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GourmEt nEWS FEbruArY 2018 www.gourmetnews.com SuPPliEr nEWS 1 2 Baking Mixes from the Heartland Bison Business Notches Record Strength, Growth in 2017 As a record year of profitability and stability came to a close at the end of December, bison producers were mapping out plans for continued growth in 2018 by expand- ing efforts to connect with consumers and bringing new producers into the fold, ac- cording to Dave Carter, Executive Director of the National Bison Association. "Six months ago, the National Bison As- sociation and partners in the InterTribal Buffalo Council and the conservation com- munity announced an ambitious goal to re- store 1 million bison to North America, effectively more than doubling the size of today's herds," Carter said. "For bison ranchers, that means we must continue to introduce deliciously healthy bison to more people, and we must expand our produc- tion from coast to coast." The bison business is riding a sustained wave of profitability as sales of the meat continued to grow. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the prices mar- keters paid for dressed bison bulls averaged higher than $4.80 per pound throughout 2017. Dressed prices refer to the amount paid to ranchers once the animal is har- vested. "We anticipate that prices will re- main strong as demand for bison meat continues to grow," Carter said. Carter said that the National Bison Asso- ciation is planning several programs to reach out to new producers. The associa- tion's winter conference and live bison show and sale at the National West- ern Stock Show in Denver January 17- 20 provided an op- portunity for prospective pro- ducers to investi- gate the business. "More than 400 ranchers gather for the winter confer- ence to discuss is- sues and share information," Carter said. "And the associ- ation's Gold Trophy Bison Show at the Na- tional Western Stock Show had the largest number of entries in nearly 20 years." Information on all things bison is avail- able at www.bisoncentral.com. GN Call of the Wild Continued from PAGE 1 says. "I started talking to other farmers, who were saying that the hogs were a nui- sance.... They're an invasive species, and the population has been expanding rapidly over the last 15 years, with land use change and the lack of hunting pressure. It's great for people to have another option." At right about that same time, the chefs to whom he was selling the local meat he was processing for them started asking him about wild boar sausage. "I had my ear to the ground listening to these chefs," Mun- ford says. You see where this is going. "That was in 2014," Munford says. "We started planning it out and started the har- vesting program in 2015.... The Louisiana Department of Agriculture & Forestry gave us a lot of help setting up a harvest pro- gram, so that it could be legal and under inspection." Over the course of a year of planning, Oc- tavia Fortier, the com- pany's Executive Chef and CEO, developed recipes for three au- thentic varieties of sausage that she made from combinations of the wild boar meat and pork shoulder ground coarsely and mixed with earthy spices. Her technique borrows from the wisdom of Mun- ford's business partners at Wayne Jacobs Smokehouse in LaPlace, Louisiana, known for their andouille sausage. "She probably did each recipe 50 times before being satisfied with it," Mun- ford says. The three flavors are Original, Green Onion, and Mild. A fourth flavor, Jalapeño Cheese, is due to be released in time for this year's Mardi Gras celebrations. The pork shoulder that's added into the boar meat ensures the flavor of wild game while keeping the sausage affordable, since wild boar costs about three times the price of conventional pork by the time Munford pays the licensed trappers, transports the meat to his processing facility and accounts for comparatively low yield of the car- casses. "You'd think it'd be cheaper, but it's not," he says. The sausage is smoked in a custom-built stainless steel smokehouse that sits inside the processing plant. Outside the plant, a fire-box burns seasoned water oak fire- wood, and a vacuum system draws the smoke over the sausage so that the smoke penetrates the natural casing, the heat ren- ders the fat and the meat is preserved. "We make it the traditional artisanal Cajun way – hard wood fire, smoky, like with a fire- place," Munford says. "We actually burn logs in a low-heat fireplace, so it's a tradi- tional, natural method. It takes a lot longer, but the flavor is so superior when you do it that way." Charlie's Sausage retails for $4.99 for a 12- ounce package. While distribution is cur- rently distributed regionally, it's now produced under U.S. Department of Agricul- ture inspection, so it's available for sale out- side Louisiana. A portion of the profits from the sale of the product goes to conservation of the Gulf South longleaf pine forests, which are threatened by development. In partnership with organizations like the Lon- gleaf Alliance, preservation of the native lon- gleaf pine forests will save a vanishing ecosystem that now occupies less than 3 per- cent of its historical range and that provides important wildlife habitat for a variety of species, including game birds, deer and fox squirrels, according to Munford. "We're just trying to keep the boar under control and make a really delicious product," he says. "It's all been driven by our customers, and they're the reason for it." For more information about wholesale availability, contact Via Fortier at 855.601.2RUN or via@tworunfarm.com. GN bY lorriE bAumAnn Montana Grassland Mixes offers a line of salad dressing and baking mixes based on authentic recipes from hunting camps and home kitchens of Montana. The product line in- cludes Garden Gate, a salad dressing and dip mix that was Founder and co- Owner Patsy Ti- hista's first creation for the commercial market; Stone Trap- per Frybread Mix; Justice Coulee Biscuit Mix; Porcupine Creek Pancake Mix and Prairie Walker Sweet Bannock Bread Mix and Prairie Walker Savory Bannock Bread Mix. Each of these products represents a lifestyle: "When you cook at home in the country," Tihista says. "These things are just the way we cook here.... They're all ex- tremely easy. The fry bread takes a cup of water. The ban- nock takes a cup of milk, and the others are easy too." She started her product line six years ago at home in her kitchen with a salad dressing that comes from a mix of herbs and spices that she originally just whipped up in a jar with some mayonnaise. Her friends and neighbors loved it, so she started mixing up the dry ingredients and dosing them out into plastic bags that she'd sell at the local farmers market. When she started branching out, she asked her Montana family for recipes. Her dad brought the recipe for the bannock bread back from a hunting trip. "They just put that in a frying pan and backed that up to the campfire, and that's how they had bread at the hunting camp," Tihista says. Once she had the recipe in her hands, she developed variations for sweet, which has cinnamon in it, and savory, which of- fers garlic and herbs. Her business has grown out of her home kitchen, but every batch of her mixes is still made by hand by Tihista herself. Her Stone Trapper Fry- bread Mix is her best seller. "If we go to shows and cook the fry bread, which we do, we just sell a whole lot of that," she says. The frybread, a traditional favorite across the West, can be cooked in a deep fryer, but a deep skillet with enough high smoke- point oil in it to cover the bread dough will work just as well, according to Tihista. "You run that up there pretty hot," she notes. The bannock bread dough is tradition- ally cooked in a cast iron skillet over the campfire or in the oven, but it'll also cook on a sheet of aluminum foil laid over the barbecue grill, she says. "If you come home at 5:30 and want hot bread at 6:00 for supper, you can have it, because it just takes 20 minutes," she says. "They're not as easy as grabbing a loaf of bread off the shelf, but they're close – and you have hot bread." For more information, call 406.785.2321 or visit www.montanagrasslandmixes.com. Gift-boxed assortments are available. GN

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