommelier” is a concept whose time has come. We explore the local origins of the certification program, and talk to two local Ganjiers.
For advertising inquiries please email: ads@ediblemendoino.com. For editorial inquiries and press releases, please email: karen@ediblemendocino.com Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings, and omissions. If, however, an error comes to your attention, please accept our sincere apologies and notify us. Thank you.
18 A TALE OF LOVE AND LETTUCE Witter Springs couple Robert Brust and Joel Costa are known as “the lettuce guys” of Lake County. Learn how they built a thriving heirloom vegetable farm through teamwork and a shared love of gardening.
No part of this publication may be used without written permission of the publisher. © 2023. All rights reserved. Edible Mendocino & Lake Counties is published quarterly in September, December, March and June. Distribution is throughout Mendocino and Lake counties, and nationally by subscription.
22 WINTER COCKTAILS
Visit EdibleMendocino.com to explore our online content, subscribe to the magazine, sign up for our newsletter, find out about advertising, and much more.
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When the weather’s lousy outside this winter, these seasonally inspired cocktail recipes from four of our favorite bars and restaurants will pull you out of the doldrums and let you unleash your inner mixologist.
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Partnership We made it to issue #2! It’s terrifying and exciting to launch a new magazine. There’s no way of knowing in advance how it will be received in the community, and whether readers will like it. But we are thrilled and heartened to know that so many of you not only read the first issue, but loved it and absorbed every page of it! In this issue we’re excited to bring you more stories, recipes and images to occupy your mind and delight your taste buds. This winter is bound to be long, dark, and cold, but hopefully we won’t experience 90 days of non-stop rain like we did last winter. Though if we do, it’s the perfect excuse to stay indoors, take an inventory of your liquor cabinet, and try out some of the creative winter cocktails on pages 25-26. We’ve also got a tasty vegetarian salad that features delicata squash, an heirloom variety that grows in winter. “Winter” is the official theme of this issue, but the unofficial theme is “collaboration” and how it seems to be the secret sauce for success. On page 4 we get to know Melissa Boon and Victor Passalaqua, a chef and a sommelier whose teamwork transformed Elk Cove Inn into a terrific place to stay, wine, and dine on the coast. On page 18 we learn how Joel Costa and Robert Brust’s combined talents in farming and marketing have put them on the map as the “lettuce guys” of Lake County. And all of our cocktail recipes are the product of collaborations between the creative minds at some of Mendocino and Lake county’s most beloved bars and restaurants. Collaboration is also at the core of our food and wine community. The combined efforts of hundreds of dedicated chefs, beekeepers, viticulturists, delivery drivers, bakers, market managers and countless others have collectively kept our local food systems humming along in 2023. We thank them for the fruits of their labor and we look forward to another year of nourishment.
Karen Elowitt Publisher and Managing Editor
THE Edge OF THE WORLD has never been closer.
Sweeping ocean views from virtually every room, the family-owned and historic Little River Inn has been intriguing and entrancing guests for more than 80 years. With a world-class restaurant and bar (James Dean was once kicked out for putting his feet up), Aububon-certiied golf course, stunning ocean views, hot tub room options, pet-friendly rooms, and easy access to miles of hiking amongst the redwoods at Van Damme State Park, this is truly a resort you can escape to for days or weeks at a time. www.littleriverinn.com or 707.937.5942
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All photos courtesy of Rex Pickett
The Dream Team of the Coast How Victor Passalaqua and Melissa Boon combined their talents to transform Elk Cove Inn into an exquisite farm-to-fork wining and dining destination BY KAREN ELOWITT | IMAGES BY YVONNE BOYD 4
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f you’ve ever had a meal at Sibo restaurant at Elk Cove Inn, you’ll know that the dining room is rather small. The view to the horizon is infinite, but inside there’s not much room to maneuver. You bump elbows and knees with your dining partners, and the table quickly gets cluttered with cutlery, glassware, and bottles of wine. But once the flavors start to hit your palate, they make a big impact. Suddenly the cramped quarters cease to matter and your taste buds come alive with the fruitiness of the robust local wines, the freshness of the home-grown vegetables, the tang of inventive scratch-made sauces, and the savoriness of the tender fish and meats that occupy plate after plate.
Melissa, a certified sommelier, works the room with an air of calm serenity. Tall, with a mop of blonde dreadlocks atop her head, she deftly navigates the narrow spaces between tables as she cheerfully suggests pairings with her faint French accent. She frequently pops into the kitchen to check in on Victor, her husband, as he zigzags back and forth around the room. A dark-haired, compact bundle of energy, they converse in French as he bounces from stove to oven to counter and back, nearly single-handedly preparing every one of the perfectly plated dishes. Only at the end of the evening does he emerge, tired but happy, to chat with guests before retiring for the night. Chef and sommelier are only two of the many roles that Victor and Melissa play at the inn, which they have co-owned with partner Rakesh Taneja since 2020. They are also the inn’s managers, gardeners, beekeepers, goat-herders, and poulterers. It’s a 24/7 endeavor (except for their days off).
“Sometimes you have to leave a little space for things to come together.” With their combined skills and commitment to farm-to-fork dining, they’ve simultaneously fulfilled their dreams and turned the inn into a lodging and dining destination to rival any of the better-known spots on the Mendocino coast. However, owning and running an inn and restaurant was not part of their original plan, somewhat surprisingly. The last few years have shown them that sometimes life takes you in unexpected directions—and when it does, to embrace it. Before landing in Mendocino County, the couple lived together for over a decade in south Florida. Miami was where they met, but they had both previously lived and worked in numerous places around the globe. Victor, who was born in Peru and raised in Montreal, worked in 27 different countries before coming to Miami, where he ran a number of different restaurants. With Melissa, who was born in France, raised in the Dominican Republic, and educated in Texas, they co-owned a Miami-based wine distribution company that imported French wines. When Victor’s son left for college in 2019, they decided it was time to move on. Victor was ready for a different type of work, and Melissa didn’t want to stay in Miami. So they closed their wine company, and after much discussion, bought an RV and hit the road. “I had been mulling over the RV idea for about a year before I mentioned it to Victor,” Melissa said. “He was like, ‘So what’s the plan?’ I said, ‘Well, the plan really is to have no plan.’ I had this idea that eventually we could have a homestead out west, and we could learn along the way. We could do odd jobs, and maybe work on farms. We could learn from people that knew how to farm, knew how to garden and take care of animals—stuff like that. But Victor is very structured. He’s always EdibleMendocino.com
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Photo by Karen Elowitt
known where he’s going and how he’s going, and I’m the opposite. So I had to really sell the idea to him.” Eventually Victor was persuaded, and they set off on their journey in October 2019. They were able to explore a fair bit of the southern and southwestern states—plus a stint in the Dominican Republic— before the pandemic put a wrench in their plans. When RV parks and campgrounds shut down in early 2020, they decided to hole up with friends in rural Colorado for a few months and come up with a Plan B. After the lockdown ended they decided to try to find temporary caretaker roles, which is how they ended up at Elk Cove Inn. Rakesh, the inn’s sole owner at that time, had posted an ad for live-in innkeepers, and hired Melissa and Victor on a six-month contract. “The inn had been closed for three months when we arrived in the spring of 2020, and it was a mess, a horrible mess,” Victor said. “Nothing was clean or in working condition, and the amount of debris on the property filled up two truckloads.” The short version of what happened next is that they set to work fixing up the inn and getting guests back into the rooms, then when the six months were up, made a deal with Rakesh to become coowners. The long version is that Melissa once again had to convince Victor to make the leap. She fell in love with the place pretty early on, but his appreciation for the inn and the Mendocino coast was slower to come. 6
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“It’s funny because I’d been traveling all over the world with Victor, and I had never wanted to settle down before,” Melissa said. “That’s why we got the RV—I just liked moving around and traveling and doing a little of this and a little of that. But the moment we set foot here, I thought ‘This feels like home.’ It really did, and it still does now. I just feel like we are where we’re supposed to be. I put it down to the fact that there was no plan, and sometimes you have to leave a little space for things to come together.” Some of Victor’s hesitation stemmed from his reluctance to become a restaurateur again. He knew that if he and Melissa became fulltime owners, they’d have to re-open the restaurant so that guests would not have to leave the property to eat. But Victor wasn’t sure he wanted to go back into the kitchen. At least not the type of kitchen he was used to running in the past. “The restaurant was never supposed to happen,” Victor said. “I saw this as a place to retire. I told Melissa very clearly, I do not want to have a restaurant, I do not want to cook, especially if I’m going to have to cook by myself. Are you kidding me? I used to walk into a kitchen and have 40 staff.” It was a chance encounter with a tired traveling nun that changed his mind, and showed him that a restaurant could be about more than business. It could be about something bigger—about connecting with the community, and connecting guests to the essence of Mendocino County.
“[The nun] had been driving for three days up the coast, and sleeping in her car,” Victor said. “She was some kind of medical first responder, going to a hospital up north I think. She asked if she could park her car at the inn and sleep in it. We told her the place was empty and said she could sleep in a room for free. She was very thankful. She was also very hungry, and said she was going to eat a Slim Jim for dinner. We thought she was joking, but she wasn’t. So we invited her to eat with us, since we were going to eat anyway. The next day, before she left, she said she didn’t have money to pay us, but wanted to give us a tip. She put two joints in my hand.” “At first I was like ‘Where are the cameras? Where are the cops,’ but the nun said ‘it’s OK, it’s OK, don’t worry, it’s Mendocino.’ I’m like, ‘Okay. I didn’t know that. I didn’t know about Mendocino.’ After that, other travelers, essential workers, started coming here to stay. In two weeks all of our rooms were full.” Victor started cooking for guests, but he only made what he and Melissa would normally eat at home. There was no menu—just five appetizers, five main courses, and one dessert. Then over the next two years it evolved into a full-fledged fine-dining establishment—with printed menus to boot—with the majority of the ingredients grown or raised on site, foraged locally, or purchased from local farms. The restaurant’s farm-to-fork approach came about partly out of necessity, and partly out of principle. Melissa was keenly aware of EdibleMendocino.com
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the universe of fruits, vegetables, fungi, seafoods and wines that were available locally, and she knew that she wanted to incorporate as many of them as possible into the menu from the start. The inn’s onsite garden and farm provided ample space to start producing, while simultaneously allowing the couple to achieve their original goal of becoming homesteaders—in a manner of speaking. And once they realized the downsides of having food shipped in from afar, it sealed the decision to go local. “We considered buying our food from large suppliers, but we could not get quality products,” Victor said. “So for local produce we grow it here, or buy direct from places like Fortunate Farm up in Caspar. We also trade a lot of stuff. I started making mushroom risotto because this neighbor started bringing all these mushrooms. It was actually more than we could afford to pay for, so he said he would do a trade. So we’re like, yeah, sure, you can come and have dinner with us.” They manage to produce a surprising amount on the premises of the inn, which comprises three separate fruit and vegetable gardens, a flock of egg-producing chickens, a collection of rabbits, a beehive, and four milk-producing goats that are very attached to Victor— one in particular will even follow him all the way down to the beach.
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As we walk the property, Melissa and Victor point out the various lettuces, kale, lemon balm, mint, broccoli, tomatoes, strawberries, golden berries, melons, parsley, celery, squash, peppers, chamomile (for tea), oregano, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, rhubarb, zucchini, asparagus and peas growing in the greenhouse, raised beds, and other places. “We’ve used every inch of this property,” Victor said. “It’s not huge, but we have enough space to have a little of everything, every day. I don’t need to have 20 zucchinis—I can have one. I don’t need to have 30 asparagus—if I have five, it’s enough for two plates.” “Commercially, it’s not a bright thing to do,” Victor continued. “It’s not cheaper to grow it. But when you see the guests having the eggs and they go, ‘Oh, my God, that’s the best omelet I ever had! What did you do?’ I say, ‘we just collected the eggs, picked the vegetables and cooked them!’ That’s it. We don’t do anything else.” “We do it the Mendocino way,” he added. “Your menu is determined by what’s out there. This is the produce I can get, the specific meats I can get. This is how I can make it work, make it fresh each day. People come here and they want to try the local stuff, the local wines. It’s just been a natural evolution of the food and the wine that we’ve put together.”
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Nutritious, delicious, gluten-free baked goods for all! Available at Mendocino County farmers markets and select retailers. Visit our website to find locations or to order online!
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The wine selection, curated primarily by Melissa, comprises mainly Mendocino County wines, plus a smattering from elsewhere in the U.S., and France. It also evolved over the last two years, like the food menu. “We started with the two really bad wines, but we eventually went and checked out all the local wineries,” Melissa said. “We went and tasted the wines and met the winemakers, and met with the owners. Anderson Valley especially has a lot of great wines to offer people.” In addition to creating the wine list, Melissa has a hand in nearly everything else at the inn. This includes the menu, the garden, the events, and the decor. Her job also includes pushing Victor past his characteristic reluctance, and out of his comfort zone. “Everything that we do here comes from Melissa,” Victor said. “She is the one that wants to try things. She’s the one that will force me to do this, to do that.” Melissa gives an example: “We had a friend that introduced us to the cove here,” she explained. “It has all these sea urchins and mussels and things. I get so excited about stuff like that, but Victor is like, ‘I’ve done this before. I know the work that it takes to clean them. I am not doing this.’ But I asked him ‘can you make an uni sauce or something?’ And he was like ‘I’m busy with the restaurant!’” She wraps up the anecdote by noting that the sauce didn’t happen right at that moment, but they eventually did some experimenting on one of their days off, and found a way to incorporate the urchins into the menu. Melissa is not the only one helping Victor expand his repertoire. Despite thinking that he had seen and done it all in his previous 30+ year career, Mendocino has managed to teach him a few new things. “There’s a lot of stuff here that you don’t have anywhere else, like the cauliflower mushroom,” he said. “I didn’t even know what it was at first. Then I met this local guy who said ‘I cook it like this and like 10
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this and like this.’ I’m a freaking chef and the guy is showing me how to do it, and I’m watching. Then I started trying other things. It’s kind of awesome.” The restaurant serves breakfast and dinner five evenings a week, and also hosts winemaker dinners and other special events. Victor does all the cooking himself. With a dining room that seats about 30 people and only offers two seatings per night, it keeps him busy without being overwhelming. He now considers cooking a labor of love, rather than just labor. “At the end of the day, we only have nine tables. We don’t want to have anymore. I’m not trying to work more,” Victor said “We don’t see it as a business. It’s just supposed to be this cozy, quaint experience that makes everybody happy.” That pretty much sums up their business model, and general life philosophy. Elk is a very small community with a number of businesses competing for limited visitors, but Melissa and Victor believe that it doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. It’s about having a cake and sharing it,” Victor explained. “That’s one reason we don’t serve lunch. I started thinking about it at one point, but then Melissa said ‘what about the Elk Store? Their biggest seller is clam chowder and sandwiches.’ We don’t really need the extra income from lunch, but they rely on it. Does it make sense business-wise for us? Not really. But as a community, I think it makes 100% sense. I’m successful, but you can be successful too.” Elk Cove Inn and Sibo Restaurant are located at 6300 S. Highway 1, Elk, CA 95432. For more information on accommodation, dining, or tours, call 800-275-2967 or 707-877-3321, or visit elkcoveinn.com.
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Ground Zero for the Ganjier The local origins—and graduates— of the program that certifies the “sommeliers of cannabis” BY KAREN ELOWITT
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Gan-ji-er (gän·ji·yə): a cannabis guide or educator
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f you’re local to the Emerald Triangle region of California—or just well-versed in the lingo of cannabis—you’ve probably heard the term “Ganjier.” If you haven’t, it’s a portmanteau of “ganja” and “sommelier,” and describes a person who functions as a cannabis guide and educator. As the cannabis industry has grown and matured post-legalization, the concept is one whose time has clearly come. Legalization has resulted in greater complexity of all facets of the industry, from the variety of strains and clones that cultivators can choose from, to the rules and regulations that producers must follow, to the proliferation of consumer products on the market. Ganjiers are the perfect complement to this expansion. As of 2021, it’s actually an official certification one can earn, thanks to the Certified Ganjier® program developed in northern California by the Ganjier Council, a group of cannabis experts associated with cannabis education company Green Flower. Ukiah resident Amanda Reiman, a Ganjier Council member and co-developer of the certification program’s curriculum and assessments, explained that it evolved out of a desire to elevate knowledge and professionalism in the industry from top to bottom. “The idea was to create something that’s going to be useful all the way down the supply chain from the grower to the consumer, so that people are getting the best experiences, and they have more knowledge to rely on when making decisions,” said Reiman, an internationally recognized cannabis expert and public health researcher. “Maybe you’re a cultivator trying to figure out what strains to grow, a manufacturer trying to figure out what strains to put into your products, a dispensary deciding what to stock on the shelves, a budtender trying to decide what to recommend to a consumer, or a consumer trying to figure out what to ask for when you go into a dispensary. The Ganjier’s role is to educate not just the consumer, but also the growers, the producers, everybody from the whole life cycle.”
Amanda Reiman, an internationally recognized cannabis expert, public health researcher, and co-developer of the Ganjier program curriculum (photo courtesy of Amanda Reiman). Opposite: A cannabis farmer in Lake County
neither should you grade cannabis solely by how much THC the products contain. With wine it’s the flavor, it’s the way that the grapes are grown, how the wine is made, and the quality of that production. And so bringing those same aspects to cannabis was really the impetus for the Ganjier program.” Having this structured, comprehensive knowledge differentiates Ganjiers from your average budtender, and is where they can offer quantifiable value. Reiman noted that the general public’s base knowledge of cannabis has grown significantly as its stigma has lessened, but the volume of new products and the advances in cannabis science have grown even faster—making it hard for the layperson to keep up. “Back in the days of prohibition, most people’s knowledge of cannabis was just like, ‘Oh, I’m going to go to my dealer and get some flower and smoke it,’” Reiman said. “Now that everything’s out in the open, people are starting to realize the complexity of not only the types of products you can smoke, drink, and eat, but the differences and effects of all the different ingredients like terpenes, and cannabinoids such as THC, CBD, CBG and CBN. For example, limonene is a very high energizing terpene, but linalool and myrcene will put you to sleep. So if I’m making a product that I’m advertising as a daytime product and it has terpenes in it that put you to sleep, then the consumer is not going to get what they want. Certified Ganjiers understand how
In the same way that a sommelier’s knowledge encompasses terroir, cultivation, varietals, and aromas, so too does the Ganjier’s. The certification program provides standards for both cannabis terminology and assessment that in many ways parallel those of the wine industry’s sommelier certification.
those terpenes play out against each other and can help people make the right choices so they can have good, positive, safe experiences.”
“The goal was to develop a standardized curriculum, a knowledge set that we think everyone who claims to have this level of education should know,” Reiman added. “And also a standardized protocol of grading cannabis like they have with wine, but not just on THC percentage. You don’t grade wine by how drunk it makes you, and
Amanda Reiman’s brother Scott Reiman was part of the first class of certified Ganjiers. Based in San Rafael, he does one-on-one consulting sessions through his company Fog City Cannabis, as well as product education events at restaurants, bars, and dispensaries in Mendocino County and other parts of northern California.
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Before getting certified, Scott had worked in dispensaries on and off for several years, and was intrigued by the beneficial effects that cannabis had on people’s health and wellbeing. He decided to enroll in the Ganjier program in order to take his career in cannabis to the next level. “I loved being able to talk to people [at dispensaries] and educate them, and see people with ailments come back healthy,” Scott said. “Seeing people’s lives change from cannabis use was very rewarding. I saw lots of opportunity for growth in the industry, and knew that becoming certified would help fill the gaps in my knowledge.” Scott’s private consulting practice is focused on those who are new to cannabis and want advice on where and what to buy. He knew from experience that dispensaries can be confusing and intimidating, and that budtenders do not always make the correct recommendations. By arming 14
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his clients with information, Scott equips them to walk into their local dispensary with the ability to ask for the right products at the right dosage.
Before their initial consult, Scott’s clients fill out an assessment form that provides him with background on their current cannabis usage and knowledge, medical ailments, desired effects, and preferred method of consumption. The personalized sessions last either 15 or 30 minutes, and are normally done over Zoom. Follow-up sessions are also available. “Education is what I love most,” Scott said. “It’s important to be able to talk to someone who is a trained professional, who won’t feed you misinformation.” He pointed out that the Ganjier certification exam uniquely prepares students for this type of consulting, by requiring students to participate in a comprehensive “mock consult”
Ganjier instructors Derek Gilman, Patrick King and Nikka T demonstrate to students, including NFL great turned canna-entrepreneur Ricky Williams, the proper usage of jeweler’s loupes to discern cannabis quality. (Photo courtesy of Chris Johnson)
with a member of the Ganjier Council. During this assessment, students are asked a series of questions that customers might ask when they come to a dispensary, then they are graded on the appropriateness and accuracy of their responses and recommendations. Scott is a specialist in cannabis beverages, and is sponsored by CANN, one of the largest cannabis beverage companies in the country. He does happy hours and brunches aimed at not only promoting the product, but teaching the public about its effects and safe usage.
experiences such as “bud bars” and wine-cannabis pairings are becoming increasingly popular. In addition to educating end-users about products and safe usage, Ganjiers can play an important role in areas such as cannabis licensing, permitting, regulation, and even tourism. We talked to one local Ganjier who preferred not to be named or quoted, but was willing to provide insight into how Ganjiers function in these aspects of the industry.
Welcome to the brave new world of legal cannabis. Need a guide? Call a Ganjier®. “Cannabis beverages are the future,” he said. “They allow THC to act more quickly because it’s contained in nano particles that absorb directly into the mouth. They have a faster and steadier onset than edibles, which take time to digest and absorb through the gut. Beverages are hard to over-consume—you don’t get these nightmare stories of people over-doing it because they thought they hadn’t consumed enough, when they really just hadn’t waited long enough to feel the effects.” Scott recently participated in a craft cocktail happy hour at the Andiron in Mendocino, where he gave a 20-minute seminar on how to use CANN as an ingredient in blended cocktails. He’s also done a “bubbly brunch” at The Plant Shop, where the featured drink was the cannabis mimosa. He plans to expand into private events such as weddings and parties, where curated cannabis EdibleMendocino.com
Since legalization, cultivators in particular face a gnarly thicket of rules, permits, licenses, and regulations that can be tough to navigate alone. Gone are the days when they could grow off the grid in privacy—now, if they want to take their products to market, they have to stay in compliance with an alphabet soup of agencies. Licensing and permitting challenges are exacerbated by the fact that Proposition 64 doesn’t recognize cannabis as an agricultural product—it’s considered a commercial product. So cannabis farmers actually face more stringent rules and regulations than other agricultural producers. There are about 15 different organizations and regulatory agencies that growers have to report to, from the CDFW (California Department of Fish and Wildlife) to the CDFA (California Department of Food and Agriculture). Ganjiers, by acting as
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facilitators, help get cultivators through the extensive checklist of items and coordinate with all the different organizations. Cannabis law and policy is an area that’s proving to be a challenge to communities, which often struggle to oversee industry activity in their jurisdictions. Many don’t have a prohibition on cannabis, but they also don’t necessarily have a system for regulating it, or the bandwidth to do so. Ganjiers use their expertise to help cities, counties and other municipalities to create ordinances and policies that work, and decide which government department(s) will be responsible for oversight and enforcement. As cannabis tourism grows in the Emerald Triangle and beyond, Ganjiers are also playing a role in advising tour companies. In addition to connecting them with cultivators and dispensaries, they can suggest products, pairings and cannabis-related events that are likely to appeal to customers, many of whom come from states where recreational use is not legal. Welcome to the brave new world of legal cannabis. Need a guide? Call a Ganjier®.
Cannabis beverages from The Plant Shop dispensary in Ukiah (Photo courtesy of The Plant Shop)
Right: Scott Reiman speaks at an event at the Andiron. Above: Amanda Reiman and Scott Reiman celebrate Scott earning his Ganjier certification. (Photos courtesy of Scott Reiman)
Want to become a Certified Ganjier? The Ganjier program is currently enrolling for the class of 2024. 240 spots are available. Anyone can enroll, but it is strongly recommended that candidates have a significant amount of existing cannabis experience. The certification consists of a series of online courses, a 2-day in-person training in Humboldt County, and three in-person exams. For more information about enrollment, curriculum and tuition rates, visit www.ganjier.com 16
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A Tale of Love and Lettuce How one foodie couple built a thriving heirloom vegetable farm through teamwork and a shared love of gardening
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ottonwood Farm in Witter Springs is an A to Z of vegetables. Somewhere between a hobby garden and a full-scale farm, only about half of the three-acre property is under cultivation, but it bursts with life.
The area immediately behind the house features raised beds that are thick with heirloom leafy greens: spinach, bok choy, lola rosa, Napa cabbage, friseé, escarole, swiss chard, collard greens, salanova, butter lettuce, ruby sky lettuce, curly mustard and Russian kale. Tomato vines climb trellises around the perimeter. A few steps further into the yard is a sizeable fenced field that has alternating rows of rhubarb, radicchio, red chioggia beets, chicory, Chinese red radishes, white alpine Korean radishes, daikon, golden beets, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, peppers, cucumbers, winter squash, Tokyo turnips, and baby fennel. Marigolds anchor the ends of each row, to keep
pests away. In between the beds and the field are plots containing exotic melons, including genios and Japanese silver yamatos. To the left of the house is a lettuce nursery, where hundreds of nascent shoots live for their first four weeks, protected from the elements, before they are transplanted into the raised beds. Then there are the critters. To the right of the veggie garden is a corral with four adorable goats—the resident lawn mowers—and facing it is an enclosure with free-range chickens—mostly hens, but also three rather vocal roosters. A frisky German shepherd zooms to-and-fro, stopping to sniff the goats periodically. One of the fine-feathered hens struts past as we peer over the fence into the chicken enclosure. “That’s Henrietta,” says Joel Costa, who co-owns the farm with his husband, Robert Brust. “She’s a beauty.”
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Courtesy of Cottonwood Farm
Cottonwood Farm chickens, a freshly picked Italian long sweet pepper, and a bag of mixed Cottonwood lettuces at the market. Opposite: Joel Costa and Robert Brust on the porch of their house at Cottonwood Farm in Witter Springs
If you shop at Lake County farmers’ markets, you may recognize the couple. Regular vendors for the last couple of years at the Kelseyville and Middletown markets, they are perhaps best known for their hugely popular grab-and-go mixed lettuce bags. But they also sell whole heads of lettuce, farm fresh eggs, and whichever varieties of their heirloom vegetables are in season at the moment. Their mutual passion for cultivation, along with Brust’s culinary experience and Costa’s flair for marketing, have made Cottonwood Farm a success in a surprisingly short time. Unlike some of their Witter Springs neighbors, who have farmed or ranched their land for decades, Brust and Costa are newer to the area—but not new to growing vegetables. They were both avid gardeners in their youth, and it became a shared hobby not long after they first met in the East Bay in the early 90s. “Robert used to garden when he was younger, at home in New York, and I used to garden either at my grandparents’ place or the house that I grew up in the East Bay,” Costa, who is a vegetarian, explained. “My grandparents had the strangest little plot of land you’ve ever seen. The place was literally like a little mini farm. They had grapes and fruit trees and lots of animals. So I grew up with that, and learned from my grandfather how to tend to the vegetables and other things.” “So when we first got together we both shared a love of gardening,” he continued. “We sought out a garden allotment in San Francisco when we moved there in the early 2000s, and were actually on a waitlist for years. We ended up getting a plot in Ogden Terrace Community Garden in Bernal Heights in 2008, then in 2017 moved to Dearborn Garden in the Mission District.” For many years they grew produce as a hobby, while Brust worked first as a chef at many of the top restaurants in the city, then as a catering chef. Costa worked in hospitality at various well-known hotels, first as a manager and later in sales and marketing. “We would grow our own vegetables, and make them a part of what we were eating and what we were entertaining with – that sort of thing,” Costa said. “It was a lot of work. I would have to get up at five o’clock in the morning to go over there and water, and then go to work. Sometimes in the hot summer months I’d have to water mid-day again.” EdibleMendocino.com
But they both had a vague idea that eventually they wanted to take growing produce to the next level – and do it outside of the city. “This whole farm thing was on the back burner in my head,” Brust said. “It was a little dream that kept floating in and out, because I’m a chef and I like to garden. We decided we wanted to basically have a place outside of San Francisco to go to on the weekends where we would have enough land to grow things. Sort of a vacation home that would eventually become a retirement home.” They initially started looking at properties in Sonoma County, but on the recommendation of a friend at Peace and Plenty Farm in Kelseyville, they expanded their search to Lake County. After looking at several places, they settled on the property that would become Cottonwood Farm, which had previously been a horse ranch. They closed the deal in late 2019, and named the property after the giant old cottonwood trees that dot the land. When the pandemic hit shortly thereafter, Brust lost his job and moved up to the farm to quarantine. He watched from afar as the Bay Area’s restaurant industry slowly imploded over the course of the year, and decided that his timeline to become a full-time farmer might as well shift from “sometime in the future” to “now.” “We bought the house right before COVID, then my career disappeared,” Brust explained. “I was a caterer in San Francisco, and there were just thousands and thousands of us out of work. A lot of the companies I was working for, they didn’t even make it to the other side.” “We didn’t know we were going to start the farm as early as we did, but once the pandemic hit, it became ‘what do we do now?’ Costa added. “Robert made the decision not to go back to work as a chef and to stay up here full-time.” So the two of them set about building their farm. Brust took the lead as the full-time, hands-on half of the pair, while Costa co-managed from San Francisco during the week—where he still works as the director of sales and marketing at 1 Hotel—and onsite at the farm on weekends. Despite their combined gardening experience, they found that organic farming was not always easy. “There has been a lot of trial and error,” Brust admitted. “My aunt
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Edith gave me a stack of organic gardening magazines when I was 14 or 15, and I stick to those principles, but we’ve also been learning a lot as we go along.” With input from their farm manager/partner Owen, they tried different methods of eradicating pests, building up the soil quality, and attracting beneficial insects like bees, ladybugs and praying mantises. Since they were committed to avoiding pesticides and fertilizers, they eventually settled on neem oil and diatomaceous earth to repel unwanted bugs, and the use of aromatics, native flowers and perennials to encourage the good critters. “Owen brings a lot of knowledge to the table to help us out,” Brust said. “When we encountered things like the little beetles, he suggested the diatomaceous earth. I had never heard of it, but he was like, ‘Yeah, that should work.’” “We’re still trying to fight off the gophers, but the flooding last winter seems to have diminished their population,” Costa added. “Aside from cats and foxes and a few other things, we don’t really have many other predators. We’re pretty lucky that way. The dog guards the farm, but we do lock up the chickens at night.” They also decide on a combination of compost and other natural products to help enhance their soil, feed the animals, and keep the farm a zero-waste operation.
So we decided to focus on it, and really just be ‘the lettuce people.’” “We do try to have the salad mix available every single week, as well as head lettuce and things like that,” he added. “We grow really nice varieties that you don’t see in the grocery stores.” As for the other types of heirloom vegetables they offer, they say it’s all about experimenting and seeing what customers respond to. “We just grow things that we love, and we also try to grow things that are different that you’re not going to see everywhere,” Costa said. “Then occasionally, we try something really odd, and it either sells or it doesn’t, like the pink celery. They actually grow pink celery in the rooftop garden at the hotel that I work at, and I was like ‘I’ve never seen it before. I have to have it!’ We finally grew it here – it took two years, but we did it!” They have found that people are pretty receptive to whatever they grow, because their customers – like Brust and Costa themselves – like to try new things in the kitchen. “We tend to find a lot of our customers really are very creative cooks,” Costa said. “One lady is always sending us pictures of the amazing things she makes with our vegetables. We’ve had other customers bring us things that they make with our vegetables, too. One did a spicy onion jam that we still have in our fridge. It’s great.”
“There has been a lot of trial and error.” “Since we have very heavy clay soil, we use agricultural gypsum to help loosen it and break it up,” Brust said. “This releases the nutrients that are already in there. And we bring in mushroom compost from Cold Creek Compost in Potter Valley, plus we make some ourselves. The scrap waste from our crops goes into our compost pile, as do scraps from our personal kitchen. The compost provides additional nutrients to the soil, and the chickens eat it too. We just try to create ways of repurposing everything.” Once the vegetables took root, Costa put his marketing expertise to work and started creating a brand identity. He designed a website, took photos, created social media accounts and hashtags, and began the process of registering as a vendor at Lake County farmers markets. They started selling their produce at farmers markets in early 2021, almost as soon as they had their first harvest, and did well from day one. Early on they zeroed in on the idea of selling bagged lettuce mixes, partly because lettuce was their specialty, and partly based on feedback from customers. “We would always sell out if we had lettuce,” Costa said. “So we started listening to customers and understanding what they liked, which was often fresh salads and that sort of thing. We learned that these people were generally older or single, they didn’t want large amounts of food, and they didn’t want uneaten food to rot. So we came up with the idea of bagging it and having it washed, mixed and ready to go. It took off and we would sell out of it. Then people started texting us, asking us to hold a bag for them, that sort of thing. 20
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In addition to Cottonwood Farm, Brust and Costa now have Cottonwood Kitchen, which has allowed Brust to start cooking again commercially. Through this part of the business the couple sells fun and tasty gourmet dips, spreads, soups, sauces, and condiments. “It’s just little deli tubs now, then we’re going to move to little premade salads,” Brust said. “We’re planning to make our own kimchi too this year. We’ll see where we go from there. I feel really good about it.” Clearly the sky is the limit for both Cottonwood Farm, and for Brust and Costa personally. Though they’ve been together for 32+ years, they clearly enjoy being around each other. Their conversation flows easily and is punctuated by constant smiles and laughter. Their teamwork in life and in business seems to be the essence of their success. “We have always done projects together,” Costa said. “From gardening, to being ‘the hostess with the mostest’ and having people over to the house for Thanksgiving dinner, to the farm—we just enjoy doing things with each other, and sharing it with others.” You can buy Cottonwood Farm and Cottonwood Kitchen products at the Kelseyville Farmers Market (Saturday), the Middletown Farmers Market (Friday), and at Nature’s Food Center in Lakeport. For more information, visit www.cottonwoodmarketfarm.com.
Quinoa and Roasted Delicata Squash Salad with Shallot Citrus Vinaigrette Serves 2–4 1 cup quinoa 1 delicata squash ¼ cup fresh thyme ¼ cup fresh parsley ¼ cup pickled red onions 1 teaspoon minced shallots Pinch of citrus zest (lemon, lime or mandarin) 2 teaspoons citrus juice 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar 1 teaspoon honey ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil Salt and pepper Preheat oven to 400°F. Boil quinoa in lots of well-salted water until the grains open up. Drain well. Slice off both ends of the squash. Push or scrape the seeds and pulp out of the tube. Slice squash into half-inch rounds. Place on baking sheet and toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast in preheated oven until tender. Prepare the vinaigrette: Combine citrus zest, citrus juice, shallots, mustard, vinegar, honey, olive oil, salt and pepper into a small container with a lid. Shake well. Chop the thyme and parsley into small pieces. Stir thyme, parsley, and pickled onions into the quinoa. Adjust seasoning. Scoop portions of quinoa onto plates or bowls. Add roasted squash on top, then drizzle with vinaigrette. EdibleMendocino.com
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Winter Cocktails
When the weather’s lousy outside this winter, these seasonally inspired cocktail recipes from four of our favorite bars and restaurants will pull you out of the doldrums. So turn the page, grab a glass and a shaker, and unleash your inner mixologist!
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Spiritus
Mendocino Spirits and the Sign of the Whale, Point Arena This striking Bourbon-based creation was the brainchild of Crispin Cain, founder and senior distiller of Mendocino Spirits in Redwood Valley, and Hoolis C. Nation, legendary head bartender at The Sign of the Whale in Point Arena. The two are longtime collaborators, with Hoolis serving not only as Brand Ambassador for Mendocino Spirits, but also as the company’s Mixologist for Cocktail Research and Development. Mendocino Spirits creates its whiskies using the time-honored traditions of Cognac, keen attention to fermentation, the Charentais Pot Still, and the double distillation method. The whisky is brought to barreling strength with filtered rain water, and only the finest barrels are chosen, to match the fine spirits. Photo: Hoolis Nation
¾ ounce Mendocino Spirits bourbon ¾ ounce lemon ¾ ounce Aperol ¾ ounce Amaro Lucano
Shake all ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker, then strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a bit of lemon peel.
Kelseyville Autumn Frost Saw Shop Public House, Kelseyville
A collaboration between the Saw Shop’s bar manager Julia Lyon, bartender Casey Carlin, and owner Weston Seifert, this clever and original cocktail was inspired in part by pumpkin spice latte and the espresso martini. The delicious, creamy pumpkin pie sauce adds warmth and texture, while the bourbon and coffee cream liqueur take the flavor profile to the fourth dimension and beyond. 1 ounce Four Roses bourbon 1 ounce Somrus Coffee Cream Liqueur (or Bailey’s Irish Cream) ½ cup sugar ½ cup water
Photo: Saw Shop Public House
⅔ cup pumpkin puree 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice ¼ teaspoon salt To make the pumpkin pie sauce: Combine sugar and water in a small pot on the stove over medium heat. Once the sugar dissolves and the
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syrup reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low. Add the pumpkin puree, the sweetened condensed milk, the pumpkin pie spice and the salt to the syrup mixture. Stir all ingredients together for a minute or two over low heat. Remove from heat and let the sauce cool. (Leftovers can be stored in a jar in the refrigerator.) Chill a martini glass or coupe. Add ice, bourbon, coffee cream liqueur and one ounce of pumpkin spice sauce to a shaker, then shake vigorously. Strain into glass and garnish with a pinch of pumpkin pie spice.
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Sprig of Winter
The Golden Pig, Hopland This festive and fruity concoction offers a wintery herbaceous twist on the ever-popular Cosmopolitan. Created by the bar staff at The Golden Pig, one of Hopland’s most beloved eateries, it blends vodka (any brand can be used) and an easy-to-make citrusrosemary infused syrup that’s perfect for the holiday season.
1.2 ounces orange juice Splash of lemon juice Granulated white sugar Orange peel Rosemary sprigs
Add ice, vodka, cranberry juice, orange juice, lemon juice and one ounce of the infused syrup to a cocktail shaker, then shake well. Transfer to a sugar-rimmed glass and enjoy!
Candy Cap Maple Rye Cocktail MacCallum House hotel, Mendocino
MacCallum’s house mixologist, Tony de la Torre, drew his inspiration for this cocktail from a few of his favorite things: the classic pisco sour, the classic whiskey sour with egg white, and chef Alan Kantor’s candy cap mushroom ice cream. It calls for Bulleit rye, but bourbon, Scotch or pisco can be used as a substitute. De la Torre makes his own mushroom powder garnish, but if you’re not so inclined, it can be ordered online from merchants like Far West Fungi—or skipped altogether. This cocktail is also pictured on the cover of this magazine, in an old fashioned glass. 2 ounces of Bulleit rye 3 dashes of candy cap mushroom powder ¼ ounce pure maple syrup Squeeze of fresh lemon juice 1 ounce egg white Angostura bitters
Fill a mixing glass or shaker with all ingredients. Dry shake well, add ice, shake again and strain into a coupe (or other type of cocktail glass). Garnish with three drops of Angostura bitters and the lemon twist, or with a sprinkle of mushroom powder.
Twist of lemon
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Photo: The Golden Pig
1 ounce cranberry juice
To make the syrup: Pour equal parts water and sugar into a small saucepan. Add a couple of sprigs of rosemary and orange peel, then simmer on low heat until the mixture is infused and fragrant.
Photo: Pablo Abuliak
1.5 ounces vodka
Raised With Care
®
All natural pork, beef and lamb raised sustainably and humanely by a
community of more than 600 independent family farmers and ranchers
to produce the highest quality meat.
100% Certified Humane® No antibiotics or added hormones—EVER No crates—EVER Raised outdoors and in deeply bedded pens 100% vegetarian feeds
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