Meaningful Marketplace Podcast Meaningful Marketplace Podcast

This episode starts our tour of Colorado foodpreneurs and our guide is Mike Gabel of Colorado State University. Mike runs the Food Innovation Center at the Spur campus, a brand new campus located in downtown Denver. The vision began ten years ago with the idea of creating a campus that would be open to aspiring college students – K through 12th grade – to come and observe a day in the life of a veterinarian, a food scientist or a water conservationist. The three big areas of the campus are food and agriculture, human and animal health and water conservation. The buildings are open to the public and all programs are behind glass so the touring groups get a true behind-the-scenes look at each profession. This was an opportunity for Mike to create a Food Innovation Center closely based on Oregon State University’s Food Innovation Center, directed by our host Sarah Masoni. The Spur’s FIC contains a commercial kitchen that serves as programming for the public, nutrition classes, events such as chef events, research and development and of course, product development for the foodpreneurs. Also, there are smaller labs; a meat lab and a dairy lab. Sarah Masoni has visited the CSU Spur campus and was incredibly impressed being able to watch veterinary operations in the animal science building and watching people learn to rice horses. Sarah was equally impressed with the architecture of the buildings, especially the water building. There is an historical link; the campus is positioned close to the Denver Stockyards where for a century people have come to buy and sell cattle and the stock show still is in existence. There are around 800,000 people attending this show and provide a perfect audience for Spur exposure to what food technology is being created in Colorado. Saying they “stole the idea from Oregon State”, Mike explains how the FIC utilizes expo events similar to OSU’s FIC events to network with makers to extol the virtues of the FIC and tout the impressive list of equipment, mentors, scientists and connections they provide to help the entrepreneur be successful with their dream. Their last expo showcased 19 different makers and different brands that could be sampled and special times set aside for distributors and buyers to mix and mingle. One of the more fascinating future foodpreneurs is McKay, an eleven (or twelve?) year old maker who is learning to balance school life while scaling a product she has been working on for the last couple of years. Launching an official partnership with Naturally Boulder, https://www.naturallyboulder.org/, has been a boon to pushing Spur’s mission. Naturally Boulder is an organization with a mission to bring together entrepreneurs, investors, brands, retailers and industry experts to make Colorado the best place to launch and scale natural products. This mutual networking and the ability to offer Spur’s huge vault of technical resources to NB’s expertise in regulation knowledge has paid great dividends. Spur’s campus is as open to the public as possible, and keycard access for the 24-hour entrepreneurs is part of that open policy. Many of the programs are bi-lingual, a reflection of the Spanish-speaking population of the area. And you can’t discuss Colorado’s famous foods without acknowledging it’s number one well-know product. Host Sarah Marshall did the research to discover it’s Rocky Mountain Oysters. For the uninitiated, tune in to the interview and find out the answer to this paradox. You can contact Mike at Michael.Gabel@colostate.edu. Find out more about CSU’s Spur campus at https://csuspur.org/. Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall, Instagram - @masoniandmarshall.

As we close the chapter on Wyoming foodpreneurs for this year, we end with an interview with Melissa Hemken of Central Wyoming College, who has been co-hosting this series. In addition to all she coordinates with Central, Melissa is founder of her own company, Melissahof Hatchery, a chick-raising farm that delivers healthy day-old chicks to local poultry farmers. “Hof” means “farm” in German. Living near Lander, Wyoming, Melissa discovered that rural expansiveness hindered the mail shipment of healthy day-old chicks. Recognizing that other Wyoming folks also need healthy chicks for their flocks, Melissa raises dual-purpose heavy breed poultry from which to hatch purebred chicks. When eggs are hatched into chicks, there is a 50/50 gender split. Most customers purchase the female chicks – called pullets, as they are looking to raise egg-layers. Melissa raises the rooster chicks, nicknamed the “McNuggets,” on pasture for the farmers who raise chicken for their meat. Now to our interview today, Britni Haar of Cloud Peak Cultures, a local kombucha clan of kid-friendly home brewers who are working their kitchen magic, conjuring another batch of fermented tea. Founded by Britni and Kandi Broersma, they are at the forefront of Sheridan, Wyoming’s burgeoning kombucha culture as Sheridan’s first commercial kombucha venture. Britni’s journey began in 2015 when her family took a trip to China to visit friends. One of the friends had been taught to brew kombucha and shared it with Britni, who loved the beverage. It got her thinking she also could be brewing kombucha and when she got back to the US she started her research. Britni made the decision to buy the starter culture, called scoby, from a fellow kombucha brewer, rather than try to grow her own. She began brewing and the story is a familiar one: Britni gave some to friends who told her she could sell her brew. Then Kandi came on board to help with the business and in 2018 they started selling at the Sheridan farmers market with great success. That propelled them into selling at the local greenhouse farmers market, a year-round market. The business grew but life has its road bumps; Kandi had a baby, started home schooling and the business was too much for her to continue so Britni has been solo since. But that hasn’t stopped her from expanding. Springboarding off her fermenting expertise, she has developed a line of fermented jalapenos used in the dip Britni also sells. Of course, Britni has expanded the kombucha flavors by blending different ingredients, huckleberry-lemonade being her favorite. Flavored drinks are made by letting the kombucha blend sit for about a week. Then the fruit juices are added and the brew sits for another three or four days. It self-carbonites then it is refrigerated. Alcohol content is not a fine science in the kombucha industry and Britni’s brews are pretty much in line with other kombucha drinks. However, Britni does say her kombuchas are more mild and less tart than most commercial kombuchas. As for the future, Cloud Peak Cultures is covered under Wyoming cottage laws so she can sell her beverage without the heavy regulation. But if she wants to grow, that will be a game time decision. At present, Clout Peak Cultures is not her full time occupation, so she is contemplating her next move. Find her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cloudpeakcultures/. Melissa: mhemken@cwc.edu https://www.cwc.edu/agri-business/ Melissahof: https://melissahof.com/about/Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall, Instagram - @masoniandmarshall.

It was Swiss relatives, the Woofley side of the Jon Shumway’s family, settling in the Star Valley of Wyoming in the early 1900s that inspired the original farming success that is now Shumway Farms. Then Jon Shumway’s Great Grandfather, the Shumway side, merged with the Woofley’s, who were dairy farmers and he was responsible for the big push to expand the farm. Now Jon is the founder of Shumway Farms, a family farm raising grass fed cattle, pigs and sheep and producing their harvested products. Those products are raw milk, flavored raw milk, raw cream, ice cream, yogurt, beef, pork, and free-range eggs. As Jon puts it, they are quite possibly the last organic dairy selling to the public in the area. That’s because agricultural land in the traditionally cheese-making valley is fast disappearing. Being at the base of Jackson Hole, Wyoming has made the beautiful valley “discovered” by the public and development is taking place even as our interview is being conducted. The majority of the product line is from milk and the company recently became a licensed facility. The operation has an on-farm lab which is an important part of the food safety program. They test every batch of milk after bottling to make sure it's safe before being distributed to customers. Cows are milked in what is known as a harringbone style milking parlor. They can fit 12 cows in the barn at one time (6 on each side). While one side is being milked the other side is being prepped for milking. One of the more popular items is their yogurt, which has an interesting story. Jon’s brother came back from a trip east having discovered skyr, and Icelandic cream product similar to yogurt. It’s a full-cream, strained yogurt and is mixed with pure maple syrup. At first, people didn’t buy the product as skyr was not a household name and sales were thin. So the company started calling it yogurt and sales did increase. However, there were loyal customers who asked “Where’s the Skyr?” even though the product was exactly the same, only under a different name. On their website, you’ll see there is still skyr available. With all their dairy products, whey is a big byproduct. What to do with it? Currently, it is tossed out. The company is so busy keeping up with demand that turning it into cheese is out of their bandwidth. On top of that, their whey is a sour whey, not the usual sweet whey, so it doesn’t even work for pig food, as the pigs won’t eat it. At some point, however, the family will add the machinery to process the whey and keep with their philosophy of responsible farming. On a side note, when informed by Sarah Masoni that one of Meaningful Market Place’s earlier guests turned their whey into vodka, it definitely caught Jon’s attention. The family loves to welcome all kinds of groups to the farm for visits and personalized tours. They regularly host school field trips, large family groups, professional organizations, and others to carry the banner for responsible, organic farming and its products. Or as their website says, more than organic. Customers in the local area can find Shumway Farms products in select grocery stores which can be found on the company website: https://www.shumwayfarms.com/. You also can order from their website, as the company has partnered with Beck Ranch to handle their shipping, including their ice cream! Follow them on: IG: @shumwayfarmswyo FB: shumwayfarms. Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall, Instagram - @masoniandmarshall.

“It’s hard to find a good tasting salsa that doesn’t look like spaghetti sauce”, says Richard Rhoades, founder of Red Pony Salsa, Clearmont, Wyoming, our guest today. Roughly 30 years ago, Richard planted around 30 different types of peppers in his garden, the impetus of creating a great salsa. Adding to his tomato crop, Richard experimented with other sauces and whatever exotic spice or vegetable that was on hand. However, moving to a commercial salsa meant he needed to focus on the ingredients that were accessible and in quantity. Jalapeno peppers and serrano peppers were abundant and Richard liked the flavors, so he spent about five years playing with the recipes until he got to a salsa to his liking. Richard then shared his concoction with friends and one in particular was Craig Johnson. Craig is the author of the novel, Longmire, which was turned into a Netflix series. Craig urged Richard to begin selling commercially and that was the start of the business. How those two met is a story in itself. Richard has always been an avid hunter, which had brought him to Wyoming at the age of 17. From there he had opened a Taxidermy studio in 1980, and also began outfitting hunters from the mountains to the open prairies. His personal hunts have taken him to Europe, Africa, Canada, Alaska, Mexico, and several US states. Craig had initially visited Richard as a customer of Richard’s taxidermy and outfitting shop and their friendship began. It was in 2015 that Richard began to produce the salsa on a commercial scale. Richard had gotten his label with ingredients certified by Colorado State University and had things lined up. Right away, the product line grew. To avoid the spaghetti sauce look and keep the salsa thick, Richard drained the salsa of excess liquid. But he found the juice was so good he couldn’t throw it away. At that point, the makings for a Bloody Mary Mix was created. So at this point, Richard had everything nailed down for the salsa and mix, ready to produce and bottle. Everything except a name. Then one night, after much debate, and many Rainier and scotches, Craig's wife Judy, suggested he use the Red Pony name, from Craig’s books, and the company was set to launch. Originally, Richard made all the salsa but of course, ramping up volume meant larger facilities. He began with a co-packer in Denver who became too expensive. He then moved to one in California who was great but Richard’s company was too small for them to work with. He’s now talking to two others, one in California and one in Florida in order to have one on each coast. Such is the life of a foodpreneur. Red Pony Salsa is available in many stores in Wyoming and starting to branch into other states. Red Pony Salsa has three flavors, mild, medium and hot, plus the Red Pony Bloody Mary Mix is all available online at: https://www.redponysalsa.com/. Follow Richard on FB: Red Pony Salsa

"It’s snowing in Wyoming so according to Melissa Hemken, that means springtime. The latest business news from Melissa is a series of statewide startup challenges for entrepreneurs and two of the four winners in her area were food businesses. Part of that strong Wyoming food business culture is our guest today, Ian McGregor, co-founder of Farmstead Cider. Are they the one and only Wyoming hard cider company? Ian says they are definitely the loudest and possibly the only one. He also hopes there will be more as it is good to have a community with common interests and a place to share best practices. The impetus for the company is not the usual story. Ian and co-founder Orion Bellorado sold pies at farmers markets in the summer just for fun. Then Ian spent time in the Napa Valley, California working in the wine industry before returning to Wyoming. Since he and Orion enjoyed working together, they started brainstorming ideas. Wine making was not practical, as grapes wouldn’t survive the Wyoming climate. They never considered apples as the only ones they had ever noticed were the small crab apples. Then the light dawned on Ian as he noticed – for the first time – the abundance of apple trees in Jackson Hole. Once they decided on cider as a business and since the trees were planted by homesteaders, Farmstead Cider became the name. Then they randomly had a dinner party where a bear biologist was a guest. When questioned by the biologist about their business and how they were harvesting apples, Ian and Orion were told there was a problem in the area: Bears getting into the many apple trees of the residents. The biologist went on to say there was a wildlife budget to address the problem, and if Ian and Orion could use the money to harvest more apples, the bear predicament could be alleviated. Seeing their business could remove the living space conflict between people and bears while creating a valuable business as well, the company took off with their memorable moto: Save Bears. Drink Cider. On their website, anyone in their local area can add their apple trees to their map and give permission for the company to enter their property and harvest their apples, removing the enticing draw for the local bear community. Ian’s time in the wine industry was invaluable, as they discovered tannins and other properties of the crab apples that created delicious and unique tastes. The apple’s properties come from the ancient glacial soils, extreme sun, and cool nights all combine to make Wyoming a fantastic place to grow, harvest, and taste unique cider apple varieties including the high-tannin crab apples. Having rediscovered forgotten 150+ year old apple trees and planting new orchards, the founders are teaching people about high altitude farming along the way. Ian and Orion also take a small batch approach to cider-making. Wild fermenting slowly at cold temperatures and allowing the ciders to age in oak barrels mellows out the high acidity and tannins of crab apples. The result is a hard cider that’s smooth, dry, and full of flavor. Farmstead Cider is also the first commercial
cidery in Wyoming in over 100 years. Ian’s time in the wine industry also shows through in the labeling of the hard ciders. Their bottles and labels mirror upscale wine bottles and the company has enjoyed winning awards with some of their varieties. You can join one of their clubs. Farmstead Cider Clubs offer a range of special releases and classic ciders. Cider shipments are automatically sent at a discount, four times per year: February, May, August, and November. Each shipment features two to four cider selections chosen by our cider makers, with the rest chose by the member. You also can shop at their store the next time you’re in Jackson Hole, or order online at their website: https://farmsteadwyo.com/, they ship to all 50 states. Follow them on IG: @farmsteadcider. Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall, Instagram - @masoniandmarsh

Before starting the interview, some great news from our Wyoming host, Melissa Hemken. The Wyoming Business Council in conjunction with USDA’s Mountain Regional Business Center has created an online directory of Wyoming food and drink. More great resources from RFBC. Today’s guests from the southern part of Wyoming are Lindsey Washkoviak and Ben Elzay, founders of Medicine Bow Creamery at Brush Creek Ranch. It’s a big name of a big operation. It began 12 years ago when Lindsey and Ben fell in love over food. Lindsey is a Wisconsin native, so cheese is part of her heritage. Ben is a Wyoming native and hunting, fishing, gardening and the processing of food is his background, so their union was destiny. A year after meeting, they began making goat cheese leasing part of a friend’s farm to feed and milk their goats. But when the Wyoming Food Freedom Act passed and they could make value-added products in their unlicensed kitchen, they started Slow Goat Farm. Volume grew to the point in 2017 they needed to grow past their own home. Then in 2019, Brush Creek Ranch contacted them because the Ranch had put in an infrastructure to have a food-to-table program, including craft goat cheeses. The Ranch initially wanted Slow Goat Farm to supply them milk, but Slow Goat could not legally sell them milk, so the conversation turned to cheese and creamery production. Brush Creek wanted to start such a program and since Lindsey and Ben already had the business dialed in, it was a natural to have the couple start up the business inside Brush Creek. The timing was excellent as the couple helped finish the design of the creamery and cheese facilities then fell right into production. COVID lockdown slowed things temporarily but the license came through in 2021 for their new company, Medicine Bow Creamery at Brush Creek Ranch. Every business has startup pangs and Medicine Bow has had theirs. When cheese ages, it needs a specific level of heat and humidity. Wyoming is a dry climate and the first batches of goat cheese did not turn out as planned. However, the company has enjoyed strong sales with feta being a big favorite. Interestingly, Brush Creek Ranch is the biggest client, buying all the yogurt that is produced and much of the other production as well. But as Medicine Bow Creamery ramps up production, the couple is confident they will be reaching markets will outside of the Ranch. The couple is excited about all the varieties of cheese they are making as they experiment to find the cheeses that will be most popular when they are able to expand their marketplace. And the chefs at Brush Creek are terrific sounding boards. A quick look at the Brush Creek Ranch: Going back to its founding in 1884, the ranch has stayed alive by evolving into a luxury resort that has upheld its past and western ranch heritage. The spirit of recreation, adventure, and good times shared together prevails, from famous barn and campfire cookouts to cattle drives and fishing on the renowned Brush Creek. This authentic heritage is visibly apparent and despite a plethora of modern amenities, Brush Creek Ranch is still a true working cattle ranch. Lindsey and Ben keep those standards high with their herd of Alpine, Nubian, and Mini Nigerian goats. Guests can meet and learn how the milking process works from the Dairy Managers, play with the kids, shepherd the herd through a relaxing pasture walk, and get a behind the scenes tour of the goat operation. Their award-winning creamery masterfully instills complex flavors into a variety of cheeses, blending old-world and old-west traditions. Their fresh and lightly aged cheeses lack a strong “goaty” flavor due to special diets and gentle milk handling practices. Visit the website at: https://www.brushcreekranch.com/the-farm/medicine-bow-creamery. Follow them on: Instagram andFacebook: Slow Goat Farm Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall, Instagram - @masoniandmarshall.