Never when I got my food handler’s permit did I ever imagine using that to write the President.  2 days ago I appealed to Obama and the Secretary of Agriculture to make a solid choice for the Undersecretary of Food Safety & Inspection Service (FSIS).  Feel free to also get a word in and send something yourself!

AgSec@usda.gov; comments@whitehouse.gov

My email 2 days ago…

The other day, I’m thinking about the economy, eating out, and the survival of good and sometimes great restaurants.   Many a good chef and producer friend of mine rely on the continued success of these venues staying in business.

A # of tricks might be pulled out of the hat about this time.  Downgrading the quality of the food purchased, higher prices, smaller portions, live music, rotating art on the walls, cutting staff, coupon specials, etc.  You’ve seen the moves, just like I have.  The one I cannot tolerate is lower quality – feed me less, but do NOT feed me worse. 

Anyway, I thought about other ways to trim costs with really little impact on the whole experience.  I arrived at garnish.

Shortly, and I do mean shortly thereafter, I went on an unspoken tirade in my mind about the variety of evils garnish represents… excess, waste and ultimately disrespect.  How can you look a producer in the eye and say “yes, I want your great produce on my plate, though I know and you should know 90% of it will end up in the garbage. That’s just it, buyers don’t look the producer in the eye, nor do they typically have a sense of what it really takes to put food on our tables.

Garnish – fine if it’s meant to be eaten, and presented in a way that is accessible, even inviting, to do so.  Outside of that, I question the place that has so little relationship with its business.  You’re not selling food; you’re supporting farmers, ranchers, fishermen and the environment.  Think about that next time you fling a piece of lettuce, a clump of curly parsley on the plate… destined for the garbage.  Most growers are less concerned with selling more, if they know it’s going to end up on the floor.

nothing on this plate goes ANYWHERE!

My “can you do this special thing” request at restaurants for the remainder of 2009… “please hold the garnish.”  Can you join me in this crusade?

Those who know me will think I’m off on a auto-biographical post, but hold on. It’s more than that.

If you’re even kindly still checking in to see if I’ll return from my blog vaca, thank you! After awhile, what kept me away was less my own schedule, and more my own fear (not to mention the reality that wordpress has not been all that compatible to my mac, which is portable and hence much more convenient!). Yup, FEAR. With all the updates on this site that had occurred in the past 3 months before my last post, I knew to be more than a little scared that I may not be able to even get in this site to post, much less understand how to navigate and use it. Truth be told, I don’t know if this very post will go anywhere.

Sure enough, I signed on tonight and like a bad picture, the blur of changes was unsettling. Now there’s a completely different layout for creating posts. I’ll tell ya WAAAY later if the changes actually added any value.

Meantime, enjoy Spring and plant your gardens and look forward to farmers’ markets opening across the country, offering great local foods!

While I heard everything she did at Maveric Ranch, it got buried a little bit under everyone’s stories, stories I get only one chance a year to really hear with this group.  I admit, I failed to hear it all.  By the end of the meeting where I met Arie, I began to understand a bit more and definitely got more curious, as her husband passed through town with a trailer load of hogs – unique, in all ways colorful, RARE to EXTINCT and honestly almost ambitious hogs.  They ate, they snorted, you could tell that despite a long, hard ride in a trailer across many hard miles, they were delighted.  So much so, this rainbow of hogs

 not only attracted, but swam in the affection of our group and anonymous passers-by enthralled with their presence, their energy, their capacity for consumption.

Headed to Maveric Ranch

 

I left that day, warm, sincerely affected.

And now, I’m sharing this story at a great time of need for Maveric Ranch.  In November, they lost many animals a a significant barn to a terrible fire.  What does that mean?  It means one of the most talented, one of the most compassionate, one of the most dedicated breeders and preservers of heritage swine experienced a devastating loss.  They need our help.

Please c0nsider donating to help them rebuild and to remind them of the unspoken voices in our midst who care immensely about their commitment to biodiversity, their special penchant for hogs (every piece of a pig is useable!), and their vast capacity to keep going against the odds.

You can make a difference for Maveric, for all of us, by making a contribution.

Clark & Lewis look forward to the snow almost as much as some of my other friends.  Some of the same reasons – they don’t ski, but they do love to play in the white stuff.  We know it’s really here when there’s enough to make snowballs to catch in their mouths.  Lewis has struggled to contain his excitement in year’s past and misses the snowball as he jumps the gun, however today proved his maturity – waited AND caught the first toss! 

First Tracks

Clark Leads the Way

Happy Lewis

Clark's 'Ridge'line

Back to Home

Thank goodness for these kids – my love of food is kindly countered by getting out with them in the woods nearly every day.

I adore Thanksgiving… everything good… no pressure, just pleasure.

Friends,  Family,  Farm,  Food

Amy @ Turkey Trot

Annual Rider Reunion

Meet Tex

Turkey Pre-Funk

24 hours, that is.  My visit to Eaton Natural Beef Ranch provided just the fresh wind I needed in my sails.  I arrived to their guest cabin (you can rent it too!) about 5pm to the inviting smell of pot roast, prepared and ready on the counter for my dinner.  The boys & I unpacked, adjusted to our new surroundings (no cell, no email), took a quick bio-break, and hunkered in for the evening.  Me, the pot roast, the NY Times (I must have been in a mood, because Al Gore’s Op-Ed piece got me riled up enough to draft a response!);  the boys, some chow and a good snooze.

The morning was mellow and easy in our cozy one-room abode.  Then, I hopped in the van with my fabulous host Nikki and toured the Ranch and some of the surrounding Wawawai Canyon (she tells me you say it like Hawaii, but with a ‘W’ at the beginning).  Happy cattle for the most part, except for the moms and babes that were recently separated   Fed some, cleaned up after some, and listened to stories about how they raise their animals.

For the afternoon, they had plans and showed me where to take a great hike with Clark & Lewis.  We lucked out and had a rainless sky and took full advantage, huffin’ and puffin’ straight up one side of the canyon.  It was awesome, a 360 degree view of the canyon and the Snake River.  Every direction I turned I saw Kathrine Nelson charcoals.

Wawawai Canyon

starting up

coming down

autumn sunflower

 Returned to the cabin for leftover pot roast, mixed up a nice cup of cocoa and read all of Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.  Loved it! 

Cleaned up, packed up, enjoyed one more conversation with Nikki (and let me tell you… what a cool woman… I could talk to her for a lifetime) and put the boys and myself in the Outback.  A dark clear sky out in the Palouse, the Big Dipper hung right on the horizon straight in front of me all the way home.

Raised in the Palouse country of WA, Eaton Natural Beef is a hidden gem.  Let’s change that.  They have 250 head of cattle, only 60 of which do they have enough demand for to raise them naturally and guarantee a healthy, satisfying life.  And guarantee a healthy, satisfying product.  The remainder unfortunately find themselves in feedlots of the West, victims of industrialized agriculture.  Most of the American public wants to pay less, so they make a choice too, to care less, turn a blind eye to the suffering that provides their pleasure.

Eaton Family

Fortunately, ranchers like Nikki & Joe Eaton carve out a different life for the ones they can raise and successfully sell as natural.  I went to the main ranch, I met the family, I trust the beef.

Where can you find it?  Oddly, mainly in Moscow, ID right now.  Nikki hasn’t had the best luck finding buyers in Spokane, the most likely, close, large market for this pastured, grass fed, no antibiotic, no hormone beef.  What?!?!

With the rave on-the-spot reviews I heard at our recent Main Market Co-op fundraising dinner where we featured the ground beef, and Nikki, it just doesn’t add up.  At a $55.00 per person dinner, when the burger is the part of the meal people can’t stop complimenting, we should all pay attention.  I can promise you we’ll have it at the co-op when we open.  But I’ll be working on some restaurants before then.

Why?  These people raise beef cattle the right way.  They care immensely about these animals.  They know these animals.  I’m incredibly grateful for that commitment and it’s important we make it rewarding enough for them to continue.  It’s not easy work, yet they do it.

Cattle View

Why?  It’s the closest medium size ranch to Spokane that raises beef this way.  Local is important.  At this size, they actually can provide a regular retail supply.  These cattle help keep the beautiful Wawawai Canyon out of the hands of development – the views could command a price.

Why?  I enjoy eating beef… a lot.  But, it’s increasingly rare that I do unless I can trust it’s life was respected, healthy, natural and good.  That it’s good for me.  That life was good for the animal.  What that means now is it’s a real exception that I can eat out and eat beef.  I’m hopeful and confident others in this community would pay $1.00 more a burger to dine without guilt and worry.  If at least one restaurant in this town can step up to an Eaton Natural Beef burger, I’ll make sure it pays off for them.

Looking South from Downtown

If you are in, around, or can make plans to be in Seattle 11/23, clear your evening, clear your stomach, bring friends and call now to enjoy one of the best dinners of your life!

Taste Restaurant at the Seattle Art Museum stands as one of my proudest accomplishments in my work with Bon Appetit Management Company.  Not because I created the menu or the space that is its current beautiful incarnation, but because a little creativity and trust go a long way.  Due to the fortunate combination of both when I was on the sales team to earn the right to run the food there, I earned the chance to make beautiful things

Then, hired some incredibly talented people I had no right to entertain the idea of hiring with a “you build it, they will come” pitch, and I’ve never been more pleased to go back and experience the past, which is now the future.

Even more folks I knew then work there now and it shows; actually I should say and it Tastes! 

I’ve mentioned some of these producers here before.  If I haven’t, it probably wouldn’t take me much longer.  All fabulous at securing/producing great, sustainable food, but also all amazingly active in the food community.

Go TASTE!  And bring me back a doggie-bag.  I PROMISE I won’t actually give it to my dogs.

I’ll confide, I’ve been sucked into the vortex that is facebook.  it’s like crack (though believe me, I don’t have a clue), and the weirdest combination of instant, cataloged, huge connection, no connection, reunion and reinventing, storytelling and sharing others’ stories, home base, no base, harmless, potentially dangerous, family albums, explicit material, playing games and getting serious… incredibly bizarre and unpredictable… that’s the addiction.

The true bummer… I’ve let this blog languish.  Unfortunate, because I really enjoy the writing, the release, the more traditional creative format.  Hopefully you won’t abandon me or the many “Causes” I’ve always supported and found a way to promote a bit differently, in fact more actively on facebook for a while.  What you ask?

A Declaration for Healthy Food & Agriculture - an organized statement and nationwide support a sustainable food system

Save Our Wild Salmon - with democratic wins in Idaho and Oregon, this work could become a reality! 

GreenCupboards - I got a kitchen cupboard and was impressed!

CA Prop 2 – thank goodness it passed!  there’s a chance for humanity

Humane Society of the United States – I enjoy meat, but not abused animals

On like that.

Forgive me for cheating on you, my VERY few followers.  I’ll try to balance better, as with all things.