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GOURMET NEWS JANUARY 2016 www.gourmetnews.com SUPPLIER BUSINESS 1 3 BY LORRIE BAUMANN Colorado-based Motherlode Provisions started with a wildfire. It was back in 2010 when a wildfire broke out below the historic mining camp at Gold Hill, Colorado. "Everyone was evacuated for about 10 days," recalls Carolyn Oxley, who with her husband Leland Oxley, is a Co- owner of Motherlode Provisions. When 230 or so residents of the tiny town were allowed to return to their homes, Le- land, who is a chef, was asked to cater a ben- efit barbecue to welcome everyone back home. He smoked several hundred pounds of meat, brisket and pork shoulder and made a simple sauce to go with it. "He had a smoker on hand because he's the kind of guy who has a smoker on hand," Carolyn says. "On a whim, we decided to put the barbecue sauce into bottles and sold it with handmade labels." Along the way, Leland thought about the sauce he'd put on the table and came face to face with the fact that although he, a Kansas native who'd grown up surrounded by bar- becue, knew exactly what he thought barbe- cue sauce is supposed to taste like, the Rocky Mountain region didn't actually have a sauce style to call its own. After his sauce was a hit at the barbecue, Leland set out to change that by inventing a sauce that would honor the spirit of the Rocky Mountain re- gion and the gold mining heritage that in- spired the brand on the label of the Oxleys' sauce. By May of 2011, Motherlode Provisions had two barbecue sauces and a Bloody Mary mix on store shelves. They're all thicker than most sauces, with rustic bits of chopped veg- etables in a tomato base and hearty flavors that evoke the adventurous spirit of the Rocky Mountain wilderness. "That was def- initely a deliberate choice. We wanted a Bloody Mary mix that would be rustic and hearty and wouldn't water down easily," Car- olyn says. "It has chopped jalapeno, toasted onion, some pieces of garlic. It does create a heartier mix, and that is what we wanted." The Motherlode Provisions Rocky Moun- tain Barbecue Sauce is similar to the Bloody Mary mix: thick and savory with bold fla- vors. "It's earthy in flavor rather than syrupy- sweet. a little more rustic. It's a savory barbecue sauce, which sets it apart from quite a few others on the market," Carolyn says. For those who like their barbecue a little sweeter, Motherlode Provisions makes Sweet Honey Lavender Barbecue Sauce, which con- tains real lavender bells and lavender oil in a tomato base and sweetened with honey. "It's really delicious on poultry and game meats. Also really wonderful on vegetarian dishes like Portobello mushrooms or asparagus. You saute asparagus and add a little bit of Sweet Honey Lavender Barbecue Sauce," Carolyn says. "There's also something about the gaminess of game meats that comple- ments lavender really well. It's very good with duck, too." Since that initial introduction of the two sauces and the Bloody Mary mix, the Oxleys have continued their recipe development, and new products have joined the line, in- cluding Rocky Mountain Hot Sauce, Wildfire Hot Sauce, Motherlode Steak Sauce and Motherlode Provisions' newest barbecue sauce, Sweet & Smoky Barbecue Sauce, a sauce with a familiar barbecue flavor. "Be- cause the other two are unique, we wanted to make a sauce that met the expectations of the majority of barbecue-sauce-speaking cus- tomers," Carolyn says. "It contains hickory smoke, and it's on the sweeter side with a lit- tle bit of heat, very traditional flavor and smooth texture. It's a wonderful all-around versatile barbecue sauce, and a great dipping sauce for French fries. It's a nice condiment, great on a burger." The barbecue sauces retail for around $8.99 for a bottle, while the hot sauces and steak sauces sell for $5.99 for a 7-ounce bot- tle. The Bloody Mary mix retails for $10.99 for a 750 ml bottle that weighs 27 ounces. For more information, email inquiry@motherlodeprovisions.com. GN Striking the Motherlode in Colorado Jeanie Alderson is trying to solve a puzzle that is still confounding many of the coun- try's alternative meat producers: Getting her meats from her ranch to customers' ta- bles. Large meat processors cannot process a small farm's meats profitably, and small meat processors are in short supply. "We have the best grass, the best coun- try and the best cattle, but we're far away from everyone," says Alderson. The Mon- tana rancher and co-owner of Omega Beef raises grass-fed and –finished wagyu beef, to the tune of 30 to 40 carcasses a year. "The places where big agribusiness is hap- pening, those processors won't even look at us," says Alderson. This size of produc- tion constitutes a fraction of what a major slaughter house would process in a year, far too little for a larger slaughter house to cut at a profit. The nearest USDA-in- spected processor that will work in Omega Beef 's volumes is Quality Meats of Mon- tana, approximately three hours away. This long drive through the Montana step- pelands, combined with deliveries after processing, takes a large cut of the com- pany's profit margin. Unfortunately, slaughtering at an uninspected processor isn't an option. Going without the USDA stamp would mean losing the business of their retailers, their distributor and any out-of-state customers. "Basically the only people we would be able to sell to would be individual customers in Montana," says Alderson. The issue of finding size appropriate processors is not limited to beef. Les Miller, Food Producer at Wheatstem Meadows Farms in South Dakota, has en- countered difficulties with pork and chicken as well. Miller has found a pork processor within 50 miles, but the expan- sion of his business is beginning to push the processor's capacity. Miller is also rais- ing chickens, but can't find a facility to slaughter them in. "That's the problem I'm facing with the broilers," Miller says. "The closest [processor] I could find was in Minnesota. There's nothing in South Dakota." Miller is legally allowed to slaughter chickens in a limited capacity without an inspected facility, but that poultry can't be sold across state lines. "Under federal law I can do 1,000 [per year], but it still isn't like the USDA certi- fication," says Miller. Groups like the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, a network of agri- cultural advocacy groups, are involved in changing policies to make access to USDA-inspected facilities more available, but Ferd Hoefner, Policy Director with the NSAC, says the results do not come easily. "A number of farmers, frustrated by this lack of policy, are starting their own pro- cessing facilities. How do you get inspec- tors to these plants? That's a huge bottleneck," Hoefner notes. This issue has become a top concern for the National Sustainable Ag Coalition. "With the fed- eral government, most policies are going to become one size fits all," Hoefner adds. "We're looking for ways to make the reg- ulatory regime fit." One such legislative change has allowed select state-certified processors to operate as USDA-approved facilities, increasing the number of processors with the USDA's stamp of ap- proval. Another potential answer is the imple- mentation of mobile slaughter units. These are large trailers that are essentially a certified facility on wheels. They are driven out to farms. According to the Niche Meat Processor Assistance Net- work, there are approximately 20 MSUs in operation in the country, operating in 14 states. Hoefner notes that the MSU sys- tem is still finding its place in the market. "It's a little bit too early to tell there," says Hoefner. "As the market develops, maybe the market will be viable." MSU's could be a future key to beef and poultry opera- tions. "I would love for my animals to not have to leave, and end their lives here," says Alderson. GN The Continuing Resource Gap For Specialty Meat Producers Schloss, the pungent washed-rind cheese made by Marin French Cheese claimed sweet success with a Super Gold award at the 28th Annual World Cheese Awards held in Birmingham, England on Thurs- day, November 26. In the category of Washed Rind Cheeses, Schloss competed with cheeses from Switzerland, France, England and Canada, bringing home the only award to an American-made cheese in its category. Schloss, which means "castle," was first made by Marin French Cheese in the early 1900s, gaining a following of European immigrants who longed for the hearty, pungent cheeses from the old country. Cheesemakers at Marin French recently updated its original square shape to an 8- ounce wheel, added a dollop of extra cream, and continued the customary brine wash during ripening to develop its dis- tinctive aroma and orange-hued rind. 2015 has been a record-breaking year for Schloss as it racked up top awards from Wisconsin's US Championship Cheese Contest (third place), CalExpo State Fair (bronze award) and bested its own silver award from the 2014 World Cheese Awards. In addition, Marin French took bronze awards for Petite Camembert and Supreme Brie. Marin French Cheese sister company in Sonoma, Laura Chenel's, was awarded sil- ver for Chef 's Chevre in the fresh goat cheese category. "We are very proud of the teams at Marin French and Laura Ch- enel's," says General Manager Philippe Chevrollier. "Working with the freshest milk delivered daily from family-owned dairies, they add ingenuity, skill and know-how to make award-winning, deli- cious cheese." The World Cheese Awards are organ- ized by The Guild of Fine Foods. This year, more than 2,700 cheeses from 25 countries were judged by 250 interna- tional experts. GN Marin French Cheese's Schloss Wins Super Gold "Working with the freshest milk delivered daily from family- owned dairies, they add ingenuity, skill and know-how to make a w a r d - w i n n i n g , delicious cheese." -Philippe Chevrollier, General Manager

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