Category: Bluebird Community

As a girl who grew up on orchards and later went on to fruit sales, Stephanie Kraemer knows her fruit. “Apples, cherries, and pears–that was my whole world before buying a grocery store,” Kraemer says. Kraemer, who with her husband, Clark, purchased Caso’s Country Foods in Okanogan, WA, just two and a half years ago, was raised on Oroville orchards and developed her appreciation for fresh produce early. “Dad was a grower and an orchardist,” she says. “I know the importance of fresh fruits and vegetables to a healthy diet. I also value quality, since I always had access to great produce.”

Working in fruit sales for 18 years–10 of them in international fruit sales–Kraemer says that she has a great appreciation of all that goes into growing, harvesting, and shipping produce, to stock grocery stores in response to customer demand. The exacting standards she had for the quality of the fruit she shipped while in sales carried over to her role in buying for Caso’s Country Foods. “I’m quite critical of the quality of what we carry,” she says.

“It caught our adult daughter a bit off guard when we bought the business though,” she adds. “She was off having her own adventures and thought we were stable in our careers. And then suddenly here we were, navigating the unknown.”

As far as predicting what products will be big hits with her Okanogan customers, Kraemer says “It’s a bit of trial and error. I keep making investments in offering things in our valley that might not be offered elsewhere.” She adds, “My real passion in the store is watching other businesses succeed and grow, and I can help them do that by carrying and promoting their products.” She mentions some of the area growers and producers she favors along with Bluebird: Be Well juices, Coulee Farms flowers and baked goods, Cyrus Saffron, Spiceology signature spice blends. Kraemer says that part of her investment in small area businesses comes from her curiosity about “someone starting something from scratch and growing it into a success.”

Kraemer credits her staff with keeping the store open and the people–both customers and employees–safe. “It was just navigating the unknown that was the most challenging part,” she says. “As an essential business, we got all this information about what we should be doing, but it changed daily.  It’s a credit to our team that we were able to stay open, stocked, and safe.”

This commitment to community is something that the Kraemers have carried over from the previous owners of Caso’s, who Kraemer says were “very involved in community, with strong support for kids and youth sports.” The Kraemers have diversified their community outreach, continuing to support youth activities but also in the Imagination Library and animals.

Kraemer’s path to becoming a retail grocery store owner/operator was somewhat unconventional, with her previous professional background in insurance, sales, marketing, and rental properties, as well as some business ventures she and Clark have undertaken together over the years.

But ultimately what drew her to Caso’s is a passion for the Okanogan community.

“I’ve always lived in the Okanogan Region,” Kraemer says. “For many years I commuted to Chelan and traveled a lot for work. I was working in different communities, and I loved those communities, but they weren’t mine. Part of the big draw for us buying the business was to be more involved in our home community. This is home. This is where we wanted to be.”

For more information about Caso’s Country Foods, visit their website.

Ashley Lodato, Bluebird Grain Farms staff writer. Photos courtesy of Maria Hines

For Seattle Chef Maria Hines, food is medicine. The James Beard Award-winning chef, restaurant founder, cookbook author, and climber has long been a food enthusiast, with a childhood spent helping her mother cook on evenings and weekends. But it is only in the past five years that “nutrition became a passion,” she says.

Fueled by an interest in leveraging the nutritional value of the food she brings on climbing trips and expeditions, Hines, along with climbing partner and nutritionist Mercedes Pollmeier, wrote Peak Nutrition: Smart Fuel for Outdoor Adventure–a cookbook that guides athletes through making food part of their athletic plan, fine tuning nutrition, and preparing adventure-friendly snacks and meals.

A 2020 National Outdoor Book Award winner, Peak Nutrition was born of necessity, says Hines. “In all these years, I’ve yet to come across a comprehensive nutritional cookbook that is dedicated to mountain sports. Professional and recreational mountain athletes require proper nutrition to fuel their bodies, minds, and spirits. This book is for outdoor athletes who want to perform at their best.”

Although Peak Nutrition‘s growing popularity will be some consumers’ introduction to Hines, other are familiar with her work as a leader in the restaurant and sustainability community, chiefly as the founder of Tilth Restaurant, which was the second certified organic restaurant in the country, designated by the Oregon Tilth organization, which is a leading certifier, educator and advocate for organic agriculture and products. A casualty of the pandemic, Tilth Restaurant, which was named one of the top 10 best new restaurants in the country by Frank Bruni of the New York Times, closed in October 2020, after 14 years of advancing a farm-to-table focus and “supporting a movement for ethical sourcing,” an Eater Seattle article says (read more about the closing of Tilth Restaurant HERE).

During Tilth’s tenure, Hines saw positive change in Northwest diners’ commitment to locally, sustainably, and ethically grown food–“we’ve turned the corner as far as you now see more organic and local in box stores,” she says–but notes that “most people will still choose cheap over organic and local, unfortunately.”

A San Diego, CA, native, Hines moved to the Northwest because “San Diego didn’t have a strong culinary scene.” For Hines, Seattle was a gateway to the Methow Valley, and Mazama, which she discovered while climbing, hiking, paddling, biking, and skiing. “The valley is so special and the community is even more special,” she says. Hines’ love of Mazama inspired her nutritional coaching business, Mazama Nutrition, which “helps clients make meaningful changes in [their] eating habits and fitness.”

The Methow Valley was also where Hines discovered Bluebird Grain Farms and its products, through a connection with Chef John Sundstrom, owner and chef at Seattle’s Lark Restaurant. “Chef John introduced me to Bluebird Grain Farms and I’ve been using the products for 16 years now,” Hines says. “My fave is making farro risotto!” She uses, of course, Bluebird Grain Farms’ Organic Whole Grain Emmer Farro.

Hines has been featured in regional and national press, from Edible Seattle to the Huffington Post to the New York Times. But she retains a local, community-oriented perspective, supporting and advising organizations like Mary’s Place (shelter for women, children, and families), PCC Farmland Trust (farmland preservation), and Fresh Bucks (food equity). Hines believes that “every human being should have the right to afford and access safe, healthy, sustainable food and environments.”

“Community is the foundation of food,” Hines writes, “and food is the foundation of community.”

For more information about Chef Maria Hines, Peak Nutrition, and Mazama Nutrition, visit Hines’ website.

Ashley Lodato, Bluebird Grain Farms Staff Writer. Photos courtesy of Guerra’s Gourmet

In the 1980s, Lino Guerra noticed something. Everyone, it seemed, was suddenly interested in peppers. At the time, Lino was farming with his father in the Yakima Valley, growing peppers alongside tomatoes, peas, onions, and other produce. In response to demand for peppers, Lino, along with his wife, Hilda, slowly grew the farm to 30 acres, planting a large variety of them that he sold to restaurants and at farmers markets locally as well as in Seattle and the Tri-Cities areas. They were also busy raising their four young sons: Aaron, Chris, Geraldo, and Fabian. All the while, Lino maintained his day job as a senior chemical technician at the nearby Hanford nuclear facility because, as he says, “Farming is not an easy way to make a living.”

“We were getting so many requests that we started drying the peppers and blending them into a spice mix,” Lino says of what is now the Guerra’s Signature Seasoning Mix. “It was just peppers and sea salt, no preservatives or fillers. We kept experimenting to find the right combination, using jalapeño, habanero, serrano, Anaheim, and about 30 other pepper varieties. We wanted to bring something different to people.”

In 2002, Lino says, “Everything changed.” Hilda and Geraldo were involved in a serious car accident. “It pushed everything to a stop,” Lino says. “We had to change gears.”

The two oldest boys, Aaron and Chris, helped their grandfather, Antonio, continue farming. “When they eventually went to college,” Lino says, “that farming experience was useful. It gave them the gift of a work ethic. It taught them about the value of a family business. It made them what they are now: responsible, creative, outgoing.”

All four boys went on to college, learning skills in marketing, culinary arts, and management. After finishing culinary school, Chris cooked at a downtown Seattle restaurant before leaving to work full-time with Guerras Gourmet Catering. “We had always offered the catering,” says Chris, “but we didn’t really advertise it. It started as a way for my parents to offer some of the fresh vegetables from the farm as ready-to-eat meals at the farmer’s markets so that we didn’t have to take any produce home with us.”

In considering the catering menu offerings, the Guerras turned to their favorites.

Fajitas were the Guerras’ specialty, as well as the Guerra boys’ original training in preparing food for others to enjoy. “My dad taught all four of us to make fajitas,” Chris says. “Over time, we each developed our own methods. Now we compete for who makes the best fajita.”

The same Guerra-friendly competition applies to salsa, Chris says. “Aaron is known as the one who can make the hottest salsa. I like a little flair, so I make mine different, like using orange tomatoes or fruit. Geraldo is more sophisticated because he did cooking school at an art institute. His is a medium-range salsa that is very refined. Fabian, the youngest, takes a little bit from all three of us to make his own unique salsa.”

“We each have our own stir-fries, too,” Chris adds. “And it all comes from my mom and dad going to the market and cooking up fajitas.”

Working for Guerra’s Gourmet Catering, Chris says, is a different experience than working in a restaurant. Although restaurants now have widely adopted a “farm to table” philosophy, it was less common back when Chris made the leap from Seattle fine dining to Yakima Valley catering. For a farm family, however, it came naturally. “When you live on a farm you get to be creative with seasonal vegetables all the time. In the spring we would cook asparagus in a stir fry, then we’d have jicama and radishes; we’d use onions and tomatoes when they came into season, bell peppers, corn. We had the opportunity to design our meals around what was ready to harvest.”

Over the years, the Guerras began making wood-fired pizzas, and this culinary path led them to Bluebird Grain Farms. “We were already using vegetables from our own and other local farms, and we were sourcing cheese locally from our neighbor, Daniel’s Artisan, so what about the pizza dough was going to make it unique and better?” asks Chris. “As a chef, you’re not satisfied until each ingredient is right.”

“We chose Bluebird because it’s easy to work with, but it’s unlike any other whole wheat flour,” Chris continues. “You can feel the texture. The taste is different. There’s nothing else like it.”

“We always say we only have one chance to wow people,” Chris explains. “So it needs to be from that first bite. Bluebird’s organic Emmer, Einka, and Dark Northern Rye all have unique flavors by themselves. Then there’s the Methow Hard Red and Pasayten Hard White wheat flours that help keep everything together. Each one has its own characteristics, body, and flavor. They taste great. They allow us to create a pizza crust not readily available anywhere else.”

From pizza, wood-fired bread were a natural segue for the Guerras. “When we first got the flours and started making breads,” says Chris, “all we were doing was burning up bread. I tried to tell everyone, ‘I’m not a baker, I’m a chef!’ But my dad told me that if you’re a cook, the experience is built in your heart. Eventually, we figured out our systems.”

The Guerras’ bread systems are so figured out, in fact, that they are able to ship loaves to Hawaii, where an uncle sells them at island farmer’s markets. “We ship the loaves wrapped in paper bags inside the boxes,” says Chris. “They take a couple of days to arrive, and they apparently still taste perfectly fresh when they get there.”

The bread, pizza crusts, English muffins, and rolls that come out of that oven are “so satisfying,” Chris says. “It’s so wholesome, it’s delicious, and you’re not just consuming empty calories.” Equally important, Chris believes, is that “you’re eating flour that has a story. We like the story behind each ingredient. Our cheese has a story, our vegetables have a story, our grains have a story. We spend time and effort to learn the stories of the products we’re serving.”

A consistent theme throughout Guerras’ story is the pepper. “Everything we do involves peppers,” Chris says. “From appetizers to amuse-bouche to salsa to entrees–it’s all about the pepper. I like to introduce people to different pepper varieties. If you only shop in the grocery store, you’d think that jalapeños and bell peppers are the only varieties out there.” Yakima Valley consumers are adventuresome eaters, Chris notes, and “we have a younger generation of residents who understand the importance of buying locally.”

As farmers and owners of a small family business, buying locally has long been a priority for the Guerras, but it hasn’t always been easy. While the well-drained soil and hot, dry climate of the Yakima Valley are ideal for growing peppers, they’re not as conducive to root crops. “We need to buy our beets and carrots from farms in other regions,” Chris says. “It takes a lot of time to go to this farm for this ingredient, then to a different farm for that ingredient. But one of the things you learn in culinary school–not to mention just understanding it intuitively from growing up eating your own garden produce–is how important fresh vegetables are.”

Early in the days of the catering venture, sourcing vegetables was challenging. “Everything was getting shipped off to Seattle markets,” Chris says. “It took years to develop the relationships we now have with these area farmers. I am very thankful they recognize me from when I was younger, going with my dad to visit them.  I just had to learn to get in line earlier for our vegetables.”

Like everyone else in the foodservice industry, the Guerras have had to adapt their business model to COVID. “The pandemic forced us to change how we do everything,” Chris says. “We had to ask ourselves, ‘How do we continue safely and provide a product to an audience that wants something local?'” The Guerras’ solution was to take one item from each of their suppliers and create the Guerra’s Box: a nearly ready-to-go charcuterie board, with a Fuego cheese from Daniel’s Artisan, a loaf of Bluebird wood-fired bread, a bottle of Guerra’s Signature Seasoning, dried Italian mushrooms, Mt. Adams Honey from Zillah, and various cured meats from Glondo’s Sausage Company in Cle Elum. “It’s comfort food,” Chris says.

A silver lining of the pandemic for Hilda and Lino is having all four boys involved in the farm, spice, and catering business: Chris and Geraldo on a full-time basis, Aaron and Fabian as time allows. The pandemic has also allowed the Guerras to focus on their seasonings; they’ve since created an extra spicy blend for those who like a bit more heat or an “extra kick.”

The spice blend is not, as one might assume, simply a way to add flavor and heat to fajitas or tacos. Its uses are seemingly limitless, under the imaginative culinary minds of the Guerra family. “Garnish pizza with it, or sprinkle it on focaccia or breadsticks right before you bake them,” Chris says. “Shake it up in salad dressing, top Caprese salads with it, simmer it with fresh herbs and tomatoes from the garden, and make a marinara sauce. Dust fresh peaches, nectarines, or apples with it. Put a spray of it on ice cream.”

Listening to the ideas, one gets the idea that if he had time, Chris could simply rattle off recommendations for using the spice mix all day long. But the thing is, the ideas all bear out; the seasoning blend is delicious in all of the suggested applications.

Rather than introducing competing flavors to what might seem like incongruous pairings–hot peppers and stone fruits, for example–the spice mix draws out the sweetness of the fruit by providing contrast. The Guerras intuitively understand how the seasoning plays a supporting role, allowing the main focus to remain on the pizza crust, the pasta sauce, or the salad blend. Once again, Lino Guerra proves correct: if you’re a cook, the experience is built in your heart.

Click the following links to learn more about Guerra’s Gourmet products, and Guerra’s Gourmet Catering or visit them on Facebook.

Rising Grain Project‘s Gabriel Kiritz baked his first loaf of bread at age 16 under inauspicious conditions: under a rainy tarp on the coastline of Prince William Sound on a NOLS kayaking expedition. “And I didn’t return to baking for ten years,” he says. On that expedition and others, Gabriel learned about “the gratification that comes with creating food for your community at the end of a hard day’s work.”

After a long hiatus from baking, Kiritz began making food from scratch as a way of reducing waste when he was in graduate school for international environmental policy. “I tried my hand at a no-knead yeasted bread recipe.” That fall, Kiritz moved to Chile to work on coastal conservation. “Living in a small community on an island, I had a lot of time on my hands and decided to start a sourdough culture,” he says. “I quickly became drawn to the rhythm of it and the rewards of a simple practice.” This Chilean-born sourdough culture, La Madrecita Chilota, traveled back to the US with Kiritz when he returned.

Kiritz found himself obsessed with baking. “Baking first hooked me with the simple fact that when you combine a few ingredients with precision, use your hands, and give it some time, you can create something beautiful, delicious, and healthful,” he says. “It’s a pretty direct connection between labor and reward.”

Kiritz and his partner in business and in life, Katie Ryan, have traveled and worked extensively throughout the United States in various aspects of food production and preparation. Ryan, a chef and the culinary talent behind Wild Spoon Kitchen, has a dedication to whole, natural ingredients that began with her mother’s cooking and “developed over a lifetime of cooking, gardening, and connecting more with her natural landscapes.” Says Kiritz, “Her commitment to local and seasonal-based cooking, and keeping a homestead kitchen (rich with her own set of fermentation and preservation projects) makes our collaboration natural and deeper, and solidifies my own motivation to bake in this same way.”

Kiritz is further motivated by the appeal of “a creative practice with the scientific precision and methodical approach that works for [his] brain.” The structure of baking, he says, “allows me to be free to create in a way that other cooking has not always done for me.”

Kiritz and Ryan settled in Leavenworth fairly recently, after having identifying the mountain town as a place they could call home because of its many assets: “access to wild spaces, protected public lands, and incredible climbing, along with local farmers and a community that values food.” Although they’re still pursuing their dream of owning their own land, they’ve put down other roots, investing themselves in Leavenworth’s landscape and community. “It’s about learning a place intimately,” Kiritz says. “It’s about the shared give and take with a community.”

For Kiritz, providing the Leavenworth community whole-grain sourdough through his Rising Grain Project and Ryan’s Wild Spoon Kitchen is a way to connect with the community and solidify a feeling of home. Kiritz’s exploration of whole grains was inspired by Moxie Bread Co. in Louisville, Colorado, where he “felt incredibly inspired by the role they play in the community as a gathering space, a place for activism, and relationship-building, and as a resource that nurtures the local grain economy with their emphasis on heirloom grains.”

Kiritz continued his journey into whole grain breads with Songbird Organic Farm in Maine two years ago, where he “began to love the fuller, more complex flavors of whole-grain sourdough breads and began to find that many white sourdough breads simply weren’t as interesting to us anymore.” On top of that, he says, “focusing on whole grains allows us to better support local economies and reduce waste by using all of the wheat berry.”

In 2019, in part due to Ryan’s sensitivities to commercial wheat, Kiritz began 100% whole-grain wheat breads made with freshly-milled flour, a passion that eventually led him to Bluebird Grain Farms. To produce the breads, bagels, rolls, buns, challah, and other baked goods to come out of Rising Grain Project’s ovens, Kiritz sources flours and whole grains from four local and regional grain producers, including Bluebird Grain Farms. “This summer, I learned that many members of our Leavenworth community are already familiar with Bluebird,” he says. “Many are already baking with Bluebird flours and were excited to try my breads.”

From Bluebird, Kiritz sources organic whole grain berries like Dark Northern Rye, Pasayten Hard White Winter Wheat, and Methow Hard Red Winter Wheat and mills it himself for use in the micro-bakery. He also recently purchased a wood-fired bread oven, which will soon be mounted on a trailer for pop-up baking at evens. “Our hope is to offer our community a more collaborative business, centered around our oven’s hearth,” says Kiritz. “In the way that ovens were traditionally the center of many historic communities, Katie and I hope to use it not only to bake bread, but to also offer community pizza gatherings and bakes, cooking and baking workshops, and event catering.”

Using a home mill he acquired in 2017, Kiritz bakes about 50-70 loaves of bread and 50-150 bagels weekly. The yield is relatively small, but the intent and thoughtfulness behind the production are significant. Kiritz says that he intends to “stay small in terms of production, and grow instead by offering richness and diversity in what we can bring to a community.” For example, Kiritz is using his baking practice “as an opportunity to share my love of other cultures and the times I’ve spent studying other languages by baking bread from other parts of the world.”

Kiritz and Ryan are also committed to food justice. “We believe in building a business that is actively working to dismantle systems of oppression, in whatever small ways we can,” he says. “We know that massive changes are needed in our society, our government, our political system, our economy, and our relationships to food and the land, for Black, Indigenous, people of color, LGBTQIA+ and other folks with marginalized identities to feel safe and whole and have the opportunities we have had to explore our own happiness, seek adventure, and pursue projects of passion.”

For Kiritz and Ryan, contributing to the solution means offering a sliding scale to their customers. “Our food systems have been structured to make access to quality, local, healthful, environmentally regenerative foods inequitable,” Kiritz says. “If paying the offered price would make it harder for our customers to meet other basic needs, we’ll sell our products at a lower price, no questions asked.”

Kiritz also donates regularly to Soul Fire Farm, an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm committed to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system, as well as to other organizations working to dismantle racism.  Ryan recently hosted a virtual fundraiser for the Black Food Sovereignty Coalition, which serves as a collaboration hub for Black and Brown communities to confront the systemic barriers that make food, place and economic opportunities inaccessible to them. “We will continue to offer fundraisers whenever we can,” Kiritz says. “We are also using our platform as small business owners in the community to educate customers and encourage them to support these efforts.”

Kiritz and Ryan’s dream is to have “our own land and teaching space, to offer mentorship and apprenticeship opportunities, host retreats, and offer up the use of our space free of charge for organizations representing [marginalized] communities.” Kiritz acknowledges that realizing this dream may be some time away, but says “we’re committed to some version of this down the road.” Even without this land and space, though, Rising Grain Project and Wild Spoon Kitchen offer opportunities to learn, through classes and the Wild Spoon Cooking School, as well as through embracing the chance to connect people through food. It is this exercise–the mindful practice of breaking bread with others–that Kiritz and Ryan seek to nurture within their community. “As I’ve continued to explore my relationship with baking bread and cooking in general,” Kiritz says, “I’ve discovered that I most love…how a simple, traditional craft can bring people together and create moments of joy and connection.”

by Ashley Lodato, Bluebird Grain Farms staff writer

photos courtesy of Alyssa Jumars and Red Shed

Miles Griffin of Posterity Farm

It doesn’t always happen, but when demand and supply are aligned, it’s a collective win.

When the COVID crisis hit the United States, several things happened simultaneously in Methow Valley food systems. First, The Cove, the Methow Valley’s food bank, experienced a surge in requests for food assistance, many from people recently laid off. Second, with farmers markets and restaurants closed, as the growing season waxed, food surpluses from farmers and growers began to accumulate. Third, the Methow Conservancy established an online portal where food producers could sell items that they would normally be selling at the local farmers market.

It was the fourth thing, however, where demand, supply, and system converged. Longtime valley resident and board member Gordy Reynaud, along with his wife Adrian Chavey, asked the Methow Conservancy about making a monthly donation that would allow a low-income Methow Valley family to shop through the online farmers market channel. And suddenly the idea took shape: pairing local households in need with fresh foods grown on Methow Valley farms.

Lazo Gitchos of Red Shed delivering carrots to The Cove

Within a few short weeks, the Methow Conservancy’s Farms to Neighbors program launched, in partnership with The Cove and sponsored by donors who were invested in helping Methow Valley families in need access fresh foods, as well as supporting the local farming and growing community. Alyssa Jumars, the Methow Conservancy’s Agricultural Coordinator, says “The idea was to invite donors to contribute to this fund, and then find a few farmers and buy what they had to spare, and distribute this surplus through The Cove to its clients. We thought we might get enough donations to work with a couple of farms for four to six weeks.”

Amy Wu, Rest Awhile Fruit, provided six hundred pounds of tree-ripened peaches

To everyone’s delight, the program was popular for all involved: donors, farmers and growers, and recipient families. “We ended up purchasing more than 6000 pounds of food from a dozen farms over the course of twelve weeks and distributing it to families throughout the valley,” Jumars says.

“Growers whose normal market channels had been disrupted–restaurant orders were cancelled, farmers markets were cancelled–had a means of selling their crops,” Jumars continues. “We’d buy from these farmers and they’d deliver straight to The Cove on Thursdays, when The Cove is open for people to come get food.”

The harvest bounty couldn’t have come at a better time. The Cove usually serves about 40-50 Methow Valley families each week, but with COVID-related unemployment that number surged to 60-70 families. And while some food banks are able to access only unsaleable surplus or #2 quality produce, with bruises or blemishes, the Farms to Neighbors program prioritized top quality produce. “It was really important to everyone involved in the program to give families produce that was every bit as beautiful as what you’d find at farmers markets,” says Jumars. “The farmers and growers appreciated being able to give their best products to families in need.”

Jumars worked with The Cove to learn what food types would be most useful each week, and sourced those items from the participating farms: Bluebird Grain Farms, the Channing Family Farm, Hoodoo Blooms Farm, The King’s Garden, Posterity Farm, Rest Awhile Farms, the Red Shed, Ruby Slippers Farm, Sunny Pine Farm, Twisp River Organic Apples, Wild Plum Farm, and Willow Brook Farm. “We all learned together,” Jumar says of figuring out the details of the Farms to Neighbors program.

Emmer flour has a sweet flavor with caramel undertones

Pancakes were a definitive favorite for Cove customers, and Bluebird’s Organic Emmer Pancake & Waffle Mix satisfied that hotcake craving. Not your mainstream spongy tasteless disks, Bluebird’s emmer pancakes and waffles melt in your mouth with the sweet nutty flavor of freshly milled emmer farro. High in protein, fiber, and B vitamins, the pancake mix is a great source of energy and nutrition for all ages.

Glen Schmekel, the Executive Director of The Cove, says that the Farms to Neighbors program was “A wonderful gift from the Conservancy to the food bank.” He continues, “We were able to give a full bag of fresh fruits, vegetables, and grains to each family every week during the season. Sometimes each bag was 20#.”

Schmekel acknowledges the donors that made the program possible. “What a fantastic idea,” he says. “It helped everybody.”

Farms to Neighbors was a pilot program for 2020 and its future in the next growing season is uncertain. But the 6,000 pounds, bunches, bags, and cartons of locally-grown peaches, apples, pears, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, green beans, carrots, beets, cabbages, potatoes, onions, garlic, leeks, leafy greens, goat cheese, free-range eggs, and pancake mix distributed to hundreds of community members are a testament to the Methow Valley’s commitment to its farmlands, its growers, and its people. When a need arises, the Methow Valley finds a way to fill it.

by Ashley Lodato

Bluebird Grain Farms staff writer

photos courtesy of Amy Halloran

Food activist Amy Halloran has a story to tell–many of them, in fact. When Halloran was a little girl, she learned that the easiest way to connect with her father was to tell him a story when he got home from work. “It was a super strong urge,” Halloran says. “I was always very conversational,” she continues. “It’s just the way I am. I had this incredible need to connect. My family says that when I was young I would go up to anyone and make a connection with them. If we were in the grocery store and I noticed them putting something in their cart, I’d say to them, ‘We get Sugar Pops too!'”

It was always the people who interested her, Halloran says, even as her career took her into fine dining and foodie-ism. “I made no pretenses about it,” she says of the potentially pretentious food genres. “I wanted to tell the stories of food through people.”

Halloran’s training in fiction writing served her well as she began to write profiles, “trying to catch the details of peoples’ work that would bring readers into the farm or into the creamery.” As the stories of people responsible for food production and preparation evolved, so did Halloran’s perspective. “Along the way I got interested in how we got here,” she says, of the United States’ largely industrialized food systems. “I felt compelled to tell the stories of food — not in mouthwatering words, but in the details that most of us can’t imagine. We live removed from the realities of farming. I want to illustrate the work it takes to eat.”

A self-proclaimed “Irish Catholic Polish mutt” whose family spirit is “kneejerk underdog,” Halloran’s scrappy approach led her down a path of discovery through on-the-ground experience. “I always knew I was going to be a writer and had an interest in food,” Halloran says, “but I knew that writing was not a great moneymaker.”Instead, Halloran says, she asked herself what other jobs she might do. Her local co-op newsletter posted a Farmers Market manager position and Halloran applied, successfully.

“That job really set my compass,” Halloran says. “It really made me see that I knew nothing about food production. It was this amazing revelation–all the prejudices I’d been given growing up in the USA, like ‘farmers are dumb,’ even though the farm kids were sitting right beside me in Honors Math class.” The job “laid out the greater job of discovery that I had to do,” she says. “I felt like I had to make amends. I was working for these farmers and I didn’t know anything about food systems. I realized that I was the dumb one in this game.”

Halloran gave up the Farmers Market position after three years to raise her children, but she never stopped telling the story of food. “How does change in food systems happen?” she asks persistently. Unwilling to subscribe to the tidy theory that “everything in food went wrong after World War II,” Halloran notes that “we don’t look backwards to the many ways that factories began to be applied to agriculture.” Halloran says she wants to “get up and close to our food systems, to take any given moment and frame it in historical context.”

One silver lining of the global pandemic, Halloran acknowledges, may be that consumers will form new habits. Early in the pandemic, store shelves were void of flour, and social media posts were rife with the home baking that was rampant in what seemed to be every American kitchen. “It’s been amazing to watch,” Halloran says. “Years ago I asked, ‘how are we giving away so much ability to cook for and feed ourselves?'”

Halloran remembers looking in 1985 King Arthur Flour catalogs and seeing mix after mix. “For years that’s been the market category,” she says. “People thought baking was too hard.” Now, though, Halloran hopes, “people are getting comfortable with flour and baking. ‘This is something I can do once a week,'” she imagines them thinking.

For Halloran, pancakes were the gateway to cooking from scratch; she writes about her love affair with pancakes in her book about regional grain production, The New Bread Basket. “Anyone can make a pancake,” she says.

But somehow we lost touch with our ability to take the things that come from the ground and turn them into food. “We need to engage with food for the transformative thing it is,” Halloran says. “We need to get people back into understanding agriculture and how food systems work.” Halloran advocates for regional processing facilities so that “farmers can have direct access to consumers in their communities or bio-regions.”

We need more middle men, Halloran argues: “distributors who are focusing on local food.” If we “give farmers the ability to sell into local markets at reasonable prices,” she says, “we have a transformative capacity to heal soil, create jobs in communities, engage with food, and get people back into agriculture and food processing.” If we moved food systems closer to communities, it would go a long way “toward renewing care for the earth and for each other,” she contends.

“I feel like [the pandemic] is opening up the raw underbelly of our food systems,” Halloran says. “There’s so much opportunity for change.”

Halloran suggests that the only way for us to “get over the despair of the pandemic is to believe that we are going to have to create change.” Progressive change happens through conversation, she says. “Conversation is an accelerant of change.”

If we put health at the forefront instead of economics, Halloran continues, “we could effect change from field to food bank, with everyone at the table, with good wages and good health.”

Halloran’s activism in food systems and local grain movements takes several forms. She writes: LETTERS TO A YOUNG FARMER,  THE NEW FOOD ECONOMY, and CIVIL EATS.

She teaches writing classes at farming and food conferences, “focusing on marketing for farms and food enterprises,” as well as teaching at the Troy Public Library and other community sites, often weaving together history and personal experiences. She also teaches whole grain and sourdough baking classes, helping familiarize people with stone ground flours for quick breads, griddle cakes, and everyday loaves. And Halloran runs a community meals program and food pantry at Unity House, a human services agency. “We collect and redistribute groceries from America’s over-productive food system, and make meals to share in our dining room,” she says. “While my writing and cooking may seem very different, I think they share the problem that we don’t value food and feeding, farming and the environment. I want to change that, through conversations and stories.”

Creating sweeping change may seem daunting to the average person, but Halloran offers simple suggestions for becoming more engaged with food systems. Predictably, her first suggestion involves pancakes. “It’s the lowest bar,” she says. “Make pancakes with local flour. Everyone can make a pancake, right? Just find some local flour and make pancakes. Local flour will become more and more accessible as demand grows and people access their local channels for grains.” If making pancakes fully from scratch is daunting, try a local blend like Bluebird Grain Farms’ Organic Emmer Pancake & Waffle Mix.

Halloran calls grain mills “levers that farmers need to get new grains in the ground,” noting that at the turn of the 20th century, every small town had a mill, whereas currently there are only 169 USDA certified mills in the USA. “When consumers support small mills, they are participating in a revolutionary model for farmers.”

“Get a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) if you can afford it,” Halloran offers as another suggestion. “If you can’t do that, when you buy an apple at the grocery store, try to learn where it came from.” Is it a regional Honey Crisp or Jonagold? Or is it a Fuji from Japan? “Get curious about one food type,” Halloran says. “Learn how that food gets from the field to us. Challenge yourself with your food literacy.”

Halloran offers two other suggestions for those interested in increasing their food literacy:

1. Check out Soul Fire Farm as a leader in the work of ending racism and injustice in food systems. “Following them is an incredible education,” Halloran says.
2. Follow Ricardo Salvador of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Salvador “works with citizens, scientists, economists, and politicians to transition our current food system into one that grows healthy foods while employing sustainable and socially equitable practices.” Salvador makes complex food systems considerations accessible to laypeople, with podcast episodes like “The Broccoli Backstory” and “Science Advocacy,” which stresses the importance of evidence-based research in U.S. food policy.
   

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To learn more about Amy Halloran and her mission to improve food systems, visit Civil Eats and Amy Halloran. And don’t miss Amy stalking the perfect pancake!

Hi, my name is Frances, I am a senior in high school, and I was an intern at Bluebird Farms this July. I am interested in plant sciences and sustainable food systems and am very inspired by the work the Bluebird Farms does.

I definitely learned a lot over the two weeks, from soil health and weed control to marketing and branding. The one thing that really stood out to me was the importance of buying organic grains. I knew that chemical fertilizers and pesticides are harmful, but I never considered how much of an issue it actually is. While I was in the fields with Sam, he told me that conventional grain farms not only use herbicides to control weeds, they also use them to kill the grain plants for when they want to harvest them. Then from the moment that that herbicide is sprayed on the grain to the moment, it is scooped into the bag as flour, it never gets washed. That means that when you are eating conventional flour, you are also directly eating the herbicide. Not only is it bad for the people eating the flour, but for all the wildlife that surrounds the fields as well. In contrast, all the grain grown in Bluebird’s fields is cured in the field. You can very easily see how these methods are better for the surrounding wildlife because ladybugs happily hang out in the grain. Hearing that really made me understand the profound benefits of buying organic products and supporting organic agriculture.

I also experienced firsthand all the processing, packing, and marketing of the grain. Just growing good crops isn’t enough. They have to do every step themselves to maintain the integrity in what they do because of the systematic barriers that organic farming faces. They work incredibly hard to do right for the world and I am so grateful that they do. Besides, the grain is fantastic. I baked peach thumbprint cookies with the Einka flour, and let me tell you, they were delicious!

I want to thank everyone for working at Bluebird for being so kind, welcoming, and willing to show me around. I had a fantastic time with them, and I want to thank you all for supporting a farm that is dedicated to keeping not only us but our surroundings healthy.

Frances

by Ashley Lodato

Bluebird Grain Farms staff writer

Photo Credits: Amy Sandidge

The kitchen of food blogger and culinary photographer Amy Sandidge is exactly the kitchen you want to enter when you have a hankering for a snack. Feel like a ham and cheese pocket or some laminated pasta with edible flowers? Or is your sweet tooth demanding strawberry cake with lime buttercream frosting or raspberry swirl loaf? Either way, Sandidge has you covered. Better yet, she’ll incorporate whole grain flour into what she feeds you.

Raised in Alaska, Sandidge remembers a childhood of mild foods, saying “the only spices…in our home were salt, pepper, minced onions, paprika, and garlic powder.” The variety of foods, Sandidge says, “was just as limited.” But in culinary school at the Alaska Vocational Technical School  in Seward, where Sandidge completed a culinary arts and baking program, she was “exposed to a variety of foods, spices and techniques for preparing food.”

“You would think growing up with limited exposure to new foods I would have been hesitant about trying new things,” says Sandidge, “but it was the opposite, I loved it. I did everything I would to finish my assignment early and try new things.  I still get excited trying a new food, spice or learning new preparation technique.”

Working in the culinary scene, Sandidge says she was attracted to “the fast paced environment, the drive to create new and exciting dishes and the feedback from customers,” adding, “You work hard to create beautiful and unique dishes, when the customers love it, it is such a great feeling.”

As a food blogger, photographer, recipe developer, and mom, Sandidge’s pace seems no less fast, and she’s still creating beautiful and unique dishes. These, however, are consumed enthusiastically not by restaurant diners, but instead by Sandidge’s two teen boys, her friends, and neighbors.

Feeding large groups is familiar to Sandidge, who grew up in a family of 12. (There were 10 of us [kids], all from the same parents,” she says. “Although I’m sure the thought crossed their minds, maybe even several times a day, my parents are saints for not strangling any one of us.”) Sandidge’s mother got Sandidge involved in the cooking at a young age by buying her a “huge cookbook with plenty of photos for me to ogle over.” It was this moment–the gift of a cookbook–to which Sandidge attributes her fascination with food.

Sandidge has a “keen interest in whole grains” and has spent the past few years learning more about them and incorporating them into her family’s diet. “I stumbled upon Einkorn online when I was looking for local ancient grain,” she says. “I hadn’t heard anything about it but was intrigued. I ordered some and have been obsessed ever since.” Of Einkorn, Sandidge says “I love the health benefits, of course, but also love the way it bakes. My family has loved it.” Sandidge makes most of her baked items with partial whole grains and says that Einkorn is “perfect for families starting to transition into a higher whole-grain diet.”

During the coronavirus pandemic, everyone seems to be baking, as evidenced by bare flour sections in grocery store aisle. For Sandidge, it’s business as usual, and she didn’t have to worry about sourcing ingredients. “One thing our family didn’t really worry about during this pandemic was food shortages,” she says. “I have always tried to make it a practice to have a well-stocked pantry. Most everything the stores were short on, I already had in good supply.”

Sandidge doesn’t recommend overstocking, but she does encourage pantry-style shopping, where people keep their kitchens supplied with enough ingredients to cook delicious, wholesome meals from scratch–“keeping the things we use daily in large supply.” With a little creativity, Sandidge says, limited storage space can be accommodated, and she reminds readers that “whole grains are a great, healthy food group” to prioritize.

“Juneteenth today, celebrates African American freedom and achievement while encouraging continuous self-development and respect for all cultures. As it takes on a more national, symbolic, and even global perspective, the events of 1865 in Texas are not forgotten, for all of the roots tie back to this fertile soil from which a national day of pride is growing.” -Juneteenth.com

To our community, customers friends, and neighbors, we say loudly – Black Lives Matter! At this pivotal moment, we add our voice to the myriad of voices calling out for compassionate structural reform, social justice and transformation, so that we may become a culture that supports life rather than takes it.

We believe our expressions of solidarity must be grounded in self-responsibility for the choices we make. We each have a responsibility to listen and learn from one another while acting out of our shared humanity. This individual work is necessary for the collective work required to dismantle white supremacy, racism, inequality, and oppression. We invite you to dig in with us, and deeply consider the wound of racism on the hearts of  our black communities.  We believe this day requires a deeper engagement with the history and systems of anti-Black oppression.

Collet Watson shares in her article How to Honor Black Liberation on Juneteenth “We cannot celebrate Black freedom without acknowledging the conditions of Black enslavement. We must ground our observance of Juneteenth in an explicitly anti-racist framework, which includes seeking understanding of enslavement, exploitation, family separation, and racial terror in the United States. These conditions did not end in 1865.”  Here, she offers poignant suggestions on how to honor this day.

Join us. listen to what our black communities are asking,  learn about the Black Lives Movement, and how we can support our fellow African Americans at this moment in time.   Read the rules of engagement by Dr. Robin Diangelo. to understand the barriers, fears and deep-seated cultural values that may keep us from moving forward.  Learn about White-Fragility and why it may be so hard to talk about race. This article offered us some incredible insights that are hard to look at but resonated with the truth about white culture.

At Bluebird Grain Farms we are committed to learning and growing within our community to further this work. We are also donating to the following organizations to further their good work and leadership in bringing about much-needed changes to our legal system and food /land inequities. We invite you all to donate to these organizations or those of your choice as well.

ACLU.ORG

Civil Eats

And please support Black-Owned Businesses in your communities.

Follow the following link for Northwest owned businesses:

The Intentionalist list serve of Black-Owned Businesses

Check out this national listserve of African American owned Farm Businesses and find black-owned farmers in your own area.

Agritecture

Thank you for reading and holding space for this day.

by Ashley Lodato

Bluebird Grain Farms staff writer

When Jim and Judy Evans, Bainbridge Island residents since the late 1960s, decided to develop a pub on a waterfront piece of property on the island’s north shore, they had two distinct objectives. Jim, who was born and raised in England, “envisioned an English-style pub as a community gathering spot without TVs and jukeboxes like their American counterparts–a place for lively dialogue fueled by the small but growing craft beer industry of the time,” says Harbour Public House general manager Jeff Waite. Meanwhile, Judy imagined a friendly pub that welcomed and served women, regardless of whether they were in the company of men. After all, in 1985 when Jim and Judy began planning the new pub, Washington State had only very recently abolished a law that prohibited unescorted women from being served while standing at a bar. Ultimately, the Evanses sought to nurture and maintain community through “heritage and hospitality.”

Harbour Public House‘s ethic of hospitality is a legacy of  Jim and Judy, who built Harbour Marina–a 45-slip pleasure craft moorage facility–in 1982. The boating community that emerged from marina residents living aboard vessels was a collegial one, cultivated by Jim, a college professor, and Judy, a primary school teacher. Opening parts of their own on-site home to marina residents and friends, the Evanses encouraged gatherings, reading and board games in their day room, and offered yard space for communal gardening.

The building’s heritage is a post-Civil War story. Built by war veteran Ambrose Grow and his wife Amanda in 1881, the homestead was the site of the Grow family’s fruit and vegetable gardens and free-ranging cattle. In 1991, Jim and Judy completed a five-year construction project and opened the Harbour Public House on the footprint of the home where the Grows had homesteaded a century before, and even re-purposed some of the old-growth fir found in the walls and floors of the original building.

Although local residents soon warmed to the pub, initially they were wary of a new drinking establishment in the neighborhood. Says Waite, “The hard-drinking, seafaring past with a nearby bar named the “Bloody Bucket” was not yet a distant memory.” The pub opened as a non-smoking, 21+ only tavern and has remained that way ever since. Neither Jim nor Judy had any experience in the bar or restaurant industry, but they had a knack for creating community and confidence in their two adult children, who had been part of the construction and completion of the pub and who slowly assumed its managerial duties. When Jim and Judy eventually retired, their daughter Jocelyn held the reins.

Jocelyn, who had scrapped law school plans in favor of joining the family enterprise, brought one of the pub’s regular patrons into the family fold, marrying Jeff Waite–now general manager–in 1994. It was Jocelyn who hired the pub’s first kitchen manager, who in turn added two enduring items to the food menu: Pacific Cod Fish & Chips, and the Pub Burger. They kept Jim Evans’ commitment to local craft beers as well.

Along with Jocelyn and Jeff Waite, Chef Jeff McClelland of the Culinary Institute of America embraced a local and regional ethic for the pub’s kitchen. “Long before ‘farm to table’ even had a name,” says Waite, “Chef Jeff has been working to shorten our delivery miles as much as possible. During that time, we have established relationships with local farmers and local producers that have enriched our lives and experiences along the way. The kitchen manager’s interaction used to be a weekly dialogue with two major food delivery distributors. Today, over 40 farmers, producers and suppliers call on him. It has changed all of our jobs quite significantly.” Later, Waite says, as price points improved, pub management applied the local and regional ethic to its wine and spirits offerings.

With the bounty of the Pacific Northwest at its fingertips, Harbour Public House’s menu is a cornucopia of products sourced regionally and locally. The pub buys much of its meat “on the hoof,” says Waite, and is “particularly proud of its products from a Spanaway beef ranch and a Port Townsend goat ranch.” Much of the pub’s green produce comes from an island farmer. The Puget Sound basic and the Washington coast provide cheese, clams, oysters, grains, legumes, and dairy, while the pub’s cod and tuna is Pacific-caught and humanely treated by Bainbridge resident fishermen. Farro items on the menu come from Bluebird Grain Farms’ Organic Emmer-Farro. While diners are used to seeing such high-quality products on fine dining menus,” Waite says, “it once was very rare, and still is today for casual restaurants to take up the challenge as extensively as this.”

This commitment to quality ingredients is a bit of a double-edged sword in the restaurant business, as patrons often have difficulty understanding the relationship between food quality and prices. The market demands inexpensive food, yet increasingly customers want to eat and drink products with integrity: locally grown or sourced, organic, humane. Restaurant prices, then, reflect not only the quality of the food, but also the cost of preparing it thoughtfully.

Jim and Judy phased out of the family business in 2006 and for nearly a decade, Jocelyn and Waite owned and ran the pub together. In 2015, however, Jocelyn began teaching at an island Waldorf school, while Waite remained the General Manager of both the pub and the marina operations and grounds. Despite these larger managerial roles, Waite still prioritizes giving line-item attention to the menu, in collaboration with Chef Jeff. Most recently, the Jeffs have turned their focus to wheat. Both were disappointed with most American varieties of wheat, blaming it for increasing levels of inflammation in their joints; in fact, both had been avoiding American wheat in their personal diets.

After becoming acquainted with Bluebird Grain Farms at one of the early Chef’s Collaborative F2C2 gatherings and incorporating emmer-farro into their menu, in 2019 Waite began experimenting with Bluebird’s Einkorn in his bread baking. He liked the results, and convinced Pane D’Amore, which provides the pub with all of its bread and buns, to develop a custom 100% Einkorn bun just for Harbour Public House, which hit diners’ plates in the summer of 2019. Later, Pane D’Amore added 5% wheat back into the bun to help with consistency. “It’s a work in progress,” Waite says.

Like the Pub Burger’s bun, some things at Harbour Public House are evolving. Others, however, remain consistent, such as the atmosphere of the pub as a welcoming spot for excellent food and beverages, a strong community, and lively conversation. To this end, Waite notes, with a nod to the pub’s roots, “No TVs or juke-boxes have ever been permanently installed and women continue to be a large percentage of its clientele.”

To learn more about the Harbour Public House, visit their website.

by Ashley Lodato

Bluebird Grain Farms staff writer

Although Marlene Beadle was met with “moans and groans” from her family when she introduced a new, healthier way of eating at home, Marlene was undeterred. “Our family came to realize how fresh and flavorful the meals were that she was making,” says Marlene’s daughter, Lisa Gebhardt, who gives her mother full credit for the food philosophy she developed and still holds to this day.

Marlene’s interest in whole grains, natural sweeteners, and abundant fresh produce soon extended beyond the family dinner table, however, when Marlene purchased a tiny health food store in Federal Way in 1976, later naming it Marlene’s Market & Deli. “She immediately doubled the inventory with foods made from natural and organically grown ingredients,” says Lisa, noting that the founding principles of sourcing organic, sustainably-produced and socially-responsible products were and continue to be the underpinning of Marlene’s Market & Deli (MMD). “Commitment to organically grown, non-GMO, environmentalism, support of the community, and helping people was a complete circle for [Marlene] that all together built health in an individual, a business, a community, and the world,” says Lisa. “This is what we continue to believe at MMD. We work to teach our employees to help us carry on our commitment to Marlene’s founding belief.”

Marlene’s belief in quality natural foods anchored MMD, but it was “her caring for her customers was the basis for a business that continued to grow over 43 years,” says Lisa, who started working with her mother at MMD while she was in college, packaging bulk foods and grains in the back

room, and who is now the business’s general manager. “I discovered I took after her in my enjoyment of helping people and running a business, so I continued to learn every aspect of it. After 43 years, I’ve done every position except making espresso!” Lisa says.

The legacy of enthusiastic customer service and high-quality products was not the only thing Marlene passed down to Lisa, however, “I learned how to make amazingly yummy cookies with natural ingredients,” says Lisa, who carried that tradition on with her daughter, who, according to Lisa, “now has a reputation as making the ‘best’ cookies!”

The steady and thoughtful growth of MMD over the past 40+ years is a testament to the vital role it occupies in the communities it serves. Twenty years after the flagship store opened in Federal Way, Marlene and her crew launched a new market in Tacoma, which proved as successful as the original store. Lisa

attributes the market’s popularity to its commitment to quality. “Our customers appreciate that we buy from local companies committed to exemplary quality,” she says, adding, “Marlene’s has always supported local, small businesses.” She calls this a “win-win-win”: the small businesses win, MMD wins, and the customers, who benefit from the range and quality of products available at MMD, also win.

One example of the 3/win scenario was when MMD came across Bluebird Grain Farms during product research. “Our then Bulk Category Manager, Michelle, happened to be traveling through Winthrop and saw Bluebird Grain Farms products in the community,” Lisa says. “What a great connection to make! We brought Bluebird Grain Farms products in shortly after that – right now, we carry whole grain emmer and whole grain emmer pancake and waffle mix.”

MMD recognizes that newly-harvested and milled grains are best eaten in their most fresh condition, so, Lisa says, “we have a specially built bulk room that maintains the optimal temperature grains, nuts, seeds, and flours, which ensures that Bluebird Grain Farms products are as tasty and fresh as possible.”

With nine departments (grocery, refrigerated, frozen, bulk, mercantile, body care, supplements, produce, beer/wine/spirits), two locations, and 100 employees, MMD has come a long way since its original 1000 sq.ft. storefront in Federal Way. It now hosts classes featuring naturopaths, nutritionists, chefs, authors and other leaders in the natural healing community. MMD offers recipes, catering, a deli, and a bakery that uses organic flours and unrefined sweeteners to create treats like vegan chocolate cake, black bottom cupcakes, lemon sour cream pie, and zucchini bread. And if you seek vegetarian, vegan, wheat-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, and/or raw dishes, you’ll find a delicious variety at MMD; they even bake gluten-free bread to order.

Ultimately, what Marlene’s Market & Deli has supported for two generations is a healthy lifestyle through products that promote positive and beneficial choices for the things we put into and onto our bodies. What began around Marlene’s kitchen table as a sustainable approach to living has blossomed into a community resource that is the foundation of a healthy way of life for thousands of individuals and families in southern Puget Sound.

by Ashley Lodato, Bluebird Grain Farms staff writer

Arriving at Kirkland’s Cafe Juanita feels a little bit like arriving at the home of a friend. A friend who is an exceptional cook and fantastic hostess, with a fabulous house and enviable yard. Although the mid-century modern house has served as a restaurant for more than 30 years, it was, indeed, once a family home, and it still retains the intimate ambiance of a welcoming, familiar space. Remodels in recent years have opened up several previously private or unused areas within the home, and now, still within its original footprint, the restaurant boasts a patio alongside Juanita Creek, a main level dining area with adjacent private dining room, a revitalized entrance, and enhanced lighting for the entire property. “The house,” says owner and chef Holly Smith, “is a full-fledged member of the team. [It’s] a great space with lovely energy.”

Smith herself seems possessed of lovely energy as well. Since opening Cafe Juanita in 2000, a whirlwind of glowing restaurant reviews, awards, stars, and magazine features thrust Smith into the culinary spotlight, which still illuminates her with great regularity. But Smith has never lost sight of her main focus: the guests’ experience. “Everything matters and everyone is important in helping achieve a happy guest. No one are is more important [than the others].” says Smith. Staff meet and discuss guest hospitality frequently, which “really frees us up to work independently at times to the same end,” Smith says. “Servers don’t need to ask permission to do the right thing, spoil a guest, or fix a problem. Same as for a cook, who knows they use only the best and freshest items and that each plate matters. [It’s more important for it to be as delicious as possible [than for it merely to] ‘get done.'”

Smith’s holistic approach has served Cafe Juanita well, and it’s one that she cultivated during an externship in Ireland after culinary school. “Chef [Peter Timmins] was a master chef so everything was based on Escoffier,” says Smith, referring to George-Auguste Escoffier, a 19th century French culinary artist who was revolutionary in upgrading the culinary arts and fine dining experience, from recipes to service to kitchen environments to sanitation. “Proper technique and history were combined,” says Smith of Chef Timmins’ teaching. “It was great to work with such amazing raw ingredients–the best butter, wild game.” She continues, “The art of hospitality was also important. In Ireland, culinary schools teach front of the house proper service, so it isn’t just the chef’s perspective, but a guest-centric hospitality.”

A career in culinary arts was not always on Smith’s life plan, but with a degree in Political Science and a background in working in restaurants, Smith began to realize the creative outlet cooking provided for her. “I have always been interested in politics and governing,” she says. “To have a business and creative combined was a great thing for my personality.” Smith “governs” Cafe Juanita, but it’s a compassionate rule. The family feel of the home the restaurant occupies is echoed in the familiarity of the staff. Indeed, Smith refers to her team as “family,” calling herself “fortunate to be surrounded by talented and passionate professionals, who strive to create an authentic dinner experience.”

Critical to this authentic dinner experience are “the finest ingredients from local and Italian artisans,” says Smith. A trip to Northern Italy when Smith was in her late teens was “eye-opening,” and provided her with “a foundation of food experiences to draw from” when she first began as a creative professional cook. Smith honed Cafe Juanita’s menu over years of studying regional Italian cooking and traveling to Italy. And of Italian food as Cafe Juanita’s focal point Smith asks rhetorically, “Who doesn’t love Italian food?!”

Good point. If any more people in the western Washington area loved Italian food, you’d never be able to get a table at Cafe Juanita. As it is, business is brisk, and growing. In fact, August 2019 was Cafe Juanita’s busiest month in the 19+ years it has been in operation, due in part to word of mouth recommendations and in part to a continued presence on culinary award lists. But Smith responds to the media attention and public demand differently than she did in the early days, when critical acclaim came at an almost overwhelming speed. In the first few years, Smith says, “It was not very enjoyable for me. As much as I was grateful and happy to be doing well and be appreciated, I found it all a bit too much. The constant feedback on sites like Yelp took me a long while to navigate.”

Smith says she learned to “consume the feedback in a healthier way.” She and her team have focused on the restaurant culture and prioritized improvement on existing things: the space, the menu, the service. “There are plenty of ways to improve and grow in our one spot and I think that has helped sustain growth and maintain quality,” she says. “I want and expect us to be all trying to be better today than we were last week.”

Quality and sustainability are top priorities for Smith when sourcing ingredients. She looks for local and regional organic products that showcase the Pacific Northwest’s bounty, as well as sourcing Italian food and wine. In Cafe Juanita’s kitchen, Bluebird Grain Farms‘ organic emmer farro is featured in a vegetarian/vegan entree with local veggies, house-fermented shio koji, and, seasonally, locally foraged mushrooms, as well as accompanying roast game birds and soups: elements sourced from international flavors, traditional appetites, and adventuresome palates. And these eclectic and harmonious pairings seem so fitting–because this pedigreed grain that originated in the Middle East’s “Fertile Crescent” and is today considered Italy’s premiere rustic staple has been brought to the dinner table of an Italian-inspired Pacific Northwest restaurant by a North Cascades grain farm.