Matterhorn: Food Issue

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M AT T E R H O R N free

a quarterly print supplement

spring 2013

questions , curiosities , & resources

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fort collins , coloroado

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why I don’t belong to a csa

On Ignoring Cost-Effective, Healthy, Rewarding Ways to Better the Community I Live In

Article by Charles J. Malone

I don’t belong to a CSA. I feel disconnected from my food, from the seasons. This disconnection comforts and deludes. I eat apples in March and imagine their bond with the tree recently, crisply broken.

Blueberries are on sale, two for $4; and it’s snowing outside.

I get frustrated with the inconsistent quality of produce at the grocery store, but then I come back the next week. My wife double-checks our shopping list to confirm that whatever they’re out of is critical to our week’s continued on pg. 4 menu. We exchange looks of disappointment in a vast warehouse of prepackaged edibles. The most unsustainable part of this is not the distance these foods have to travel in refrigerated trucks, nor is it the systemic insecurity created when we rely on farms and farmers we will never see and never visit. The worst part is the gap between my values and my dinner plate.

contents D ow n t ow n Fo r t C o l l i n s Fo o d Wa l k . . . . . p g . 5 B re a k i n g Up t h e Fo o d F i g h t . . . . . p g . 6 Ur b a n Fa r m C o . o f C o l o r a d o . . . . . p g . 8 C a n B e g g a r s B e C h o o s e r s ? . . . . . p g . 10 Pay -W h a t -Yo u - C a n C a f é . . . . . p g . 11 No rc o Fo o d S w a p p e r s . . . . .12

B r a n ch O u t C i d e r y. . . . .13 B o o k Re v i e w s . . . . .14 Fo o d C o - o p E x p a n s i o n P l a n s . . . . .17 T h e G h o s t s o f G l u t e n Pa s t . . . . .19 S u g a r a n d B o n e s . . . . . 21 J e s s u p Fa r m A r t i s a n V i l l a g e . . . . . 2 2

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matterhorn spring 2013

Editor’s Note In many ways, we are aliens finally returning home to our food system. We have gardens and raise chickens in our backyards, and exclaim with sincere delight when food practically grows right before our eyes. The number of young farmers is on the upswing, and to be in love with food is no longer a reason to immediately put a padlock on your pantry. This homecoming is cause for celebration, but also a warning that the real work is always before us: our kids still do not eat as well as they could, and most of us have family and friends who don’t think past the bigbox grocers. Our soil, water, seeds, and cultural history are our greatest treasures, and the food we eat on a daily basis makes the nation.

w o lv e r i n e fa r m p u b l i s h i n g f o rt c o l l i n s , c o lo r a d o

:

l i t e r at u r e w i t h t e e t h

managing editor

intern

Charles J. Malone

Kia Namin

contributing editor

publisher/designer

Molly McCowan

Todd Simmons

contributers

board of directors

Even Brengle Anna Fagre Chris Jusell Beth Kopp Kalie McMonagle Heather Manier Amy Palmer Jane E. Roberti Maggie Shafer Kristen Smith

Anne Macdonald Bryan Simpson Nate Turner

Locally, the food scene has never seen so much activity, from the sudden demise of the area’s largest organic farm, to the rise of new, smaller farms, food walks, plans for an expanded co-op, and engaged parents making a difference in the school system. It feels good to know we’ve landed back on Earth before we completely forgot where our food comes from. Raise your forks, spoons, and sporks— let’s eat!

est.

2003 : A 501( c )3

LOVE GOOD FOOD n o n - p ro f i t o rg a n i z at i o n

wo lv e r i n e fa r m p u b l i s h i n g ’ s

M ATTE R HOR N A Quarterly Print Supplement

#9

Spring 2013

special thanks Small farms, Deb Taylor, hoop houses, work trades, work parties, supper clubs, Wendell Berry, the first bite, and the last.

The Fell Types used in this newspaper were digitally reproduced by Igino Marini (www.iginomarini.com).

Cover story & masthead photographs © Native Hill Farm Everything herein © 2013 Wolverine Farm Publishing. All rights held by the individual authors and artists unless otherwise noted. All photographs © Wolverine Farm Publishing, or © by the company, organization, or individual in question, or used freely from the public domain.

Send monetary donations, comments, questions, story pitches, books and/or music to review, agricultural tools to try out, bicycles to ride, etc., to: Wolverine Farm Publishing, PO BOX 814, Fort Collins, CO 80522 Especially seeking letters to the editor. Please send in by April 1, 2013. Letters 1-5 will be published and rewarded.

For more information, please visit: www.wolverinefarm.org. front matter

e s t. 2 0 0 3

wolverine farm publishing c e l e b r at i n g 10 Years of publishing in fort collins

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matterhorn spring 2013

cont. from cover

I know many local farmers, and I want them to succeed. But I haven’t done much about it. I’ve even written arguments urging people to join local CSAs, and ignored myself.

This is sentiment without action. It is untenable. There are reasons; there always are.

There is shame in writing this.

I’ve visited Dennis and Bailey Stenson at Happy Heart Farm and seen how hard they work to do everything right, and how long they’ve been at it, and yet I never signed up. I bike past Native Hill and see Nic Koontz and Katie Slota’s farm spread out before the foothills and imagine how good it would feel to have the sun on my back, lungs full of clean air, and the scent of earth on my hands that comes bonus with a working membership, but I don’t commit. I learn about Meghan Williams and Michael Baute’s Spring Kite Farm, then Sunspot’s approach to neighborhood agriculture, and the list grows, I find more and more people who I want to succeed.

say ‘Oh I didn’t know there were this many CSAs,’ or ‘I didn’t know there was somebody who was in my neighborhood’, or ‘I didn’t know there was a pick-up spot so close to where I work.’ I think those things will be different for different people.”

Both Baute and Grimmett see our small farmers complementing one another more than competing against each other. Michael points out that you can find a farm that has community events and shares recipes. You can find one that delivers to your door, or one where you can offset your membership by working. There are CSAs with strong social aspects, even musical. You can find one you can bike to, or one that’s in your neighborhood. There are big ones and small ones, bread-shares and egg-shares. As Baute says, “There’s more than one model, more than one kind of farm.”

Be Local wants to see this diversity flourish and help put more land in production. They want young farmers to keep our food traditions alive. So when I talk to another young I know how hard this success must be to grasp. The loss farmer, Katie Slota from Native Hill, I’m not surprised of Grant Family Farms reveals just how tenuous farming is Katie Slota & Nic Koontz economically. I talk to Michael Baute, who is also involved that she agrees with much of this. Slota feels there’s still room to grow local support for CSAs. At the same time, she mentions that she and Nic with Be Local Northern Colorado, and Hill Grimmett, Be Local’s Executive Director. do feel competition from other farmers: “When everybody has an abundance of things, They see the CSA Fair on March 2nd in the Opera Galleria as a way to support our the pie gets cut a little smaller.” small farms. Baute wants the fair to help “create more engaged food citizens.” He wants our vibrant community of small farmers and CSAs to be more than a passing fancy, and the fair “to be a viable way to connect with farmers and food.”

Listening to Baute, who, in addition to running his own CSA, wants to see everyone else do well, reveals a very different conception of a healthy economy. Pragmatism collides with idealism; competition with communion. As Slota says, “It’s something Grimmett adds, “The CSA fair will be a vehicle to get people out, and someone will cont. on page 7

The bean cycle Coffeehouse & roasters

14 4 n. college avenue thebeancycle.com Take it slow with Odell’s Mountain Standard Double Black IPA.

matterhorn spring 2013

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a Rev i e w downtown of the

foodie walk Review by Bethany Kopp

On a Friday evening in January, my friend and I set out to experience

Rocky Mountain Olive Oil Company: I was skeptical, but they invited the MouCo Cheese Company to set up a table where they drizzled tiny bites of their fantastic cheese with flavored balsamic vinegars (think blueberry, lemon, etc). It was so good I almost stayed there for the rest of the night. Plus, we walked around the store and sampled even more flavors—lavender olive oil is my new favorite. This is a must-stop spot during the foodie walk.

the newest in Old Town activities—The Downtown Fort Collins Foodie Walk. Think of it like an art walk, but instead of galleries, you visit food shops and sample their products—for free!

Their website describes it as a “culinary adventure in a beautiful historic pedestrian area of the city.” It is a self-guided tour, so I would probably say it’s more of choose-your-own-culinaryadventure. Right now there are seven participating places making for a fairly short, but nice little walk through Old Town. Pick up a map at any of the shops on the list, or at The Bean Cycle Coffee Shop. Here are the highlights of our tour:

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Kilwins Chocolates & Ice Cream: They were giving out free samples of their homemade fudge. It was packed in there, and they didn’t have any sort of obvious setup for the foodie walk. We just asked at the counter. Honestly, as good as free fudge is, I could’ve skipped this stop.

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Happy Lucky’s Teahouse & Treasures: They had four types of Nepali teas set out, and lots to say about their product. These guys are awesome and get you really excited to try specialty teas. They do have samples of different teas all the time, and they enjoy sharing the story behind their teas. So go anytime, but especially on the foodie walk.

Old Town Spice Shop: They had a decent spread of dips (dill & spice and horseradish bacon) paired with veggies, chips, and pretzel sticks and several different popcorn seasonings. They provided water, thankfully.

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The Cupboard: This Old Town kitchen shop had quite the setup. A friendly apronclad cook was deep-frying taquitos and handing out homemade chips and salsa.

The recipes were out of a cookbook they had for sale. The Cupboard has lots of events like this throughout the year. If you’re a foodie, you should definitely check it out.

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Savory Spice Shop: They had two really, really spicy soups set out in crockpots—butternut squash and cumin carrot. The workers were friendly and helpful and the soup flavorful, but whatever you do, don’t forget to bring your own water!

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The Welsh Rabbit Cheese Shop: This cozy cheese shop was very crowded.

Their samples of cheese were tucked away on the counter and pretty hard to get to. But that didn’t stop us. We popped a few samples in our mouths and put our name on the list for a table, where we purchased two wine flights and half a dozen different cheese samples. Maybe it defeated the purpose of a free foodie walk, but it was by far the best stop of the night. My advice would be to go when you can sit and take some time to really enjoy this shop.

Enjoy with Funkwerks full, smooth Bastogne.

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matterhorn spring 2013

Breaking Up the Food Fight School Food Assessor Could Alleviate Conflict and Improve PSD Menu Article by Maggie Shafer “Farmer’s Market Pizza” is the Poudre School District (PSD) Department of Nutrition’s best-selling menu item.

It’s offered Monday through Friday at all of the district’s middle and high schools, and at least once a week in the elementary cafeterias. The pizza’s name may suggest a homemade crust topped with veggies from a local market, but its nutritional facts suggest otherwise.

milk anymore—items their children love. With the various income levels and home food cultures, he simply can’t make everyone happy.

If more students would buy veggie wraps, he’d offer them more often. But for now at least, they don’t.

The facts remain. One in four children in PSD is overweight or obese. And for the low-income students, the schools may be providing the majority of the food they eat during the day, making it exceedingly important that this demographic gets nutrient-rich food. The “how” is less obvious.

While it still does meet the USDA’s guidelines for calorie and fat content, the pizza has more than seventy ingredients—nearly twenty in the pepperoni alone. It’s loaded with preservatives and sodium, and it arrives at the school frozen, to be heated up on site. Nothing like it is sold at any of the community farmers’ markets. Which begs the question, where did the name originate?

This is why the food assessment is so imperative. With an outside, expert perspective, PSD may be better able to navigate these challenges, which often require out-of-the-box thinking and fresh eyes for fresh food. SNAC worries that if the department itself is allowed to choose the assessor, it may end up being someone who will follow a path of least resistance.

While one can only speculate, perhaps it is an attempt to appeal to both sides of a divided community—a Fort Collins that supports its local farms, champions whole foods and scratch cooking, and a Fort Collins that is more like the majority of America.

By the first week of March, PSD’s Child Nutrition Department will have been assigned a private professional food assessment service to take a look at its entire system, from the initial purchase of the products to lunch-line delivery. Its mission will be to find ways to educate and increase healthy food options while maintaining the self-sufficiency that the enterprise department has operated by thus far.

According to PSD, the Food Advisory Panel—a group of local experts chosen to advise district administration on the course of a program evaluation for its nutrition program—will be doing the choosing. Schneider will not be involved.

As of the time this issue printed, the assessor has not been chosen.

The department has made leaps and strides in recent years, including getting rid of fast food at secondary schools, implementing a full salad bar at every school and increasing participation in both the breakfast and lunch programs offered—resulting in more money to spend on the program. But no one would argue its work is done.

“Our goals are the same as they’ve always been,” said Child Nutrition Department director Craig Schneider. “To constantly improve quality and nutritional value, increase the efficiency of the department, and overall customer service. When I got here, fast food was the majority of what was served. We’ve made a lot of positive changes and are still going. But we’re always looking for ways to improve.”

Under Schneider’s leadership, the $7 million enterprise fund serves more than 2.2 million meals annually (30 percent being at free and reduced prices) at forty-five sites in the area. He heads up a staff of 200, and receives no funding from the schools or the district itself to operate. The costs of the entire system are paid for by the pizza slices, nuggets, chicken sandwiches, and other cafeteria best-sellers. After all, the palettes in Schneider’s target market haven’t developed beyond sweet and salty.

But how will kids ever cultivate the taste for vegetables and whole foods if they aren’t getting them from school? That’s what a group of parent advocates for healthier lunch food are asking.

The Student Nutrition Action Council, or SNAC, developed in the spring of 2011 with the mission to improve the PSD meal program. Specifically, SNAC wants to see more minimally processed foods, an increase in nutrition education and an improvement in the nutrition standards the department adheres to. They consider the USDA’s standards (which the department meets and exceeds) to be too low for a community with a growing food culture and access to farm-fresh produce.

According to SNAC, the department has been resistant to their input and rejected their help. They started meeting with Schneider about their concerns in March of 2011, but have found him increasingly reticent to make the changes they are asking for and harder to get a hold of in general.

SNAC cites both Boulder County and Weld County District 7 as examples of districts that have already successfully made many of the changes the group is calling for, and doesn’t see why PSD has fallen behind in offering more progressive meal options.

But progress is relative; for a number of students within the district who come from low-income households, the fact that the schools don’t offer soda and chips is progressive. While SNAC may be 200 parents strong, Schneider says he has had countless other parents complain about the schools not offering fast food or strawberry

Check your ID, there’s some raspberry seltzer water by the door.

matterhorn spring 2013 cont. from 4

that we struggle with, I personally want to find that grace of being able to see this whole thing as a movement, as something bigger than the parts of the small farms, but that’s unlike a lot of traditional capitalistic business. Yet, we’re a business, we worry about competition because we just want to farm. Nic never wants to not be able to farm.”

This dissonance is a big part of the understanding as to why Be Local is important, why this CSA fair has promise, and why we need to do better as a community.

Joining a CSA changes the way you look at your food. Baute, Slota, and Grimmett each point out the effort you have to put into thinking differently about your food, about the land, and each points out how rewarding it is. Baute points out that you can eat fresh in the winter months but you have to think about it in August. Slota says people love participating in their farm; seeing their kids eat healthier, and that it becomes hard to go back to the grocery store.

There’s a practicality binding Native Hill and our other CSAs to Be Local. As Slota puts it, “An important piece of supporting small farms is trying to get more customers.

It’s hard for me to think that everyone who can be reached has been reached. You go to Whole Foods on a Saturday morning—with the Farmer’s Market right down the street—and the parking lot is packed and there’s nobody at the Farmer’s Market. It doesn’t make sense. I don’t know if this speaks to the robustness of the market, or if people need to think more about how they spend their money; what their values are— even how they cook and their relationship with food. Those are all really difficult things to change, but people do.” I want badly to prove her right.

Wolverine Farm Publishing Co. & Bookstore Wolverine Farm Publishing is proud to present our new CSP program—Community Supported Publishing. We offer six levels of CSP shares, creating a variety of options for those seeking our books and publications.

Each year we release four issues of our community-driven news magazine, Matterhorn, an annual Matter Journal to feature work from great local writers and artists, alongside contributions from all over the world.

Twice each year we release the next installment of Boneshaker: A Bicycling Almanac, and we love surprising our readers with single-author works like our recent award-winning Logodaedaly, or, Sleight-of-Words, or limited edition broadsides. We strive to make beautiful and meaningful books and publications; when we find quality literature and art that mindfully engages us with the world, we want to share it.

Farmers need customers. They need transportation, refrigeration, tools, and knowledge.

They need to collaborate. They need advocacy at City Council and in the schools. They need mentors and partners. They need robust marketplaces to sell the products. They also need to be on their land working, and it takes a group like Be Local to make these other things happen.

Hill Grimmett says, “One of our hopes over time is that we can help these CSAs and small producers learn how to do their marketing more effectively. Be Local sits in an in-between position; we’re kind of an umbrella or connection between a lot of different kinds of business.” Grimmett hopes that Be Local can connect CSAs to local employers and start building workplace connections.

The CSA fair is part of this, but Baute and Grimmett have other plans, including a Small Farm Incubator. Baute points out that it is “naturally beneficial for farmers and communities to share risk and reward.” The incubator program can help address problems that arise when the average age of our farmers is near sixty. It can help develop a wholesale market, establish some small-scale processing to help get food into schools year-round. And most importantly, as Hill Grimmett points out, “One of the big barriers to farmers coming into production is the cost of land and water.” The incubator will help bridge these gaps, and help address others.

I ask Katie what a program like this would have meant to Native Hill when they launched five seasons ago; she says, “It would have been amazing. There’s so much potential for flourishing when that happens—not having to finance your own tractors, not having to figure everything out. When we started we didn’t have anything except access to land and a pond and that was it. It would make growth a lot easier. It would mean getting the experience you need easier. Farm incubators are really a great idea.”

If Be Local is successful, then there will be more, healthier small producers. But to keep them from fighting over the same small audience, we need to be more proactive.

This is the reality of our farming community: to take care of our farmers we need to expand the market for locally grown goods. If over 4,000 CSA memberships made Grant Family Farm the largest CSA in the country, and we have over 140,000 people, or around 60,000 families, we can do this.

When I ask Hill Grimmett why he does the work that he does, from the Northern Colorado Food Incubator he founded in 2004, to the new projects that Be Local is taking on, he says, “I first came into the local food farmers’ market world because I like to cook and I’m a gardener; those things appeal to me, the second thing is that I lived in the Boston area before I came to Fort Collins and in the mid-1980s there was a local chain of coffee shops that I really liked that was bought by Starbucks. It rubbed my nose in the fact that there was this consolidation in food retailing and food growing.

As much as I think Starbucks is kind of okay, it was never as good as that small, local chain. It occurred to me that If we don’t actively protect our small producers and retailers, we are at risk of losing them.”

At the end of my conversation with Katie Slota she reflects, “Change has to happen from the bottom up, these are long-term changes rather than Band-Aids, and those are the best things.”

There are other pertinent ideas about change and where it comes from. All I know is that I don’t want our CSAs to go the way of Hill’s small coffee shops. I won’t leave the CSA fair on March 2nd without signing up with one. If you’re still interested and want to learn more about local CSAs, the fair is not your last chance. Visit Be Local’s website, come to the Farmer’s Market, or come to www.wolverinefarm.org’s CSA Directory.

Join a CSA today!

BUY A CSP SHARE TODAY!

www.wolverinefarm.org

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matterhorn spring 2013

The urban fa r m co. of colorad o Interview by Todd Simmons

On bike rides to the Wolverine Farm office, one of my favorite things to look for are small gardens and other evidence of urban agriculture.

Last year I began to notice signs next to well-built raised garden beds—The Urban Farm Company of Colorado—and made mental note of them for future reference.

Late last year I received an email from Bryant Mason, one of the founders of The Urban Farm Compay, about their quiet, backyard revolution, and I was hooked: I wanted to know more about their agrarian efforts. Over email, Bryant Mason shared their story.

Matterhorn: What is your mission?

Bryant Mason: Our mission is to empower people to grow their own fresh, healthy, sustainable food right in their backyard. Our goal is to make growing food as easy and fun as possible for someone who has never gardened before. I believe in the diverse and incredible benefits of growing your own food, and want to make it as easy as possible for people who haven't experienced it. The idea is that when people get their hands in the soil, they begin to think differently about the food that they eat, and the larger impact that it has on the world.

MH: Tell us what you do.

BM: Essentially what we do is install high-yield organic vegetable gardens for homeowners and businesses. We come to a customer's house, till up the ground, and install a raised bed frame. We fill it with a great nutrient and microbial-rich soil mix and do all the initial planting of vegetables that people choose. After an install, we give them extensive resources and help so they can learn how to grow their own food. They get to ask unlimited questions throughout the growing season about what's happening in their garden, and they receive emails with frost warnings, heat warnings, and other garden reminders and tips.

MH: How long have you been at this?

BM: The idea behind The Urban Farm Company was conceived over three years ago when I was doing a lot of community gardening as a university student. I developed the idea over the last couple years, and I officially started installing gardens in April of 2012, which is consider the official "launch.” The first season we installed fifty gardens, mostly in Fort Collins. Next year our ambitious goal is 200 gardens along the Front Range.

MH: What are the unexpected joys of your job?

BM: My favorite thing is when I explain my business to someone, and they respond by saying: "This is exactly what I've been looking for for years." It's so affirming and exciting. I also loving going back to all the gardens later in the growing season to see how they're doing—it's always fun to leave a garden empty and come back a couple months later to prolific growth.

MH: What are your future plans?

BM: In the next couple years, I plan to expand my service area to other Front Range cities like Boulder, Denver, and Longmont. This season I've also partnered with a few local contractors to supply chicken coops, greenhouses, hydroponic systems, and fruit trees and bushes. In the very long term, my dream is to franchise the business to other cities to see how many thousands of new gardeners we can create.

MH: What’s your favorite food that you grow?

BM: Heirloom tomatoes. Hands down, nothing beats them. We teach new gardeners to grow tomatoes up a trellis to save space. It's also amazing to see huge juicy tomatoes dangling six feet in the air begging to be picked. All the leafy greens do especially well in our gardens as well and in terms of nutrition, greens are second to none.

MH: How would you describe The Urban Farm Company to an alien?

BM: Haha! To the alien: "Instead of eating space food like you, human bodies thrive off of colorful things called vegetables. Vegetables grow from the soil on earth (something not all humans understand), so The Urban Farm Company teaches humans how to get their hands in the soil to grow their own vegetables. Humans are most powerful when they eat a lot of vegetables, so we promote healthy eating that is actually really fun when you begin to grow your own food in your backyard. If you abduct me and give me a tour of your spaceship, I'll teach you how to garden."

MH: Favorite story from 2012?

BM: Amy Alcorn and I did a garden installation in Loveland in late May. Amy is an incredible digital marketer, connector, and social media guru in Fort Collins who does a lot of great work for The Urban Farm Company. She decided to change things up and help me with an installation. It was a rainy day, and probably the muddiest day of the year. I ruined a shirt, caked the truck in mud, and still have mud all over the pair of shoes that I wore. It would have been awful doing it alone, but Amy is unreasonably positive so it was a blast.

Find out more at www.urbanfarmcolorado.com.

T h e S ci ence o f M eat Article by Anna Fagre

A large, white “A” on a foothill just west of town displays Colorado State University’s Aggie heritage. Amidst the vast changes occurring in our shared cultural and agricultural landscape, Colorado State University (CSU) trains future food producers and the “meat lab” is an oft-overlooked program.

The Colorado State University Meat Science Program offers beef, pork, lamb, and goat in addition to processed products like ground beef and summer sausage. Curtis Pittman, the graduate student in charge of the program, says that what sets it apart from other meat-share programs is both the variety offered and the cutting edge technology that maximizes efficient use of the animal and the production of cuts that you can’t find anywhere else. The products come from fewer than ten local producers

throughout the year, the daily operations of which are organized and run by thirteen undergraduate students at CSU. Being associated with the university, they are on a noncompete agreement with other local farms and retail outlets.

While providing our community with locally-sourced meat, CSU’s Meat Sciences students also learn various aspects of the “farm to fork” process. Students evaluate animals while alive using key criteria. Once producers harvest the animals, students then examine the carcass of the corresponding animal. Food safety plays a large role in the curriculum as well, so students learn about cleaning and sanitation as well as the processing and packaging of individual retail cuts. To learn more or order online today, visit www.csumeats.com.

Reads nicely beside a pint of chocolatey coffee flavored Odell’s Wayword Soul Stout.

Reserve your tickets NOW! for $25 @

www.larimerworkforce.org/lccc

Join Us in Celebrating Our 20th Anniversary You are invited to take part in this

momentous occasion as we celebrate two decades of accomplishments and share our vision for the future.

a Save The D

te!

April 20, 2013, 7:00 pm at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery

Silent Auction, Appetizers, Beverages and More...

Music by: Blue Grama Bluegrass To inquire about event sponsorship, contact Rachael Bahre, Development Associate at (970) 498-6629.

Local

Upcycled

Industrial Vintage

Furniture Thursday: Noon - 6

104 Pinon Street

Friday: 10-6

woolhatfurniture.com

Saturday: 10-6

970-402-0811

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matterhorn spring 2013

Can Beggars Be Choosers?

Fort Collins’ Offerings for Low-Income, Local Food Article By Kalie McMonagle

Filling the shopping cart was one baguette, one unlabeled bag of frozen chicken, a handful of canvas grocery bags, assorted containers of yogurt, some potatoes, apples and oranges, one plastic carton of strawberries, a couple of what could have been small onions or shallots, a large container of cat litter, and a few cans of cat food.

Amanda Slevira and James Kinney had arrived at the Food Bank of Larimer County at 9:00 a.m., when the food bank opened, for this haul of free groceries. The line had already begun crawling its way down the sidewalk. The family behind Amanda and James sent their daughter to skirt her way around the line to stand in the warmth inside while they waited in the winter morning chill.

It was James’ day off from a job working in phone sales. He says, “I’m the one who calls you during dinner and bugs you.” James has lived in Fort Collins for eighteen years, nearly his entire life, but didn’t start coming to the Food Bank until about a year ago when he lost his job. Since getting the job at the call center, he’s continued coming to the Food Bank. It’s a part-time job, and the Food Bank has become a part of his weekly routine.

James’ experience is a trend that Assistant Director Chuck Gill has noticed over and over in his fifteen years at the Food Bank. He says, “Each time we’ve had a recession, in 2001 then again in 2008, our numbers skyrocketed and then didn’t come down.”

When Amanda moved to Fort Collins two years ago she was homeless. Friends put her up in their houses, she started going to the Food Bank, and eventually she found this job with James. She now comes to the Food Bank when her food stamps run out. Over the past two years she’s noticed that “there’s not as much expired food as there used to be, but it’s still there, which is disgusting.”

excess to the Food Bank pick-up at the end of the Farmer’s Market. They realize that paying their share fees of around $400 upfront isn’t always feasible for low-income families. Those with SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits are only able to purchase food that’s present at the point of transaction.

As their CSA grows, donating to the Food Bank and selling produce to families with SNAP benefits at farmer’s markets are the feasible ways for Spring Kite to reach disadvantaged communities.

As James pulls potatoes from a large mound, it’s impossible for him to know whether these were grown on a CSA, a larger commercial farm, or purchased out-of-state through Feeding America’s “Choice” program, which allows food banks to use donated funds to purchase products from corporate partners. The sign on the cardboard box simply says, “Take as needed for household.” James isn’t able to eat fruit and he doesn’t take bread, because with just one in his household, the bread will quickly go bad. At the end of the line he shrugs and says, “I’ll probably have to come back on Saturday to restock, but it was an okay haul.”

Amanda, on the other hand, is quite pleased with her finds. In addition to the strawberries, the protein of the frozen bag of chicken was a rare find. She won’t be eating this poultry though. Amanda is a vegetarian, but knows that her small-framed girlfriend will benefit from the protein. She personally worries about the humane treatment of animals, saying, “I’m kind of an animal anarchist,” but on the topic of making alternative food choices she says, “I’ve been homeless off and on for a long time, and I’ve always managed to find the food I need.”

Amanda may have been noticing some growing pains in the Food Bank. Karen McManus joined the food bank last year as the Food Resource Manager. Previously an organic farmer, she joined the Food Bank with her farming connections to help meet the Food Bank goal of 50% fresh produce in the Food Share program. (Right now they hit between 42%-48% daily.)

This goal partly comes as a matter of necessity. Corporate grocers are continually becoming more and more efficient along the chain of wholesalers, distributors, and retailers. With less imperfect or dented cans being donated, McManus says, “Gone are the days where they’re coming in and seeing Coke and pop,” but she also says this was just a couple, short years ago.

In addition, McManus says that “as the local food movement has strengthened in Colorado, we’re seeing much more nutritious food being donated.” Getting the vegetables and fruits isn’t the only hurdle, however. In the last year, the Food Bank distributed over eight million pounds of food to Larimer County, but increasing fresh produce will actually make that impressive number decrease.

The Food Bank’s parent organization, Feeding America, measures food donations by weight rather than by volume or nutritional value. When lettuce and a can of green beans stand head to head on the scale, the can of green beans will measure up as the heavy champ. This means that as more fresh produce enters, the Food Bank risks looking as though it’s providing less to its community—regardless of whether or not itʼs more nutritious.

Amanda, however, wasn’t weighing the strawberries she found amidst a large cardboard box of bruised apples. “What a find!” she said, breaking the quiet shuffling of other Food Bank recipients moving slowly through the line of available goods. Despite the tired circles beneath Amanda’s eyes and the tough demeanor of her lip and nose piercings, she began to look positively bubbly as she placed the strawberries in the cart. She grabbed a few apples, and, showing the bruised bits to James, she told him, “With the juicer a friend is giving me, these spots won’t even matter.”

The produce the Food Bank receives are what commercial farms consider to be 3’s. 1’s and 2’s are the right shape, size, and quality to be sent to grocery stores, but 3’s aren’t likely to survive the poking and prodding of discerning consumers. 3’s mean that farms usually have excess that they expect and plant for at the beginning of the growing season. Sometimes, farmers are able to make a commitment of lower quality fruits at the beginning of the year, or the Food Bank may be able to send volunteers to do the last gleaning of a field for a farmer.

Michael Baute and Meghan Williams started the Spring Kite CSA last March. Theyʼre not settled enough that they can commit to donate a certain amount of produce, but when they discovered eggplant or zucchini wasn’t popular enough, they donated their

New Belgium’s La Folie sour-power is still the wake-up call we need to look at the world around us.

matterhorn spring 2013

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Feeding Everyone

Community Members Seek to Open Pay-What-You-Can Café Article by Kristen Smith Photographs by Sarah Heitkamp One day, Kathleen Baumgardner was working the front counter at Denver’s SAME Café when a man wearing high-end cycling clothes, and with a very nice bike, sat down at a table. Soon after, a young woman came in with a backpack covered in patches, which looked like it contained her life’s possessions. She sat down at another table. When Kathleen looked back, the two were sitting together talking animatedly about a patch they both owned, and were drawing maps of places they had both been.

we have a community café?” Kathleen had just seen television coverage about the SAME Café in Denver and agreed: why not? Soon after that conversation, the Baumgardners called Brad and Libby Birky of SAME Café—the second community café in the country to open (in 2006), and the first restaurant to obtain 501(c)3 non-profit status—to ask if they could volunteer. There they saw in action what they now hope to duplicate here. So began what has now become a threeyear long saga to open their own community café in Fort Collins.

Kathleen said that this experience sums up what she and her husband, Jeff, want to repeat with their own “pay what you can” restaurant: the FoCo (For Our Community Ourselves) Café.

But how is it possible? What about the bottom line?

Something about the community café model is working, because not only are there approximately thirty already open around the country, but another forty or so are in the planning stages under the umbrella organization One “It really breaks down barriers. People find commonalities World Everyone Eats Foundation. Created by Denise where they might not be able to in other settings,” she Cerreta, founder of the first community café—One World said. Jeff added that when people see a donation box Café, launched in 2003 in Salt Lake City— the One instead of a cash register, and they cannot find prices Brad Birky & Kathleen and Jeff Baumgardner World Eats Foundation provides mentoring and support posted anywhere, “it leads to constant conversation.” It’s a to entrepreneurs seeking to open their own community cafés. restaurant where people of all stations of life can sit together, Kathleen added.

Kathleen, the communications director of the engineering department at CSU, and Jeff, a former doctor who now teaches anatomy and physics at IBMC, said it all began one evening in 2010 around a Fort Collins dinner table. They were sitting with friends, many of whom were volunteers for local non-profits, and somebody said, “Why don’t

According to the foundation’s guidelines, an affiliate café must: 1. Have a “pay what you can” policy where those who can’t pay have the option to volunteer.

2. Be willing to feed all members of the community with dignity.

3. Prepare food that is local and organic.

4. Develop a community café garden.

5. Mentor others who want to open their own community café.

6. Go to the annual national summits.

7. Understand that the main point is to provide a venue where people can meet and address the community’s social problems.

The Baumgardners are following this model faithfully. They recently shared the Charity of the Month with SAME Café at Odell Brewing Company. They were awarded all the taproom tips. Besides donations, they have received expert aid from those on their board. Board member Tyler Walden is a chef at Panino’s who has already collaborated with FoCo Café in putting on the Italian restaurant’s first annual New Year’s Day Pajama Brunch, where all proceeds went to the FoCo Café. Joe Davis, a board member of Hand Up Cooperative as well as of the FoCo Café, and also a lawyer for the Denver-based firm EKS&H, is providing them with free legal aid and training in Quickbooks. Sue Ellen Klein will contribute to the café using her past experience of working at Philadelphia’s White Dog Café, which serves organic and locally grown food. Member Cindy Roberts is a nutritionist and a previous member of the Fort Collins advocacy group Be Local Northern Colorado. The other board members include Jerry Mitchell, who has an MBA in Restaurant Operations, and Ashley Waddell, who is a professor at CSU with a background in fundraising.

The Baumgardners will also be working with local non-profit organic food growers and distributors, including: CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) farms like Fossil Creek Farms; the greenhouse Quatrix in Laporte, which is designing a growing wall for them; Harvest Farm in Wellington, which is a work therapy program for seventytwo men run by the Denver Rescue Mission; and The Growing Project, which has community gardens around Fort Collins. LoCo Food Distribution will help them consolidate connections for their produce orders.

The Baumgardners are anticipating opening the FoCo Café at a site near LaPorte Ave. and Mason Ave. An architect as well as engineer Brian Majeski from U/R Design have volunteered to remodel and design the layout of the restaurant. CSU students from various academic departments are helping out with grant writing, YouTube videos, and menus.

Kathleen reflected, “Fort Collins is a perfect fit for us. There is a high homeless population here. The cost of housing is high. But there is also a very engaged community. People care about each other.”

Pairs nicely with hopeful and balanced pine-hinted Space Ghost IPA from Equinox.

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matterhorn spring 2013

N o r C o F o o d S wa p p e r s An Interview with Lisa Fine, Director of the Northern Colorado Chapter of Mile High Swappers.

Interview by Bethany Kopp

Matterhorn: First, what is a food swap?

Lisa Fine: We are avid cooks, gardeners, and socializers who plan regular food swapping events in Denver, Boulder, Northern Colorado and the Pikes Peak areas. Food swaps are a great way to share amazing homemade food and drinks while having an excellent time with like-minded people in our community.

It's fun and easy—you bring a few of your homemade or homegrown items to swap and you bring home the same number of other people's homemade goodies. Swaps are a great way to show off your skills and fill your pantry with excellent yumminess.

MH: How did your group get started?

LF: In 2011, a Boulder area woman, Eve, started Mile High Swappers—inspired by other swaps around the country—as a way to meet other food-happy people in her adopted state. She loves spreading the gospel of the modern barter system, and is thrilled to be a part of building a community of kind, sharing neighbors. Sister chapters quickly sprang up in Denver, Northern Colorado, and Colorado Springs.

MH: What kind of items do people typically bring to a food swap? And, what's the most unusual thing you've seen?

LF: Food swaps feature a wide array of items, ranging from classics like homegrown tomatoes and strawberry jam, to more exotic and adventurous fare such as chutney, tamales, flan, and roasted chickpeas. Many offerings are gluten-free, wild-foraged, or organic. We've had homemade cheeses, mead, wine, ice cream topping, baked goods, backyard eggs, and fermented foods. We welcome all skill levels, and know that all offerings, from a basket of crookneck squash, to the most lavish truffles, are swapped with love and generosity.

The most unusual swap item I've seen was brought to our August 2012 swap. A new swapper brought a wild-foraged purslane and apple salsa. It was a big hit.

MH: How did you become a "foodie"?

LF: I'm a lifelong foodie, growing up the youngest of six children of a Southern Momma.

I have a profound appreciation of good home-cooking, and as a Colorado native I've expanded my down-home food roots with a special emphasis on Southwest flavors.

MH: What food(s) are you currently obsessed with?

LF: Savory flavors used in new ways. For instance, peanuts are a staple in many parts of the world, and are a surprisingly versatile base for things like pasta sauces and salad dressings. I'm also fighting a shallot addiction. We never had them growing up, and I've only recently started cooking with them. The dichotomy of their characteristics—subtle, yet pungent—makes them a foolproof way to add layers to so many dishes.

MH: What are your favorite food-related books or a cookbooks?

LF: I like technique-driven instruction. Classics like The Joy of Cooking, or anything

by Julia Child or James Beard. Foodwise is another great one. Knowing the chemistry, foundations, and reasons for a process or recipe gives you the freedom and confidence to experiment and refine.

o

MH: How can people get involved with your food swap group?

LF: Super easily! They can visit our website, www.milehighswappers.com. There, they can find out about upcoming swaps, get questions answered, and sign up for our newsletter that will give them first access to reserving a swap spot each month.

Also, I'm glad to answer any questions about our Northern Colorado chapter. I can be contacted at LisaFine@gmail.com.

EATGOODFOOD Equinox’s Golden Ale is a nice complement for this piece, balanced and straightforward.

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matterhorn spring 2013

Local Cider Company Ready to Release First Batch Interview by Todd Simmons Branch Out Cider began as a hobby in the backyard of friends Matt Fater and Aaron Fodge in 2007. The two made an annual tradition of pressing cider from their trees and a few neighbors. One year turned into two which turned into three, and each year the end result, hard cider, or apple wine, drew more and more neighbors out of their houses, and into the trees to contribute their own apples to what was now a neighborhood operation.

“We started mapping trees in Old Town, just to get an idea of how many trees there might be, to see if there was a business idea in this,” said Aaron Fodge. After riding their bikes around, and realizing that Old Town was loaded with old apple trees, the two began to get more serious about their idea: that they would be able to get enough people to donate their apples that they could make into hard cider to sell. Fater continues, “The Monfort College of Business [Entrepreneurial Challenge] competition came rolling around and we said, let’s do it. We came in 2nd, won $10,000, and turned it into the equipment that is downstairs.” They converted his basement into their home-based cidery, and are now in the final stages of blending and bottling their first batch of hard cider. “Our goal with what we’ve been making is a traditional dry cider that’s fairly pure—using 100% juice, not adding water back in at the end, or cutting fermentation early,” said Fater.

People who donated will have the first opportunity, at a discounted price, to purchase the hard cider. After that, the two plan on selling locally at farmer’s markets, and maybe a few bars and restaurants. “It’s been fun. It was fun watching people come together around these trees,” Fodge said. “A lot of people wanted to pick with us, and they felt good that the apples were getting put to good use. There are agricultural opportunities within an urban environment. For us, the opportnities are, ‘Can we convince people to join our Community Orchard, where we don’t have to buy the land, we just have to maintain a relationship with really good people? Can we maintain these trees and encourage people to plant more?’ This could be one way to keep agriculture local in an urban environment.”

Find out more at www.branchoutcider.com.

Branch Out Cider, of course.

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matterhorn spring 2013

An Attack On (And Defense Of) Artisanal Food Quarterlies Reviewed by Chris Jusell, gourmet popcorn seasoning enthusiast

T

he sixth issue of Kinfolk, a Portland-based magazine, begins with an article lamenting the impersonal nature of cities. It includes this description: “Graffiti is splashed across surfaces, marking the fabric of the terrain. Street fashion runs the gamut of conventional to avant-garde. Buskers play homemade tunes on instruments from lands far and near, singing songs of love and fear, joy and pain.

Buildings are unusually tall.”

This overwrought filler continues for two pages without really reaching a point, and is followed by, variously, directions on how to brew an AeroPressed cup of coffee, brief interviews with American and European bakers, instructions on six different shapes in which to arrange the logs of a fire, and many personal tales of community and exploration, with a loose theme of “small gatherings.” There is a total of five recipes, including the coffee instructions, and “simmer pots”: a way to infuse your home with an aroma of your choosing by simmering ingredients in water over low heat (which at least includes the helpful instruction to “not leave your simmer pot going when you leave the house”). These slim recipes, interviews, tales, and directives are heavily padded with full-page photographs: mostly landscapes, but also some food and existentiallytroubled humans.

These contents are not falsely advertised: Kinfolk’s website describes the magazine as a combination of “lyrical essays, recipes, interviews, personal stories and practical tips with a keen attention to design and details.” Besides the miniscule six-point font, the layout and design are beautiful, and the photographs are evocative and varied. But about the text, which is ostensibly the emphasis: do we need all of this fluff surrounding a recipe for Spiced Fig Cranberry Sauce? If a home cook is looking through this nearly 150-page book that contains only five recipes, his answer is probably “yes,” especially if he has internet access, and could find the same recipe (and dozens of other similar ones, complete with taste-tested comments) in a few seconds. This hypothetical home cook enjoys the heft of the volume, the feel of the pages, the soft-focused photographs of wistful adults and even more wistful children, and the coffee table nature of the whole aesthetic.

But I would argue that a magazine with sixty total contributors, and plenty of pages to fill, should have more content in its contents. Although many of the photographs and stories aim for some kind of emotional reward, they end up feeling blank, even considering Kinfolk as a purely decorative magazine.

By contrast, the fifth issue of McSweeney’s Lucky Peach, “Chinatown,” is a riotously energetic and colorful exploration of Chinese food. One of the magazine’s creators, David Chang, is also the chef and creator of the Momofuku line of New York-based restaurants, so it’s almost surprising this topic didn’t appear until issue five.

As with all McSweeney’s publications, there is extreme attention paid to design, but also characteristically, content is important above all. And actual recipes are part of these contents: although Chinese Turkey (actually two whole rotisserie ducks) seems intimidating, Short Ribs with Ramen, Smoky Napa Cabbage Stir-fry, and Hainan Chicken Rice look delicious, and simple enough. The instructions are clearly-written and hilarious: when butchering a duck, “remove the wing tips by cutting through the wing at the elbow; reserve for stock or to make fancy-ass buffalo wings…Save the tail end of the backbone for stock, or just throw it at somebody.”

Interestingly, though, in 176 pages there are perhaps a dozen recipes. Why does this ratio chafe in Kinfolk, but not here? It’s all of the rest that makes such a difference.

Lucky Peach contains thoughtful, entertaining stories of personal discovery and history, and (topically-relevant) works of fiction, and poems (in Chinese and English); even the photography is instructional, or surprising, or beautiful, or all of these. A short article on Sydney’s Chinatown echoes Kinfolk’s quote about cities, but proves evocative: “There’s a moment of calm between the predawn hours and the arrival of the earliest dim sum diners. The streets are swept, and the bean-sprout guys makes their deliveries.

The rollers come up to reveal piles of pears and bundles of chrysanthemum leaf…

Noodles are thrown, and in back rooms thumbs are busy pleating dumplings.”

Both of these publications, as well as the others reviewed in these pages, reach for some kind of distinction from the glossy pulp of many food magazines (even the now mostly-deceased Gourmet could skew towards Cosmopolitan). The stories, interviews, and photographs aren’t strictly necessary to accompany recipes, but they obviously enrich, and can provide insights for, the patient reader. The final choice here is one of tone: Lucky Peach is ideal for this reviewer, but other readers might be repelled by its copious profanity, or even by its irreverent, and gory, descriptions of meat eating and preparing.

Let us be thankful that a diverse-enough audience exists for radically different magazines to be published in support of something we can all get behind: food.

WOLVERINE FARM P UB LI S HI NG CO. & B O OK S T ORE Cultivate the world you want to live in.

WOLVERINEFARM.ORG : 970.472.4284 : 144 N. COLLEGE AVENUE FORT COLLINS, CO 80524

book reviews

matterhorn spring 2013

15

Lumsden’s offering, “Specific Hunger,” where he writes “[...] at times the craving is narrowed down, /shaved to a pill, hunted across fields to a den/where it surrenders and reveals itself/as chicken in soy sauce from that takeaway/long since demolished.”

The collection speaks to the complexity of poetry and food as acts of communion.

The editor, Kevin Young, is keenly aware of these interactions. In the introduction he starts with the metaphorical quality of food; food is sex, is religion, is consumerism and other -isms, except when it isn’t. “Perhaps too easy of a metaphor—sometimes food is just food,” Young explains, “I have put together this anthology to honor food’s unique yet multifaceted pleasures. Nothing is as necessary yet taken for granted these days as food—except maybe poetry.”

Of this there is too much—300 pages. I’m full, and yet there is more. Perhaps I can read just a little more, loosen my belt, unbutton my pants. Perhaps this is for more than one sitting. We Americans have problems with portions. The collection is a joy. It is good for poetry and good for a wide range of readers. Nutritious, even. It reminds me of how I came to love poetry in the first place.

The collection is irreducible. Common denominators are absent. This is good editing, good collecting. Since putting a fine point on our relationship with food is fruitless, we’ll end on an unsettling image from Billy Collins’s “The Fish”:

The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food & Drink, Edited by Kevin Young Reviewed by Charlie Malone

I

open the book, skim through the epigrams which pique my senses, a touch of Neruda, a dash of Robert Louis Stevenson—nothing overbearing. Then I turn to a menu of poets and find a double-column, multi-page table of contents. It’s an overpowering list, but not in the way that some menus reek of foodie and gourmet to an extreme. It almost seems like comfort food: Mary Oliver, Seamus Heaney, Robert Hass, Galway Kinnell, Yousef Komunyakaa, Wendell Berry, Louise Glück, Dorianne Laux, Jack Gilbert, Elizabeth Bishop, Billy Collins, and so many more.

as soon as the elderly waiter placed before me the fish I had ordered it began to stare up at me with its one flat, iridescent eye.

GROWGOODFOOD

I want to be critical, to say the choices of poets are easy. I want call the collection stale, and it may be if you’re one of the few dozen local poets invested in new voices, and new poetic experiments. Still, judging by names is foolish, and the first poem, “August”

by Mary Oliver proves the point: When the blackberries hang swollen in the woods, in the brambles nobody owns, I spend all day among the high branches, reaching my ripped arms, thinking of nothing, cramming the black honey of summer into my mouth;[...]

The poem is voracious and bodily. My senses are flooded with flavor and memory.

Sugar and pain. As I carry these reactions from poem to poem they are threaded together. The blackberry brambles creep through Oliver into Heaney and Kinnell, then to Komunyakaa where “They left my hands like a printer’s/Or a thief ’s before a police blotter [...].” These are great, important voices in contemporary poetry and among them are surprises like Campbell McGrath’s “Capitalist Poem #5”: I was at the 7-11.

I ate a burrito.

I drank a Slurpee.

I was tired.

It was late, after work—washing dishes.

The burrito was good.

I had another.

I did it every day for a week.

I did it every day for a month. […]

McGrath resists flourish, rejects a privileged and gluttonous delight in quality. Instead he surrounds us with the worst food and calls it good. There is something sad and playful, real and rich. This poem has something in common with the Scottish poet Roddy

book reviews

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matterhorn spring 2013

Edible Selby, By Todd Selby Reviewed by Jane Roberti, WFP Volunteer

Smitten Kitchen, By Deb Perelman Reviewed by Amy Palmer, WFP Volunteer

What's not to like about Edible Selby? Well, you can't really eat it, since it's a book, but you can devour it with your eyes, ears (reading aloud) and fingers (turning pages, and picking out the magnets on the inside cover. Yes, magnets! A Selby venture is always fun).

Fans of Deb Perelman’s blog, Smitten Kitchen (www.smittenkitchen. com), will need no convincing to grab a copy of her book, The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. Perelman’s trademark food photography and conversational stories relating to the recipes have set the bar for most cooking blogs on the Internet these days, and are effortlessly incorporated into the book. While some of the recipes included have appeared on the blog, many were developed specifically for the book. Flipping through the pages and reading the introductions to each recipe makes you feel as though you’re sitting in Perelman’s kitchen, enjoying a lazy afternoon spent discussing the finer points of cooking and creating recipes.

Is Edible Selby a cookbook? No. And Yes. This isn't a Cookbook, but a Lookbook, with recipes, many of them strange. Todd Selby, the photographer/ mastermind, started this rich, strange project in 2008 with www.theselby.com, the popularity of which led to a column in the New York Times and big advertising gigs.

He's made less-is-more interior designers and "Hoarders" producers despair at their loss of work, as we covet instead the messy and obsessive collections—toys, books, industrial molds, smithy's tools—in which his artistic friends engulf themselves.

Here are many professionals (chefs, butchers, cheesemakers, bakers, farmers), but some are just professionally quirky. There are lots of beautiful pictures of their foods, spaces, and faces, and Q&A pages drawn in Crayola markers. There are recipes for grapefruit frosting, pine oil, pickled cherry blossoms, fish pies. And diagrams for ghetto smokers, living room wineries, rooftop farms, tips on urban foraging, fishing for monkey faced eels, and making kangaroo skin shoes. The whole Selby project is, in the end, a celebration of people who live passionately. Like Andrew Field, surfer/shop owner in a video, "Rockaway Taco," who pops up out of his roof-top sleeping bag at sunrise, quoting Walden, adds, "I sleep outside, mostly....Let's go say hi to the bees." This is Living. Yes, hi bees!

A majority of the recipes are, or can be, adapted for vegetarian cooking (very few would qualify as vegan cooking, however), and all of them look delicious. So far, I’ve only made the Roll-Out Brownie Cookies; I brought some into the Wolverine Farm offices one Sunday and they were gone in a flash. Virtually all of the recipes seem easy to make and require ingredients that can be found in most grocery shops. The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook is a perfect addition to any kitchen library.

The Joy of Cooking, By Irma S. Rombauer, Ethan Becker, & Marion Rombauer Becker Reviewed by Heather Manier, WFP Staff

How to Cook Everything, By Mark Bittman Reviewed by Evan Brengle, WFP Volunteer My girlfriend introduced me to Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything about a year ago. For much of that time, this was the only cookbook we owned and the only one we needed. The book truly includes recipes for essentially any dish you may want to prepare, starting with straightforward versions for first-time attempts, but also listing many variations to explore including options with more exotic flavors and ingredients. Also, for beginning cooks, the book includes steps and helpful tips for preparing such basic foods as pasta, rice, and eggs.

In my experience, cookbooks typically fall into two categories: those you consult when you already know what you want to make and just need some instructions, and those you flip through looking for exciting new meal options or intriguing twists on old favorites. This book is both. We have consulted the book to expand our repertoire for cooking with vegetables, to revitalize tired chicken recipes, and to discover tasty alternatives for holiday dinners. For Thanksgiving for instance, we made the Roast Pork with Garlic and Rosemary, which was tender, juicy, rich and aromatic. This recipe alone justifies this book’s place on our kitchen counter.

Aside from simple, explanatory illustrations, the book does not include pictures of the dishes presented, but this has not been a drawback. Every recipe we have tried, we have been satisfied with, and usually on the first attempt. Our results may or may not look Bittman’s—we wouldn’t know. But they do turn out delicious, and really, isn’t that what matters most?

The Joy of Cooking—or as I, and now many of my friends, refer to it, “The Joy” has been a staple, a source of information, and reference in my life for the last twenty years. This book stands the test of time for good cookbooks. Its a fabulous gift (it can be found new for around $30, used for $15 or less) for beginners and seasoned cooks alike. It seems to have all important cooking information from the basics to gourmet techniques.

Compared to other cookbooks general and specific, “The Joy” is a good reference from simple questions to complicated cooking scenarios. The editors found the perfect balance between helpful pictures but plenty of explanation. Throughout years of cooking there have rarely been situations that I could not find the answer in “The Joy.” There are several editions of The Joy of Cooking and it has been gracing kitchens for more than seventy-seven years. My particular edition came out in 1997. Healthier options are given throughout the book, including recipes that are gluten-free and vegan. But don’t worry if decadence is what you want: you can still find tiramisu. What an everyoccasion, timeless book this is! Check out their website at www.thejoykitchen.com.

book reviews

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matterhorn spring 2013

fort collins

FOOD CO-op

AnSIO

EXP

Food Co-op Leaders Talk About Plans for a Thriving New Location Interview by Todd Simmons The Fort Collins Food Co-op has a special charm—an elixir of community necessity, durability and stubborness, idealism and charm. If you’ve been in the Co-op the last few years, you’ve seen a steady stream of positive improvements, and near-constant buzz of an impending expansion. With the addition of new general manager Keith DiPietro, the Co-op seems poised to make a big move. I sat down with Caroline W. Tracz, Outreach Director, Emily Heinz, Board President, and Keith DiPietro to discuss their impending expansion.

Matterhorn: How would you explain the Food Co-op to an alien?

Keith DiPietro: That’s an interesting question, because just the other day, I thought, this is like landing on a different planet. For me, it’s like learning a new language, because the culture of the co-op is so different than the standardized retail I’ve been involved with.

Caroline W. Tracz: It is a different world compared to your conventional grocery store.

It’s a food hub for the community.

Emily Heinz: The idea of comparing it to conventional is good, because the co-op is a social endeavor at the heart of it. The profits don’t go back to just one or two owners, they go back to every owner.

MH: Keith, tell us how you came to be the new GM of the Food Co-op?

KD: I saw the job posting, and it was a perfect fit for my skill set—I’ve had a lot of retail management, since my twenties when I started my first business. Then I did project management commercially, real estate management development. So the project management piece was really exciting to me. Then I met the board, and they were really kind, and listening! The world I came from was really rigid, and your head is on a chopping block every day. That’s the way it is, that’s that culture, I did it for nine years and I was ready to move on. This job is incredible—the people are great, the board and staff are awesome, the customers are kind. I’m really excited about this job.

MH: What was your most recent job?

KD: I was manager of a Vitamin Cottage for the last nine years.

EH: Our previous manager was really awesome about getting the store turned around, creating systems and spreadsheets, and organization, but from the beginning she was pretty transparent about her lack of desire to do anything beyond that—to expand the store or manage a store any larger. We all hoped she would grow into that, and for a little while it seemed like she would, but then she said, this is not for me. So she helped us draft the job description—someone who would be more entrepreneurial, visionary, having some project management experience or comfort. Lynne was much more accounting-oriented, so we were looking for somebody who could see the big picture and lead—someone who could help us take the next step [expansion] without any fear surrounding it. When we met Keith, he seemed like the awesome hybrid of both, so he was the perfect fit for our next step.

MH: That’s a good segue to our next question—where is the expansion process at?

EH: We had hired several different cooperative expansion consultants because we didn’t know the best way to go about it. They were very foundational in helping us to establish what we are looking for, what are some benchmarks for internal readiness, where does the board need to be, and this is the scope of what you are probably looking at, and another one came in to look at sales projects. We’re trying to lessen our risk in just guessing if it’s a good idea. They came back and said, “It’s more risky to stay where you are then it is to expand.” If competition came into Old Town, it would be hard on you guys. At that point, and after some different conversations with our owners, we’ve had overwhelming positive feedback that this is a good step. We’ve broken up into three different committees: site/facility, finance, and communications. So the board and the staff have been doing tons of footwork to get us ready to go. The biggest thing is obviously the site, and we’ve been working with a large entity in town to try and secure a site. Once we secure a site, then we need to make headway on getting the money raised to make it happen.

CT: Moving forward, we will have an ownership drive, it will launch at our Earth Day celebration. We’re looking for the community to support us, to refer us to a friend, and be supportive of where we are going.

MH: There’s been talk of a possible co-op relocation and expansion almost for the last decade. What sort of daily feedback do you get at the store about the expansion?

CT: There’s a general curiosity, but until we finalize a site we can’t move any further because we don’t know how much money to raise. People seem really excited about the expansion. We do get the jokes—yeah, we’ve heard this before—but it is for real this time.

EH: That’s important to bring up because this could seem like just another boy crying

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wolf. When Bill Gessner, the co-op expansion consultant, came in, he had been here ten years ago, and his synopsis [at that time] was that, “you guys are not ready.” And he defines ‘ready’ as a spectrum of readiness, not just red light/green light, it’s more of where are you on the spectrum. Ten years ago, we were not close, but the changes that we had to make to stay in business really pushed us along that spectrum, way more than we had expected. So when he [Gessner] came back, the changes he saw—the structure of our board, the fact that we had changed to an owner structure, the internal workings of the staff, how Lynne had re-aligned the ship—we did all that out of necessity—but he saw that as so much progress from where we were. In some ways, we hit that crisis point, and it transformed us. There was a stagnation that had set in. Ten years ago, that’s what he had identified. So, now, he thinks we are way more ready to go. It’s not like we have cash in hand and are going to just go do it—we obviously have more work to do—but our competence, our “internal readiness,” was way beyond where we were before. All our studies substantiated all of our thoughts that it is a good idea to move.

CT: We had roundtable meetings with owners and had 10 percent attendance, which is high for those sorts of things, and we also organized a town hall-style meeting and shared what we could share at that time, and we had a really good discussion and got great feedback and input about what they want to see in the new store.

MH: What will we see in the new co-op?

EH: You will see a one-stop shop, with a deli and fresh prepared foods, beer & wine, a bakery, much more variety in produce, an expanded bulk section, great coffees, indoor/out-door seating. The new store will focus on local and regional foods, like we do now, but more so. You can expect a great value and competitive prices, and you can expect us to still be in Old Town Fort Collins! We are working on a revised version of the Community Marketplace concept that has been discussed over the past 6 years. We are working to be a venue for the year-round farmer’s markets, and other local markets, as well as incorporating a community kitchen for our producers! Ideally, someone could make their salsa on-site and sell it at the Co-op. We are excited about the possibilities of connecting with our regional producers.

MH: What’s the competition look like in Fort Collins?

KD: Whole Foods, two Sprouts, Vitamin Cottage, plus all the conventional grocers— King Soopers, Safeway, Albertsons, Wal-Mart—the organic, health-conscious industry is growing 3-10 percent a year. Our competition is stiff, but location is key for us, plus forty years in business. You know, you walk into Whole Foods and say wow, that’s beautiful, but my gosh, that’s huge—50,000 square feet. We can downsize that into a community hub, into such a fun, cool place to go. I want to drive by it and not know about it and say, I want to go in there.

CT: We still want to retain have that co-op feel. We want to be us, but just bigger, and more accessible to the public and our owners.

EH: The biggest thing we want to retain is community and intimacy. We don’t want to scale up so big that you don’t know the people who work there, we really want to have that homegrown feel, with good, quality, local food.

MH: The Co-op does a lot of outreach and community building, it’s one of the things that sets the Co-op apart from other grocers in town. Talk about how that fits into the Co-op’s mission.

CT: It’s one of the cooperative principles—educating our community. Our goal is to educate people to make wise decisions for themselves through our Food for Thought film series as well as other education classes. Additionally, we want to promote the Coop, and get to know our community at the same time. It’s awesome to sit down with fifteen people in a cooking class, and then eat a meal with them afterward. It’s amazing to see discussion and interaction after a documentary or guest speaker. There’s a desire from the community for these events.

EH: Educating the public about co-ops is vital. Many people don’t really understand what a co-op is, or even if they can walk through the door if they are not an owner.

You can spend your money anywhere on food, but why not spend it at a place that you could see a return from, and that’s not the only benefit, but the money goes back into everyone’s pocket—back into the local economy.

KD: Generally, people like a sense of belonging, and the co-op is an incredible place to belong.

MH: Fort Collins is becoming a foodie town, with a specialty oil & vinegar shop, two spice shops (and one more on the way), a cheese shop—how does the Co-op factor into this developing scene?

EH: The more people who care about food, the better, and who don’t see it as the cheaper, the better, and I don’t care what it’s been sprayed with. The more conscientious consumerism around food, the better for us, because that’s who we are, so I think it just raises the tide.

Read with New Belgium’s exciting, fresh, and citrus-y Biere de Garde.

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winter 2012

matterhorn spring 2013

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The Ghost of Gluten Past Article & Photograph by Molly McCowan

Usually when I tell someone I’m gluten intolerant, they’re not quite sure what that means. I explain to them that eating wheat, barley, and rye-based products makes me sick, but that doesn’t always hit the mark either. Then I start listing foods that are primarily gluten-based, and their eyes slowly start to widen. “You mean you can’t drink beer anymore?”* What is Gluten?

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. Gluten is usually a main ingredient in grain-based foods like bread, pasta, and pastries because it allows the flour to rise. It is also found in some alcoholic beverages. Beer, for example, is essentially gluten juice.

Sigh.

What’s the Difference Between Celiac Disease & Gluten Intolerance?

Celiac disease is a genetic disease where gluten in the diet can cause the immune system to attack the lining of the small intestine. This interferes with the absorption of nutrients and increases the risk for many other diseases, including anemia and intestinal cancer.

Symptoms that people with celiac disease see when they eat gluten can include diarrhea, constipation, bloating, anemia, muscle weakness, fatigue, joint pain/arthritis, balance problems, and migraines.

the opportunity of a diet that makes them feel better, but they're happy to give them medications."

Another outspoken proponent of living gluten-free is cardiologist Dr. William Davis, author of Wheat Belly. Davis takes the fight against gluten one step further by linking gluten to obesity, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, dementia, and even acne. Davis blames much of the U.S.’ rising levels of obesity to the government campaign to eat less fat and more whole grains, and calls wheat, a “perfect, chronic poison.” Ouch.

Read the Labels: Perhaps due in part to the campaign to promote whole grains as healthy foods for everyone (something that is up for debate), wheat is the third most-produced crop in the U.S., following corn and rice.

If you glean anything from this article, take away the fact that gluten (especially the ever-ubiquitous wheat) is in most of the processed or packaged foods that we eat. Go to your pantry right now and try to guess which products don’t have any wheat in them.

Then look at the labels and prepare to be surprised. Think about what a typical day’s food consists of for you. Then ask yourself, “What didn’t have gluten in it?”

Pay attention to how much gluten you consume: it may come back to haunt you.

Gluten intolerance, or gluten sensitivity, is not as widely researched. It’s a contentious topic among today’s doctors, many of whom aren’t sure that anything other than Celiac disease would cause a negative reaction to gluten. Gluten intolerance symptoms can vary from person to person, and are usually similar to symptoms seen by Celiac sufferers, but (thankfully) without the presence of the immune system attacking the small intestine.

Generally, Gluten-Free Eaters Avoid: Croutons Pasta Muffins Pizza Cookies Bread Cake Flour Tortillas Wheat-Based Cereals Buns/Rolls Breaded/Processed Foods Bagels Beer Crackers Biscuits

Why I Kicked the Gluten Habit: For the first 23 years of my life, gluten and I got along swimmingly. I would have a wheat cereal in the morning, a sandwich on whole-wheat bread for lunch, crackers for a snack, some kind of Italian food for dinner. Gluten and I were tight, to say the least.

“Take a guess: Which of these foods does not contain gluten?”

But about three years ago, I started to get sick. After I ate a meal, I would have intense stomach cramps and bloating, my face would flush red, I would feel “spaced out” (the medical-ese term is “brain fog”), and my energy levels would plummet. I was having at least four migraines a month; sometimes three a week. My belly would gurgle so loudly that it became a running joke. Eating became a source of anxiety for me—I felt like I was accidentally poisoning myself.

Frustrated with doctors who threw prescriptions at me rather than taking a look at the whole picture, I decided to figure things out on my own. Since my symptoms came on abruptly after eating a meal, I began to remove certain things from my diet. I tried dairy first, with no results.

Around this time, a friend advised me to try cutting gluten out of my diet instead.

What a difference. Within three weeks of not eating gluten, I was able to wean myself off of my stomach and migraine medications, and my symptoms began to disappear. I continued to test my theory that gluten was the culprit, with definitive results: When I ate or drank anything gluten-based, my symptoms came back almost immediately. My doctors, however, were still skeptical. If I wasn’t Celiac, why would gluten be affecting me this way?

What (Some) Doctors Are Saying: New Zealand pediatric gastroenterologist Dr. Rodney Ford has a lot against gluten.

In fact, he believes it harms just about everyone. His research has shown that many patients show a dramatic reduction in a wide variety of symptoms when they stop eating gluten. But his views are not widely accepted by physicians—yet.

In an interview with Jane Anderson of About.com, Ford says, “I began to put more and more people on gluten-free diets, but found some doctors opposed it. It's the strangest thing to me—it's interesting how physicians are quite happy to have children on eggfree and dairy-free diets, but there's fixation that Celiac disease is the only condition caused by gluten. I've been arguing with people—why can't wheat proteins cause a wide variety of conditions, just like cow's milk? I can't see why they would deny someone

Surprising Foods That Contain Wheat: Canned Baked Beans Sausage Gravy Soy Sauce Airplane Peanuts Licorice Candy Protein Bars Malt Vinegar Some Soups Couscous Hot Dogs

How to Talk to Your Gluten-Free Friends 1. Don’t say you feel sorry for them. It does suck; we know. But it’s actually pretty easy to get over something that causes you physical pain.

2. Don’t try to tempt them. Trust us—we know that the instant gratification of eating an entire apple pie isn’t worth the hours of pain that come later. (Glutenfree newbies often learn this the hard way.)

3. Don’t make it feel like it’s a hassle to go out to eat with them. Recent studies have shown that the gluten-free market is worth over $4.2 billion, and the restaurant industry is quickly getting into the game. Take the few extra seconds to check menus online or call ahead to make sure that there are gluten-free options.

It’s that easy!

4. Don’t over-apologize for forgetting to add a gluten-free option at an event. Yes, I’m always downtrodden for a moment upon discovering that your entire wedding reception dinner consists of lasagna and breadsticks, but I like salad, and— more importantly—I don’t expect you to be able to keep track of everyone’s eating idiosyncrasies. (P.S. This doesn’t apply if it’s dinner for two.)

5. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Even though we don’t like to brag about our food intolerances (it’s lame in a wheezy, “I have a doctor’s note” sort of way), we’re happy to educate our friends and family.

*For the record, I used to live for beer. I was a diehard fan of Odell Brewing Company’s IPA. I hung around with brewers and fellow beer aficionados, and even cooked up a few of my own brews. Even though I can’t drink the delicious nectar of the gods anymore**, I figure that beer and I had a pretty amazing relationship while it lasted. Farewell, my frothy love. **No, not even gluten-free beer, due to a recently discovered allergy to sorghum.

“Answer: None. Gotcha! All of the foods seen here contain gluten.”

Yeah. And I-B-into-U, too.

rampant imperial ipa is brewed by new belgium brewing fort collins co

You know, drinking an Imperial IPA might not seem sessionable, but the Mosaic, Calypso and Centennial hops in this Rampant really cut through with zesty citrus notes, some stone fruit aroma, and a delightfully dry finish with 85 IBUs.

Happily growing bitter.

RAMPANT IMPERIAL IPA

New RAMPANT TOUR films weekly at NewBelgium.com

matterhorn spring 2013

21

Sugar and Bones, and Everything Unknown

Examining Our Relationship with Food Article & Photograph by Heather Manier What is happening with our food and our relationship to food? The word “relationship” carries a lot of weight, but food is something we are bound to naturally connect with; it’s special that way. I have been interested in food— that is, where it comes from and what’s in it—for a long time now. Shopping at the Fort Collins Food Co-op for the last twenty years has created an interest that probably stems from cost and availability. Our food, along with society, has become mass produced, genetically modified, sanitized and over-processed. It is estimated that 70 percent of the "normal" American diet has no nutritional value. These foods produce little enzyme activity and contain little or no fibrous material. Through processing a lot of nutrients are lost, and a lot of other, less beneficial, things are added. And I have become a “label reader.”

Some of our food relationships even have titles. For example, there are different types of vegetarians, like ovo-vegetarians, who eat eggs, and ovolacto-vegetarians, who eat eggs and dairy, and “vegetarians” who still eat fish or only chicken for protein. Many other food-relationship titles include gluten free, wheat free, vegan, clean food eaters, carnivores, plus millions dealing with allergies because of and to food. There are diets, cleanses, clean foods, dirty foods, fast foods, slow foods, anti-inflammatory nutrition, and supplements. Some people don’t care what they are eating and just want it to taste good, and many other people around the world just need the food to be nutritious because it’s in short supply. Many people in the United States are certainly paying attention to nutrition. According to the USDA, from 2011–2012, there was a 9.6 percent increase in the number of farmers’ markets in August of both years—meaning that more Americans are looking to buy food “straight from the source.”

For thirteen years I had two totally different types of neighbors, except for their belief in one thing: the importance of dirt! One neighbor said her grandmother believed that a kid with dirty feet was a healthy kid. And the other, who is trained in homeopathic remedies, said that our food is too clean; we are missing the nutrients from dirt. Preindustrial food allowed for much more dirt, and therefore more microorganisms as well.

Increasing evidence suggests that the alarming rise in allergic and autoimmune disorders during the past few decades is at least partly attributable to our lack of exposure to the microorganisms that once covered our food (and us). Not only are we not getting them in our food, but with Caesarean sections making up 32.8 percent of the births in the U.S., many babies are being born without that important first dose of microbes that they would get by coming through the birth canal. We are not getting them, inside or out.

I pay attention to what is in my food and where it came from as much as I can. When I was reading a food label recently, I laughed out loud when I read the words “vegan sugar.” I said aloud, "Vegan sugar?" The man next to me turned and said, "Yes, there are bones in sugar,” adding that they are a byproduct of the meat industry.

It turns out that bone char (literally, charred bones) is, in fact, used in the final stage of sugar refining for decolorizing. It can also be used in refining crude oil during the production of petroleum jelly, and is found in paints and inks used for printmaking, calligraphy, painting, and drawing, as well as in other artistic applications. It is also used to remove fluoride from water and to filter aquariums. Using bone char for so many different applications works out nicely for slaughterhouses around the world because they make money from a byproduct.

The idea of bones in sugar kept crossing my mind, and I began to wonder what else is in my food that I don’t know about. I remembered fish in tomatoes. The tomato was the first genetically modified food commercially available. Fish genes were used in research by DNA Plant Technology to help “frost-proof ” tomatoes. This proved not to work, although I swore for years that my off-season tomatoes tasted fishy!

Though not all additives are as shocking as bones, I've come to recognize others that constitute my "put back on the shelf" list. Partially hydrogenated oils are in all kinds of foods to extend shelf life with regard to taste and look. These oils first started appearing in foods during the ’50s, when vegetable oils were used to replace saturated fats, which were getting lots of bad press. Decades later, it turns out that the saturated fats are probably better for you.

To make partially hydrogenated oils, hydrogen atoms are added to liquid fats like soybean oil, rendering a fat that’s partially solidified, partially filled with hydrogen atoms, and partially kinked. This is what makes these oils particularly dangerous: they build up inside the body, sticking to each other and forming longer, unbranched chains that continue to grow and kink, bioaccumulating inside you. Your body does not have the capacity to process them, and thus they can wreak havoc on your system. Partiallyhydrogenated oils have been linked to many health issues including bad cholesterol and obesity. But their taste can be addictive—like in McDonald’s french fries. Through research, this fast food giant realized “it's the minor components of hydrogenation that are imparting the flavor," says Research Vice President Mark Matlock, of the Archer Daniels Midland Company. "So they really want 'hydro flavor' in their product." What they will do now that there is pressure to get the partially hydrogenated oils out of food is anybody’s guess.

Advances in science including food science cannot be denied, neither can the fact that our food supply has been put through the wringer by the time it gets to us. Some say we are getting healthier, in large part to advances in science, others would say that we are just trading old diseases for new ones. One thing is for sure—our relationship with food is not going anywhere.

Northern Colorado’s own Budweiser, who knows what’s in that stuff.

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matterhorn spring 2013

jess u p fa r m a rti s a n vil l ag e Interview by Todd Simmons

Photographs & drawing used courtesy of Bellisimo, Inc.

The red brick farmhouse on the hill near Prospect and Timberline had caught my eye for years. Though abandoned and boarded up, it was still beautiful, and once anchored a large farm on the eastern side of Fort Collins. I always wondered if someone would try to save the house, barn, and other outbuildings, and make another run with the farm, or if the still-useful structures would go the way of a new development. I never imagined that both things would come true, until I learned that local developer Bellisimo, Inc. had ambitious plans for the neglected farm. They hope to create the first artisanal food village in Northern Colorado. We recently corresponded with Bellisimo through email, and they shared their vision for the future of the property.

Matterhorn: Tell me about the inspiration for this new development. Any precedents for a project like this?

Bellisimo: This project has been years in the coming, as a demonstration of a new way to build neighborhoods. A neighborhood should be more than just a collection of houses along winding streets; a true neighborhood can be a community—a place where people come together and share. The design of the neighborhood and the amenities it offers can support and enhance community building in very real ways. The neighborhood can support healthy lifestyles, lifelong learning and connection to our heritage. There are a few successful examples of agriculture-oriented development in the country, but none yet in Colorado.

MH: What does the timeline look like?

BL: Construction is anticipated to start on the first townhomes in the next several weeks. Restoration construction for the historic Jessup Farm buildings in the Artisan Village is hoped to begin around the same time, pending completion of the required pavement construction as soon as the weather warms. Chickens have been obtained for Jessup Farm and the Farm-to-Fork restaurant as well as the working farm, and are already in full egg-laying production. Our goal is to have the Artisan Village construction completed by Fall of this year. We’ll have our Fall Harvest Farmers’ Markets up and running and tenants moving in by that time.

MH: How will you integrate the 128-year old buildings?

BL: The historic farm buildings will find new life in a number of ways—as retail storefronts and a restaurant. Following with the name Artisan Village, we envision a number of local craft vendors selling their goods from the rehabilitated farm buildings.

This could be brewers, distillers, coffee roasters, quick and healthy food restaurants, craftsman selling their wares, antiques shops, boutique food markets, the list goes on. We are constructing two large, 19,000 square foot support buildings behind the Artisan Village for the possible production of goods. In this case, the artisan could facilitate production in the support space and sell their goods in the historic storefronts at the Artisan Village.

MH: What local artisans and vendors are you working with? (Or what kinds of artisans do you hope to have on-site?).

BL: Bellisimo staff are currently talking to 120 vendors about locating at the Artisan Village, so there is definitely high interest in space at the Village; our goal is to start getting contracts signed early this spring. Artisan vendors may include a cheesemaker, winemaker, bakery, distillery, coffee roaster and more (see above).

MH: Do you know who will run the farm?

BL: There will be a number of different farms and gardens of various sizes in the neighborhood, from a several-acre working farm to edible landscaping worked in throughout the neighborhood; complete management details have not yet been confirmed, but there are a variety of methods being discussed, such as partnership with CSU, a neighborhood-supported program similar to a CSA, or private leasing of the land to a for-profit farmer. The larger farm site will be a production working farm with hands-on educational opportunities for all ages. jessup farm artisan village

Ms. Taylor’s class Food Reviews : Dunn Elementary : February 2013 wo lv eri n efarm . o rg