Archive for ‘California Food’

Infused Cocktails Now Legal in California – Cheers to Jerry Brown

By Susie, 23 September, 2011,

What’s the big deal about it being legal to infuse cocktails with flavors in California?

A lot, especially for bars and crafters wanting to get creative and old timey. A few months ago, we visited the intriguing and experimental Test Kitchen LA restaurant and bar in West Los Angeles. LA Confidential-style, the vice had raided the bar only days earlier to seize their house-made fruit-infused liqueurs that were–gasp!–illegal. Literally had busted in during dinner hour to take the jars.

test kitchen la

Only months earlier, I’d enjoyed some fabulous Cherry Bounce elixirs at The Old Fashioned in Madison, Wisconsin, made with fresh Wisconsin cherries steeped 6 month in vodka, brandy and bourbon. I did not die after consuming.

Sfoodie pointed out that the ban dated back to “a Prohibition-era law banned bars from creating infusions, allowing the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to ticket barkeeps for serving sangria, limoncello, and fruit-flavored tequilas — basically any drink where a bar has altered the alcohol content with its own fruit, vegetables, herbs, or spices.”

Cheers to Governor Jerry Brown, Senator Mark Leno, and the groups the LA Times says advocated the law: “the Golden Gate Restaurant Assn., the California Chamber of Commerce, the Family Wine Makers of California and the California Restaurant Assn.”

It’s a good time to throw out the antiquated laws such as those preventing home / cottage food businesses and support our state and livelihoods however we can…especially with so much great fruit waiting to be turned into amazing drinks and foods!

soozie's boozies

Starting Something Big in the Middle of Somewhere Small – Mary’s Gone Crackers

By Susie, 13 September, 2011,

Past orchards, the ground littered with wind-blown nuts. Elephant-eye-high corn fields. Sneeze-and-you’re-past towns. Keep going, down winding roads with frustratingly changing speed limits you know have got to be designed for the radars to catch you. You’re not in the city anymore. You’re not even near the main highway anymore. How did you get here? And why?

In my case I was on a mission to meet Mary Waldner of Mary’s Gone Crackers, someone whose factory in Gridley, CA I’d wanted to visit since the first time I munched on her gluten-free black pepper crackers while on a roadtrip (and had no idea where Gridley was). I honestly didn’t actually think I’d one day be sitting in Mary’s rural office–in a cozy pre-fab building–eating uber crunchy Curry Stick Twigs for breakfast.

Oh sure, the world has thousands of rural businesses and food businesses based on freshly harvested produce, logically situated by the farms. Yet, Mary and her husband dale Dale did not grow up in the countryside. Not at all. They moved here from the Bay Area after putting a stake in the ground to pursue this food business, near their organic rice suppliers. They now love the “country” life.

Touring with Mary through the production facility made me think a lot about the use of “hand made” and small batch. I’ve visited factories my whole life, from Wonder Bread, to General Mills, and the good old Hershey walk-through factory in Oakdale, CA that closed. Much as in I Love Lucy’s time, many food types require hand labor, and many are nearly fully automated including ultra cool mechanisms to discard “bad” batches.

When you see a factory like Mary’s first hand, you realize how even if a company seems “big” it really may run like a small bakery. This is partly due to how simple and natural the ingredients used to make Mary’s products are: organic quinoa, rice, and others. The herb crackers have full pieces of rosemary.

From a smaller facility in Chico, the company moved to this larger warehouse where they set up production, taking employees who had started out as helpers and seeing them move up to managing production. It’s nice to see the heart that goes into healthy products and how locating in a semi-rural location can allow for growth at a more affordable price while building up a regional economy.

Smart Lessons for Food Entrepreneurs

Stick to your intuition even if your circle says no or has ideas that don’t seem right to you. The company is expanding into different sorts of products (I’m addicted to the ginger cookies) rather than extending the same product lines to the moon.
Source the best ingredients. You can see on the packages the company can make every desirable health claim that makes the products ideal for every sort of eater.
Plan your production smartly. With such unique products the team knew they would run production themselves rather than setting up with co-packers to manufacture for them.
Solve a need. It was just luck that Mary and Dale started at the beginning of the gluten free boom. However their excellent products that appeal to all snackers are what makes them so successful.
Keep improving and be nimble. The spirit of invention and continual process improvement is critical to reduce costs and to be able to expand with demand.
Clearly define your founders’ roles. Mary is product. Dale is operations. (“If it weren’t for Dale, I’d probably still be making these in my kitchen,” Mary told me with a smile.)

Come to think of it, these principles apply for any entrepreneur!

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A Tale of Two Marin Organic Farms

By Susie, 19 May, 2011,

Two small California family farms I visited recently couldn’t be more different, yet the same in many ways. Both are north of San Francisco, are certified organic, and produce foods that end up in products. How did they get there and how do they thrive?

Powered by association membership

One, the Mattos Farm, is an organic 400 cow dairy farm and member of Organic Valley farmers co-op.

The other, Allstar Organics belongs to Marin Organic and has several acres of herbs and flowers which they turn into artisan food products sold at the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market and provide to other food producers as ingredients. Both get input and support from these memberships which helps them also reach new markets and take advantage of sales and product development opportunities.

Making the rural life work.

Janet Brown of Allstar Organics explained how she and her husband Marty the farm so they could “live where we work and work where we live,” with a homesteading ethic.

allstar organics Allstar is able to take advantage of California’s law allowing farms of certain sizes to process their own food products. “A DPH FDB-approved kitchen used for processing cannot be in a residence or in an attached garage. It can be in a separate detached building on a farm or ranch that has adequate drainage and sewage/waste disposal, water supply, restroom, and otherwise meets “good manufacturing practices” (GMPs) per the Federal Code of Regulations as administered by DPH.” (more info – PDF from UC Davis)

While farming and growing is a lifestyle, an often difficult one with extremely small profit margins, it was clear these dairy farmers are made to milk. The Mattos’ have worked on the same land for generations. With a sky high mortgage, John converted to organic for economic reasons, realizing how much more he could get for his milk. Now he is a convert, seeing cows live to 15+ years with very few health problems. I was tempted to join the herd and spend my days grazing, if it weren’t for all the vultures.

Connecting to neighboring producers

Racks of strawberries dried in Allstar’s makeshift dehydration room. “My neighbor at the farmer’s market couldn’t find a place to dry his strawberries,” Janet explained. “I’ll do it! And keep some for myself.” Now the husband and wife team is planning a line of products involving dried strawberries. The market and association with Marin Organic also connect the farm to other local producers. An herb mix in one room sat ready for testing as a cheese coating. (Yes I’m being mysterious on purpose.)

In addition to distributing under Organic Valley, the Mattos farm supplies milk to Bay Area favorite St Benoit yogurt.
cow

Learning as they go

Mattos experiments on the farm to continually improve: “Every day I try to think of something new for the cows. I might take them on a different trail or make some small change to make the day interesting.” How would you like milk from cows that are treated like children?

The cows also enjoy 19th century style treatments of natural essential oils and tinctures (how Marin) from vet “Dr. Paul.” kelp is a big part of the herd’s diet, which results in high levels of anti-cancer CLAs – which get passed on into the milk. The kelp idea came from Tony Azevedo, the first organic dairy man in the Central Valley, who had seen iodine-deficient cows munching kelp while visiting Portugal as a boy.

Allstar Organics‘ farm started with the basics: tomatoes. Then basil. Then roses. The plan: Sell big antique-style rose bouquets. Well that didn’t last. Feedback from her first sales call “That’s too green, that’s too closed. That’s too thorny…” took the bloom off her rose.

Ye old synchronicity: A friend suggested they try making rose water instead. It just so happened at the time their greenhouse stood empty, a wizened elder taught them how to plant tuber roses. They hired an expert to build a still to make their floral hydrosols and essences, and planted a backyard farm thriving with rosemary, mint, roses, and other edibles.

And so the two farms thrive, driven by community, passion, innovation, and a commitment to good food.

Mattos Farm – fun in the sun

John Mattos breaks down the grass composition.

Talk about local milk.

Allstar Organics – From field to farmer’s market:

Janet illuminates us on mint varieties.

Janet explains hydrosols

From plant to plate

Food Entrepreneur Profile: Nory Locum Turkish Delight

By Susie, 18 March, 2011,

Nory Locum first came to my attention at an international market in Van Nuys, California, where stacks of locum (Turkish Delight) in plastic clamshell containers beckoned with a riot of powdered sugar coating what lay beneath: thick coils of candy bulging with pistachios. Upon closer examination, I knew this was something special – a nutritious high protein snack that my family would love.

I asked the store manager where it was from and was shocked to not only discover Nory Locum was local to the valley but there was a small town called Winnetka right there in the Reseda / Canoga Park area. After one bite, I had to pay them a visit.

Exhibit A: From my visit in January 2009

Tucked in a classic strip mall, I learned the kindly couple behind this tiny operation had churned out hundreds of pounds of candy daily for decades, the old world way, sourcing nuts and other ingredients from California and as local as possible — no fanfare about “artisan this.” Yet I immediately recognized their colorful gift boxes as ones I’d seen at international markets through the years.

Upon my next visit a year later, I learned from a new owner Armand Sahakian that Nory Locum is pretty much the giant in the U.S.’ tiny Turkish Delight industry.

I will focus on what fascinated me most: Lessons learned by a man who found his calling in nutty sweets.

Most Interesting for Aspiring Food Entrepreneurs

Food business can be learned. Armand hopped through many careers before happening upon a small local culinary program, where he discovered his joy of cooking and food. He’s never run a food product business; if you buy one, plan to train with the previous owners.
You can produce big in a small space. Having seen his products at various small markets around the country (if you ever go to middle eastern stores you may recognize the name), I was surprised to see that just a couple of kettles churn out his production.
Be resourceful and follow the signs. Once Armand decided he wanted to start a business, he turned to the “for sale” ads. While in “real life” it doesn’t seem like this is possible, the LA Weekly describes how “Sahakian says that he just saw the ad for a business for sale, not realizing the connections to his own heritage: he later found out that the previous owner’s “nephew’s sister is married to my cousin.”
Take time to self-promote. Armand tweeted to me, wrote to me on this blog, and followed up on an email I’d written the previous owners. His tenacity kept Nory Locum on my radar. Between the time I visited Armand, the LA Times Food blog wrote a great article and the LA Weekly also wrote a hilarious account of the operation much to my American Delight.)
Take time to innovate. Despite a full schedule for daily production and shipping, when I visited Armand was already experimenting with alternatives to corn syrup, ways to eliminate any non-natural ingredients, and gifty packaging. Many of his flavors are new since my visit.

It is simply luck that Nory Locum really “owns” this niche which recently was made even popular by the Narnia tales. However it is also a testament to focusing on a need and desire, and doing it well.

What other niche food product businesses are waiting to happen?

Meet a Citron and Buddha’s Hand Grower – Nov 7th in Berkeley

By Susie, 1 November, 2010,

November 7th in Berkeley, a small gathering of people will be lucky enough to meet John Kirkpatrick, one of few commercial growers of citrons (etrogs) and buddha’s hand. A life long California farmer, John is someone you’ll want to meet if you’re a curious cook or fan of rare fruit. (Tickets and more info.)

I’ve got a case of citrons on hand to give away to locals who want to experiment in advance and share the “fruits” of your imagination. There’s no juice, only a firm white pulp. The citron’s oily peel holds the magic although you can cook with the full fruit as well. Here are some things made for our last event and other ideas for citrons:

* Citroncello, limoncello’s cousin
* Candy (June Taylor makes a great candied citron peel.)
* Marmalade (See Corby Kummer article)
* Syrup for drinks or cakes
* Baking
* Essence
* Something no one has thought of? I’ve been wanting to try soap or candles! Perhaps massage oil?