Local Beer…and now Local Beef!

Chances are, if you’ve eaten here at Boundary Bay Brewery, you’ve indulged in one of our delicious burgers.  Because, come on…what goes better with beer than a BURGER?!?  Well, we’re now making the burgers we serve in our Bistro and Tap Room even better!  Starting this week, our burgers will now be made with local, natural ground beef from Squaw Creek Cattle Co. in Everson.

Squaw Creek is a family owned and operated business, just like ours.  Which is part of the reason we’re so excited to be serving up their beef patties.  But, it’s also because these cows are grass fed and supplemented with spent grain from our brewery!  Here’s what the people behind Squaw Creek have to say about who they are and what they do:

everybody loves Boundary Bay Brewery – even the cows eating our spent grain!

“We are dedicated to keeping a healthy herd and raise our cattle without the use of artificial growth stimulants and hormones.  We make certain that the grass our beef are raised on is chemical free.  We raise our cattle on large pastures, ensuring plenty of room for healthy grazing.  Our beef is mainly grass-fed, with a supplement of spent brewer’s grain.  Spent brewer’s grain is the byproduct leftover from the process of crafting beer .  It has a high protein and fiber content and is highly digestible for cattle.  The advantage of beef that has been raised with a supplement of brewer’s grain is that the finished product is lean, yet has a quality of marbling that cannot be achieved on a solely grass fed diet.  To us, it makes a lot of sense to feed out cattle spent brewer’s grain because it’s reusing a product that has already fulfilled one purpose and can, now again, be used as an energy source for our cattle.”

So it all goes full circle, and here at Boundary Bay, this is a motto we like to stick by.  Local businesses supporting local businesses!

So, what are you waiting for?!?  Come try a 1/3 lb. patty of local, natural ground beef from Squaw Creek Cattle Company, char broiled with all the fixings on a locally made pretzel bun from Ralf’s Bavarian Bakery.  Served with your choice of roasted potatoes, house salad or Tim’s potato chips.  $9.99

Local Connections: Cloud Mountain Farm

Nestled at the foot of Sumas Mountain in the far Northwest corner of Washington State, Cloud Mountain Farm is situated on 20 acres of orchards, vineyards, nursery fields, greenhouses and trial gardens.  They propagate and grow fruit trees, nut trees, berry plants and ornamental plants.  You’ll also find they sell a large variety of dwarf conifers and Japanese maples, hard-to-find orchard and garden supplies, quality tools, and garden books.

They’ve been growing apples commercially since their beginnings in 1978. They supply a number of restaurants in town and we are lucky enough to be one of them!  The menu here at Boundary Bay Brewery regularly features produce grown locally for us at Cloud Mountain Farm and we even serve up their hot apple cider on chilly Winter days.

Education has always been hugely important to the staff at Cloud Mountain Farm.  They have extensive trial gardens to test out crop development and which varieties work best in our climate.  For consumers, their goal is to make sure that when your leave their nursery, you have the right plants, tools and information to be successful in all your gardening endeavors. Their focus on education will certainly grow now that they’ve become a non-profit!  The farm will become an educational/training center for market farmers and consumers.  They will continue to grow and sell to the public through the farm stand, the Bellingham Farmers Market, local restaurants and CSA shares.  But now they will also expand their educational opportunities to include training programs for people wanting to learn the business of farming for market and providing consumer education for food production and ornamental gardening.

We were lucky enough to get to tour Cloud Mountain Farm in September and meet the incredible staff who run the farm.  We spent a lovely morning wandering through the fields with Cheryl, learning about farming for food and snacking on delicious tomatoes, grapes and apples.  Check out this video to find out more about Cloud Mountain Farm, the people behind it and their incredible produce that we use in our menu here at the brewery.

 

Kids Like Local Food Too!

On September 29th, schools around the state are celebrating Washington agriculture with Taste Washington Day. Participating schools around the state will be serving a locally-sourced meal and providing education and activities to celebrate the farms that feed us.  Interestingly, on the very same day, we’ll be serving up a special menu here at Boundary Bay Brewery made with food grown at school by local kids!

Imagine sitting down for dinner at your favorite local restaurant and realizing that the special of the day features vegetables grown by youth in school gardens.  Better yet, imagine knowing that 5% of the profits from your dinner will be donated back to the schools that grew those vegetables!  Well, that’s exactly what’s happening here for Kids Grown Night at Boundary Bay Brewery on Wednesday, September 29th!

We’re exctied to be a part of Kid Grown Night which is a fund and awareness raiser for the Whatcom County School Garden Collective (WCSGC), which provides coordinated leadership and support for a growing number (currently at eleven) of school gardens in Whatcom County.  The collective was looking for a good way to increase financial support for school gardens, but they also wanted the kids who grew the food to see how it was being used and enjoyed in local restaurants.  “This is such a great way for kids to connect with food not only seed-to-table, but also seed-to-market,” says Liz Schale, a Garden Educator with the WCSGC and the coordinator of Kid Grown night.  “They are learning about the value of the foods they have grown, and will have an opportunity to interact with the chefs from our partnering restaurants.”

The Whatcom County School Garden Collective is a project of Common Threads Farm that provides coordinated resources and garden-based teaching expertise to partner schools throughout Whatcom County. The schools they are currently working with include Beach Elementary, Birchwood Elementary, Columbia Elementary, Lummi Nation School, Roosevelt Elementary, and Squalicum High School.  For more information on the Whatcom County School Garden Collective, or to learn how to start a garden at your school, visitwww.commonthreadsfarm.org.

Plan on loading up the whole family and joining us here at Boundary Bay Brewery next Wednesday, September 29th as we celebrate local foods and the Whatcom County School Garden Collective! We got to choose from veggies the kids had grown in their school garden including eggplants, lots of leafy greens, carrots, potatoes, delicata squash and beans!  Our chef is thrilled to take on this challenge and has come up with a dish of panko breaded, pan-fried eggplant with a green tomato pesto, served chilled.  Our chef is really excited about the pesto he’s whipped up from the green tomatoes and says it’ll be a nice, light, citric, counterpoint to fried and breaded eggplant.  Come try it!

And if you can’t join us on that Wednesday, you can also get a Kid Grown meal at Nimbus on September 27th and/or at Pastazza on September 28th.