Wow. Finally time to write. The past two weeks have been wild. I have so much to write yet I’ll try to be brief and write more often.
Two weeks ago tomorrow we put in a new menu in Ladera Ranch which is similar to opening a new restaurant all on its own. It was all going so well until the third day when the blackout hit on a Thursday afternoon. We lost a day’s business in all three restaurants, a fair amount of food lost as well, and then a power surge fried our point of sale system and other equipment in Ladera. The next night, Friday, we got slammed on our third night with the new menu and unstable computers that went down in the middle of a huge early rush. It was rough to say the least. I apologize to our guests – we did the best we could. The staff held it together like pros. I was impressed with all of our staff. On top of it all we are asking more of our staff and knew not everyone would make it through. Sure enough two of our cooks decided they weren’t going to play our new game so we sent them out the door. A couple servers didn’t make it either. It is all part of the process. We are kicking ass and taking no prisoners. The garden has led to the new chef who led to new managers, new training levels, new demands and a totally committed staff that gets what we are doing. We are going for it. The workload is heavy but worth every effort. The equipment in Ladera hasn’t fully recovered but hopefully tomorrow the audio visual system will be repaired and back to full speed. We also managed to get several new items and a reprinted menu into San Clemente as well. New breakfast program comes to Irons next week. Like I said we are kicking ass. Chef worked himself into the bed last week with a nasty fever from overworking.
The pumpkins are getting huge for October harvest! |
Tonight I was in the garden until dark on a warm night swarming with mosquitoes. Fortunately few bad pests have found the garden. I knock on wood as I write that line. I haven’t had to use Spinosad the organically approved pesticide. I do use John and Bob’s Soil Optimizer and Dr Earth’s Organic Vegetable fertilizer to improve the soil and apparently they are working wonders. Maybe I should start eating the fertilizer to keep the bugs away from myself.
I haven’t written of the fruit trees and I am excited about them. The avocados are going to have a heck of a bountiful crop and so are the grapefruit, oranges, and lemons. I’ll be planting many more trees soon but they are a long term investment for sure.
Last week to keep my sanity I powered through a couple books late at night. The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball is a great story about a hooker who farms fungus on her body. Oh wait, no that was some other late night reading. The Dirty Life is a great read about a well read and traveled Ivy League educated woman from Manhattan who falls for an esoteric farmer and moves to the country to start an authentic, horse-powered organic farm. She learned more than just about farming with spectacular life lessons. We are not farming anywhere near the scale she is but the parallels are there. Why is there always dirt around? How come farm property always looks a bit of a beautiful mess? It needs to and can’t help it.
I can relate to the author’s feelings of angst over her friends and family not understanding what the hell she is doing and their wondering when she is going to snap out of it and return to the city. In my case it would be a return to the beach. It will be a long time if ever before I move back to a city – even San Clemente is too crowded for living for us now. No offense meant at all it is just having a taste of this life as we have is something I couldn’t understand until I experienced it for a length of time. It grows within you. A great plan B would be a farm near the beach somewhere far north or far, far south.
We are not going anywhere soon though. We love Rancho Carrillo and our crazed, wonderful neighbors. This weekend was our 32nd Annual Hooligan fundraiser for our volunteer fire department. For the residents it is a long weekend that we all love but it wears us out.
Green Bell Pepper |
Watermelon!! |
There are many others who deserve to be mentioned as well but I really need to get to bed. The next day we all cleaned up the center and by 3:00 you wouldn’t know the Hooligan had hundreds of guests the day before. Amazing community. I love it and the people grow on me more every year. I went home and gardened until dark. Jacuzzi with the family and off to bed. Goodnight.
I applaud you Dave for putting up with the pests, I too have a small backyard garden and although I am not in harms way when I exit my home to harvest, I understand the perils of critter attacks on the garden. Keep up the good work, we love the freshies int eh restaurants, especially those sweet little balls of candy you call tomatoes.
ReplyDeleteThey are perfect for Ala minute sauces, especially over the Opakapaka
Hi Dave...Allison told me about your blog last night. It is fun to read about your adventures with farming. I love all the new vegetarian options on the menu and can't wait to try the Soul Patty...I am super excited that it is both soy and GFree. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteGretchen
P.S. How exciting that Pollo did so well!