I’m a very big fan of food — especially really good food.
Being from the Northwest, we’re kind of spoiled by the amount of local options we have. Unfortunately not a lot of people take advantage of this.
The reason people support huge corporations over local growers is marketing.
We buy from those we trust.
Commercials for Applebees, McDonalds, Jack in the Box, and Totino’s Pizza are on television all the time. These brands become so familiar that we begin to feel a connection to the products and start to support them.
It works exactly the same way with music as it does with food. With music we hear an artist sing a catchy song on the radio and watch their videos featured on popular blogs. The music and the artist become familiar and we start to sing a long when we hear their music played.
The moral of the story… we are all brainwashed.
But we don’t have to be. Because of our location, it is possible for us to actually have a relationship with the growers and ranchers who provide us the food that we eat.
My friend from High School, Nate Rafn, realized this several years ago and began a television show, Living Culture, showcasing agriculture in the Willamette Valley. The show is broadcasted on public television throughout the region.
He also hosts a monthly supper club, with his wife Rochelle. Each month they select a different grower from the area to highlight. They were nice enough to invite my wife and I to the dinner, now hosted at his home in West Salem, last month — the food was amazing.
With each dish he uses an ingredient, or ingredients, provided by the highlight grower. For example our main course was Chicken Cannelloni prepared with chicken from McK Ranch, and a cream sauce made with a McK Ranch White Wine.
The club is private, but they do send out invitations every month. If you are interested in attending an event you can visit them at www.livingcultureonline.com.
How did the idea for the supper club get started?
We started in 2006, when I lived in South Salem. Really, the whole idea was just to get people in our community to come to a good dinner event and share some good food together. We wanted to kind of make connections between consumers and farmers. It’s also good practice for me, because someday we want to open a restaurant. This is a good way for me to practice and build up that goal, and also build up our reputation and relationships with people in the community
How far away would you say you are from opening up your own restaurant?
That’s tough to answer. I think that’s something that’s several years down the line. But we’re getting close. It’s definitely something we want to do in the near future. But for now we are totally content with just having the dinner parties. And just kind of practice for the day we can open up a restaurant.
What’s holding you back? Is it mostly the financial aspect of opening a business or other reasons?
I’m so wrapped up in the TV program. I feel like there’s a lot of unfinished business there. Once I feel l’m done with Living Culture and I want to move on to something else then we’ll do the restaurant. But for now I’m really happy doing Living Culture and I feel there’s still a lot of places I want to go with it that I don’t feel I’ve been able to make it to yet.
What’s coming up on the TV show?
We’ve got a segment coming up about an organic goat dairy in Dallas. They make organic goat cheese and yogurt.
And we’re working on a story right now about Think Out Loud, the radio show on OPB. We’re hoping we’ll be able to partner with them to cover some type of food related story. That’s something that’s in development right now.
So you think it would be a couple of months down the road if it happens?
It’s tough to say because we’re trying to get something scheduled and they do their radio show on pretty short notice. So we could end up shooting something next week, but we could also end up shooting something several weeks from now. We’re just not exactly sure when it’s going to go down.
That’s exciting right?
Yeah, very exciting. It’s cool because they reach a pretty broad audience so it will be a good way for us to connect their audience with us and connect our audience with their program. Its a very good, mutually beneficial collaboration.
I appreciate it Nate, anything you’d like to go over that we didn’t cover?
Naw man. Thanks Jake. Take care.