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Many thanks to Ivan Dominguez for creating this great label!
Friday, September 20, 2013
Monday, August 26, 2013
The best of times.
The Recipe. Usually I'll follow it once. If it tastes good I will re-create the dish endlessly, improvising with whatever I feel like using. Sometimes my judgement is good. Sometimes we get emergency take-out. Emma, I'll think, why didn't you just stick to the original? It was wonderful. Next time, just follow the recipe. Haha. It never happens. I'm a sucker for winging it.
This week at Wayside Ranch we are working on creating recipes for our new products! It's a little intimidating, given my nature. I am writing down poundage, salt content, cooking times and more. By golly we will come out with a consistent, delicious product.
And it's fun. Really fun. I throw in whatever I think will be good, write it down and if it works you'll see it at our farmers markets in just a couple short weeks!
This is the time when we define what our business is quite literally bringing to the table. I love it.
This week at Wayside Ranch we are working on creating recipes for our new products! It's a little intimidating, given my nature. I am writing down poundage, salt content, cooking times and more. By golly we will come out with a consistent, delicious product.
And it's fun. Really fun. I throw in whatever I think will be good, write it down and if it works you'll see it at our farmers markets in just a couple short weeks!
This is the time when we define what our business is quite literally bringing to the table. I love it.
Friday, August 16, 2013
Sustainability
What a loaded word! Especially when it comes to farming. But what does it mean? At what point is your farm "sustainable"?
Craig and I have had many discussions about this in the past few months. We've come to the conclusion that in farming, the word shouldn't just encompass your growing practices. If you own a farm, you own a business. And while it's great if your business practices support sustainability, your business also needs to sustain you.
Farmers are notorious for having second jobs. Because using best practices to grow food is expensive. Really really expensive. Craig and I experienced this first hand with Wayside Ranch's first venture - ducks.
Let's raise ducks, we said! We'll have delicious organic eggs! We'll get movable coops and fencing so they'll always have fresh pasture!
So we did. Unfortunately, not many people want to pay more than the already steep price of $10 a dozen for our delicious, pastured, organic duck eggs. And they cost us $9.50 a dozen to produce.
Our duck egg business was not sustainable. Yes, we were buying organic. Yes, we were moving them about the pasture so we wouldn't overuse the land...but we also weren't making any money.
When I first started writing this I only wanted to say that we should appreciate the fact that sustainable farming also needs to sustain the farmer, but I realize that it's not really the farmer's fault if it doesn't. The food that small farms produce is rarely (if ever?) subsidized and because of this we can not price our food according to what it cost us to produce. We're competing with subsidized agriculture and there's not a whole lot we can do about it. That being said, next time you go to a farmers' market take a minute to appreciate the low prices our small farms are putting out there for some awesome, sustainable food, and give them best wishes for a good week at their other job.
Craig and I have had many discussions about this in the past few months. We've come to the conclusion that in farming, the word shouldn't just encompass your growing practices. If you own a farm, you own a business. And while it's great if your business practices support sustainability, your business also needs to sustain you.
Farmers are notorious for having second jobs. Because using best practices to grow food is expensive. Really really expensive. Craig and I experienced this first hand with Wayside Ranch's first venture - ducks.
Let's raise ducks, we said! We'll have delicious organic eggs! We'll get movable coops and fencing so they'll always have fresh pasture!
So we did. Unfortunately, not many people want to pay more than the already steep price of $10 a dozen for our delicious, pastured, organic duck eggs. And they cost us $9.50 a dozen to produce.
Our duck egg business was not sustainable. Yes, we were buying organic. Yes, we were moving them about the pasture so we wouldn't overuse the land...but we also weren't making any money.
When I first started writing this I only wanted to say that we should appreciate the fact that sustainable farming also needs to sustain the farmer, but I realize that it's not really the farmer's fault if it doesn't. The food that small farms produce is rarely (if ever?) subsidized and because of this we can not price our food according to what it cost us to produce. We're competing with subsidized agriculture and there's not a whole lot we can do about it. That being said, next time you go to a farmers' market take a minute to appreciate the low prices our small farms are putting out there for some awesome, sustainable food, and give them best wishes for a good week at their other job.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Pretty cool, right?
This is the almond hulling facility we bring our nuts to each year. It's a local co-op, meaning we own a share in the company, and get this: solar panels produce 80% of electrical needs!
Thursday, August 8, 2013
That's a lot of nuts.
One ton of almonds! 100% raw and ready for you to take home at the Forestville market on 8/13 and the Healdsburg and West End markets the following weekend. We will not be at our markets this weekend due to almond retrieval :)
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Lots of tasty treats, coming soon!
We're celebrating over here today - we finally got THE PAPERWORK submitted to the health department!! In just a few weeks we'll be able to start roasting and spicing almonds to bring to the markets.
Our plan is to spice our almonds with locally farmed herbs and flavors. Fennel garlic nuts, anyone? Blackberry honey almond butter? So many possibilities. Tell us what flavors you think would rock and I will give it a try in the kitchen!
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Almond Harvest, 2013!
This year's harvest came a little early, but we sure are excited to get some fresh, raw almonds into your hands! Harvest started Monday, with each tree getting a little shake to get the nuts off. They'll go to the huller after this for shell removal.
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