22 minute read
Local Heroes
BEST FARM/FARMER TOM BROZ/ LIVE EARTH FARM
A farm cultivates ties to its community and the natural world, as well as its crops
Advertisement
By Rosie Parker Photography by Ted Holliday
LOCAL HERO WINNER 2016
Farmer Tom Broz and his wife, Constance, founded Live Earth Farm in 1995 on the belief that a farm is only as valuable as the community that surrounds it.
“The strength of the farm,” Broz says, “still for me today, is grounded in that relationship.”
It’s most certainly this desire to connect with and educate his community that has earned Broz a second win for Best Farmer through Edible Monterey Bay’s reader-selected Local Hero awards.
On a recent sunny day, throngs of children tromped through muddy fields, harvesting lemons to take into the kitchen and make lemonade. Herded by a fluffy white sheepdog, the group’s excited voices could be heard through the hills of the Green Valley of Watsonville where the farm grows 70 acres of organic fruits and vegetables.
These voices speak to the vibrancy of Live Earth, a farm that has grown over its 21-year history from a CSA of 15 local participants to today’s 600 members. Over the last decade, it has worked to further diversify its model to include farmers’ markets, direct-to-retail and its educational nonprofit Discovery Program that hosts about 1,000 kids each year.
For Broz and his crew, education is vital to Live Earth.
“I think where our story is unique is that we have a for-profit production farm and a nonprofit educational program. In as many ways as possible, we’re trying to create an environment where the farm is not just a food producing business but, also, a resource for the community to foster a connection with the land and the food that is being grown.”
Broz’s mission of cultivating a strong relationship with his community extends to the natural world and his desire to properly integrate his cultivated land with the native landscape. Partnering with the Wild Farm Alliance and Community Alliance with Family Farmers, Broz has installed native hedgerows all over the property. Visitors to the farm can collect a map and take themselves on a self-guided tour that illustrates the ways that Broz has worked to improve the wildlife habitat and protect natural resources.
“My passion has always been around growing food,” Broz explains. “But what kept us going as a farm is the personal relationships that come from growing that food—from my own immediate family to the larger community of people as well as the natural environment.”
Besides the Discovery Program, Live Earth opens to the public for Community Farm Days, u-pick events, farm dinners and workshops.
“If the community continues to wish to connect,” Broz believes, “I see the future of farm and food to be very positive.”
Runners up: 2nd place, Route 1 Farms and 3rd place, Serendipity Farms
Rosie Parker is a Santa Cruz-based writer, farmer and beer lover. A native New Englander, she misses snow days but is happy she can now grow lettuce in the winter.
Live Earth Farm
172 Litchfield Lane, Watsonville 831.763.2448 • www.liveearthfarm.net
BEST CHEF/RESTAURANT CAL STAMENOV/ LUCIA RESTAURANT & BAR
Generosity, talent and really good ingredients are the recipe here
Story and Photos by Camilla M. Mann
LOCAL HERO WINNER 2016
Shadowing chef Cal Stamenov in his kitchen at Lucia Restaurant & Bar at Bernardus Lodge & Spa, I am scribbling notes, photographing and trying to stay out of his way. Watching Stamenov, winner of the 2016 Local Hero award for Best Chef/Restaurant, prepare a variety of dishes, I ponder: What defines a hero? Actions? Values? A willingness to do something different?
Settling into the dining room, I ask, “You’ve been hailed as a local hero by your peers and community. What is it about you that’s heroic?”
He chuckles affably. “I’ll ask my wife and get back to you.”
But when the conversation turns to how he’s impacted the local food scene since arriving here after working in some of the world’s finest restaurants, such as New York’s Four Seasons, and with some of its most renowned chefs, including Alain Ducasse, he answers without hesitation.
“When I arrived here 20 years ago, food was commercial—with lots of frozen food. There was no such thing as ‘farm to table.’”
Management at Bernardus was lenient, however, and afforded him the latitude to make “backdoor deals.” Instead of the usual purveyors, he nurtured relationships with local farmers, fishermen and foragers.
His friendships with “the fish people and the mushroom people” now traverse the Monterey Bay area, from Big Sur to Santa Cruz. And he shares those connections with the many chefs who have worked at Bernardus and moved on to head their own kitchens. “It’s more worthwhile for someone to sell 10 boxes to five different restaurants than just two boxes to me. We all benefit.”
About farmers, he speaks of balance—“they need to be organic, certainly, but they need to be large enough to be consistent.” (Hollister’s Swank Farms is a favorite.)
Stamenov also sources from on-site herb and vegetable gardens and his own home orchard of more than 200 trees, many of which he obtained from the California Rare Fruit Growers association, to which he belongs.
“I’m a fruit tree hoarder,” he jokes. “I have eight kinds of apricots, from red to white. And it’s just about time to do some grafting.”
In the kitchen, Stamenov pours olive oil over a venison medallion, pointing to the label. “This comes from about six miles down the valley. I’ll give you his card when we’re done.”
When we are finishing, he ducks into his office for that card. It strikes me: his authentic generosity sets him apart.
Stamenov himself offers it succinctly.
“I believe in being generous—with my time, with the community, and with ingredients.”
Regarding recent changes at Bernardus—the fine-dining mecca Marinus and the more informal Wickets restaurants were merged and transformed into the new Lucia as part of a major updating and renovation of the entire Bernardus property last year—he speaks of casualizing the restaurant and cooking more rustically.
“When you cook with good, solid, organic food, you don’t need much more than salt, pepper, garlic and herbs,” he declares. He likes thyme, parsley and tarragon. “But it’s important to be extravagant with the ingredients,” he adds, scattering fresh truffle slices over salad greens.
Conceptually, his food designs are simple. His creative dishes contain elements that you can easily count—venison, olive oil, garlic, candy caps, carrots, celery root, huckleberries, foie gras and chervil, for instance. The preparation is uncomplicated.
But the flavors and textures are masterfully layered, the combinations nuanced and elegant. Stamenov’s a pure artist. Generous mentor. Hero.
Runners up: 2nd place, Brad Briske of La Balena and Il Grillo in Carmel and 3rd place, Jesse Santillan of The Tap Room in Pebble Beach
Camilla M. Mann is a food writer, photographer, adventurer and passionate cook. She blogs at culinary-adventures-with-cam.blogspot.com/ and lives in Seaside.
Lucia Restaurant & Bar
415 W. Carmel Valley Road, Carmel Valley 831.658.3595 • www.bernarduslodge.com
READ: To read more about Cal Stamenov, go to wwww.ediblemontereybay.com to look up Deborah Luhrman’s extended profile of him, “Local Treasure.”
Best Food Purveyor New Leaf Community Markets
By Deborah Luhrman Photography by Angela Aurelio
LOCAL HERO WINNER 2016
Edible Monterey Bay readers have voted New Leaf Community Markets their 2016 Best Food Purveyor. It’s the fourth time that New Leaf has won EMB’s Local Hero award over the last five years, but this time is especially significant for New Leaf, since shoppers have now had time to evaluate the sale of the beloved Santa Cruz-born natural food chain to Portland’s New Seasons Market in late 2013.
“It’s very important that our customers feel we are still providing them with the food that they’re accustomed to,” says co-founder Kimberly Hallinan, who has been supervising the Northern California stores since Scott Roseman and Rex Stewart retired just over a year ago.
Loyal New Leaf fans still feel it’s a community market because of its emphasis on high quality local produce and vendors, and the strict vetting of any food before it is allowed on the store’s shelves. The grocer was also the first in California to be named a Certified B Corporation—meaning it upholds stringent social and environmental standards.
“There are really no other stores that have our product standards, not Whole Foods, not Sprouts. That’s what really sets us apart,” she claims. “I think our customers really appreciate that we’ve read the labels and that there are ingredients and products we won’t sell.”
When Scott Roseman launched New Leaf 30 years ago, he brought in Hallinan as the financial manager and as the buyer of dairy products, bread and frozen foods. There were about 25 employees at the beginning, and she recalls, “It was funky. The building was funky. It was very raw and rough around the edges. Every day we were reinventing the wheel.”
Today New Leaf employs 650 people in California with five markets in Santa Cruz County, one in Half Moon Bay, one in Pleasanton and one in San Jose—which is branded as a New Seasons Market.
For Hallinan, the past year has been a challenge. “It’s been daunting in a way because Scott Roseman, Rex Stewart and I were what I like to think of as a three-legged stool.
“We are all very opinionated, intelligent, articulate people so it wasn’t always smooth sailing, but our ability to lead as part of a threelegged stool was part of our success,” she says.
The past year has included a major remodel of the kitchen and meat department at New Leaf’s Capitola store, and Hallinan began bringing in some of New Seasons’ renowned customer service ideas and practices. In other ways, not much has changed. For example, an idea to save money by switching from chef’s coats to New Seasons-style aprons in the deli department was rejected because New Leaf management believes that simple details like that project their brand.
This year promises to be one of consolidation to get ready for a giant growth spurt projected for New Leaf in 2017, when the company plans to open new markets in Aptos, Emeryville and Sunnyvale. It is still looking for a suitable location for a long-awaited New Leaf in the Monterey/Carmel area.
“It’s one thing to open a new store every year and a half or two, and it’s another thing when you are opening more than one a year,” she says.
For now, management is looking at how to add lots of new employees while maintaining the New Leaf culture and how to become a true “community market” in new places that are not so familiar with the 30year-old Santa Cruz tradition.
Runners up: 2nd place, Star Market and 3rd place, Staff of Life
Deborah Luhrman is deputy editor of Edible Monterey Bay and editor of the EMB weekly newsletter. A lifelong journalist, she has reported from around the globe, but now prefers covering our flourishing local food scene and growing her own vegetables in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
New Leaf Community Markets
www.newleaf.com
BEST BEVERAGE ARTISAN Meg Nielson/ The Bench
A cocktail artist inspired by her guests as well as her ingredients
By Rosie Parker Photography by Michelle Magdalena
LOCAL HERO WINNER 2016
To have Meg Nielson mix you a drink at The Bench at Pebble Beach Resorts is to indulge in luxury.
Every seat in the bright and airy restaurant, from the white marble bar to the patio out front, offers astounding and expansive views of Stillwater Cove and a legendary 18th hole.
Pair the view with a Thai One On, one of the many fresh and balanced cocktails that Nielson helped create, and it’s obvious why Nielson and The Bench have earned this year’s Edible Monterey Bay Local Hero award for Best Beverage Artisan.
The Bench, a little over three years old, is the newest addition to Pebble Beach Resorts—a place strongly founded on tradition.
For the opening team, this was an opportunity to exchange legacy cocktails for a seasonally inspired drinks menu. With top-notch liqueurs and organic, locally sourced produce for housemade syrups and juices, Nielson notes that her approach is to “look for fresh twists with what’s on trend.”
This is exemplified in the brand new Porthole Program—house-infused liquor served from an actual porthole. An infusion flavoring The Bench’s cocktails as this issue of Edible Monterey Bay went to press, Fire in the Hole, is The Bench’s take on the popular Fireball Whisky. Buffalo Trace Bourbon mixes with chile de arbol, toasted cinnamon sticks, star anise, ginger, cloves, orange peel and spiced winter syrup. The result is warming and smooth, a perfect balance of spicy and sweet.
The cocktail menu is carefully crafted through collective idea sharing and a seasonal tasting panel.
“How can you take a classic cocktail and add a nuance?” Nielson asks. “How can you remodel the core structure of it with something new?”
As a former buyer for the Lalla Group, Nielson knows how to find the best products on the market. The signature PB Manhattan, made with cask-strength Knob Creek, is given depth by using both Dolin, a lighter French vermouth, and Averna, an Italian liqueur that carries notes of citrus and chocolate.
Living on a third generation dairy farm, Nielson truly leads a farmto-table existence.
“I get to go out into my garden and pick blackberries and make gin mojitos,” she says, beaming. “Inspiration is everywhere for me!”
Nielson finds much of her inspiration through the people she serves.
“I feel like hospitality picked me,” she says with a smile. The Bench brings in everyone from bucket-list Pebble Beach guests to a loyal, local following.
“Our guests are excited to be here!” Nielson exclaims. “That’s a great starting place for an experience-oriented bartender.”
Nielson’s bountiful energy is infectious, and even with the breathtaking views you can’t help but watch as she muddles and mixes.
“As the cocktail craze grows,” she notes, “people are more interested and they want to see how things work.” This interest makes it easier to take a customer from a traditional whiskey sour to The Bench Sour, which uses ginger beer and a blood orange and passion fruit purée.
“We strive for brightness in our cocktails,” Nielson says, the Pacific shimmering behind her. “We feel it mirrors our excited and eclectic crowd.”
Runners up: 2nd place, Katie Blandin Shea, Bar Cart and 3rd place, Anthony Vitacca, Montrio Bistro
The Bench
The Lodge at Pebble Beach, 1700 17 Mile Drive, Pebble Beach 866.543.9318 • www.pebblebeach.com/dining
BEST NONPROFIT THE HOMELESS GARDEN PROJECT
After helping hundreds to find their place in the world, a farmer-training group will finally be able to put down roots itself
By Kathryn McKenzie Photography by David Dennis
LOCAL HERO WINNER 2016 Darrie Ganzhorn with HGP trainees
The Homeless Garden Project has always been about healing people’s spirits by reconnecting them with the land. And now, at last, the farming organization which has for the second time been named Best Nonprofit by Edible Monterey Bay’s readers, will have its chance to settle onto land of its own.
In December, the Santa Cruz City Council approved plans for HGP to take over a 9-acre section of Pogonip, a 640-acre, city-owned greenbelt space with a rich local history. Initially part of Cowell Ranch, the property was the site of a golf club and famous polo grounds in the early 20th century; more recently, its rustic lodge-style clubhouse made a cameo appearance in the 1987 vampire movie, Lost Boys. These days, Pogonip is a popular hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding destination.
The city is now finalizing details of the lease of Pogonip’s Lower Main Meadow, where the Homeless Garden Project plans to build a small administrative office, a barn and a greenhouse by the end of 2017, says Darrie Ganzhorn, the group’s executive director. HGP is currently planning a community-wide capital campaign for improvements to the Pogonip property.
“Having a permanent site means that we can plan for the long term,” says Ganzhorn, who notes the lease will be for 20 years with three 5-year, renewable terms, potentially a total of 35 years. “It’s incredibly exciting. We’ve been talking about this since before 1998, when the city put it in the Pogonip master plan.
“Our current thinking is that if all goes well, we hope to plant a cover crop in 2016. We’d spend 2017 preparing the site and building the soil, with a hope to plant our first crops for harvest in 2018.”
The nonprofit, which recently celebrated its 25th year, is now on a month-to-month lease on its organic 4-acre farm near Natural Bridges, also the site of its CSA operations, u-pick farm and workshop; its office is in another location. Having the Pogonip property means that the project will for the first time be able to combine all of its operations together on one site.
With more land, HGP will also be able to expand its farm, both in area and in new crops. Ganzhorn says the organization looks forward to planting orchards, a long-term investment that its short-term leases had prevented in the past.
Importantly, the farm expansion also brings the opportunity to take on more program participants. Some 600 homeless people have participated since the project began in 1990. They learned how to grow and harvest crops, developed other marketable skills and received counseling and social services support aimed at helping them find housing and manage other aspects of their lives.
Currently HGP serves about 17 trainees; Ganzhorn hopes to eventually triple this number, although she notes that it will take some time.
“We’re looking at how to do this while still maintaining the quality of the program,” Ganzhorn says.
Other plans call for increased volunteer opportunities, more donations of produce from the farm to nonprofits that feed the hungry and new events like a health fair to promote eating fresh fruits and vegetables.
Ganzhorn says that she envisions the Homeless Garden Project’s new home as a resource not just for the Monterey Bay area, but also for anyone who wants to be part of it.
“I want it to be a gem for the city of Santa Cruz, and a landmark that people from out of town will want to visit,” she says.
Runners up: 2nd place, Live Earth Farm’s Discovery Program and 3rd place, MEarth
Kathryn McKenzie, who grew up in Santa Cruz and now lives on a Christmas tree farm in north Monterey County, writes about sustainable living, home design and horticulture.
Homeless Garden Project
Downtown Santa Cruz store: 110 Cooper St., Ste. 100G Farm and farm stand: Shaffer Road at Delaware Avenue 831.426.3609 • www.homelessgardenproject.org
Fine, fresh, familiar flavors
By Lisa Crawford Watson Photography by Philip Geiger
LOCAL HERO WINNER 2016
Sometimes Anastasia Simpson, executive pastry chef for The Inn at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach, considers removing the molten lava chocolate cake, the mud pie or the key lime pie from her menus. That is, until her patrons let her know they have come to count on her familiar favorites.
“People know what they like, and they like what they can recognize,” says Simpson, who is the 2016 Best Pastry Chef, awarded by Edible Monterey Bay’s readers. “I admire artisan chefs who can bring savory into sweet, who can mix in seaweed or truffles, or blend smoked oak wood with just the right flavor of ice cream to create something appealing. But I am ‘old school.’ I prefer to work with flavors people know and do something really special with them.”
Growing up in Jakarta, Indonesia, a constant observer of her mother and grandmother as they prepared family meals, Simpson understood early on that she, too, would spend her life in the kitchen. She also knew it would not be at home.
“My mother and grandmother were the Martha Stewart of housewives, cooking and baking, teaching their friends how to do it, and always working from scratch to make really good, familiar food,” Simpson says.
But Simpson’s path to Spanish Bay would involve extensive training and travel.
She studied formally with the legendary chef Paul Bocuse at his École des Arts Culinaires et de l’Hôtellerie in Écully, France. She also interned at Hotel Raphael, Paris, and at the Ritz Carlton, Laguna Niguel in California before marrying architect Paul Simpson and moving to Pacific Grove.
In 2000, Simpson joined the kitchen at The Inn at Spanish Bay, which creates all of the desserts for the hotel restaurants, Pèppoli, Roy’s and Sticks, as well as special events like weddings, Concours d’Elegance and Pebble Beach Food & Wine.
At Spanish Bay, Simpson quickly became known for her work ethic and attention to detail. By 2007, she had worked her way up to assistant pastry chef. Four years later, she was named pastry chef.
“For me, a good pastry chef is not just someone who can produce good desserts and make a good showpiece. The person has to be respectful and compassionate with his or her employees, always have good teamwork, and encourage them to be better and more passionate about their job.”
In addition to her beloved signature desserts, Simpson has become known at Spanish Bay for dramatic gingerbread houses, which go on display in the hotel lobby during the winter holidays.
This past year, two little boys kept a close and patient vigil on a gingerbread village, hoping to be present when it was finally dismantled. They were, and Simpson awarded their devotion with the gift of the main house.
“It is always very satisfying when people enjoy and appreciate my work,” says Simpson. “I appreciate my crew, and I appreciate my husband. Without his support, without his care of our three kids and his home cooking, I could not do this job.”
Simpson lifts a warm chocolate chip cookie, crisp on the edges, soft in the center, from the cooling rack, destined for the beverage cart on the golf course, room service or the restaurants.
“You can’t go wrong,” she says, “with a good chocolate chip cookie.”
Runners up were: 2nd place, Ben Spungin, CLM/Restaurant 1833 and 3rd place, Parker Lusseau
Lisa Crawford Watson lives with her family on the Monterey Peninsula, where she is a freelance writer and an instructor of writing and journalism at California State University, Monterey Bay and Monterey Peninsula College.
The Inn at Spanish Bay
831.647.7500 • www.pebblebeach.com
Best Food Artisan Quail Hollow Kitchens
Heritage and chemistry shape Patricia Davis’ culinary classes in Ben Lomond
By Amber Turpin Photography by Patrice Ward
LOCAL HERO WINNER 2016
Long days spent picking beans on her great-grandparents’ 400-acre farm in Montague, New Jersey was where it all began for the woman voted 2016 Best Food Artisan by Edible Monterey Bay’s readers. That may seem like a long way from Patricia Davis’ current home in the Santa Cruz Mountains, but the Garden State family farm is where her deep passion for food, farming, preserving and cooking was first sparked.
Fast forward through a career as a chemical engineer, launching satellites from Palo Alto up until 2011, and we now find Davis and her husband Bryn atop a hillside in Ben Lomond, where they operate a cooking school, Quail Hollow Kitchens.
Classes are held right on the couple’s 26-acre property, and anyone lucky enough to spend some time there will upon arrival get to know a bevy of poultry, including several ducks, some Black Copper Maran chickens and a turkey—creatures that Davis admits are more of a hobby than a business, but do provide eggs richly hued in greens and deep chocolate browns for her cooking.
Quail Hollow’s class schedule is something of a food map of Davis’ life, and the first thing you will learn about her is that family and heritage are paramount.
Relics of her family tree are all over her house, lining her cookbook shelves and in her kitchen cupboards. Photo albums depict generations together, and the ladies who passed down the food literacy Davis is proud to own.
Davis likes to say, “Food is this communion with family and friends,” which is why her classes are very much designed for the home cook.
Upcoming sessions will focus on Hungarian egg noodles (one of Davis’ specialties), molecular gastronomy (Davis is a self-described geek who is “very gadgety”), pastries and chocolate tempering. She may also add olive oil tasting, and would eventually like to offer classes with guest chef-instructors from around the world.
With so many wonderful class offerings in our community, like down the road at Mountain Feed & Farm Supply, she doesn’t want to “step on any toes” by repeating themes like pickling and cheese making that would otherwise be part of her repertoire.
“I formulate each class based on my skill set,” she explains, and when that skill set happens to involve learning to cook from a great-grandmother who was the chef for the prince of Hungary and a professional background in chemistry, the classes are far from boring or basic.
Instead of standing around just watching, her students will find things to touch, explore, investigate, discuss.
“I like sharing novel things that people haven’t experienced,” she says, referring to the unique tidbits she assembles for each class, like the homemade Egyptian Dukkah spice mix or the hard-to-find olive oil. “Plus they all get to feast!”
Runners up: 2nd place, Friend in Cheeses Jam Co. and 3rd place, tie: Happy Girl Kitchen Co. and The Penny Ice Creamery
Amber Turpin is a freelance food and travel writer living in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Quail Hollow Kitchens
Ben Lomond • 831.609.6226 • www.quailhollowkitchens.com
