20 minute read
EDIBLE NOTABLES Opening Fruition Brewing has been quite a journey for these Watsonville entrepreneurs; Beloved UC Santa Cruz garden manager Orin Martin puts a lifetime of knowledge into a new book; Rancho Cielo leaps into the future of the Salinas Valley with a brand new training center for ag tech
Fruition Brewing opened in the East Lake Village Shopping Center in Watsonville this summer.
EDIBLE NOTABLES COMING TO
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Opening a brewery of their own has been quite a journey for these Watsonville entrepreneurs
BY ROSIE PARKER PHOTOGRAPHY BY PATRICK TREGENZA
Tallula Preston and David Purgason was on the verge of realizing a long-held dream of opening their own brewery when tragedy seemed to change everything. On a quiet day in July 2017, Purgason, a brewer/ distiller for Venus Spirits, suffered a terrible accident when a freak explosion occurred during production. He was airlifted to the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center to be treated for burns that covered nearly 75% of his body, inside and out.
Purgason and Preston—true champions of the Santa Cruz County beer community—had been developing the vision that would become Fruition Brewing since first meeting in 2013. Just before the accident, it felt like everything was falling into place and, after a two-year search for Fruition’s home, the young couple was about to sign a lease on a location off Hangar Way in Watsonville.
On the day of the accident, Preston—who had been the general manager for the organic homebrew supply store Seven Bridges Cooperative until its permanent closure a month earlier—was at home enjoying the freedom of developing Fruition as her full-time job. She was blindsided when Venus Spirits owner Sean Venus showed up at her door to tell her of Purgason’s injury and whisk her to the hospital.
“Right away David was asking when he could get back to work,” Preston recalls. Meanwhile, she was figuring out how to temper his expectations. Doctors were saying he could be hospitalized for up to six months and the long-term effects of his injuries were still unknown. “I really didn’t know if he was going to be able to brew again—I mean his hands were so damaged—and he’s asking me about our beer for the upcoming Hop N’ Barley festival. He just wasn’t going to falter.”
Astonishingly, Purgason was discharged in a little over five weeks, but his road to complete recovery was still long. He had lost 30 pounds and his mouth and throat had been so badly burned that his taste buds were in ruin. “I had been only drinking Gatorade for months, and by the time I was able to have alcohol again, I didn’t even like the taste of beer,” Purgason laments. “Pilsners, pale ales—all my favorite styles— they were way too bitter for me!” Fortunately, a couple months later, his palate was restored. And within a year, he was back to brewing.
News of the tragedy shook the Santa Cruz beer community, and there were immediate campaigns of support with hopes of easing the trauma of the event. Chris Wilder of the Valley Medical Center Foundation spearheaded a fund for Purgason’s recovery, and Brittany Crass of Shanty Shack helped organize the “Brew for David” project, which included several breweries in the Monterey Bay area brewing a session IPA (a favorite of Purgason) and one 10-brewery collaboration brew called “Brewers Unite for David.”
Preston feels that it was the palpable support of the community after Purgason’s accident that was a leading factor in getting their initial loan from the Small Business Administration. “If it wasn’t for our community, we would not be here at all,” Preston says. “We’ve really looked up to and relied on these people and these businesses, and they have only ever been an endless source of support, information and guidance.” With encouragement from his community, and especially Preston, Purgason came out of the hospital with more drive than ever to open the brewery.
In the years since the seed of Fruition was first planted in Purgason and Preston’s brains, they have seen the Monterey Bay area grow into a mecca of craft beer—with many of their close friends and peers at the helm. Although they were anxious to be a part of the burgeoning scene and mildly concerned that the craft beer quota had potentially been met, they found value in getting to witness the trials, tribulations and great successes of their colleagues. “It was frustrating at times that it was taking so long to find a space,” Preston says, “but because we had seen our friends go through the opening process so many times, we really knew what we were looking for.”
The location they thought was a secure deal fell through in the wake of the accident, leading to an additional year of searching. Eventually, Fruition found the ideal home in Watsonville at the newly revitalized East Lake Village Shopping Center. The 4,400-square-foot location had all the things they had patiently waited for—high ceilings, ample parking, an outdoor patio and proper zoning. But what they weren’t expecting was to be a harbinger of welcomed growth and community building in South County. “We are so stoked to be here,” Preston exclaims. “And we’re really proud to be so directly serving the Watsonville community!”
Building a brewery and taproom in Watsonville—an epicenter of coastal farming—also helps underscore the Fruition philosophy that beer is agriculture. “That aspect of this business is in my heart,” Purgason says. All the beers are brewed with California grown and malted grain from Admiral Maltings, a small-batch maltster in Alameda that works directly with California farmers. Akiyama Hopyard in Elkhorn Slough provides whole cone hops that are used in Fruition’s lagers, saisons and barrel-aged beers. Dirty Girl Produce and JSM Organics are just some of the resources for fresh fruit going into barrels or being featured in the fan-favorite tart table beer Snack that has so far showcased renditions with cherries, apricots, hibiscus and strawberries. Fruition’s spent grain goes to the happy flock at Garden Variety Cheese. “Supporting local farmers and producers isn’t always easy,” Purgason notes, “but it’s definitely always best.”
In the years that I have known Purgason and Preston, it is that kind of firm commitment to their convictions that has always impressed me most. They have strong opinions and values on the subjects of craft, community and sustainability, and they execute their mission statement with compassion and care. In the many years that they were planning this project, they have seen the craft beer scene go through countless trends, and yet they have stayed true to their vision of making fresh and balanced beer that can satisfy a range of drinkers.
“I wanted a diverse tap list,” Purgason explains. “I’m not concerned
With the help of the local craft beer community, Tallula Preston and David Purgason (top right) were able to open their own brewery.
Fruition’s varied line up includes fruit-based sours called Snack
about flagships, but want to ensure that certain styles are represented while also giving myself the opportunity to brew a broad range of brews.” A typical Fruition draft list will include crisp lagers, farmhouse table beers, IPAs and barrel-aged saisons and stouts. All the beers I’ve tasted are lessons in restraint and still so full of flavor—as if you can taste the true intention (and ingredients) behind every brew. Purgason’s beer philosophy can be understood when he waxes poetic on the lost art of the pale ale—a true test of the craft where you pack all the hop aroma and flavor of an IPA into the body of a dry, drinkable, lowalcohol brew. “I would die on the hill for the pale ale!” he says.
Since opening this summer, the duo has hosted a rotating cast of food trucks and pop-ups like Full Steam Dumpling, My Mom’s Mole and Hanloh Thai, but plan to operate a small kitchen out of the taproom this fall. Preston, an avid homecook, will create a small, seasonal, ingredient-driven menu that allows her to play with the diverse styles of cuisine that she likes to prepare at home. “I don’t know exactly what it will look like yet,” she says, “but food feels like another opportunity to work with incredible local producers and provide the Watsonville community with culinary options that they might not be currently getting.”
When I first visited the taproom on a soft-opening Sunday in early June, I was moved by seeing this dream fully realized. The brewery was open and light and filled with the warmth that Purgason and Preston so easily exude. And I know, even with the horrors of Highway 1 traffic, that their North County community will be making the trek to also revel in this accomplishment. The owners’ belief in slow, measured business growth fits their conscious approach to life, and their main goal for the future is to be able to take the support they’ve been given and pay it forward.
“Our friends and mentors, like Emily Thomas and Sean (Venus), have shown us how to be real models of success in this community,” says Purgason. For years, Venus offered tank space at his distillery as an option for Fruition to be open as a side project, and Purgason would like to do the same for someone else. Ben Ward, a talented brewer who has been working as Purgason’s assistant brewer these past few months, is the founder of Effigy Brewing—a highly anticipated, nomadic brewery in the making. “If we can find a way to share our resources with someone like Ben, if we could provide that support, then that would be the truest sign of success for us.”
Rosie Parker, a former member of both the EMB staff and Santa Cruz beer community, has moved across the country to live the East Coast version of her West Coast life. She now lives in Brooklyn where she still writes about and works in craft beer.
IF YOU GO: Fruition Brewing is just one of the bustling food and drink businesses helping revitalize the East Lake Village Shopping Center in Watsonville. Natural foods store Staff of Life is set to open there in early 2020, Coffeeville moved into its beautifully renovated new space last summer, Sushi Qu is gaining legions of new fans and local-favorite Carmona’s BBQ Deli recently started offering happy hour specials M–F from 3–6pm.
EDIBLE NOTABLES FRUIT TREES FOR EVERY GARDEN
Beloved UC Santa Cruz garden manager Orin Martin puts a lifetime of knowledge into a new book
BY MARIA GAURA
A garden can be an earthly paradise, but it’s a working paradise—one where rewards flow in proportion to the gardener’s care, sweat and devotion. If anyone is proof of this theory it’s Orin Martin, whose enviable fate for the past 40 years has been managing the Alan Chadwick Garden at UC Santa Cruz—a three-acre Eden of breathtaking loveliness and diversity.
Martin also tends the orchards at UCSC’s Farm & Garden agricultural training program, and teaches classes, workshops and seminars to students, apprentices and local home gardeners.
Martin’s long-awaited book, Fruit Trees for Every Garden: An Organic Approach to Growing Apples, Pears, Peaches, Plums, Citrus, and More, released Aug. 27 by Ten Speed Press, is another fine example of this lifelong gardener’s care, sweat and devotion. It’s a gorgeously illustrated, well-organized and practical gardening manual that draws from Martin’s unmatched personal experience.
“The best way to learn a skills-based craft, such as tree care, is to apprentice with someone,” says the author. “But this book aims to be the next-best thing. Believe me, it was painstakingly crafted, the cumulative results of 40 years of growing tree fruits and a long and fruitful conversation with, in and among the trees.”
Among the highlights of the book, written with daughter Manjula Martin, are extensive descriptions of tree fruit varieties the author has personally planted, grown and harvested over decades. He’s compared growth patterns and disease resistance, taken note of harvest yields in good years and bad. Martin’s analysis is persuasive—so persuasive, in fact, that I found myself making lists of fun new trees to cram into my hopelessly crowded backyard (Rio Oso Gem peach, Cot-N-Candy aprium, Stella cherry). I expect many readers will experience the same urges, despite the author’s disapproval of rash decision-making.
Martin discusses more than 40 varieties of apples, 13 pears, even five types of quince…quince! Who knew? Peaches are separated into old versus new varieties, and plum types include Asian, European, Damson and the legendary Greengage. Martin’s rankings of fruit varieties offer a glimpse of the multivariable equation, the overlap of complex systems, that equals farming. Begin with chill hours, then move to pollinators, disease resistance, vigor and tree size, time of harvest, length of storage, abundance of harvest, size of fruit, thickness of skin, sweet versus tart. Climate, entomology, microbiology, genetics. Mistakes made at purchase or planting can result in tasteless fruit, diseaseriddled trees or an excellent harvest hanging 25 feet out of reach. The multitude of variables can seem overwhelming, but the picture clarifies when the focus narrows to your garden, your dreams. Martin’s calming reminders to slow down, plan ahead and choose wisely are the touchstone of this book.
The UCSC orchards are living works of art, but Martin doesn’t sugarcoat the effort involved—orcharding is not easy, nor is it fast. A newly planted tree can take years to produce fruit, and Martin even suggests a three-year regime of soil improvement before planting a new tree! (To the 98% of us who willfully ignore that advice—no worries, the author provides a timesaving workaround.)
Photograph by Ross Newport. Reprinted from Fruit Trees for Every Garden. © 2019 by Orin Martin and Manjula Martin. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.
“It seems the first thing people want to do is grab a tree, grab a spade, and plant the tree,” Martin says. “In reality, the last thing you do is plant the darn tree. I’ll give folks credit for enthusiasm, but the planting of a fruit tree is, or should be, a considered act. Mistakes are hard to rectify once the tree is in the ground.”
The solitude and leisurely pace of gardening leads to interesting digressions, and Martin meanders from his main narrative with quirky essays sown throughout the book. Among them are a brief history of fruit farming in Silicon Valley, a discussion of microclimates at Jefferson’s Monticello and an appreciation of the gardener’s traditional “dawn patrol.”
Martin is a natural teacher, and this book offers not just the how, but also the why of soil enrichment, double digging, cover crops and composting. The tone is conversational, wry and friendly—possibly the harshest statement in the book is one snarky reference to the shortcomings of the Red Delicious apple.
A series of luminous etchings by Stephanie Zeiler Martin, the author’s spouse, and lovely photographs by Elizabeth Birnbaum are a visual feast. Terrific line drawings, especially in the chapter on pruning, offer clarity on everything from tree shape and branch training to placement of individual pruning cuts. For tree geeks, there are infographics on carbohydrate cycling of trees, slope and sunshine calculations, and the essential components of soil.
Martin’s book overflows with love for his craft and will resonate with every plant lover who thrills at the give of soil underfoot, the scent of blossoms and dirt, the burgeoning of leaf and bud. For Martin, orcharding is art and science—maybe even religion.
“It doesn’t matter how many trees you have or how big your yard is; your orchard is your slice of paradise,” he writes in the foreword. “And while paradise is a place of contentment, it is not a place of luxury, and certainly not idleness. For there is much learning and work to be done, daily, out in the orchard, garden, paradise.”
Amen.
Maria Gaura is a lifelong writer, journalist and gardener. She lives in downtown Santa Cruz with her family, two elderly cats and an ambivalent garden that can’t decide if it wants to be a vegetable patch, a flower bed or a miniature orchard.
IF YOU GO: Meet the author and the artists at the official book launch event: Fruit Trees for Every Garden—A Party to Celebrate Orin Martin’s New Book, Sunday, Sept. 15, from 4–6pm at the UCSC Hay Barn. Refreshments will be available, plus a pie potluck. Bring your favorite fruit pie if you can!
EDIBLE NOTABLES RANCH LESSONS
Well-known for preparing youth for jobs in the hospitality sector, Rancho Cielo leaps into the future this fall with a brand-new training center for ag tech
BY KATHRYN MCKENZIE PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULES HOLDSWORTH
Chef Estevan Jimenez reaches up into a mature fruit tree in Rancho Cielo’s organic garden and pulls down a Santa Rosa plum, dark red, round and ripe. He bites into it and it takes him back to his childhood.
“It’s one of the first tastes I remember,” says Jimenez, who grew up in the Central Valley to immigrant parents. His mother worked in a packing shed and brought fruit home for the family. For Jimenez, the memories are as sweet and poignant as that plum.
Now, Jimenez—whom everyone calls EJ—works with at-risk young people at Rancho Cielo’s Drummond Culinary Academy, teaching them about preparing and serving food, and helping train them for jobs in the hospitality industry.
One of his former students, Christian Martinez, is taking the leap to culinary school in Colorado this fall—a goal he never dreamed he could have achieved without EJ’s encouragement, as well as support from the rest of the staff at the Rancho Cielo campus.
Established in 2004, the nonprofit center for underserved and disconnected youth in Monterey County offers a variety of ways to channel young people to productive lives. Along with vocational programs that train them for careers in construction and other desirable job skills, there’s an academic program so that they can finish their high school requirements, as well as support services like counseling, housing and health clinics.
Many of the students there have been in trouble with the law, and the program offers a path to responsible adulthood. In fact, the center’s data show that its programs greatly reduce recidivism. Non-offenders may also apply, as Martinez did, if they are from low-income families.
“When I found out this was all free, I jumped on it,” says Martinez, who had been living in Bakersfield but moved back to Salinas at age 18 to live with his mother. “I was pretty nervous at first, but I fell in love with the place.”
The Ted Taylor Vocational Ag Center opened at Rancho Cielo in August.
The soaring entry to the new ag center and (lower left, l-to-r) graduate Christian Martinez, Rancho Cielo CEO Susie Brusa and Estevan Jimenez, executive chef of the Drummond Culinary Academy.
Named the 2019 Chef of the Year by the American Culinary Federation’s Monterey Bay chapter, Jimenez received the award not just for teaching his students to be good cooks, but also to find their calling in the community. Prior to coming to Rancho Cielo, Jimenez oversaw all culinary aspects of Aqua Terra in Pacific Grove and before that he was executive sous chef at Ventana Big Sur.
Jimenez, who first started serving food in high school as a volunteer at a homeless shelter, says that being at Rancho Cielo is “100% worth it” for the difference he can make in young people’s lives.
Says Martinez, now 23, “I was so appreciative of his kindness and his compassion, and his willingness to teach and show us what he’s learned during his career.” The aspiring chef hopes to own his own restaurant someday.
In the culinary program, students learn kitchen basics and work their way up to preparing meals for the ranch’s restaurant, which is open to the public every Friday night during the school year with prix fixe dinners. The kitchen also supplies meals for organizations and businesses that host their events there, such as leadership retreats and team-building days.
Martinez graduated from the program, and then with the help of chef EJ and Rancho Cielo staff, was accepted at the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in Boulder, where he started in August. The staff also aided him in getting scholarship money that was essential for funding his education.
Rancho Cielo’s 100-acre site, skirting rolling ranch land northeast of Salinas, was once home to Natividad Boys Ranch, a juvenile incarceration facility that had lain dormant for almost two decades. The inspiration of retired Monterey County judge John Phillips, the center opened in 2004, and since then has served about 1,000 young men and women. The nonprofit just took its mission to the next level with the opening in August of the 27,000-square-foot Ted Taylor Vocational Ag Center, where students will be trained in agriculture technology, which is vitally needed to keep the engine of Salinas Valley’s largest industry humming. Named for Taylor Farms’ founder Ted Taylor, who passed away in 1991, the intent of the brand-new center is to provide specialized training in jobs that pay well and are much in demand, in refrigeration, tractor repair and sustainable construction, in addition to repair and maintenance of salad processing lines. The Taylor family, along with Mann Packing, Ocean Mist and other businesses, as well as individuals, contribut-
Students will be ed to a $10 million capital campaign to trained in agriculture build the specially technology, which is designed structure and, according to vitally needed to keep Rancho Cielo CEO Susie Brusa, they are the engine of Salinas nearing their goal
Valley’s largest but still have some fundraising to do. industry humming. The building will house both academic and vocational classes for 125 students a year, doubling the number the campus can serve, Brusa says. Instruction will be blended together—for instance, integrating math lessons about fractions and angles into vocational instruction about solar panels. Brusa says ag robotics—the wave of the future in planting, harvesting and packing—will be added to the center’s programs next year. Originally, Ted Taylor’s widow Joanne Taylor Johnson didn’t want the center named after her late husband, says Brusa. But she changed her mind when it was pointed out to her how many people he had inspired during his career: “Ted was all about mentoring young people in ag,” says Brusa. 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 health for numerous publications and websites.
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