 Aloha and welcome to another episode of Hawaii Food and Farmer's Series. I'm your co-host Matt Johnson and we are here every other Thursday talking to Hawaii's movers and shakers in local agriculture and food. So this is our holiday edition, so Merry Christmas and also happy winter solstice. So also with me today is a co-host, Pomei Weigert, who is new to the show, but you'll be seeing a lot more of her. So welcome, Pomei. Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining the Think Tech and Hawaii Food and Farmer's Series team. Here to help. Yeah, you are. Even more than you know. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Of course. As always, you can join the conversation by tweeting at ThinkTechHI and you can even call in if you're not into the online social media at 808-374-2014. So Pomei, why don't we go ahead and get started and have you introduce our guests? Sure. Everyone, this is Jessica Rohr, but we just call her Jess for short. And she has a business that deals with local meats, so I'm going to pass it over to her and she's going to tell us a little bit about what she's been doing, what she's been up to. Yeah. Thank you guys for having me. So I sell local meats at Farmer's Markets. We have three markets so far. We do the Aloha Farm Lovers at Kaka Ako and then Kailua. And then we also have one at Waianae on Saturdays as well. So I sell grass fed beef, 100% grass fed beef, wild Maui Nui Venison. We have Niihau Lamb and Niihau Analope, which are pretty much wild. There's no fences. Yeah. And then we also have Mikilua Pork from Two Lady Farmers. Oh. Yeah, we occasionally sell fish and a few other things and spices, but primarily just focusing on local meats and trying to increase the availability of that. So should we talk about how you got to this point? Yeah. Is that kind of what's next on the agenda? Let's go there. Okay. So I started out with a food truck, not really wanting to do a food truck, but I didn't want to get stuck in a hot box all day. But what I really wanted to do was to get people to eat more venison because I just thought it's such a great meat that we have. It's sustainable. It's invasive. It's delicious and it's really good for you. So I was also fishing at the time, so we had a lot of fish. And I just wanted to get it out there. So a friend of mine had a food truck. And so we were selling food out of the food truck. I was not super stoked about being stuck in a food truck all day. It was kind of hot. And then I just wanted it. I wasn't feeling like I was reaching enough people with the venison and whatnot. And then I also realized that we're not selling that. At the time, we weren't really selling it. Retail, like nobody could get their hands on it besides maybe a restaurant. So that's where I created our first little pop-up meat market at Kakaako. And it started out really slow. And that was about a year ago in October. But now we do about 1,000 pounds a month of various meats. Yeah. And hoping to do more and hoping to reach more people with a pasture-to-door delivery service. Yeah. Hopefully by next month. OK. So what's the experience like? So if we came and saw you at Aloha Farm Lovers market, what would we expect? Yeah, so we have a variety of cuts, depending on what's in stock. And we also do special orders. But everything comes vacuum sealed USDA inspected and fresh frozen. And I have an example. Oh, you're going to show us. Yay. So it's getting a little frosty here. But this is some Maui Nui venison. So it's packed just like that. I want to see. Yeah. You have to thaw it out. But all our customers have been really happy with the quality. Maui Nui does a really great job with the venison. This is a pack of stew meat. And also on my Instagram story, I do a lot of cooking with these meats. And I have a venison taco recipe up on there on the Instagram. And then I'm going to continue to create more recipes, because a lot of people, they get the meat, and then they want to know how to cook it. So that's how it comes. You can purchase anything from the beef, different cuts. We have ground beef. We have steaks. We have stew meats and sliced meats. And then venison racks, or venison loin, or ground venison, lamb loin, ground lamb, and a variety of other cuts. And then we also do sausages. So that's going to. Are you a one man show? Or? I've got some helpers. Yeah, it's been a lot of work in the last year to try and get it going. And it's not as hard as the food truck. So anybody who's got a food truck up there can give you a lot of credit. Yeah, so that's what we're selling so far. And then we're hoping to get chickens eventually, too, in the mix. So Jess, talk a little bit about these different kinds of meats, because if somebody isn't familiar, they probably don't quite appreciate just, I guess, some of the inherent challenges that comes with all those different types of meats that you're talking about. So you said the venison, beef, pork, is it antelope? Yeah, even antelope. Antelope and also lamb, which are coming from Niihau. So basically you're sourcing all these meats from different islands. And just talk a little bit about maybe a couple of those meats, because I know there's interesting stories, especially with the venison. Yeah, and that's something that I wish I could share more of when we're at the market. We're usually kind of busy. But what I really want to do is tell the story of the hard work behind it that these ranchers or hunters do. And the stories are really the most phenomenal part. And I like to say it's beyond organic. We have an animal that's just completely in pasture. They don't eat any other feed. And they really attest to the health of the animal. And it is a little bit pricier, but the animal has a better life. It's been raised humanely. And it's local. So yeah, there are some challenges, I'm sure, with the economics of everything, because they require a lot of land. So I think the ranches that we source from, they do have a backbone in that. And I hope that as the demand grows, that they'll be able to see more economic feasibility from that stance. What do you think people buy most of? And then what do you think is a harder thing to sell, even though it's really good? Yeah, definitely the beef is our number one seller. And I love that they're raised 100% grass-fed. And they have 25,000 acres to roam on. And I love beef. But yeah, I'd love to see more people eating the venison. Definitely. That's where my heart is in all of this. And that's why I started it. And it's delicious. So that's, I guess, where the program comes in, that I need to spend a little bit more time on creating recipes. Because when it's done well, people don't even notice it. Like in my food truck, we did beer-braised venison tacos. And people would just order the beer. It was like, how? Just the beer-braised. Well, I was like, can I get the beer? And I'm like, you mean the venison? They're like, what's that? So yeah, I mean, I'm learning from that, too, that I got to sample more and that sort of thing. But the sausages are easy because most people are willing to try the sausages. Yeah, but it is tricky in terms of getting it to market. But we've come up with a pretty good system. And now I think we can expand on that, especially with being able to deliver to people's homes in the next year. So no delivery quite yet? We have a beta version going. If I get an order over $100, then we'll work it out. And I just did a delivery actually right before I came here. But yeah, so that's kind of the end goal and online ordering and that sort of thing. So right now, most of my customers just come to the market and pick up there. But it's great because it's all vacuum sealed. It's good for three to four months or more. And you can just load up, have it in your freezer. I mean, when you thought out, it can be in the fridge for up to two weeks because it's vacuum sealed. So that's something you don't get really from the store for most cuts. Yeah. Great. So you have any thoughts. So is your background in cooking or is it hunting? I mean, how? A little bit of both. How did you kind of this all get started? Yeah, yeah. They call it a multi-potential aid, I think, is the word. So you do too many things in all different directions. But before I started doing the food truck, I had been working on a fishing boat for five years. And that's kind of where the food truck was. It was like venison and fish. We wanted to sell this wild stuff. And I guess going hunting with friends and eating the venison and going fishing and catching my own fish and eating that, it was like this meal that was kind of like our ancestors would eat, was like a privilege. And I just felt like this shouldn't be a privilege. You should all be able to eat like this. You know, it costs money. But yeah, some of my background, I mean, I've done a lot of different things. But the fishing, I dabbled in agriculture with aquaponics. You know, basically I just wanted to eat fish and I couldn't afford it. I was like, OK, I'm going to go fish. I'm going to raise fish. I'm going to raise food. But from the get-go, as soon as I had to buy my own food, I've always been into farmer's markets and eating local and sourcing local. And then I love hunting and fishing and all of that. And actually, even the farm process of slaughter and that sort of things I'm interested in, yeah. Great. So thanks for the future. I know you said you want to do some online. You want to do a little bit more delivery. Any different kinds of meats other than chicken that you're looking at? Yeah, so the chicken, we should actually have some next week, actually. But there's a really neat project going on a Maui with Maui Nui, the people who source our venison. So it's a team of hunters. And basically they're trying to create value from feral populations. So they haven't stopped at venison. They're actually going on to wild cattle. So they're literally helicoptering cattle off the mountains of Kahikinui. And it's all Hawaiian homeland, so a lot of the meat will go back to the Hawaiian communities, but then also to recoup some of the costs of helicoptering cattle off a mountain. They will be selling some. So we look forward to that this coming year. And we'll also, through them, have some venison jerky that's really good. I've had samples. And I think they have a program as well with some kind of schools program where they'll make jerky out of the wild cattle and give it to kids for school. And so they've got a really amazing program over there. And I've been on the hunt with them for the venison. And it's top-notch. I mean, it's just phenomenal. Yeah, and it's amazing that they even got the USDA certification for it in the first place. But they got it because they do such a good job. And they have everything dialed in. And the safety of everything is top-notch for duration. And cleanliness is, I mean, it's superb. Yeah, because the process to be able to harvest wild venison is pretty ridiculous. I mean, from what I know, correct me if I'm wrong, this is one of the only USDA-certified operations for wild animals in the country. I mean, this isn't something that just regularly or easily happens because these are just wild invasive deer all over Maui and Molokai that they're going out and hunting. Yeah, I believe, I'm not sure if it's only wild. I know it's the only wild venison because all other venison from the mainland is farmed or penned. But there's also the wild antelope on Niihau that we get. But yeah, I believe it was like a three-year process. I speak with, I've spoken with the hunter and owner of Keohua'i, who sources the deer. And I mean, the amount of money and the process that they went through was, it's a miracle that they were able to do it. But they kind of attribute it to their inspector being more agreeable than maybe others. Because they have to have an inspector on site when they're actually going out and hunting. Right, and that guy's got the gun. So you don't just go out with the gun and just start shooting, it's a planned process. Yeah, that guy's definitely got the best job out of any inspector, right? He gets to go out and hunting. I think it's time for another hunt. Yeah, it's really cool. They have permits and they use military-grade night vision. And so one of the requirements is that they're harvested humanely. And so the animals don't get spooked or freaked out, and then their meat is gonna even taste better because it won't have the stress and the hormones. And they have to get a perfect shot so the animal dies instantly. So it's a perfect head shot, right? Yes, perfect head shot. And this is at night. It's so cool. And sometimes do they hunt from a helicopter or is it just strictly on land? No, the state has, I believe, done some harvesting that way. But these guys actually just go out on ATVs. There's four of them. They go at night. They work really, really hard. And then they have a mobile slaughter unit. And that's how they do it. Did you post a picture of them on your Instagram? Yeah, yeah. Okay, so those are the cool guys. They give the head shot, the kill shot. Yeah, yeah. I'm lucky enough to have gone with them, which was really cool to see. And is there training? They were trained. They just grew up doing that. Yeah, I mean, I think, I know a couple of them are from Molokai. Oh, okay, great. That's like, they're not when you're born, right? But, yeah, they're really good. Yeah, they have to be good at it. So I'm not sure if they've been trained, but they were looking for another person, I think, to join the team. But it's a really hard, yeah, it's a really hard job to fulfill. Yeah, well, because you have to be that good. You have to be as good as them. And I guess that's why my passion kind of lies so much with the venison, because to me it's so cool. But I really do love that we've got such a top-notch beef program, and the lamb, and the antelope, and the chicken, and the pig, so. Okay. Well, that's super exciting. Unfortunately, we have to take a quick break, and then we're gonna come back and talk more about that, and also your cooking. Oh, yeah. Yeah, just give us one minute, and we'll be right back. Good afternoon, my name is Howard Wigg. I am the proud host of Code Green, a program on Think Tech Hawaii. We show at three o'clock in the afternoon every other Monday. My guests are specialists, both from here and the mainland, on energy efficiency, which means you do more for less electricity, and you're generally safer and more comfortable while you're keeping dollars in your pocket. You can be the greatest, you can be the best. You can be the king, come playin' on your chest. You can be the, you can talk to God, don't bangin' on his door. You can buy your hands up, you can be the... Back to Life Food and Farmers series, where we meet every Thursday, talking to Hawaii's agriculture and food movers and shakers. So with me today is my co-host, is Pomew Weigert. Pomew, you wanna introduce our guest again? Yes, we have Jess Rohr from Forage Hawaii. She's talking to us about local meats on many different levels. We just sort of went through her past, present, we're kind of getting to sort of the future, and we wanted to talk, why I wanted you to be here is because you started these cooking demos on your social, on your social media, which really helps. I think people who don't cook with these kinds of meats, not feel so intimidated, you know, I, you make it really, really simple. So it kind of in your mind makes you think, oh, I could do a braised something, something charred, whatever. It all looks really fancy, but you make it at home. So I kind of just wanted a free to talk to us about how you started doing those and how you do them, why you do them, and what you plan to do with that. Yeah, so I mean, one of the reasons I stopped in the food truck was because I wasn't loving cooking as much as I had been, you know, cooking the same thing over and over and kind of being stuck in a truck. And I almost took like a break from cooking for, I mean, almost, I took a break from cooking and then realized through that my passion is home cooking. Like I'm a home chef. I'm not, you know, it's, there's a reason I didn't get a culinary degree and I love the food science. I love nutrition. And then, and just doing recipes and cooking simply and, you know, meal prep and that sort of thing. So I only recently started doing these Instagram stories of my cooking because I was kind of inspired by a couple of people that I watch on Instagram that cook. And I was like, wow, this is really fun. And I'll have to sit and watch a whole program of food network, you know, so I don't have time for that. So I just click through it. And then I started getting good responses about it coming back and, you know, I don't really have a huge background in cooking besides just loving to cook. So from when I was a kid, like one of my Christmas presents when I was like four was a pan and a spatula and a stool so that I could reach the stove and make scrambled eggs. So I just love it. And it's, I mean, I kind of actually procrastinate with it when you see me doing that. It's more of me just like procrastinating stuff. But it works out because a lot of the people do need ideas, they need recipes and they need to feel like it's not a giant headache. I also noticed that you source a lot of things from a lot of other local purveyors. And are there any favorite local purveyors that you like or new recipes that you've been kind of doing that you've been using an ingredient from a certain farm or a, I feel like what I really like about your template is that it doesn't just help your business. It's helping all these other little businesses. So can you share with us maybe another agricultural business or other businesses that you've been liking recently? Yeah, I mean, I don't prepare, I don't plan recipes ahead of time. I go to the market, I grab a bunch of things and then I open the fridge and like, what am I gonna make? But yeah, there's a new vendor at our market, it's called De La Mesa. And they're part of your GoPro program. Yeah, so they make awesome salsas and then they grow these beautiful little sprouts and microgreens. And so yeah, one of the clips I did recently of our beer-braised tacos, I used some of their products and I mean everything. I love getting the fresh eggs and I've done a lot with Kalamana organic farms so I really like to use their products but Ma'au too, I've lived on the west side for the last five years. So using the farms out there and Chocomore or Kalamana's eggs, Naked Cow Dairy cheese and butter. So kind of trying to incorporate everything where I can make an entire meal with just local produce. And it really isn't as hard as it sounds, besides pepper. Pepper's a hard one. Ok, so you're talking about that gram response you get. So basically you're putting these cooking demonstrations on Instagram and just kind of showing like, Hey, here's a recipe you can do with venison. Actually I think we had even a couple of clips. We can check out here in a minute. So talk a little bit about that. So like, we were talking about earlier like some of the challenges, like yet people are very familiar with beef and porpoise and sometimes you say, Hey, here's venison. People aren't as used to it. Maybe they think it's too gamey. Maybe you think it's bambi. What, I mean what, like what's kind of going on with that and what's the reaction you've been getting? Yeah, I actually have to educate not just about the venison, but even the beef because 100% grass-fed beef, it cooks faster, you know. It requires a little bit more care and you do have to do things differently. So, and one of the things I want to develop as this next year goes on is a recipe program. Cause right now it's really just me being like, Oh, this is how I do it. You know, I'm not like a measuring type of person, but I am working on that. And so yeah, it's good cause I can like get little pieces in there of, you know, this is a good tip for this or this is a good technique. So I guess eventually that'll all be, you know, put onto my website, but the recipes themselves have yet to been right to be written down formally. But yeah, like all the meat requires a little bit of help in terms of learning how to cook it unless you have that culinary background. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And is this anything you've ever like actually, are you showing these videos at the farmers markets or is that something you've ever thought about doing? No, no, this has just happened. This just like, I'm getting messages on Instagram. Like, I love your thing and I love your thing. So now I want to- I do want to be on Think Tech Hawaii cause I really like your cooking clips. Yeah, right. So you start just that. No, no, I knew her from before. She was making me aware that she was going to start going in that direction. And again, made it look so easy. And I really think that that component of opening the fridge and trying to find things that are already in there is also what people are challenged with. You know, like, what do you have? Because I think in people's ideas like, oh, it's going to be so expensive, I got to get all these things. But you source a lot of things that like maybe you might throw away. You know what I mean? Like, oh, I have extra kale or I have extra this or I have extra that. And then you kind of just are like, hmm. Yeah, and I want to put it on this meat and eat it. I want people to be able to do that. You know, have the confidence to do that. So if there is anybody that I can inspire to like not waste as much food, I know there's like a lot more media going out about food waste. And they say we waste like 40% of our food, you know? So don't waste food, you know, eat it and do something else with it or just make a commitment to that. So I guess that's one of my things to inspire it. But I want to find a good direction on where that's going to go in terms of doing the videos and cooking. But really I think it comes down to just giving people the confidence to cook more from home and meal prep and use more local products. And I think that's kind of the direction. So we'll see where it goes. Any trends that you see out there in food or agriculture and cooking that maybe have not been quite saturated just yet, you know? Just in, and kind of the things that you create, you know, I feel like to cook, you kind of got to be creative or a solution-based. So while you're out at the markets or you're, you know, pervading this business, do you see anything that's like coming as far as business or industry shifts? You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, I've definitely seen a lot of like fresh box, you know, doing these ready to go things. I mean, sometimes I do prep stuff like a marinated pork loin or something like that. And I think it's just convenience, but it's funny. It's like we're doing all convenience, but it's kind of coming back to like learn how to cook and do the steps yourself, which even like fresh box will teach you different techniques, even though it'll give you all the stuff. So I think the trends to cook from home are increased, that's just my opinion, but- You're observational statistic, that's what I'm talking about. But in terms of the- You want to get technical. Yeah, in terms of like the beef industry, like grass-fed beef has increased 25% every year for the last 10 years. So we are seeing like people way more concerned about the type of meat we're eating and really that's my slogan is, feel good about the meat you eat because there's so much information out there and some of it's bad and some of it's good, but the animals when waste properly can be good for you and for the environment. And that's gonna be a trend that you'll see is more of that data and research coming out for sure. How about, do you do anything? Like I know one of the challenges that other meat purveyors deal with, like even the ranchers and the farmers is some of the off cuts like the bones or the hawks or just this, because yeah, whenever you're working like a restaurant or you're making different food products, there's certain cuts that you're gonna use all the time but then there's all the rest of the animal. Is that anything that you're and kind of go back to food base as well? Is that something that you're looking into with some of the different things that you're preparing? Yeah, yeah, I have a big passion for that because if everybody wants to eat ribeye, you're gonna have to kill how many cows, right? To get everybody to eat all the different parts. And I really, I'm just trying to get the butchers to do what the customers want, but I'm also trying to get the customers trying to eat other things. It hasn't been a problem so far with in terms of the butchers coming back to me and saying, hey Jess, we have too much of this. But I do have a lot of people asking me for things like beef liver. We sell a lot of beef bones for bone broth. And that's something that I tend to run out of a lot because I have a high demand for the beef bones. I think because that has been kind of a cool thing and they're kind of able to get to sell a lot of those parts like surprisingly. So yeah, I mean, I will make, I definitely make those orders when people ask for them, but it's kind of hard to, you know, say like eat beef liver if people don't want to eat it, but it has been way more popular than I would have expected. Are you cooking any of those weird kind of things yet? I feel like I've only seen really good stuff, but I mean, I could see how you could maybe say, wait, eventually, and to be like, hey, have you ever seen this be cooked? Yeah, that's a good point too. And you know, I guess I'm kind of a little shy of some things, but like the bone marrow, for example, you know, like we do the canoe cut bone marrow where you can roast it and dip it in bread and stuff. And I think I was trying to try that for like four years and had to build up the courage. And when I tried it, I was like, oh, I'm crazy. I should have been eating this the whole time. They call it God's Butter. It's delicious. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. So yeah, and then one of the Instagram followers that I did follow did like a meatloaf with liver in it and stuff like that. So I do want to eventually get some of those things in there, but the way that my system is in doing the markets, it's hard to have so much variety, you know, so. So just, we have about one minute left. Let's get into kind of talking about what's the future of how are we going to get more people eating local meat and what's the future of local meat and how do you see yourself being a part of that future? Yeah, I think for one is education. So people understand, you know, why they're paying the price for it and how to make that economical in their family. So you can still spend the same amount of money on food and just eat a little bit less and higher quality meat and not waste so much. And then like for future stuff, just increasing the availability, which is what I'm trying to do, right? Just expand. And so to do the Pasterdor delivery service for these meats is going to really increase the availability. And I think that'll be, you know, the part that we can help with. That's awesome. Yeah, well, Jess, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you. It's really exciting to hear everything you're doing. Where can we find you? Oh yeah, Kakaako Farmer's Market, Kailua Farmers Market and Y&I Farmers Market or just go on our website. You can set up the delivery just through email. And the website is? www.ForgeHawaii.com. And the cooking demos are on Instagram at ForgeHoy. Yes. Not Forge. Not Forge. Yeah, Forge. Forge. Yes, for us. Exactly, for us. Doing some metallurgy out there. Goodness. Palma, thank you so much for coming on as a host and being part of the team. And yeah, so thank you once again and happy holidays. And we will be back in a couple of weeks. Yeah. Yeah, probably in a couple of Thursdays. So thank you a lot.