If a women’s place is in the kitchen, then why do men get celebrity chef status?

This age-old question, although archaic, still has some validity when you take a moment to study the statistics on which gender tends to hold more power in the culinary arena. Of course, we can acknowledge and celebrate the legions of legendary women who have risen to the top of the food world, but we should also not forget to keep asking ourselves if things are truly equal.

This holds true in beverage circles as well.  The list of iconic winemakers, distillers and brew masters heavily tilts to male.  So where are the ladies?  Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing is helping to turn the tide.  Opened in 2005 by wife and husband Emily Thomas and Chad Brill (she actually taught him how to brew), they are all organic, integral to the local community, and work to promote beer education through a myriad of events throughout the year.  The second annual Strong Women Brew Day took place on a rainy weekend during SF Beer Week, and the turnout was heartening despite the downpour.  Strong women gathered to learn about, taste and craft the next batch of the brewery’s Belgian Wit. In between hauling canfuls of mash, forklift trips and temperature checks, owner and brewer Emily Thomas ducked inside to talk with me about women and beer.

So tell me more about the Wit.

We took a Classic Belgium style wit, which is a lighter style beer typically made with oranges and coriander, it’s got a specific yeast profile that has some cloves and vanilla.  Both Nicole (brewer & manager) and I are very novice herbologists and so we like the idea of getting some healthy properties while we’re drinking.  It’s more about putting some good stuff into the beer that we’re brewing.  So we brew our beer with St. Johns Wart and lemon balm as well as the orange peel and the coriander.  That’s why it’s called the Feel Good Wit.  We got in trouble with the witches because we were calling it the Witches Wit, based on this idea that witches were just female brewers. It came out in the newspaper and then we started getting these messages on our machine from women who were part of the Santa Cruz Mountain Witches and they didn’t want to be associated with that at all, so we decided to change the name.

Why do you think there aren’t more female brewers?

I think in general beer has always been perceived to be a man’s drink and that just led to men being brewers and getting interested in it. Even with homebrewing, it seems like men really picked it up a lot more, which is strange because originally it was mainly women who brewed, but over time it definitely shifted. I think with beer popularity growing with women, it’s starting to open a lot of doors in homebrewing and brewing in general, but it’s still dominated by men and that can be really intimidating for women to even get their foot in the door.

Are there any female brewers, beside you, working at successful breweries?

Yes. There is a society of women brewers called the Pink Boots Society and I’ve been to a few of their meetings. And there is a brewery started by a women and her husband about 30 years ago called Sprecher up in Wisconsin.  There are also several women in California; North Coast and Stone have some women brewers.

Historically, did women play a role in beer?

Yeah.  One of our customers just gave me this book called Beer in the Middle Ages and I just started reading it.  It is one of the first real concrete pieces of literature that talks about women as brewers.  There is a lot of speculation about how the term “witch” came to become associated with brewing techniques, and all the symbols that were actually part of brewing like the broom and the cats and the kettle and the cauldrons…traditionally they would stick a broom outside their door so people would know this is where you get beer.  Especially in the Middle Ages, women’s work was definitely separate from men’s work, which was building and hunting.  Women would produce food and beverages.

Why do you think a “witch” became such a negative thing?

I don’t know.  I can’t wait to really get into this book, because it did become a really negative thing.  But I think in general during the Renaissance things shifted from solid ideas like this is earth and this is water, and all the spiritual stuff just took on a whole negative connotation.

What compelled you to start this annual event?

That’s a good question.  Well, Nicole and I do a lot of beer traveling and we also do a lot of brewing and we just thought, here is a unique opportunity and nobody else is doing this.  Probably the reason no one else is doing it is because there aren’t that many women brewers and here the two of us are.  We kind of just did it on a whim last year, it wasn’t really well planned, we only had a couple of people, but then people were interested in it long after.  So then it was like, oh yeah, we have to keep doing this.  It’s become this neat thing about us and our brewery.

In general, do you see a rise in women’s participation in brewing?

Yes, I think one thing, especially about this area, and I guess the across the whole country too, is that women in particular are really aware of food and what’s going into it and how it’s being produced. There’s more of a drive of knowing who’s making what I’m going to put into my mouth.  Partly because there’s a big scare about mass-produced food right now, but also because it’s just an interesting thing.  So women are definitely gravitating more towards brewing and doing it themselves, which is a whole other movement too.  Growing it yourself, making your own products, canning, preserving, cheesemaking, brewing…

Do you think it goes along with the resurgence of DIY trends?

Definitely.  That’s the driving force.  Also, beer is evolving so it’s not just fuzzy yellow Budweiser or whatever.  There are so many complex flavors and styles and adaptations, especially for people who like cooking, and that really draws them in and starts to inspire them as a culinary thing too.

My kitchen has been whittled down to about 50 square feet.  Standing room only to say the least is our new cooking protocol, making collaborative meals a thing of the past. The kitchen counter is rapidly shrinking as more and more household items get piled onto the rare space, along with the dirty dishes in our bus tub that have to get washed outside. My elbows tuck in closer when chopping and I have to set the toaster oven on the floor by the power strip that reaches the single outlet in operation. The large vintage Viking range, a mere foot away, makes for a hot and sweaty prep station if cranked up during the dinner hour, so even on these chilly autumn evenings our faces flush with any kitchen task. What has restricted our game, you might wonder? The reason is a complete house remodel, which began in June, being done solely by my carpenter boyfriend and myself…less me, more him. Do-it-yourself is an understatement here, and sometimes I’m not sure how exactly we got ourselves into this. Our daily reality of plastic tarps, red tape, cobwebs and dirty everything is actually perfectly suitable for a murderous Halloween set. I should have just put on some spooky music and invited the neighborhood kids over for a real haunted house experience, deranged lunatics included.

The next couple of months will most likely get worse before they get better. But I don’t mean to complain. I know I am fortunate to have this opportunity to eventually step up from the original 400 square foot floor plan to one about double in size. And I have electricity, and running water, and the toilet is actually indoors now. What I am here to discuss is our true commitment to eating healthy, delicious, fresh meals despite the chaos around us. Many of our peers break easily at these kinds of situations, opting for burritos and pizza every night instead of braving through cooking projects. I’m not willing to cave in that way, to sacrifice my food choices and health and finances because I am stressed and tired. After all my work and arguments for locality, quality ingredients, ethically sourced food, going to the taqueria down the road for some genetically modified tortilla chips and hormone heavy sour cream every night would make me a big hypocrite. The inconvenience of a cramped kitchen, trekking out in the dark for dish duty, and limited appliances is worth the alternative. As our farm flourished this season, the canning and pickling and jam making did as well…under ridiculous conditions. But those jars labeled Summer 09’ will have that extra elbow grease and dedication infused within, making the goods that much more deserved upon opening.

Our nightly home-cooked dinners together have also become a very important ritual for us. No matter how angry, sad, upset or frustrated this chaotic construction zone makes us, we always sit down to eat together. It is just who we are and a big part of what we both believe in. To miss a meal after a fight would be a really big deal. The hot food, created by one of us, primarily with some home grown element or other, seems to act as glue, bringing out the issue and laying it to rest as we nourish ourselves.  The following recipe got us through the tomato glut unscathed, and makes for a wonderful finale for those late harvest tomatoes you might have laying around.

Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce

4 Pounds ripe tomatoes
1 small head of garlic, chopped or crushed
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Fresh basil, rosemary, oregano, parsley, chopped (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the tomatoes in half and squeeze out the seeds into your compost. Lay the tomato halves cut-side up on a large, rimmed baking sheet. Generously drizzle with olive oil and crushed garlic. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and herbs if using. Place in the oven and cook until juices have released and thickened a bit, about 30-45 minutes. Smash roughly with a potato masher and pour directly over pasta, polenta, meat, vegetables, etc. or save for later. You can also let the sauce cool and then puree with an immersion blender or food processer for a smooth texture.

This post is part of a series called Roof Garden Rookies, which explores my attempt, as an amateur gardener, to grow a garden on the rooftop of my building in lower Manhattan.

For the past two weeks, some of the building’s residents and myself have been on the roof non-stop, getting the garden ready for its debut this weekend at our annual shareholder’s meeting. We hauled lumber, soil, plants and other materials, up 6 flights of stairs (no elevator!), to create a living space on our brand-spanking new roof. First thing was first, we needed to build the raised beds.

We chose cedar for its ability to withstand rot for longer than other woods, and because we found a deal on 1″ x 8″ planks upstate, 1/3 of the price of the cedar in the city. We had considered plastic planters, but it seemed the potential to leech chemicals was too great, and besides, they weren’t as nice looking.

A little bit of math, and I figured out how many boards we’d need. Luckily, Lowe’s made cuts for us, saving us time and a sawdust sandwich. In addition to 1″ x 1″ posts for mending the corners of the bed together, we also picked up some hardware: 1 5/8 inch stainless steel square head deck screws, which will not rust outside and go into the wood like butter!

With these boards, we built 16 ” high rectangular beds. For the bases of the beds, we were fortunate to have kept slats from our roof deck in a woodpile in the backyard. We pillaged that pile (simultaneously destroying a pigeon brothel that had formed over the year), cut the lengths we needed and connected the cedar boxes we’d made to their bases.

Our plan was to build fifteen beds, six large planters at 6 ft x 2 ft, three smaller planters at 4 ft x 2 ft, and six even smaller planters, which ended up being window boxes at 8″ x 5 ft. In order to distribute their weight on the roof (an engineer assessed our weight allowance at 60 lbs/square foot) we placed the beds in a “u” shape around the perimeter, and the window boxes would follow formation, hanging from the parapet.

Our next challenge was to prepare the main beds for soil. Essential to this process is creating drainage in the bottom of the bed so that heavy rains can easily find their way out of the planters. We started by placing screens over the widely spaced bottom slats (also notice the metal mending brackets, used to prevent bowing), and then filling the beds with drainage material: packing peanuts.

On the ground, most beds would use rocks for drainage. But since weight was an issue for our beds on the roof, Kerry Trueman, expert from Retrovore who has been helping us on all aspects of the garden, suggested using packing peanuts. And why not? they won’t be touching the soil or plant roots, so no possibility for leeching. They are 95% air, and would otherwise end up in a land fill. Sounded perfect. Only problem was, I didn’t want to buy them new.

Luckily, I reached out to my network of New York friends (Thank you Kerry, Janine, Jenni, Leah, Erin and Yann!) and was able to mobilize peanuts, mostly from their various workplaces, which I want to name check here because they do great work: Eat Well Guide, Recycle the City, and The Mill.

Following the peanuts, a quick addition of landscape barrier fabric helped to keep them from flying away (so did the addition of bamboo fencing, which serves as a great wind break), all stapled into place and ready for soil. Look out next week for my planting report, and more photos of what is growing up on the roof!