We had the pleasure of spending one of Fall’s last beautiful, sunny days out at K & M Red River Farm with Mike who gave us a farm tour, talked with us about sustainability and told us how he and Boundary Bay Brewery became connected.
K & M Red River Farm was one of our first local suppliers and we’ve been getting our salad greens from him for many years now. His small farm in the Lummi Flats is organic, uses no fertilizer at all and is farmed by just Mike and his single assistant.
Check out our newest Local Connections video to find out more about the products we get from this great local 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.
Gothberg Farms is situated on 40 acres of flat, fertile, farmland in Bow, WA. They use only a small portion for the goats and dairy, with the remainder leased out to “the real farmer next door”. Rhonda got her first goats in April of 2002, a mother and doe kid pair. This was supposed to just be the family milk, but it was infectious. The following September, she added two more bred does … and as of February 2009, there were 22 bred does awaiting milk production for Spring.
The scenery surrounding the land is fabulous. They look directly at Mt. Baker and Chuckanut Mountain and can see the San Juan Islands. On clear days the Olympic Mountains and the Canadian Coastal range may also be seen. In fact, the cheese room windows were intentionally placed so the ladies could see Mt. Baker while they work. They say the sunrises and sunsets are really nice there and that they even have “resident” hawks, blue heron, and seasonal eagles, swans, geese, and ducks.
All of Gothberg Farm’s cheese is totally handcrafted. All moulds are filled by hand, turned by hand, and salted by hand. All wrapping and packaging is by hand, some with hand lettering on the labels. Yes, this is labor intensive but affords quality checks at every turn. The low-tech approach is always favored whenever possible. Rhonda believes that to make a great product, it has to be done right from beginning to end.
Which is why the feeding program for the goats at Gothberg Farms has been very well thought out. There is a high emphasis on prevention and health. Rhonda feeds her goats a recipe which is custom mixed by Conway Feed, the local feed mill. They are also given alfalfa hay from Eastern Washington as well as grass hay from Skagit Valley and they have full pasture access 24/7/365.
Hear more from Rhonda about her farm and the cheeses she produces for us here at Boundary Bay Brewery and for her local community. Be sure to check out this interactive map too that shows you where YOU can get Gothberg Farms (other than here at our brewery!).
This September is Eat Local Month for Whatcom County. To celebrate, we using the month to cast the spotlight on a few of the local farmers we source their menu ingredients from.
Earlier this year, we began posting video blogs about our Local Connections. The videos were each short interviews with local restaurants, delis and stores that serve Boundary Bay beer on tap or in bottles. In each interview, we asked business owners to share why it was important to them to do business locally.
This month, we’re expanding their Local Connections videos to showcase where they get their chevre, apples, potatoes and greens. We’ll film the video blogs out at the farms and give you a chance to meet the farmers face to face. We think the videos will play an important role in connecting consumers and local food producers.
Boundary Bay Brewery works with many local suppliers and we it a priority to source at least 25% of their food budget from local producers. We’ve even clearly marked dishes on our menu that are made with local ingredients to help inform customers who think it’s important to support local agriculture too.
During September, we’ll be filming interviews with K & M Red River Farm, Cloud Mountain Farm and Gothberg Farms and will post the videos here on our blog and on our Facebook page. Don’t forget to also take advantage of all the Eat Local events happening throughout the month!
Eat Local Month is a project of Sustainable Connection’s Food and Farming Program and includes farm tours, edible events and special locally-sourced menu items featured at various restaurants throughout the month including at Boundary Bay Brewery from September 25 – October 1st. All week we’ll be serving up a special all local menu (alongside our usual eats!). Here’s what we’ve got in store
Salmon Salad Sandwich
Samish Bay Coho salmon from Barleans mixed with capers, lemon juice, onion and mayonnaise topped with cucumbers from Cloud Mountain Farms and alfalfa sprouts from Happy Valley Sprouts and served on toasted ciabatta from Avenue Bread. $10
Spinach Salad
Fresh Alkmene apples from Cloud Mountain Farms on spinach from Red River Farms, with Gothberg Farms chevre cheese, hazelnuts from Holmquist Orchards with a honey-white balsamic-champagne reduction. $10
Caprese Salad
Heirloom tomatoes and basil from Cloud Mountain Farms and goat cheese from Gothberg Farm, drizzled with olive oil and served with Breadfarm‘s Bow Hill baguette.$9
We had the pleasure of interviewing Jessica and Mataio Gillis last week for the latest video in our Local Connections series. They are the owners of a wonderful local company that operates under quite a few names: Ciao Thyme, In The Kitchen and Incognito. This single business functions as a cooking school (In The Kitchen), catering company (Ciao Thyme) and private dining space (Incognito) and is based right downtown on Unity Street. Best of all, they also feature Boundary Bay Brewery beer!
dining space for Incognito dinners
Jessica works with all the clients and writes menus designed to highlight local, seasonal flavors while Mataio works with local farmers and producers to source the incredible ingredients he’ll be cooking with. They work together to provide catering with menus designed specifically for each event and to each client’s taste, but also to bring the community together through unique family style dining experiences in their space on Unity Street and cooking classes that range from making your own cheese, teaching kids to make Sushi and traveling to Umbria, Italy.
They are members of Sustainable Connections, believe strongly in the international Slow Food movement and in supporting local, sustainable agriculture. They also donate 10 – 15% of their annual revenue each year to local non-profits in an effort to help our community continue to grow and thrive. We are thrilled to have this Local Connections with Jessica and Mataio and are proud that they choose our craft beer to serve as part of their culinary adventures. Check them out!
We had the pleasure of spending one of Fall’s last beautiful, sunny days out at K & M Red River Farm with Mike who gave us a farm tour, talked with us about sustainability and told us how he and Boundary Bay Brewery became connected.
Bellinghams Best Beer 