Fred Fleming of Shepherd's Grain

Shepherd’s Grain is a co-op of 33 farmers in the Pacific Northwest who are changing the farming paradigm and possibly changing the world at the same time.  They have chosen to  opt out of the commodity wheat system, where prices are set by worldwide markets and production is mostly anonymous to the end-user, to instead produce wheat and other grain using a farming and pricing method that is sustainable in every sense of the word — environmentally, economically, and culturally.

The Shepherd’s Grain story has many facets, which we’ll be sharing as we work with them over the coming years, but one angle that is particularly fascinating is the way they have fashioned a relationship with agri-biz giant Archer Daniels Midland — it’s not a case of David and Goliath, but rather more like the BFG (for anyone who reads kids books…Roald Dahl’s Big Friendly Giant). Read Helen York’s account of how this new relationship is leading to good things.

Springtime in a bowl at Nel Centro

Our mission continues — working our way through all the restaurants in the line-up for Dining Month Portland.

This stop: Lisa dines at Nel Centro, Dave Machado’s Riviera-inspired restaurant in the Hotel Modera.

Highlights: Bright, robust seasonal veggie soup (minestrone), loaded with plump  favas and English peas with a dollop of garlicky pesto in the middle.  So spring-like and delicious,  and the kind of soup I love to eat in restaurants because it represents hours of chopping…that I didn’t have to do!

Huge portions for the main dishes, and memorable blood orange and mandarin sorbet.

Lowlight: Cookie plate dessert option was straight from the meeting planners menu.  Lots of classic cookies piled on a plate, nearly all lacked interesting, distinctive flavor — except the pistachio macaroon, which was flawless.

Oh, glorious June in Portland! The sun is shining, the flowers are flowering, and most glorious of all, the restaurants are treating the city to Dining Month Portland — three-course menus for a measly $25.

At Watershed, we’ve decided to embrace this opportunity enthusiastically, in fact we’ve set ourselves the challenge of dining at every one of the 61 participating restaurants. We’re ambitious, but we’re not insane, so we’re dividing and conquering. With eight of us bringing our appetites to the project, we’re pretty confident about achieving our goal.

And most importantly, we’re not just feeding ourselves, but helping feed others. When you make a reservation at a participating restaurant using the OpenTable link on Dining Month Portland site, a donation will be made to the Oregon Food Bank.

In the first week, we’ve hit these spots: Serrato, Otto, Tabla, Departures, 50 Plates, Cafe Nell, Yakuza, Paley’s Place, and Gracie’s. Up next, clarklewis,  Fratelli and who knows where else.

Here’s what Katie had to say about Yakuza:

“Downtown Dining steal… Seriously good deal! Started with their refreshing cucumber and avocado salad with sesame and tagarashi.   Then their stunning scallop tempura with shredded filo that sits on a bed of rich spicy mayo aioli.  It reminds me of punk rock sushi — definitely a mohawk sort of look.  Perfectly cooked and delicious with or without the spicy mayo aioli.  I like it without, so I can taste the seasoning that’s dusted over the filo…might be a lime salt?  Then dungeness crab rolls with crème fraiche. Wish I could have had the burger in the mix, but hey, you can’t have everything! Swanky vibe – dark, perfect place for a mid-week date night.”

The news that Duane Sorenson of Stumptown has sold 90% of the company to a NY investment firm has us stumped here at Watershed. Not stumped about why Sorenson would sell the company, but stumped about why some initial reactions locally were so negative, with phrases like “sell-out” peppering the conversation.

We hope that the quality and values of Stumptown remain in place as it expands, but frankly even if the quality slips a bit but I can get a Stumptown coffee in the Minneapolis airport at some point soon, I’ll be happy.

This seems part of the evolution of good food in our country – as the dedicated small artisans get  successful, they get bigger and expand their artisan-quality products to a wider audience, even if there is some dilution on the large scale. In my experience as a cook, Scharffen Berger chocolate is a good example…bought by Hershey’s, still good chocolate but easier for consumers to buy. Good food shouldn’t be just for the members of the insiders’ club.

The biggest stumper for us, however, was the obfuscation by Sorenson for the first few days. Maybe his lawyers told him he couldn’t talk, but haven’t we all learned that honesty at the outset avoids all kinds of bad feelings later? (just ask Rep. Weiner, poor pathetic dude).

Our PR philosophy is based on total transparency, accountability, and never backing away from a challenging discussion. If we had been advising Sorenson, we might have suggested a “Yay for me, don’t be envious, and yay for good coffee across the country” proclamation, and then let the discussion proceed from there. If people are looking to find fault with Sorenson’s actions, clouding the facts simply provides more fuel.

Every sector of the hospitality industry, from restaurants to wineries to hotels, needs to address today’s reality of “instant criticism,” made possible by the array of social media tools. In the current issue of Lodging News, the new publication of the Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association (ORLA), Lisa shares some advice, along with other industry leaders such as Craig Thompson, general manager of the Hotel Monaco Portland, Kent Lewis, president & founder, Anvil and Formic Media, and Ryan Snyder, president of Martin Hospitality.

True to Watershed’s core philosophy, Lisa emphasizes the need for a business to stay authentic. “The big user-generated websites play a significant role because that’s where visitors are finding what they believe are more credible sources for reviews,” explains Donoughe. Read more about how the hotel business is keeping up with social media.

The leftovers from our albacore tasting

We’ve started working with the Oregon Albacore Commission, helping them to spread the word about this amazing fish caught by our local fishing boats. The harvest is pretty much unchanged from 100 years ago (except for a few things like cell phones and  GPS). Family fishermen heading out to the open ocean in a small boat, each fish caught by hook and line, one at a time. The fish are brought onto the boat, handled individually, and frozen at sea within minutes of landing on the deck. This one-by-one approach (which is almost more of a “hunt” than a “harvest” — these fish are truly wild) is one of the reasons the fishery has been awarded the Marine Stewardship Council certification along with Monterey Bay Aquarium’s top ranking. Along with the fact that there’s hardly any by-catch, but that’ll be for another posting…

Part of understanding our project is, of course, eating a lot of tuna. We started with canned tuna, and got samples of micro-canned albacore from Oregon, micro-canned tuna labeled “Pacific Northwest,” larger brands of Pacific albacore that were canned in Asia for American distributors, and some premium albacores, such as Spanish bonito del norte and ventresca, which is also a form of albacore (as far as I can tell…I’m still researching this a bit).

Oh, and we tasted StarKist Albacore, which was the only sample that included ingredients other than tuna, salt, and in some cases, olive oil. StarKist included vegetable broth and soy. Wha’?

We weren’t looking for a ranking of any kind, we were just exploring the various formats (round can, oval can, can inside a box, glass jar, pouch) and sensing the range of texture, appearance, and flavor. Or lack of it. Note to tuna canners: people like salt. And we reviewed the messages included on the packages — some of the Oregon brands are getting good at sharing all the benefits of this fish: extremely low mercury, the highest Omega 3’s of any tuna, super sustainable. And fabulous to eat.

Something I want to explore is how consumers view canned tuna versus fresh or frozen loins. From my culinary perspective, I think of canned tuna as an ingredient to use in pastas, in antipasto salads, in a Nicoise salad…and yes, in a tuna sandwich, too, but mostly as an ingredient that plays a key role in a dish, which makes me willing to pay $5 – 7 for a can of top quality tuna. But is that how most consumers think of tuna? How do we enlighten them about the “you get what you pay for” concept — StarKist albacore is indeed cheaper than an Oregon micro-canned albacore, and one taste tells you why. Sorry, Charlie.

Any insights you’d like to share with us about tuna in general? Send them my way!

Well, at least a few people at Meatopia wanted to learn about sustainable meats. Panelists: Peter Hoffman, Jacquie Berger, Bev Eggleston, Alberto Gonzales, Ken Jaffe

Earlier this month I went to a meat-fest on Governor’s Island in NY called Meatopia, organized by food writer Josh Ozersky and restaurateur and Slow Food proponent Jimmy Carbone. The event – which was essentially a giant meat-focused dine-around – was intended to promote sustainably and locally raised meat.

At the event itself, NY beef farmer Ken Jaffe of Slope Farms noted that he wasn’t finding much local meat being served by the 30+ restaurants, a fact he found immensely troubling. He’s not alone, as you can see in this article he passed on to me – super interesting reading.

To me, it’s not the no-sustainable-meat-at-the-sustainable-meat-celebration that’s interesting, it’s the underlying causes of this regrettable — but understandable –occurrence.

I think we’re at the stage in the local food movement where we’ve moved past the warm-and-fuzzy part and we’re into the “ok, if we really mean it, now what” part. Especially in ag-rich places like Portland, it’s hard to find a chef who isn’t trying to source responsibly and deliciously, and we all think it’s a grand concept. But how do we grow beyond the small-scale farmer selling to a small group of quasi-affluent urban consumers? That model probably works for some, but those economics  aren’t sustainable for anyone — I think most farmers would like to make more than $10K a year from farm income, and as we see in the article – and in a forthcoming piece from Leslie Cole in The Oregonian – food service operations have a hard time executing on the local-sustainable promise.

Meat seems to be the paradigm where these issues are screamingly apparent, given the nature of how animals need to be raised (over many months with lot of $$ up front) and how they’re constructed (you can’t just plant a few more rows of tri-tip if you think there will be demand next grilling season).

I think it’s time people get past the mindset of either-or. Either it’s virtuous family farm/CSA-type operations or unacceptable industrial feedlots. But there are options in the middle.

Take Organic Prairie (our client). They raise animals as well and humanely as any small local family farmer because they actually are a bunch of family farmers, but they operate as a coop mostly in the mid-West, so the availability of supply is greater and more flexible. They would be considered local if you live in Wisconsin, for example, but not local if you’re in New York City.

In order to expand the good food system beyond small pockets, it may be necessary to prioritize – satisfying volume, selection, delivery time, local, carbon footprint, humane animal treatment, and overall sustainable agriculture all in one package  (not to mention that the meat needs to be delicious…does anyone talk about flavor anymore?) may not be possible in today’s world, so choosing what matters most and compromising on the rest is not a bad thing.

If the purpose of Meatopia was to showcase local farmers and stimulate the local ag economy, then the meat really needs to be local – in which case you won’t get that 1,000 pounds of skirt steak, as Ken points out. But if the key feature was to promote meat that was humanely and sustainably farmed, then looking to a source like Organic Prairie – what you might call “ag of the middle” – can be a solution that takes the movement to a new place.

Meat’s definitely at the center of Watershed’s plate these days, as we expand on the research we started last year with our study on consumers’ attitudes around meat, called The Carnivore’s Dilemma.

As part of a branding project for our new client Organic Prairie, we spent several weeks examining the cultural context for meat: what the conversations are around meat buying, butchering, cooking, eating, safety, nutrition, meat’s role in environmental issues…even meat as entertainment.

And then we went to the source of all that meat – farm country in Wisconsin, headquarters of Organic Prairie and its parent company Organic Valley – to get a first-hand look at some organic farms and farmer-ranchers, as well as to meet the whole Organic Prairie management team. The most interesting challenge I learned about was the fact that Organic Prairie needs to sell the whole animal, but not in the way a small farmer sells an entire animal to a restaurant or through cow-shares. Organic Prairie is a co-op that raises, processes and sells its own animals, so they’re responsible for finding a market for all the meat from every animal. This is the flip side of having so much quality control over their animals – but we love challenges!

Grilled tri-tip: our blind tasting revealed some surprises

Last month, I saw a fascinating side of the beef industry…namely, SIDES of beef, lots of them, hanging in a butcher’s walk-in. I was part of a small group of chefs (I was the token non-chef) invited by Cory Carman to visit Carman Ranch, her grass-fed beef operation in the Wallowas in eastern Oregon. She and food-writer/beef-guru Lynne Curry organized an awesome butchery demo by Kevin Silveira at Valley Meat Services, who custom-cuts her meats.

The chefs — Cathy Whims of Nostrana, Dolan Lane of ClarkLewis, James Green and Mark Harris, both from Bon Appetit Management Co. — were mesmerized by Kevin’s skill, and all the chefs left with a deeper understanding of meat-cutting and  beef quality.

Kevin Silveira shows how to custom-cut

After the demo, Carman used us as a focus group. We did side-by-side blind tastings to test dry-aging vs. wet-aging and fresh vs. frozen beef. The results?  1) The group generally had the same preferences, so the differences truly were discernible,  2) we preferred the dry-aged meat (which is Carman’s standard practice), and 3) we preferred the texture of previously frozen meat…that was a surprise.

But it’s knowledge that may help Carman provide meat year-round, and is of interest to other ranchers, too. Later in the month I spoke with rancher Ken Jaffe of New York’s Slope Farms Beef, who was fascinated with Carman’s findings. He’s experimenting with dry-aging the split cows first, then wet-aging the primals (big sections of meat) for another few weeks, to develop even more tenderness and flavor. I was gratified to learn about all the decisions that go into creating delicious, sustainably raised meat.

Carman burgers and rabbit sausages

We ended the weekend with a cookout, of course, with burgers made from beef that we custom-ground during our butcher session. How’s this for a mix: miscellaneous trim from all the cuts, plus 3 chuck roasts, and about 10 pounds of lusciously fatty short ribs…who needs kobe burgers when you’ve got grass-fed succulence like this?

Downtown gets a taste of the country at the new Pioneer Square farmers market.

Talk about convenience food:  there will be a lovely farmers market at Pioneer Square every Monday; the first one was yesterday. Since that’s just blocks from Watershed’s offices, Monday lunch options are looking good.

The market seems to offer a bit of everything (there are 48 vendors)  — beautiful fresh produce (with tons of cherries and berries as the star at the moment), Rogue Creamery and a couple of other cheese stands, cured meat from Olympic Provisions, breads from Pearl Bakery, excellent cookies from Two Tarts, and several prepared food stands so downtown office workers can pick up some ready-made lunch.

Hood strawberries, so sweet

I like assembling a picnic from the fresh food. Yesterday it was a pint of Hood strawberries from Unger Farms, super-voluptuous Brooks and Rainier cherries from Baird Family Orchards, a loaf of walnut levain from Pearl Bakery, and some lemon-dill goat cheese from a new vendor called Briar Rose.

And a market on Monday means an easy answer to the “what’s for dinner” dilemma — just fill your (reusable) tote with fresh goodies and then enjoy a seasonal supper. The spinach and orach (red spinach) from Gathering Together Farm is awesome — so sweet and tender. I sear-roasted a chicken breast from Dayton Meat’s chicken (not from the market, unfortunately — I got it at Pastaworks, and it’s so good), fried some red potatoes from Gathering Together in the chicken fat that came from the bird, and swirled the spinach through the pan so it was just wilted, then piled it all on our plates. So full of flavor and life!

Hours 10:00 – 2:00, through October 25