 Get out here Thank you Team lucky peach team Noma. We're just thrilled and honored to be here. This is just an amazing Amazing experience. Hello everyone. We're gonna start off the presentation with a very short video To show you a little bit more in detail of perhaps why we were invited here today Use any longer that farmers and chefs have collaborations. We we know that we know it's not a new concept I mean a dozen years ago when before we even started out David Kinch and I there were just a couple notable exclusive relationships of farms and restaurants in the world and This year you can see them all over the map. It's a global phenomenon. It's not news any longer More and more far chefs and restaurants are sourcing from farms and even wikipedia has gotten into the game and has a farm table definition Thank you Even though we never really called ourselves a farm to table restaurant. It was always a purely qualitative decision and moving forward in fact Visitors that we have to the restaurant both industry people and elsewhere one of the most frequently asked questions We have is how do you make this work? How can it work with such a small restaurant in such a large operation? That's labor-intensive as a firm and how do we collaborate? But we're not here just to talk about us We also want to talk about how it's possible for more restaurants to Have an exclusive relationship with just one farm. I know a lot of you guys already sourced from farms That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about a one-on-one direct relationship. That is Exclusive I don't sell my product to anybody else 100% of it goes to Manresa and it may seem like a romantic notion like Daniel said but it It does have its trials and tribulations and we're here to talk about those as well as the good times too We're gonna talk a little bit about the the financial How we make it work so everybody's happy So first let's start at the beginning and talk a little bit about how we did it how we started and how we've evolved As lucky as we are in northern, California with our great products. We have access to many different things We started looking for to create a degree of separation from other people and the first thing I thought was Perhaps quite naively in my spare time. I would grow my own vegetables for the restaurant Yeah, I thought that was funny, too Yeah, I I was very fortunate to make a connection with a chef chef Alain Passard who has a series of gardens and orchards for one particular restaurant in France And he was very generous with his information and also inviting me to visit the gardens back about 10 years ago I thought I would start growing my own vegetables. I realized this was gonna probably be a problem So I started asking farmers friends of mine If they could evaluate land for me the viability of it and perhaps if they could help me find someone to do this for me Cynthia at that time was our tomato supplier for the restaurant. She was a fabulous hobbyist Award-winning tomato grower in which we really loved the products and she was one of the people that I went to to ask advice about And I I did already own a farm. This is my original farm and about 30 35 minutes away from man race that already owned this property and was very happy to to take David up on his on his initial phone call and remember that phone call when he asked if I knew of any land he could grow vegetables on and I said I think you don't want to grow vegetables yourself I think you want to have a professional do it So we started talking We started talking We agreed that we both wanted to try Biodynamic practices both for the restaurants and for the farm and we both agreed upon that and we achieved our Demeter certification a few years ago and It's tough for me to follow one of my personal heroes of the Nana Shiva She's all about the anti GMO and so is the Demeter organization and biodynamics So we do not have any GMO crops at all that we supply to Manresa We started out and we still have a handshake deal. I'm gonna have to pin you down on that though. She's still waiting for the contract We both made significant early commitments as my farmhouse before I took out the lawn She also dug up her swimming pool as a level of commitment. Yeah, there's there's no more swimming It's they're too busy too busy growing crops for you mister demanding and for you know a small restaurant We you know we to show our level commitment. We bought a lot of the outbuildings We had hoop houses and greenhouses built at the farm to show how much we were committed to the relationship and to show David's further commitment. He even sent his dad over. That's his dad help put up our greenhouses cheap labor We agreed to start small just eight or nine crops to begin with and that quickly Over time that quickly ramped up to over 300 different cultivars year-round that's grown just specifically for the restaurant Yeah at the height of the season So the farm has also moved to a new location The slide isn't showing the pictures and slow showing but we have a new location That we bought three and a half years ago I bought with a with a couple of friends of mine, and that's about 12 Miles away from the restaurant But it hasn't been all fun and games. This is what David looks like when we don't give him his crops We've suffered through a lot of diseases we've had Phytophthora infestants affect our tomato crop one year Every year because of our relationship with Cynthia We do a tomato celebration a tomato weekend many of us all tomatoes for two or three days And we actually had to cancel one year because of the mites we had because of this particular disease We've had deer raid our garden even though we've put up deer fence They those bastards somehow get in and can eat our crop and David's very forgiving about that We've had mice in the garden one morning I came out to see this just little zippers on the sides of the pea pods and it didn't occur to me until I saw the teeth Marks what was going on? They're very good at just opening it up. They don't even take it off the vine they just open it up and extract the peas and Probably something you know a little bit more about here, but we we've had unexpected for us in northern California Also that have done damage that you guys can't in Copenhagen. You can't relate to the fact that sometimes we are That's surprised by this We've had we've suffered through horrible pests. This is cucumber beetles completely decimating squash blossom And and this is really what separates organic biodynamic farmers from conventional farmers. It's the Handling of the past Gophers have we've had horrible Problems with gophers too when we first moved in lots of gopher holes Just trap trap trap trying to get these guys like caddy shack and at the very beginning We went through periods where we grew way too much of stuff that we couldn't deal with everybody who's growing squash That's what I'm talking about. We had a lot of lettuces And also on the flip side Product that we wanted to use on a regular basis we would gap we go through periods where the beds wouldn't be ready It's tough to make sure he has beets every harvest 52 weeks out of the year But we try we despite our difficulties that do despite these minor difficulties the relationship still works for us And we're happy to have it, but we want to talk to you about how an exclusive Farm restaurant collaboration Can work for you and can benefit you as well Yep It is exclusive It's the fact that we can just concentrate on what's growing with Cynthia working tandem with her and she can concentrate on her Passion which is growing things not having to worry to to sell or to unload the product So let's talk about what how it can benefit a restaurant I can specify exactly what I want grown for the restaurant and the quantities and amounts and what you don't want grown Yeah, exactly what I don't want to grow waste valuable space when David first and I first partnered I had a beautiful herb garden and some fabulous varieties of sage and he said pull them all out Don't like sage never will like sage So I had to take it out hate it. It still hates it. I Can specify harvest sizes and the shapes of leaves and maturity levels of almost everything Even numerous stages for one plant just to contribute to one particular dish Yeah, so he can say I want my radishes Exactly one inch in diameter. I want to stock on it four inches long. I don't want anything else on there Just kind of kale. I wanted exactly this length And he can't and we do that for him and of course the best thing to exclusivity I can have access to all stages of plants during its various growth Roots shoots mature and immature leaves seeds stems and flowers and that's how I'm just not available commercially Right, that's hard to get at a farmer's market every part of that plant that he wants part of my job is sourcing rare cultivars, so I'm in the winter months even though we're still growing for him I have a little bit of a respite and I can start looking up Encyclopedias and plant thing plant Esoteric plant varieties to acquire the seeds and to grow them for David and and further help differentiate his restaurant And get the freshest stuff around it's about 10 minutes from the restaurant What a difference 12 hours can make with really really fragile food stuffs Yeah, even at a farmer's market those those products have been picked either the day before or the day before that never that morning So we pick them we handle them very gently and we take them to the restaurant in the most loving way possible What's even really cool too is that the entire restaurant staff both front of a house and back of house They're interested. They can participate a lot of stages and externs are required to spend time at the farm also Which is a great carryover. I walk around the farm with David On occasion and I don't even say anything because I could just see the wheels turning his head as he walks by From crop to crop getting ideas of what he's going to do with that veg later wheels turning wheels turning And of course exclusivity with one farm can help with publicity I know it's helped my farm greatly and I hope in some small way it's helped man race the two And we have a lot of guests at the restaurant who want to see the farm too to complete their experience, which is really great So we understand that this ray Arrangement this relationship is not for every restaurant But we did want to talk about how to craft it if it's something that you think would be beneficial to you So there are basically three types of this relationship to love apple model Which is partnering with an already existing farm exclusively and then two When a restaurant already owns land or has access to land and they just have to hire a farmer to Put in a garden for them and then lastly a restaurant doesn't own any land They don't know a farmer or they don't have a gardener in mind and they have to find both of those things The first one of course is the relationship that scinti and I have in which I found an already established farm Who is willing to work with me? And so one of the benefits of that is that there's no land investment And you can trust that you've got an experienced farmer because they've already been farming Uh the the downside is it's a lot harder to find than you think a lot of farmers are set in their ways They're not willing to commit to a risky business of supplying just one customer and certainly not restaurant as we all know Restaurants open and restaurants close Right and the farm may already have sufficient um buyers for their products They may not want to put all their eggs in one basket and go with you exclusively So you may not be able to entice them Uh and again the farm may not want to take the risk with partnering just with one source diversity reduces risk. So, uh It might be difficult to to talk them into it And uh, the farmer can quit also, you know, it's a farmer. It might be tough. They might not find it viable And they might have every viable reason to walk away from the project There was a time about three years into our relationship when I said that's it. I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore It's too hard. I cannot do it and then David talked me out of the tree and here we are five years later still going strong It is probably the fastest and easiest way to establish the relationship though is finding a already existing farm Yeah, after we after we started the commitment we had product in a matter of weeks Right the first harvest I think was three weeks in and um, he called me up on the phone and Said it was great and I said yahoo. Let's let's go for it. So how do you find such a farm? You may already know of a farmer to ask or you could get a referral from a trusted friend if that Farm is not or you can get a referral from that farm if that particular farm isn't interested Yeah, you're already known sources other farmers who might know sources at the farmers markets or various farms Yep, go down the farmers market and start asking you can also check out this website. It's international It's fabulous. It's called local harvest org. There's there's over 30,000 Farms look on local harvest org with all their contact information on there And what should you expect to pay? This is the single largest question that we are asked is how do you make it work? Right, and it does depend on the location. How um, how expensive your real estate is around you. We are in santa Cruz California and that's one of the most expensive pieces of real estate In the united states and it also depends on the size of the farm bigger, of course It's going to be more expensive and the number of crops too If our animals are involved that substantially increases costs even though it adds diversity Yeah, animals are huge expense And the best tip is really uh Not to worry about weight fee paying for bunches of carrots Our arrangement is is that we pay a monthly fee at the beginning of the month We pay a not insubstantial amount of money to have access to everything that grows as the farm in the first dibs This allows us it frees us up in the kitchen to cook and to work with the products that come in spend our time Planning and Cynthia can spend time doing what she does best, which is growing things And realize that the farmer has to pay you have to have to charge for that Exclusivity because they are losing an opportunity to sell their excess to somebody else And we're also have to charge An extra fee for the specialty harvesting. We're always getting maybe a last minute phone call Hey, we don't quite have enough borage flowers. Can you pick some and deliver them to the restaurant? So that that extra handling and harvesting is gotta is gotta cost you something david Number two the second form is you have land already, but you need to find a farmer Great example is the french laundry very famous restaurant in northern california Also for years had abandoned land that they wanted to develop across the way and just recently they planted a really impressive kitchen garden Yep, they had the land and they hired a farmer and put in a farm You may already have land and you don't um, you don't even know it like this beautiful rooftop garden in brookland A restaurant investor might have nearby suitable lands that you be that they'd be willing to let you use For the project and you don't even have to have a large piece of land It could just be a little plot at the end of the street corner that they'll get you started And probably the single most important thing is accessibility if you have a farm That's two and a half hours away from the restaurant. It almost defeats the purpose of having the relationship Or the land might be too clay It might be too near the coast to really get a full feel for what you want to grow One of the other good things about this relationship This second form is that you can handpick your farmer to Match your aesthetic match what you are trying to do in your restaurant And this of course takes a lot of longer too because you're starting up you have startup costs Yeah, you're not going to get crops within three weeks with this one. You have to be a little bit more patient So how do you find a farmer for your existing land? Here's dan barber and his farmer You can go on to this fabulous website. There's lots of websites like this as a matter of fact Is a by dynamic farming and garden website worldwide as well put an advertisement on there for a farmer I think we all understand the importance of social media and getting any kind of message out there that you want It's a great way to find out That's how you all got you all are getting your sous chefs these days and wait staff, right? Or you can find your farmer at love apple We're opening a farmer university where we're training just a small handful of Students to farm exclusively for fine dining restaurants and it is a different way of farming It really is quite different than tractors and and all that stuff. Yeah, we have uh, there's several graduates from love apple farms that are running Farms and gardens for various high-profile restaurants in the bay area now Yeah, we just wish they would wait until they graduate they come in and they pinch my students before they're finished Um in this scenario though the farmer is usually an employee and the restaurant pays for the land and all the equipment in that second form Yeah, and you have to expect to pay them as an employee. It's just like a kitchen job It's not a 40 hour work week. They're really really committed in farming life Yeah, if you if your farmer wants to work 40 hours a week fire her It's not a 40 hour week job Startup costs can be substantial from the very beginning It's uh, do not underestimate how much money it takes to get things going including that farmer salary And then after that it goes down a little bit, but there's always a lot to but to pay for And you'll need additional hands because one farmer is never enough I think it takes us about 30 man hours per harvest for um, anresa Okay, and the last form is number three in which you have no land and you have no farmer. What do you do? And you got to find of them both so um find the farmer first Because a farmer's expertise is going to be able to find the land for you She knows what she's looking at and knows it better than than you do Do let that farmer live on the land though because there's no substitute for exacting attention to detail 24 7 Certainly doing startup Especially during startup And of course this last collaboration is going to be the most expensive because you have to find the land and you have to find the farmer You're you're simply you're paying for it all you're paying for all the housing the startup costs salaries Outbuildings just everything. We're talking them out of it. David. We're supposed to be talking them into it So be careful on both of the all of these forms of collaboration though It there's a risk of the farm failing. There's a risk of the restaurant failing You're not going to go out of business anytime soon. Are you David? Okay And there's a risk of the crop failure like the tomatoes And of course finding qualified personnel It's the same thing as hiring a non qualified sous chef or chef to cuisine to run your kitchen You want to find someone who really buys into your vision and what you want to carry out? Yeah, I think this is this is the second biggest tip We were going to impart to people is do not hire your girlfriends Nephew just because he thinks he might be able to throw a seed in the ground water it and get crops for you This is an important point They've got to be qualified and how do you find that qualified farmer in addition to all the other things that we've said Again get a referral from a trusted farmer Or you can even hire a consultant to find your farmer find your land get it going and then walk away That's a possibility too And those possible consultants or head farmers that already have a relationship With a restaurant again, this type of farming is is very different from normal farming. So you really want to Get that that expertise Yeah, this relationship. I mean it might very well work for you. I know it it does for us It's been the single largest challenge that we've had at the restaurant the past six years But unequivocally, I think it's the most satisfying also. There's the closed circle The waste the composting that comes back the seed saving operations the collaboration and planting crops I think the single most the coolest thing that we do It's not that we just grow a bunch of stuff when we try to use it But we custom grow the amounts just to show as much respect and lack of wastefulness as we possibly can Yeah, that's that's been really great very satisfying relationship So does this sort of exclusive farmer restaurant collaboration take guts? I think so I think so too, but no guts no glory Yep cheers. Thank you