Homestead Natural Food’s “beeves” are free of the antibiotics, hormones, and herbicide or pesticide residues associated with grain. What they have is a higher concentration of omega-3 fats, more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA is credited with cancer fighting properties), more beta-carotene, more vitamin E, and less total fat and calories than conventional beef. Grass-fed beef, like wild salmon, also tastes better than its factory farm alternative.

“Our steers look like they came right off the feed lot, with good marbling in the fat,” sixth-generation Idaho rancher Ed Wilsey points out, “but the fat tastes more like a fine olive oil, and the meat has an excellent flavor and tenderness.”

Homestead Natural Food’s approach to a more sustainable and healthy food supply is to begin with the soil itself. “We’re all of us grass farmers first, and beef is the by-product,” says Wilsey. “My granddad always said, “take care of the land and it will take care of you. We’ve cut our soil erosion down to practically nothing – the cows don’t take anything out that they don’t put back in.”

In this Local Food, Local Voices podcast episode, we’ll meet the ranchers and farmers who have joined together to create Homestead Natural Foods, and we’ll learn the reasons they’ve turned they’re back on the commercial beef industry to return to pasture-raised livestock.

To read our Behind the Menu Profile on Homestead Natural Foods, click here.

Twenty-five miles south of Marsing, on the way to the Jordan Valley, Ed and his wife Debby run several hundred “mother cows” on 11,000 acres – much of which has been turned into grass pasture.  As sixth-generation cattle ranchers, they carry on a long tradition, with one important exception – the Wilseys have gone back to raising cattle the way Ed’s granddad did: exclusively grass fed, with no hormones or antibiotics.

Ed Wilsey remembers the day that his granddad’s way of ranching seemingly changed forever.  “We’d been raising cattle on grass since we first started ranching, but one day some buyers came out to where me and my granddaddy were shipping two and three year-old steers off to market and said, ‘boys, you don’t have to do this anymore.  We can take ‘em out to feedlots and finish ‘em on corn.’”

Twenty-five miles south of Marsing, on the way to the Jordan Valley, Ed and his wife Debby run several hundred “mother cows” on 11,000 acres – much of which has been turned into grass pasture.  As sixth-generation cattle ranchers, they carry on a long tradition, with one important exception – the Wilseys have gone back to raising cattle the way Ed’s granddad did: exclusively grass fed, with no hormones or antibiotics.

Far from being a radical, Wilsey views himself as a “traditionalist”.  After all, he represents only the second generation of ranchers in his family to have been lured away from raising grass-fed beef.  “Back in granddad’s day, they’d sell big three year-old steers straight off the grass for slaughter.  When the industry went to grain feedlots, we were pretty much forced into going along to remain competitive.  We eventually even had to switch to the kind of cows that the industry wanted – ones that did better on corn and grain.”

If you are what you eat, Ed notes, the same is true for cattle.  “You don’t just get the cow, you get what they ate – including the omega-6 fats that come with a grain fed diet.  These are the kinds of fats that are more closely linked with obesity, diabetes, cancer, and immune system disorders such as arthritis and asthma.”

Economic imperatives notwithstanding, the nutritional implications of the feedlot industry troubled the Wilseys.  As a growing number of American consumers were similarly troubled by the consequences of consuming red meat infused with hormones and antibiotics, Ed and Debby decided that the time had come to turn back the clock.

“We got started in the natural grass-fed beef business five years ago”, says Ed.  “We didn’t know much about it, but we come from a background of people who were self-sufficient in everything, and we’re trying to get back to cattle that finish good on grass – back to real beef.”

If you are what you eat, Ed notes, the same is true for cattle.  “You don’t just get the cow, you get what they ate – including the omega-6 fats that come with a grain fed diet.  These are the kinds of fats that are more closely linked with obesity, diabetes, cancer, and immune system disorders such as arthritis and asthma.”

The Wilseys were not the only ranching family who came to the same conclusion about the health consequences of factory feedlots.  During the summer of 2009, they were joined by other grass-fed beef operations, including Bill and Carol Gate’s Mesquite Cattle Company in Middleton, Idaho, Keith and Sharon Huettig’s K-Bar-H Ranch in Jerome, and Mike and Joanie Fluit of Fluit Family Farms in Joseph, Oregon to form Homestead Natural Foods.  Also joining the group was organic poultry farmer Dennis Mason of New Generation Ranch.  Their collective efforts currently serve a number of highly regarded Treasure Valley restaurants that include the Red Feather Lounge, Bittercreek Alehouse, Café d’Paris, and the Cottonwood Grille.

“People appreciate that wild salmon raised on a natural diet taste better than farm salmon, which is raised on a diet of soybeans and corn, but it’s better for you as well,” says Bill Gale.  “It’s the same difference between grass-fed and CAFO beef, which are raised on the feed equivalent of soft drinks and candy bars.  If they weren’t slaughtered when they were, they’d probably die of a heart attack within a few months.”

Today, only one percent of cattle are raised organically – the other 99 percent start off on open ranges, but are transferred to “concentrated animal feeding operations” (CAFOs) to be fattened up as quickly as possible.  Because of the crowded conditions of feedlots, CAFOs typically add antibiotics to their feeds to prevent the spread of infection, and they also add growth hormones.

“People appreciate that wild salmon raised on a natural diet taste better than farm salmon, which is raised on a diet of soybeans and corn, but it’s better for you as well,” says Bill Gale.  “It’s the same difference between grass-fed and CAFO beef, which are raised on the feed equivalent of soft drinks and candy bars.  If they weren’t slaughtered when they were, they’d probably die of a heart attack within a few months.”

By contrast, Homestead Natural Food’s “beeves” are free of the antibiotics, hormones, and herbicide or pesticide residues associated with grain.  What they have is a higher concentration of omega-3 fats, more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA is credited with cancer fighting properties), more beta-carotene, more vitamin E, and less total fat and calories than conventional beef.  Grass-fed beef, like wild salmon, also tastes better than its factory farm alternative.  “Our steers look like they came right off the feed lot, with good marbling in the fat,” Ed points out, “but the fat tastes more like a fine olive oil, and the meat has an excellent flavor and tenderness.”

Ultimately, the not-so-free lunch of corporate farming practices rests on heavily subsidized corn – a fact that rankles organic farming advocates in a political climate that constantly lauds the virtues of the “free market”.  In the past decade, the Federal Government has pumped more than $50 billion into the corn industry to keep prices artificially low.

American agriculture has produced unlimited quantities of meat and grains at incredibly cheap prices.  Today, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), we spend less than 10 percent of our incomes on food, compared with 18 percent in 1966.  But the hidden costs of this miracle of productivity are paid for by our environment, the animals raised…and ultimately by those of us who consume them.

In the words of a senior scientist with the Food and Environment Program of the Union of Concerned Scientists, Doug Gurian-Sherman, “the way we farm now is destructive of the soil, the environment, and us.”  Homestead’s Dennis Mason, a former government food inspector, agrees with this assessment.  “Corporate farming isn’t sustainable anymore.  It’s utilizing a tremendous amount of natural resource to produce what they’re presenting to the public, and too much of what is being produced isn’t good for us.”

Ultimately, the not-so-free lunch of corporate farming practices rests on heavily subsidized corn – a fact that rankles organic farming advocates in a political climate that constantly lauds the virtues of the “free market”.  In the past decade, the Federal Government has pumped more than $50 billion into the corn industry to keep prices artificially low.  Notes Gurian-Sherman, “taxpayer subsidies basically underwrite cheap grain, and that’s what the factory farming system for meat is entirely dependent on.”

Homestead Natural Food’s approach to a more sustainable and healthy food supply is to begin with the soil itself.  “We’re all of us grass farmers first, and beef is the by-product,” says Ed Wilsey.  “My granddad always said, “take care of the land and it will take care of you.  We’ve cut our soil erosion down to practically nothing – the cows don’t take anything out that they don’t put back in.”

To raise livestock that thrive on natural pasture, the farmers of Homestead Natural Foods are also going back to genetic stocks in cattle and poultry that are to livestock as “heirloom seeds” are to organic produce.

Bill Gale, who got out of dairy farming just before consolidation and other market forces made small operations like his all but impossible, agrees wholeheartedly with Ed.  “We want to build our soil through natural manure and worm action.  Healthier soil means healthier plants, which means healthier animals…and healthier food.  I can take care of a huge number of acres without the need for fossil fuels.  It’s a very green approach that can be sustained for a very long time.”

To raise livestock that thrive on natural pasture, the farmers of Homestead Natural Foods are also going back to genetic stocks in cattle and poultry that are to livestock as “heirloom seeds” are to organic produce.  “Cattle have been bred to accomplish a particular mission,” says Gale.  “That mission is to consume large amounts of grain for four to six months to hit a marketing window and make a profit.  We’re going back to genetics that produce cattle that will fatten at an earlier age on grass.”

Like his cattle ranching counterparts, Dennis Mason has also been going back to older genetic stocks.  “I use modern genetics to raise heritage poultry breeds that don’t need hormones or tons of commercial feed.  They are pre-disposed to growth, flavor, and tenderness on natural pasture.”

For the Homestead ranchers, getting closer to consumers has been an unexpected benefit of their enterprise.  “When I was in the dairy business, the closest I got to the people who consumed our products was the tanker truck,” says Bill Gale.  “We are networking now with people in the organic and sustainability movements and getting more input from consumers…and we’re having fun.  We feel more connected.”

While beef and poultry from Homestead Natural Foods costs more than factory farm products, Homestead’s founders believe that consumers will be willing, in the words of noted food author Michael Pollan, to “eat less, but eat better”.  Treasure Valley restaurateurs like Dave Krick of the Red Feather Lounge and Bittercreek Alehouse have been buying from Homestead not only because of their commitment to local organic food producers, but because they believe the superior flavor of Homestead’s products are preferred by their customers.

For the Homestead ranchers, getting closer to consumers has been an unexpected benefit of their enterprise.  “When I was in the dairy business, the closest I got to the people who consumed our products was the tanker truck,” says Bill Gale.  “We are networking now with people in the organic and sustainability movements and getting more input from consumers…and we’re having fun.  We feel more connected.”

Looking ahead, Homestead Natural Foods hopes to bring other organic and natural pasture ranchers into their fold, and to expand their reach beyond Southwest Idaho, while maintaining a network of producers who remain within a short radius of the communities they serve.  Most of all, however, Homestead wants to extend its control over its products from pasture to plate – a goal that is especially dear to the heart of Dennis Mason.

“Ultimately, the way we can ensure the highest quality for the consumer, both from the standpoints of healthiness and flavor, is to control the process from the time an animal is born through the growth stage, to the processing and final presentation to the consumer,” says Mason.  “When I first began my research into organic foods, I realized this isn’t ‘natural’, this is the way I grew up!”  And Mason speaks for the rest of his Homestead colleagues when he adds, “we want to leave a legacy to our kids and grandkids.  We don’t want to relinquish what we have for subdivisions – we want to keep our properties intact and produce food that the public doesn’t just want, but needs.”

The story of The Chocolat Bar is truly a love story.  After all, even if you don’t believe in romance, you sure as heck can believe in chocolate.  And as it turns out, the story of how The Chocolat Bar came to be is the story of two people who fell in love.

You don’t really need directions to The Chocolat Bar.  If you are anywhere on Bannock between 8^th and 9th, just follow your nose.  For the olfactory-challenged, you’ll find The Chocolat Bar at their new location at 805 W. Banncok – which is also where you’ll meet its owners, Chris Preston and Kristi Echols-Preston.

The story of The Chocolat Bar is truly a love story.  After all, even if you don’t believe in romance, you sure as heck can believe in chocolate.  And as it turns out, the story of how The Chocolat Bar came to be is the story of two people who fell in love (queue the theme from Love Story, dim the lights, and pass me a truffle, please).

Chris and Kristi met through the Nature Conservancy in New Mexico, where Chris was on the Board of Directors and Kristi was a biologist.  Chris recalls his wife-to-be with this anecdote: “You know how in every office there is always someone who has chocolate on his or her desk?  That was Kristi.”  Considering that Chris grew up in a non-chocolate eating family and never ate chocolate, one can only assume that there were other attributes of Kristi’s that led to a marriage proposal.

Kristi lost her job due to downsizing, and with few opportunities in New Mexico for a biologist, she did what any unemployed science major would do: she apprenticed with a chocolate shop in Santa Fe.  “They liked her so much that they let her start doing product development,” Chris recalls.  “And I started eating chocolate.”  Good move, Chris.  Kristi also trained at the Culinary Arts Institute and began teaching her husband at the place where she had apprenticed.

Kristi and Chris had been coming to Idaho for years to fly fish and vacation, and they fell in love with Boise.  In 2003, Chris made the fateful decision to leave a career in finance to open a chocolate store with his wife in the City of Trees.  “Try explaining to an 86 year-old mother that you are leaving a good job to start a business you’ve never done in a place you’ve never lived.”

The Chocolat Bar’s success flows from Chris and Kristi’s love of cooking.  Says Chris, “we both love to cook, and we feel that the best food lets its ingredients shine.  Our goal is to not do anything in the cooking process to overshadow the quality of the ingredients.

As audacious as their decision may seem, The Chocolat Bar opened its doors in January 2004 – and Boise has been the better for it.  The Chocolat Bar’s success flows from Chris and Kristi’s love of cooking.  Says Chris, “we both love to cook, and we feel that the best food lets its ingredients shine.  Our goal is to not do anything in the cooking process to overshadow the quality of the ingredients.  We use organic dried cherries and blueberries…the best ingredients from the same wholesaler who supplies Whole Foods.”  They also buy their cocoa from Guitards, a century-old chocolate maker in California.

Chris and Kristi’s culinary mission can best be described has bringing the true experience of chocolate to its grateful customers.  “Chocolate makes people happy, and when you have a high quality chocolate, you enjoy the experience even more.  We use 100 percent chocolate with high cocoa content and all the cocoa butter that should be there to create a quality experience,” says Chris.  Sadly, he notes that the opposite trend is taking place among the large commercial chocolate producers.  “The big companies are lobbying the FDA to reduce the amount of chocolate you need to put into a product to call it chocolate.”

Beyond the quality of the ingredients it uses, what makes The Chocolat Bar such a delight is the creativity of its products.  “Kristi will wake up in the middle of the night with new ideas for ingredient combinations,” says Chris.  “Rather than letting me mow down the lavender in our garden with the weed whacker, she used it to make our Lemon and Lavender white chocolate – one of our most popular creations.”

So, how has the experience of being downtown Boise’s artisan chocolate manufacturer been?  Chris just smiles.  “Boise is such a friendly city, and we really feel the community has embraced us.  We’ve become friends with many of our customers, and that’s just not something you think of happening in most businesses.  I really think this is the best city in America to start this kind of business.”

We love you guys as well!  Maybe too much.

In the case of Donya Maries Beyond Chocolate, serendipity carried the day.  It was a few weeks before Christmas and my wife and I found ourselves cruising a holiday craft fair at (where else) the Fairgrounds.  Not being craft fair aficionados, our game plan was to find the booth where my sister-in-law was displaying her “craftiness”, pay our respects, then head home for a cup of hot tea.  We like to live life on the edge.

Heading down one of the aisles, a corner booth attracted our attention.  It was manned, and “womaned”, by a smiling, attractive couple offering samples of chocolate sauces and condiments for cooking.  “A chocolate vinaigrette,” I thought, “that’s a cute novelty concept.”  Dipping a piece of bread into a sample of said novelty, my next thought was “Wow…I was NOT expecting THAT!”

The “that” that my wife and I experienced should hardly have come as a culinary epiphany.  After all, anyone who has ever had a good Mexican mole should know that chocolate has a complexity that goes far beyond satisfying our sweet tooth.  But even this realization seems to fly in the face of the conventional wisdom that chocolate is dessert, not entree.  Donya Marie Schweizer, founder and Chief Technology Officer for Donya Maries Beyond Chocolate wants to change this perception…one palate at a time.

Donya Marie is an unlikely evangelist for changing our perceptions of chocolate in the kitchen.  Growing up in the Southwest, her professional life was spent in the public service sector, initially in the court and prison systems and eventually in the State Contracting Department for Arizona.  Cooking was, at best, a necessary evil.  Finding herself the victim of state budget cuts, however, Donya began cooking out of boredom; which when you think about it beats the hell out of taking up booze and daytime soaps.

Such was Donya’s boredom that she began her foray into the world of chocolate by making her own truffles – which had the immediate effect of causing friends and family to secretly hope that she would not find meaningful employment any time soon.  It also occurred to Donya that making truffles could, in fact, be her new occupation.  Chocolate in hand, she showed up for her very first public market.  “At the end of the day I had only made $63, and I was convinced my husband and I would be hungry and homeless.  I was so depressed.”  I suspect that at some point Mrs. Fields felt like chucking her cookie batter as well and going into real estate.  And thank God Paul McCartney’s parents never convinced him to become an accountant.

Undaunted, Donya returned to the test kitchen, which just happened to belong to the University of Idaho.  While laboring over her handcrafted delicacies, she couldn’t help but envy what she saw going on at the other side of the kitchen.  “People were making sauces in 150 gallon kettles, and I thought ‘I should be over there doing that’.”  Donya Marie needed no other lesson in “economies of scale”, and the idea for chocolate-based cooking sauces was born that day.

There was, however, a technology hurdle that Donya had to overcome.  Determined that her chocolate would NOT use corn syrup, she found that the cooking process required a high degree of quality control.  “In developing my original ‘decadence’ chocolate sauce, I found that anytime you have a heavy sugar content you have to carefully test for the water activity.  If it is too high, there is a risk that the sauce will mold in the jar, which is why so many people use corn syrup to improve shelf life.”  But even as Donya continued to make her truffles, her success in refining the recipes and cooking techniques for her sauces began to bring in more revenue.

Donya Maries Beyond Chocolate was officially started in 2005, but it was in 2007 that Donya introduced the product that established her culinary mission.  “My husband Jason and I love bread, and we like to dip our bread in oil, so I decided to create a dipping oil using chocolate and spices.  I was amazed at the results, but not surprised.  There is no reason that you can’t put chocolate in foods.  It is so complex that it brings out flavors that you otherwise wouldn’t taste.”  It took only a few experiments to perfect Donya Maries’ Dark Chocolate Bread Dipping Oil – and to make Jason a believer.

The success of her chocolate dipping oil and a subsequent chocolate vinaigrette was all Donya Marie needed to guide her product development efforts along the path that, as her website proudly proclaims, turns “ordinary foods into extra-ordinary using dark chocolate.”  “We’ve taken our sauce concept from sweet to savory,” says Donya Marie.  “I like spicy food, but Jason doesn’t, so I have two flavors of everything, the ‘Donya Marie’ and the ‘Jason’.  I’ve developed spicy and sweet versions of our meat rub, for example, that really enhance the flavor of a good red meat.  I like to put them on roasts or ribs.  The spicy chocolate meat rub is not hot, but it uses the same signature spice blend that goes into our other products.”

Jason was convinced that his wife had gone over the deep end when she suggested a chocolate Bloody Mary mix.  Guess again.  This year, in fact, Donya Marie will introduce her chocolate margarita mix to round out a product line of pancake mixes and syrups, dipping oils, vinaigrettes, BBQ sauces, salsas, jellies, meat rubs, and more.

“Most of what I have done is by trial and error,” Donya admits.  But I’ve realized that growing up in the Southwest really influenced my palate.  There is a tradition of using chocolate in Mexican food that influences Southwest cuisine.”  But would something that plays in Santa Fe find an audience in Sandpoint?  Donya’s experience thus far is “yes” – but not without overcoming some stereotypes about chocolate’s place in the kitchen.  “At first I was offended because people would say things like ‘chocolate in BBQ sauce – are you nuts?  But 95 percent of the people who taste our products walk away with them.  The challenge is getting people to try cooking more with chocolate, which is why I like to prepare recipes with our products and then share them with customers through our website.  And this puts me back in the test kitchen, which is my favorite place to be.”

So much for the woman who not so many years ago found Hamburger Helper a culinary challenge.

If you want to get to know Donya a bit better, add her blog to your reading list and discover why her credo is “a balanced diet is chocolate in everything.”