Big Sur Bakery Cookbook - Michelle Wojtowicz [7]
These days, Big Sur is a combination of elements from its past. There are still descendants of the original Native Americans and pioneers hanging around (our own Forrie is related to the Partingtons, and Wayne is part Miwok), but it also draws writers and artists, dreamers and seekers, tons of tourists, a few people on the lam, and the occasional couple looking to start a restaurant.
Photographs by Sara Remington
Photographs by Sara Remington
PROFILE: JIM/PASTURE FARMER
Photographs by Sara Remington
Are your birds free-range or pasture-raised?
Pasture-raised. Free-range doesn’t mean shit.
Explain:
“Free-range” can mean they’re raised in a warehouse, as long as they’re not in cages. “Pasture-raised” means they’re on pasture. I fence my chickens in with electric netting and move the coop every few days to give them new land.
Number of eggs produced per day:
At our highest, two hundred dozen.
Number you personally eat:
If I’m binging, I’ll eat four or six at a time. The most I ever had in a week was probably three dozen.
Favorite preparation:
Sunny side up, runny. On toast.
Describe the odor of your pigs:
When sows have piglets, they actually smell like a mixture of earth and caramel and sweetness.
Have you ever been a vegan?
I was a vegetarian for ten years. I care about how animals are treated.
Philosophy on raising animals:
I want to raise them in a way that allows them to display their natural instincts and behaviors. So my chickens can scratch in the dirt and eat bugs and grass. The pigs can run around and roll in the dust and the mud.
Most interesting previous occupations:
After-hours nightclub bouncer in Phoenix. Punk rocker in Manhattan. Ocean lifeguard in South Hampton, New York. Marine corporal, in charge of a machine gun cannon.
How’d you end up out here?
I met a girl. She’s now my wife—she’s the program director for ALBA, the organization that owns our farm’s land. She helps educate aspiring farmers.
Unusual accomplishments:
I hitchhiked 10,000 miles in Australia once. In 1986 some friends and I ran across the United States. My claim to fame, though, is that I set a course record for the Man Against Horse race in Prescott, Arizona. It’s fifty miles and you race against endurance horses. I beat all the horses. I was a bad motherfucker back then.
Farthest distance run at one time:
Eighty miles. It took nineteen hours.
What keeps you going?
I’m into coming up with new ways to do things. I like producing really good products and working outdoors. It’s funny…. First you pretend to be a farmer. Then you keep doing it. And the next thing you know, you actually are one.
Recipes
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Scones
Photographs by Sara Remington
Traditional scone and biscuit recipes often require rolling the dough into a cylinder and slicing off rounds, but those extra steps can make the pastry tough. Instead, we use a method Michelle learned when she was a pastry cook at Campanile: you start out with a shaggy dough that only takes shape when you press it into the cookie cutter. The less you handle the dough the better, so we cut in the butter with a pastry cutter and mix in the buttermilk and fruit by hand. You can avoid another common problem—fruit that breaks up and stains your dough—by starting with fresh fruit but freezing it for a couple hours just before mixing.
As for flavor combinations, the possibilities depend on what’s in season. In the summer, we cut up nectarines, plums, peaches, and strawberries; in winter, we rely on dried fruit and candied ginger. Whatever fruits you pick, make sure to give your scones ample space on the cookie sheet, because they’ll spread until they’ve almost