Two couples share one dream
Novice farmers, St. Albert eatery create a pasture-to-plate program
It took a tough battle with lymphoma to show Jen and Brian Mendieta a different path. Happily, the path led to their new farm, 12 Acres, which has begun an ambitious pasture-to-plate program with a freshly branded restaurant of the same name, recently launched in St. Albert out of the old River House Grill.
Brian, 33, was raised a city boy in St. Albert. His only experience with rural living was after high school, when he worked on a pig farm. He fell in love with agricultural life, but it seemed a distant dream. When he was diagnosed with cancer four years ago, he and Jen and their baby Elianna were living in Calgary, where Brian worked 70 to 80 hours a week as a finance manager.
The cancer scared them, badly, and after Brian recovered, the couple began to think about living the life they wanted.
“We wanted no regrets,” says Brian. “And I had always wanted to be a farmer.”
A prudent pair, they did their research. They found a small farm that needed help and worked on it for five months. Brian also visited numerous organic farms across the west. The experience convinced the Mendietas they could make a go of farming life, and in 2014, they bought what’s now called 12 Acres. Their property (originally called City Life Farms) centres around a small plot near Westlock with a house and garden, and plenty of free-range space for chickens, pigs and lambs. They also have another quarter section where they keep 60 cattle, raised without hormones or antibiotics. The farm is not certified organic, but the meat and produce are raised using organic methods.
Even as the Mendietas were charting a new course, Nathan Henry, a chef, and his wife, Courtney Bowlen-Henry, were also looking to make a change. With the help of Courtney’s family (her dad, Bill Bowlen, owns Pacific Wine and Spirits), they purchased the River House Grill in St. Albert in 2012, and were keen to turn it into something they could be proud of. Great believers in organic food and sustainability, the couple wanted to create a restaurant in which they used every part of the animal, prepared their own sausage, worked with offcuts and served organic where possible. They also dreamed of creating a line of artisanal food products, and of developing a food truck.
“The cost of running a restaurant is really high,” says Bowlen-Henry. “For us, it was ‘how do we generate more out of one restaurant, maybe with a catering arm, a deli, a farmers market — and working with a farmer to cut out the middleman.
‘I said to Nathan, ‘we need to find a farmer.’ But how do you do that’?”
Enter Brian, who literally walked into the restaurant in December because he was interested in talking to a chef about doing an outdoor, farm-to-fork supper come summer. He and Nathan hit it off, and realized they had common goals as individuals and families.
The restaurant and farm concept of 12 Acres was born.
“Either one of us, by ourselves, could never do this,” says Courtney. “But together ... we are building with them, starting from the ground up with them.”
At his end, Brian has been busy erecting new outbuildings, including a big red barn with a butchering area and a giant freezer. The top floor of the barn is being turned into a party space, where farm suppers (or weddings and other parties) could be held. The Mendietas have also just started a booth at the St. Albert farmers market where they will sell food from the farm. In the future, there is a plan for aquaponics.
On the restaurant side, chef Henry has been making his own sausage and curing his own meats from scratch, getting recipes for fresh-baked bread down pat, and training students from Bellerose High School’s much-vaunted food studies program. (Food education is part of the mandate of the restaurant.)
The concept reminds me of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a working farm and restaurant in New York state owned by celebrity chef Dan Barber. One of the goals of that business is to educate the public about the link between good farming practices and the dining table. There are no set dishes in that restaurant, but rather a “grazing, pecking and rooting menu” that shifts according to what’s available on the farm.
Twelve Acres farm isn’t yet productive enough to entirely supply the restaurant with farm-fresh food. Chef Henry, who has cooked in restaurants from Rick’s Grill on 104th to Wildflower Grill, uses produce from the organic supplier, Peas on Earth, and conventional suppliers.
Still, sustainability is one of the goals of the 12 Acres farm and restaurant (located at 8 Mission Ave., St. Albert). Small steps are evident; vegetable scraps from the kitchen are fed to the pigs at the farm, and manure from the animals is used for compost for the garden, which is producing cucumbers and potatoes for the restaurant.
The Mendietas wanted to live a simple life post-cancer, and while farming is very difficult (they are up at 4:30 a.m. to do chores before their two children are awake), they are glad they made the change.
“We feel we won the life lottery, living here,” reflects Jen. “Some friends buy lottery tickets but I say, we’d be greedy to do that, with what we have here.”