Eric Skokan - Chef and Owner of The Black Cat

On Tuesday we were fortunate to be joined by Eric Skokan, the chef and owner of The Black Cat farm-to-table restaurant in Boulder. Eric grew up on a farm in Virginia, has been a professional chef for more than 20 years, and just in the last three years started his latest, and most personal venture.

Eric's philosophy is to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible. Food scraps go to the chickens and pigs, and because he grows most of what is served at the restaurant, packaging is drastically reduced, as well. For the few items he can't grow himself, Eric tries to source GMO-free, local, and organic products, with his goal for the restaurant being to someday be 100% GMO-free.

Eric grows hundreds of varieties of vegetables, fruits and herbs, as well as several breeds of chickens, turkeys, pigs and sheep. He says that depending on the farm to supply the restaurant has been a wonderful creative challenge, and as such, he has found ingenius ways to use what is in season all year round (even in the winter!) while still keeping the menu fresh and unique.

Check out his seasonal creations at The Black Cat.

Photo courtesy of http://www.jamesbeard.org/

--Christie Wood

Christie Wood
Culinary Assistant

Blake Hurst - The Voice of the Farmer

Last week we hosted our third Food Revolution speaker, Blake Hurst. Blake is a third generation farmer from Missouri. He raises corn, soybeans and bedding plants for commercial sale using conventional methods.

Blake provided a lot of great counterarguments to the other views we've heard so far this month. He believes that GMOs are advancing the possibilities of farming, making crops hardier, increasing yields, decreasing the risks of disease or blight and overall improving the possibilities of various crops, without causing any significant risks to consumers. He also believes that the selective use of chemical herbicides is actually beneficial to the earth, because they allow farmers to use no-till farming methods, where, instead of having to plow weeds under, thereby loosening the soil and allowing more soil erosion, they can instead just spray to control weeds, and prevent as much soil and chemicals from running off into rivers and ultimately oceans. In response to the argument that organic crops have as high yields as conventional crops, Blake explained that in many cases, organic farming requires more crop rotation and field resting in between plantings than does conventional farming, which can sustain the same crop in the same field year after year. Therefore, an organic corn field may produce the same yield in year one, but only be plantable every three years, whereas a conventional corn field produces that same yield every year, so on year-over-year basis, the yield is considerably greater from the convetional farm.

Blake continues to work to make the voice of the farmer heard, and to defend many of the views and practices that have come under fire in recent years. He is the president of the Missouri Farm Bureau Federation and, when he's not busy on his farm, does as many speaking and contributing engagements as he can.

You can read more of Blake's views in his essay, "The Omnivore's Delusion."

Photo courtesy of http://www.mofb.com/

--Christie Wood

Christie Wood
Culinary Assistant