Full Belly Files | Visionary Farmers Get Down in Goleta
This edition of Full Belly Files was originally emailed to subscribers on December 22, 2023. To receive Matt Kettmann’s food newsletter in your inbox each Friday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.
The regenerative agriculture wave continues to wash through farming culture right now, and Santa Barbara is becoming a West Coast hub for landowners seeking inspiration and education in upping the sustainability game of their operations. That’s thanks to outfits like the White Buffalo Land Trust, whose ambitious elderberry farming project I wrote about last week, and visionary farmers like Jay Ruskey, whose Good Land Organics farm in western Goleta serves as a proving ground for once-exotic crops like finger lime, dragon fruit, and coffee to become viable commercial enterprises. (I wrote extensively about his Frinj Coffee project back in 2021.)
Last week, a Colorado-based, nationally impactful regenerative farming organization called Mad Agriculture made Santa Barbara the launchpad for the 10th edition of its journal, which included a profile on Ruskey. On hand was Mad Ag’s founder Philip Taylor, who was inspired by the “Mad Farmer” poems of Wendell Berry to ditch his original academic path in order to join the movement, and its media producer Jonnah Mellenthin Perkins, a relatively recent hire excited to release the first Mad Ag journal that she developed.
Jay Ruskey explains the coffee process as Mad Ag supporter Robbie Vitrano watches, plus pastries made from Good Land Organics’ many crops.| Credit: Matt Kettmann
On Thursday morning, I joined them along with about 20 farmers, vintners, coffee enthusiasts, and other interested folks to wander around Ruskey’s always fascinating farm. As usual, Ruskey was a firehose of information, explaining what he’s learned so far while tending to coffee and countless other plants.
Perkins, who’d visited the farm before, remarked that it was unique to be able to walk the land and witness the evolution of Ruskey’s ideas right before your eyes. “Your theories,” she said, “we can stand in them.”
We also tasted coffee in its many forms, from the finished product you know to raw berries and teas made from flower, leaf, and fruit. “We have to make the best coffee in the world,” he explained while we all sipped on the latest batch. “Otherwise it’s not worth our time.”
The tastings got even deeper that afternoon at The Steward hotel in Goleta, where Chef Augusto Caudillo integrated numerous Good Land Organics crops into his dishes. That included pastries loaded with passionfruit custard and finger-lime-topped meringue that sat on a dark tart made from cascara, the dried husks of processed coffee beans.
Every time I take a tour with Ruskey, who offers them to the public on occasion under the Frinj Coffee banner, I wonder why I’m not there in every season. You’re not just learning about the intricacies and possibilities of coffee in California — this is where that whole concept started, of course. You’re constantly tasting fruits that you’ve never heard of in your life.
[Click to enlarge] From left: Chef Augusto Caudillo’s cascara-based passionfruit torte; tree tomato, or tamarillo; and a Mandarin melon berry | Credit: Matt Kettmann
On this visit, I tried Mandarin melon berry, which is like a large, dried raspberry, sporting flavors somewhere between, yes, melon and berry; the tree tomato, which is in the nightshade family and tastes very much like a tart tomato; and ice cream bean, whose sweet flesh emerges from monster finger-like pods that are about as Seussian as the farm gets. There were also bizarre forms of tiny papaya called babaco, delicate leaves whose seeds tasted of green garlic, and much more familiar things like passionfruit, cherimoya, pineapple guava, loquat, pitaya (a k a dragon fruit), and finger lime, many of which are crops that Ruskey himself helped prove possible and profitable.
“Coffee is what it is today,” admitted Ruskey. “But I’m always focused on new crops.” Indeed, the list seems to grow every time I visit. I’m not sure how he even keeps track.
At The Steward that afternoon, Mad Ag’s Taylor explained his origin story to a larger crowd, including some of the White Buffalo crew, vintners such as Alice Anderson of Âmevive, and farmers like Guner and Heidi Tautrim from Orella Ranch on the Gaviota Coast. Taylor invoked the farmer-poet Wendell Berry again as his inspiration, before joining a panel to talk deeper about regenerative ag.
It feels fitting, then, to end this with some of Berry’s lines from The Mad Farmer Poems, the collection he published in 2008.
“Prayings and Sayings of the Mad Farmer”
XI
Sowing the seed,
my hand is one with the earth.
Wanting the seed to grow,
my mind is one with the light.
Hoeing the crop,
my hands are one with the rain.
Having care for the plants,
my mind is one with the air.
Finally, Dang Burger
As I briefly lamented in a prior newsletter, the day that I interviewed the dudes behind Dang Burger was a Tuesday, so their kitchen wasn’t open and I left Carpinteria without a burger. (My udon bowl at The Good Plow worked out fine.)
I finally made it back down to Carp last Friday for a couple of appointments, including my first proper date with Dang’s celebrated smashburgers. Since I will be writing about it soon, I needed to try the basic single burger, of course. And since there was a spicy “Hot Dang” special, I went for that as well. That’s right: two burgers, one a single with cheese, one a double loaded with chili peppers and various secret sauces.
Both were excellent, although I would not advise two for the average diner. I spent an hour at the Carpinteria Bluffs walking off the indulgence. Article to come in 2024.
SBFM’s Black Cod Candy
In the same behind-the-scenes-of-a-forthcoming-article vein, I recently interviewed the folks running the new Goleta café outpost of Santa Barbara Fish Market, where I’ve already eaten a few times. I had not yet tried the smoked black cod that Chef Paul Osborne is working hard to perfect, so owner Brian Colgate brought out a plate, along with onion jam and crème fraîche. It was a smoky, candy-like treat, and came along with a smoked collar and a pastrami-like version as well. Then I ate there alone a few days later, opting for a juicy salmon burger, that crunchy Caesar, and the poke-roe-tofu skin pocket thing that was on special for $5.
We’re waiting for them to get their alcohol permit, and then we’ll run my article once I can return to pair some Santa Barbara wine with their seafood stars.
West Coast salmon burger and Caesar salad at S.B. Fish Market and its dry goods shelves | Credit: Matt Kettmann
From Our Table
Here are some food and drink stories you may have missed from the past week:
- Sean Magruder tried out a few different drink experiences, including new brews being made for the Santa Barbara Zoo by Figueroa Mountain, and a new tea house called Wild Tea Leaf in Paseo Nuevo.
- George Yatchisin caught up with Mollie Ahlstrand, who just opened a new deli in Montecito.
- Primarily to let readers know that tickets for this always-sold-out affair go on sale on January 4, I wrote about my first experience at last year’s Botanic Garden Beer Garden fundraiser.
- For Wine Enthusiast, I talked to vintners up and down the state to report on why riesling is so hot in California right now.
Full Belly Files is taking a break next week, so there won’t be a newsletter on December 29. But Matt will be back with his year in review on January 5. Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
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