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The Local Food Chef Showoff As A Laboratory

Feast! ( Photo by Renee Bellemere)

The 9/15/09 Peninsula Local Food Chef Showoff was a stunner to many people. Although chef crew chief, Monica Downen, had been percolating the event in her fertile imagination for some months she did not really let it surface as a reality until the August 11 KCAA meeting.

KCAA October Meeting
The 100 From 500 Campaign
The Kitsap Food Co-op Capital Campaign
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
7:00 to 9:00 pm
Norm Dicks Center, 345 Sixth Street, Bremerton, WA

The Chefs Show Off

That eruption just happened to coincide with our focus on youth and the 4H and FFA market animal auction. This was fortuitous because the auction was and is one of the rare opportunities to purchase Kitsap raised meat for a dinner for 400 people. To make the perfect storm analogy complete, approximately 2 weeks before the auction the Puget Sound Meat Producers Co-op rolled out the introductory operation of their USDA certified slaughtering unit. This meant that the animals that KCAA purchased at the auction could be processed under USDA certification all the way to your dinner plate at the showoff, something that would not have been possible prior to that. Many people do not understand the significance of this yet.

Zucchini Gratin (photo by Renee Bellemere)

To further complicate matters because the KCAA had decided to turn our attention to the plight of new and young farmers without access to land I had asked Nash Huber and Kate Dean to come to speak to us. Those of you that attended will know what I mean when I tell you that Nash and Kate are possibly two of the leaders and innovators in the nation that have successfully stemmed the tide annihilating opportunity for the growth of local farming. So, when Monica declared that she was ready to get ‘er done it was the perfect moment to gather a sizable audience for the important perspective that these two had to offer.

Morraccan Goat Tangine (photo by Renee Bellemere)

All that was approximately 3-1/2 weeks before the target date of September 15, 2009. To put this in another perspective the KCAA had never before mounted an effort that required the paid participation of 300 or 400 people to break even. Sure, we have a list of members and supporters that grows every month and just a year before Monty Mahan and his crew had drawn a similar number to an event featuring Joel Salatin, the nationally recognized farmer subject of a non-fiction book by author Michael Pollan entitled “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”. In my opinion what Nash Huber has accomplished and what Kate Dean is formulating far exceed what the admirable Mr. Salatin has been able to accomplish because they have answers to the important questions of farmland preservation and farmer succession among people not connected by blood relations but they have not been the subjects of journalistic or artistic works with national distribution. The local heroes are largely unrecognized in their home territory.

Harvest Deviled Eggs From Pheasant Fields Farm (photo by Renee Bellemere)

What happened next combined with the aforementioned confluence of events is what I mean when I say that the Peninsula Local Food Chef Showoff was a microcosm of both the promise and the difficulty of building a local food network.

Local Wines (photo by Renee Bellemere)

As I said earlier, until about two weeks prior to our go-forward decision it would have been very difficult if not impossible to provide USDA certified meat to a dinner prepared for the public. To fill in the paint by dots for you a bit further the underlying circumstance meant that all meat producers in western Washington under a certain size were unable to supply products into the distribution system for a multi-billion dollar marketplace in their own home territory and to their neighbors.

Sounds kind of perverse, doesn’t it?

Roast Pork w/Pickled Onions (photo by Renee Bellemere)

According to Cheryl Ouellette, president of the Puget Sound Meat Producers Co-op, this meant that the vast majority of farmers with animals were about to sell off their herds and quit the business. This would have meant that all of western Washington would have become 100% dependent on protein suppliers from outside of western Washington and mostly outside of the Pacific Northwest and that the supply would have become even more industrialized than it is already.

That’s how important it is that the PSMPC was formed.

Tom Farmer Oysters (photo by Renee Bellemere)

It turns out that procuring the meat was one of the easier tasks for the event. The effort to communicate with, harvest, gather and deliver food from 15 or more sources to 13 or so chefs was incredulously complicated and nearly sunk the event at the end. If it hadn’t been for selfless volunteers like Peggy and Scott Hall, Michele Gillis, Jade Pope, Nikki Johanson, Arno Bergstrom, Diane Fish, Jill Smith, Rhiannon Fernandez, all the chefs, the farmers, the beverage suppliers, the sponsors, the band, the facilities crew, etc., it would not have happened.

Sicilian Lasagne (photo by Renee Bellemere)

That was the example of the difficulty of building a local food network. If it required that much special effort to put on a local food meal for one night for 400 people what would it mean to feed 250,000 people (roughly the population of Kitsap County) 3 squares per day 365 days a year?

With the exception of just a few hitches in the giddyap (my apologies to folks who arrived later in the evening and found low supplies of food) the event came off very well. I guess you had to be there but the spirit present among the crowd was warm, inviting and excited about local food. Many people were amazed that that many people would turn for such and event. Personally, I was grateful…and relieved!

That is an example of the promise of building a local food network.

The work required to build it is a lot less glamorous but promises to be just as interesting and possibly just as fun because of what we will together be able to accomplish. And, the good news is, we have everything we need to get started, if we are willing to put in the work in the same selfless spirit that carried the Local Food Chef Showoff.

Decorations (photo by Renee Bellemere)

So that is why your interest, attention and attendance at our next KCAA meeting is so important

KCAA October Meeting
The 100 From 500 Campaign
The Kitsap Food Co-op Capital Campaign
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
7:00 to 9:00 pm
Norm Dicks Center, 345 Sixth Street, Bremerton, WA

There are many worthy initiatives among people on the Peninsula working toward building another node in the local food network but our next meeting will focus on two that we consider of prime importance, the Puget Sound Meat Producers Co-op and the Kitsap Food Co-op.

And, we are going to talk about money.

The KCAA will begin an effort to encourage 500 individuals to purchase $100 of preferred stock in the PSMPC for multiple purposes including the construction and procurement of a WSDA certified mobile poultry processing unit. We call it our 100 From 500 campaign and if successful, it has the same potential to provide access by Kitsap and other farmers to the western Washington market consuming approximately 36 million chickens every year and provide consumers with a source of a healthy, biologically diverse source for their poultry consumption. The farmers will be able to diversify and expand their income. The birds will be raised humanely and will supply a critical component to farmers  and gardeners seeking to improve their soil fertility. The unit will also be available to process turkeys, geese, ducks and rabbits.

The Kitsap Food Co-op has recently incorporated and begun their campaign to raise money to open their store. Representatives will be available at our meeting to present the opportunity they have organized to help food consumers make a transition from being just pure consumers to becoming an investor with a say in how their food is produced, procured and distributed.

The way they put it is “How Would You Like To Own Your Grocery Store?”.

The presentations for the evening will include the who, the what, the how, the when and some ideas on the where. But, the reason you need to be there has more to do with the why, both the presenters ideas and yours. We need and seek your input.

KCAA October Meeting
The 100 From 500 Campaign
The Kitsap Food Co-op Capital Campaign
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
7:00 to 9:00 pm
Norm Dicks Center, 345 Sixth Street, Bremerton, WA

See you there. More Later.

Decorations (photo by Renee Bellemere)