19 minute read
EDIBLE NOTABLES
EDIBLE NOTABLES GATHERING AT THE TABLE
Soquel artist finds reflections of family in heirloom silver
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BY KATHRYN MCKENZIE PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL TROUTMAN
The art of Leslie Lewis Sigler shows her fascination with antique silver.
It all started with gifts of silverware from her grandmother, at a time when she was too young to realize the significance of such items. But she treasured them nonetheless.
For Leslie Lewis Sigler, it isn’t just about owning these precious mementos—it was the start of what would become her artistic inspiration.
The Soquel artist has become known at galleries across the country for her still-life paintings of antique serving ware, a simple subject that becomes infinitely more complex as Sigler explains how she creates her work.
During the pandemic, the thoughts and emotions behind each piece deepened and evolved as she concentrated on her work during long lonely days, separated from her extended family in Texas.
“I felt this deep longing to gather with my family, but I couldn’t,” recalls Sigler. “I grouped these objects that represented that longing, that feeling of wanting to join with family around the table again.” In her artist’s studio, drawers hold a motley assortment of silver plated pickle forks, berry spoons, salad servers and butter knives, all pieces that serve as potential subject matter for her paintings. She holds up a finely made piece with a serrated edge and intricate design, which she thinks is a macaroni server. For some of the beautifully crafted serving ware, she’s not 100% sure of the exact use. Amazingly, there were very specific uses assigned to some pieces, such as the tomato server, the nut server and a spoon specifically made for dusting powdered sugar on pastries or fruit. “You tap it,” says Sigler, for the sugar to fall just so. Another rare piece she received from her grandmother was a butter chiller—a round dish with a hidden compartment for ice to cool the butter above.
Sigler has kept items not only from her own family and her husband’s family, but also over the years, she acquired pieces from friends who gave them to her “because they know I paint silver.” She also bor-
Her hyper-realistic oil paintings start out as photographs that she sketches on board. The finished art (top right) is alive with reflections and shadows.
rows items occasionally from Hall’s Surrey House Antiques in Soquel with the owner’s permission, and he’s also been helpful in identifying some of the oddball items.
Many of these unique serving ware designs were created in the late 1800s and early 1900s, a nod to a more genteel time when the upper middle class put a high value on entertaining in just the right way with the most precise implements for a variety of fancy foods.
These days, there’s a more minimalist approach to setting a table, so this era of elaborate serving pieces has passed. But Sigler’s fascination with them keeps alive a telltale sign of that time.
“Their use is long gone, but I’m honoring their history,” she says.
Sigler starts her process by arranging and rearranging serving ware pieces in a variety of ways. She often paints individual portraits of many of the more obscure pieces, the ones where you have to guess their function.
Now, she has entered a phase where she groups more ordinary pieces in different ways, hinting at familial relationships between them. There’s one she recently completed of 10 forks of different shapes and sizes, some polished and others tarnished from age. And there is the series of paired items, usually a large serving spoon and fork, typically complementary but not exactly alike. Sigler calls these “brothers and sisters.”
When she finds combinations of implements that she likes, she photographs them, then draws a study and paints them in oils on board. Sigler deliberately keeps the backgrounds extremely simple, putting the entire focus on the serving ware. The painted still lifes are very close to photorealism, showing the reflections of colors and sometimes reflected items in the studio environment, such as windows or a glimpse of the artist herself.
She starts with a monochromatic painting and then adds color in light and dark layers. Sigler thinks of the pieces as people, and comes up with intriguing names for her paintings, such as “The Mystic” and “The Dilettante.”
Originally from the hill country of Texas, Sigler studied painting at the University of Texas at Austin, and moved to Soquel with her husband four years ago. Her work is represented by galleries in Texas, South Carolina and Connecticut, as well as at Curated By The Sea in downtown Santa Cruz. She’ll have a solo exhibition at the Sullivan Goss art gallery in Santa Barbara from July 1–Aug. 22.
With two young sons and a busy painting schedule, Sigler is also finding time these days to reconnect with family members whom she hasn’t seen since before the pandemic. She has a new appreciation for those relationships, and that can be seen in her art.
“The root of these pieces is family, gathering and bringing people together,” she says.
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Kathryn McKenzie, who grew up in Santa Cruz and now lives on a Christmas tree farm in north Monterey County, writes about the environment, sustainable living and health for numerous publications and websites. She is the co-author of Humbled: How California’s Monterey Bay Escaped Industrial Ruin. @BLADETECHUSA
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EDIBLE NOTABLES HALF A CENTURY
Scheid Vineyards toasts to 50th anniversary with growth and wind power
BY LAURA NESS PHOTOGRAPHY BY RANDY TUNNELL
Turning onto Hobson Road from Highway 101 in Greenfield, Scheid is the first property you encounter. It’s also pretty much the only one. The street number is 1972 and that’s no accident. That’s the year patriarch Al Scheid planted the first vines here. When you’ve been on a property as long as the Scheid family has, apparently you can pick any number you want.
Heidi Scheid, executive vice president of Scheid Family Wines, says her father—who turned 90 in February and is now chairman of the board—started the vineyard to make money for his investment partners. “He is always engaging with us, ready to contribute. He also tells us to learn something new every day!” He’s made good on his objective.
Acres of Scheid’s grapes stretch the length of the Salinas Valley.
From that very first planting, Scheid’s holdings expanded to include more than 3,000 acres of vineyards that stretch the length of the Salinas Valley, covering four different climate zones. “We have estate vineyards in each of them. Riverview and Isabelle’s Vineyard, where we grow pinot noir and chardonnay, are in Region 1,” says Heidi. “Greenfield, Arroyo Seco, is Region 2, where we have pinot noir, chardonnay, sauv blanc and albarino. Further south is Region 3, where the bigger reds are grown: merlot, cabernet sauvignon and syrah, which like the long warm days. In Hames Valley, where there is a huge diurnal temperature difference, 50 to 60 degrees, we grow petite sirah, petite verdot, cabernet sauvignon and tannat.” Quite the portfolio. And it’s all in Monterey County.
For the first 30 years of the operation, Scheid sold 100% of the grapes it grew.
“We were not making any of our own wine,” says Heidi. “In 1989, we made 50 cases. That was the start. In 1997, we opened the Greenfield tasting room. By 2011, we had 4,000 cases of our own wine and decided to focus on growing our own brands.” They also opened what was then the most exciting and posh tasting room on Cannery Row. After a few years, they moved it to a more conducive setting in Carmel, where it thrives with its breadth of offerings. Scheid has grown to producing more than 700,000 cases of wine annually under various labels, many distributed nationally. It also provides grapes, custom crush and other wine services to a broad range of clients. In 2002, winemaker Dave Nagengast, a Fresno State grad and former discus thrower, came aboard the good ship Scheid. It would never be the same. It is safe to say that he was fundamental in transforming the operation into something massive, yet oh so shipshape. He was tasked with designing and building a winery that could grow exponentially with the company. The result is a magnificent 85,000-square-foot steel fermentation building, that cost $80 million to build and can accommodate 30,000 tons of grapes, which translates into a capacity to handle more than 2 million cases of wine a year. The state-of-the-art winery looks like a scene from Star Wars,
Scott, Al and Heidi Scheid toast gleaming with polished steel and a level of cleanliness you would deto the wine company’s golden anniversary. Opposite page, the sire from a facility that handles food. After all, wine is food. The wind turbine that powers the entire scale of the operation is mind-boggling. It is a marvel of custom mawinery operation and 125 homes. chined tanks with special slides for must removal, glistening alumi-
num gangways, miles of rubber hoses for moving wine, punch down devices and filtering machines, all on wheels, and all designed to scale up as volume grows.
In 2005, Scheid constructed a totally separate 8,000-square-foot microwinery on site to craft the higher-end Scheid Vineyards wines. “This is a winery within a winery that produces the wines we sell in the tasting rooms,” CEO Scott Scheid tells us. “We are planning to build a completely covered and expanded crush pad, complete with ample lighting for those midnight picks.”
As Scheid hits the half-century mark, it has gone from grapes alone to a vertically integrated grape-to-glass operation, inventing new brands yearly to target segments of the market that are not yet filled. That has turned it into a big and complex global company.
Brands like Metz Road, with its succulent chardonnay and pinot noir that are actually made right in the vineyard in a specially designed fermentation trailer, appear on highend restaurant lists. Hive & Honey, a slightly sweet gewürztraminer, is a big seller at Kroger, while District 7 appears on grocery shelves pretty much throughout the Central Coast. Heidi’s current passion is the two-year-old brand called Sunny with a Chance of Flowers, a series of low alcohol, low calorie wines in brilliantly attractive packaging, widely available in retail stores. Keeping its brands fresh, inventive and market ready is part of what fuels Scheid’s success; the other part is a strong commitment to sustainability.
“Sustainability was important to Al from day one,” says Heidi. “He took his role as an environmental steward seriously, as well as giving back to the community. It was critical to become Certified Sustainable, which we have been since 2014. Our 85-acre White Flower Vineyard was certified organic in 2020, and most of our estate vineyards are farmed using organic methods.”
Perhaps the most visible symbol of the company’s commitment to sustainability is the 400-foot tall wind turbine that provides 100% of the power at the facility, generating enough excess energy to power 125 homes in the community. Harnessing the wind has proven a huge win. As much as Scott loves to talk about the turbine, though, he also enjoys pointing out little bits of history on the property, like the brass replica of a vineyard worker carrying a basket of grapes that graces every Scheid label, by artist Danny Piffero of Mendocino Metals. “And this fence,” he says, pointing to a wall of tightly spaced slim wooden slats that separates the winery production area from the tasting room and offices, “this is made entirely of the grape stakes we originally used to plant the first vines here. How’s that for recycling?”
Fittingly, the tag line that adorns each wine label and each piece of merchandise remains, “It is the grapes.” As true now as it was back in 1972.
Laura Ness is a longtime wine journalist who contributes regularly to Edible Monterey Bay, Spirited, Los Gatos Magazine and the Wine Industry Network, sharing stories of the intriguing characters who inhabit the world of wine and food.
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EDIBLE NOTABLES UNINTENTIONAL ACTIVIST
Santa Cruz woman helps big business work toward a sustainable food system
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF BAREILLES
Santa Cruz native Maisie Ganzler’s calling as an environmental and social activist wasn’t part of her original career plan, but it actually dates back farther than she remembers—back to when she was an infant.
As the story goes, before Wilder Ranch was a state park, it was a self-sustaining dairy farm and cattle ranch. When the Wilder family couldn’t make ends meet running the property, it was sold to a land development company that planned to build luxury housing, a golf course and shopping centers there. In protest, Ganzler’s parents and other concerned Santa Cruz residents formed Operation Wilder to block the development.
Baby Maisie also participated, though unknowingly. During public hearings to decide Wilder Ranch’s fate, her mother openly breastfed her new daughter as a disruption strategy, an illegal act in California until 1997.
Ganzler describes her parents as “bohemian.” They worked in the nonprofit sector and partied with counterculture types at their downtown Victorian-style home. While attending Santa Cruz High, she worked at the Dolphin Restaurant on the Municipal Wharf and, like most kids, wasn’t totally on board with her parents’ lifestyle. Her act of rebellious angst was to leave Santa Cruz and attend Cornell University’s prestigious School of Hotel Administration. Her ultimate act of defiance was to pursue a career in the for-profit business world.
“I wanted to focus on restaurant service, not social service,” says Ganzler.
One year after graduating, Ganzler joined Palo Alto-based Bon Appétit Management Co. (BAMCO), an on-site restaurant firm offering full food service management to corporations, museums, colleges and universities, and part of the multinational Compass Group.
“I set my sights on Bon Appétit after reading an article in a trade magazine about the company’s innovative restaurantstyle approach to food service,” Ganzler recalls. BAMCO’s cutting-edge approach in 1994 was serving seasonal, locally sourced food. The job allowed her to return to Santa Cruz, where she now lives just a few blocks away from where she grew up. Ganzler loves being able to walk to visit friends, go to movies or dine out.
As vice president of strategy and brand officer at BAMCO, Ganzler oversees the food service company’s supply chain and purchasing standards. Together with CEO Fedele Bauccio she leads the operation of 1,000-plus client sites across the U.S., at which each kitchen prepares meals from scratch, emphasizing seasonal ingredients sourced locally. In addition, each chef has their own network of direct supply relationships within their respective communities.
Maisie Ganzler’s first job was at a restaurant on the Municipal Wharf and now she is one of the most influential people in the food service sector.
The names of some of the clients she is charged with may ring a bell. Google, Oracle, Twitter, the Getty Center and UCSF are all on her plate. In 2019, BAMCO served 250 million restaurant-quality meals for clients in 33 states.
Conscious or otherwise, Ganzler admits that some of her parents’ beliefs took root.
“The value my parents put on community seeped in somehow,” she says with a laugh. “I only cringe slightly when I hear myself quoting my mother’s frequent invocation of the Buddhist Eightfold Path and saying my work at Bon Appétit is ‘Right Livelihood.’”
As a result, BAMCO operates very differently to other national food service companies.
“In order for us to protect our planet, resources and communities, sustainability must cross all lines—geographic, political, racial and economic,” Ganzler says.
A prime example is its Farm to Fork program, which she was instrumental in creating in 1999. It was the first national program by any restaurant food service company that committed to purchasing at least 20% of all food served from purveyors located within 150 miles of its restaurants and cafés. That translates to 50 million meals a year that support small, independently operated organic farms, butchers, bakers, fisheries, dairies, hatcheries and artisan makers.
“I take great pleasure in pushing the company forward and proving that a for-profit business can act with both a warm heart and a scientific mind,” Ganzler says.
Other practices she initiated at BAMCO include: launching nationwide programs and policies that forbid the use of antibiotics or growth hormones in meat and poultry products; switching to Certified Humane ground beef; phasing out pork raised in gestation crates; requiring the purchase of superficially imperfect but entirely edible fruits and vegetables; mandating the exclusive use of Certified Humane and cage-free eggs; and implementing programs to reduce carbon emissions, while raising awareness about the many ways that food production and greenhouse gases are linked.
Also, she has joined farmworker marches for rights, respect and fair working conditions, followed by the creation of BAMCO’s code of conduct, which demands the company’s suppliers ensure fair treatment and wages for all farmworkers. At the same time, BAMCO collaborated with United Farm Workers and Oxfam (a global organization that fights inequality to end poverty and injustice) to create the Equitable Food Initiative—a program with rigorous standards for labor practices, food safety and pest management.
BAMCO’s innovations and initiatives have rippled through the food service sector as competitors try to keep up, multiplying its impact over and over.
COVID halted all food service at BAMCO’s clients’ sites. Imagine serving 250 million meals one year and the next, all 1,000-plus venues close, reopen, close and reopen. Yet, the company remained agile amidst the chaos, anticipating how its services and operations would need to evolve and adapt to the new normal.
“During the ‘downtime,’ we were focused on many different areas that help us make decisions that meet our standards or meet certain environmental goals,” says Ganzler.
Not surprisingly, BAMCO chose to focus on technology by building new tools like its app-
A scarecrow at Wilder Ranch State Park— which Ganzler, her parents and Santa Cruz activists helped save from development in the 1970s.
enabled ordering system, Curated, that allows guests to pre-order meals to their specific dietary needs, may they be vegetarian, vegan or around allergens. Then by using some of their closed kitchens, they can prepare and serve these meals efficiently and effectively.
Another new technology is its Food Standards Dashboard, an internalfacing tool that helps chefs make menu decisions that meet company food standards and environmental goals. The dashboard also has the World Resources Institute’s carbon calculator embedded in it. With it, chefs can see the carbon impact of their menus and make pro-planet choices about what they prepare, such as lowering the amount of beef and cheese used or raising the amount of plant-based protein used. To address food waste, BAMCO built a waste tracking app called Waste Not.
Ganzler’s involvement in sustainability isn’t limited to her work at BAMCO. She also sits on the board of directors of Air Protein—a company that’s developed a technology that harvests protein out of thin air! Using fermentation tanks, Air Protein combines elements from the air— carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen—with water and mineral nutrients in a process similar to making wine or yogurt. Renewable energy powers its production process, which uses microbes to convert CO2 into amino acids. The final yield is a protein-rich flour that can be used just like soy or pea flour.
When asked what sustainability practices individuals and small businesses can follow at home or on the job, Ganzler urges: “Start small and ask yourself, ‘What things can I do that will lead to many different good outcomes?’ Find out what’s produced nearby, how it’s made, when it’s in season. Reduce beef and dairy consumption—greenhouse gas emissions caused by animal-based food production come mostly from beef and dairy production. These actions are simple, manageable, effective and impactful places to start.”
From rebellion to revolution, from questioning the status quo as a teenager to creating calculated business strategies that ensure an economically and environmentally sustainable food system across the country, Ganzler's path has paid off in everybody's favor.
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Jeff Bareilles is a Santa Cruz-based artist/photographer/writer who explores the worlds within and around him, through actions, images and words. DIGGARDENS.COM
