Vote for your Favs – Catch up with Grass Fed

I'm Chris Lindstrom and this is the Food About Town podcast.

Rochester.

Well, why Rochester?

Chris Lindstrom was a hoot.

He was just so much fun.

He never stopped talking.

I mean, it was great.

Here's a good idea.

Have a point.

It makes it so much more interesting.

For the listener and we don't need any characters around to give the joint atmosphere.

Is that clear?

We can, because I'm a pro.

That's what pros do.

I'm a professional.

Look it up in the book.

But now, yeah, I'm thinking I'm back.

And we are back with another episode of the Food About Town podcast.

And we're coming up on holiday season.

So you are all going to be getting pretty consistent episodes all the way through December.

Some talking about events, some talking about some places I've already visited.

A lot of them are revisits, which is kind of cool.

Including today.

And I have a guest.

Guest.

Why don't you introduce yourself?

My name is Rob Knipe and I own grass fed vegan butcher shop on Monroe Avenue.

So Rob, tell people where they can find things online so they can go check it out.

And so you're on Monroe and you're closer to Culver.

Yep.

We're in the upper Monroe neighborhood.

So we're between Culver and 490, like right across the street from Park Av Pets, if you're familiar with that area.

You've probably seen the big yellow mural on the side of that building.

Yeah, yeah.

And then online, we're grassfedrochester.com and of course you can find us on all the socials as well.

Yeah, absolutely.

So you reach out to me because you are currently in a voting, you know, voting crush.

Right at the end, everybody go.

Vote early, vote often or vote late often.

In this case, yes, as many times as you can.

But why don't you tell me about that and then I'm excited to catch up about other things and holiday stuff.

But tell me about, tell them about their finger in the middle of.

Yeah, yeah.

So we were up for best vegan Deli with, I think there are 12 other people in that category, a lot of them in a lot bigger cities, a lot of New York, a lot of California.

So it was very exciting to be included in that.

And we're just trying to push to see what we could do and hopefully help put Rochester on the vegan Deli map, I guess.

Yeah, well, and that's also one of those things where if people aren't familiar with, I would say, the publication side of the community, they are one of the notable online platforms that platforms these kind of discussions and reviews and like, oh, if you go to this city, you can go.

You know, this is a city that has lots of options for you kind of things that also, like, hey, products are coming out or other things.

It's the kind of site that's really covering this side of things.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And they do actually still, because I know we.

We get it at our house.

They do have a physical magazine as well that's every month.

So.

Yeah, yeah, there was pretty exciting and really just an honor to kind of be included in that.

Voting is until November 30th, I believe.

Midnight is when that closes.

And so we're just trying to do a big push to get as many votes in as we can.

Luckily, we just had our Thanksgiving pickups for pre orders, so everyone that came in, we let them know and we're like, hey, can you vote for us?

And they're like, yeah.

And we're like, cool.

So we are recording on the 25th.

This will be coming out on the 26th tomorrow.

Just so you get a little bit of Runway on that.

Yeah.

And it's, you know, I think we talk about this with.

With Best of in Citi for Rochester in Citi magazine for Rochester specifically.

And it's something that, you know, I'm pretty transparent about.

It's like, hey, it is a popularity contest, right?

Hey, if you can drive more votes, either organically or by bringing your friends, or, hey, you have the most reach.

That is functionally what all of these things are.

But the caveat I put on there is, you know what?

It's really nice for people to give some love to the places that they love.

And that little action of I'm thinking about you, and if it turns into a result, that's great.

But the fact that people take that time to vote for something that they care about.

For example, on the podcast network, like Bossy Art, Bossy podcast from Kelly Metris and Kelly Bush, you know, Kelly Mattress from Selena's and Kelly Bush from Union Street Tavern and Marshall street, all places with good vegan options, by the way, if you're listening to this, that is true.

Like, they're up for best podcast this year.

Well, we're all behind them, right?

We want them to win.

We have our, you know, photographers that are part of that, like Richard Colon And Kwajay and best artist Magnus and multiple things.

Otherwise, supporting the things you like is a worthwhile activity in of itself.

So if you like Grass Fed, go.

Vote on VegNews.com well, and to kind of almost echo what you're saying, I think one of the things is it's very easy owning a business or doing a project or having a podcast network.

Right.

It's very easy to get lost in the little details, the everyday things that have to get done in order to make sure that you have everything that you need.

And this is something that's kind of separate from that.

Again, like you're saying, is something where we have people that like us and like what we're doing and, you know, maybe they come in every month or so and grab stuff, but, you know, we've all done this, right.

You go someplace and you love it there and you think it's amazing and you continue to frequent the place, but, you know, do often stop and say, hey, I just want you to know I really appreciate what you're doing and this is great.

So this is, again, it's a very nice thing to see that we're in this.

Yeah.

And, yeah, we just hope that we can get those people to do these nice things for us.

And by that I mean fill out the thing and just put us in.

I will also say it does have spaces for write ins in many of the categories.

So, you know, best vegan pizza, they don't have like squachos on there, but, you know, maybe we could write that in and, you know, get them on there.

You know, so it's a nice thing to kind of help put Rochester out there more.

Yeah.

And I will say that, you know, the know that side of the community here in town is pretty vocal, is pretty active.

So the hope is that, hey, you know, if you're saying you're supporting these places, it's great to actually then go do it.

Yeah.

And not just.

Not just talk about it.

And I think that's, you know, my favorite thing about anything is show up in person.

If people ask to be supported.

I'm stealing this from, you know, another great podcast judge, John Hodgman, where somebody says, like, hey, if people are asking you to support them, support them in the way they are asking to be supported.

Right.

Yeah.

Because your thoughts like, oh, this is what's gonna make them the most supported.

Like, no, no, they're telling you how they want you to support them.

Go do it that way.

Yes.

The reviews, I understand, are very important for podcasts that's how people find more podcasts.

Yeah, it is one of, and again, it's one of those things that takes like maybe, I don't know, maybe five seconds to do, like to just kind of go, this is a little longer of a process and that I think there are four pages, I don't know how many categories, but you know, it's again, not.

Is it going to take you a half hour?

No.

No.

So, so we got that.

Go to Veg News.

Vote for your favorite vegan places.

If you don't see something, you know, vote, you know, write in something in town, whether it be, you know, your favorite restaurants or places that have great options, you know, do that.

It's a great thing to do.

Let's catch up about holiday stuff.

Yeah.

Because you just said you finished Thanksgiving pickup, which is like of the days of the year.

That has to be your drive up to.

That has to be one of the busiest times of year is drive up to Thanksgiving.

Yeah, yeah, it is our busiest time, hands down.

I think before the, like second year of doing was the first day that we were open was the biggest amount of business that we had had.

And then now Thanksgiving, hands down is, you know, going over that because that's.

Where people are buying for all intents and purposes, you know, and this is where we're, we're going to use like the generic terms.

This is like your, your roast style thing is like that's the big centerpiece that people are going to buy and a place that's actually making something specifically for that, that's a huge value for them.

Yeah.

And it's, it's funny because it's a lot of times it's the family that has the vegan member in it.

And so they're, they're like, I want to make sure I have something for that person, you know, my daughter, my son in law, my, you know, whoever it is.

And it's a, it's, it's a lovely thing to make sure that everyone's welcome at a table.

So it's a wonderful kind of thing to be a part of.

And it stresses me out because I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't want to ruin anyone's Thanksgiving.

So there's like a week leading up and I'm like, okay, let's recount how many roasts that we have to make sure I got the right amount.

And then I don't sleep.

And then we hand them all out over.

Two period, two day period.

And now I'm ready To collapse.

So that's gonna say, how many pallets of wheat gluten do we have?

It just has to be that influx of all that stuff just has to be.

It's like an invasion plan.

Yeah.

To work through how to do that.

And then you also have to do it in another three, you know, two weeks.

Yeah.

You have to do the Christmas prep, too.

Yes, there is that.

Which.

Yes.

I'm in denial about that right now.

But the.

Yeah.

We start in August getting everything ready.

So for these.

For this month and a half.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's.

You know, we start, like, we do a stuffed roast and we do an unstuffed roast.

So in August, we're starting to put together all the stuffing and forming it and then freezing it.

Because the first year I did it, it was only me and did not figure out that I could shape and freeze my stuffing.

So I was just piling it in, and then it just.

Like.

It was a nightmare.

I was just like, now it's wet, and now the dough won't stick to itself.

Well, it's like you learned nothing from the movie Chef when you're talking about chocolate molten lav cakes.

Like, no, they're putting frozen ganache in the middle.

They're not injecting liquid stuff into the center.

They're using frozen pucks of ganache that melt when the thing seated.

Yep.

But that's.

Those are the kind of things that you might not think about until you've caused yourself that kind of pain.

Yeah, no, absolutely.

And I.

It's also something where, like, if I was making one for myself, like, that's not.

Like, it's okay.

Like, it would be annoying, but I'd make it work.

It's when you're doing, like, 80, and you're like, I'm trapped.

This is awful.

I'm in quicksand.

I can't get out.

But I think that's also systems, too.

And that's the thing.

Like, now you're up to how many years Grassfed's been open.

So we've been in the physical location now for four and a half.

Okay.

And I remember when you started over at the Hungerford, you know, God rest the Hungerford building.

Not, you know, not the other side of it.

But the, you know, that process, like, that has to be something that, you know, after that, you know, after you go through that rush a couple times, you really start to work through what does this process look like?

So we can be as sane as we can be after doing this effort.

And it Seems like that's the thing you've really worked on.

Like, hey, the flavors might not be that different, but the process is the thing that makes it so you can survive it more, you know, more complete.

Oh, absolutely.

And also, like, I think having a staff now really just, like, when it's one person doing it, like, it takes as long as it takes, where when you have, like, a group of, like, three or four people working on it, like, it makes everything go so much smoother.

And you can be like, okay, you make the doughs, we'll wrap them.

We'll do this.

It makes the process so much simpler.

And also, I cannot say enough good things about my staff.

They're great, and they're constantly thinking, how can we make this easier for all of us?

So a lot of the things that we've changed or done differently.

So once I started forming the stuffing into the shape I wanted, I would wrap it in saran wrap, and then you'd have to let it defrost just enough that you could peel off the saran wrap.

That, of course, finds its way into it somehow in between the bread.

And then you're trying to inspect it, you're like, is that ice, or is that a piece of saran wrap?

I hope it's not saran wrap.

And we're like, we're trying to get that out.

And then somebody was like, can we just use the wax paper that we have?

And I was like, yeah, yeah, why don't we just use wax paper?

Yeah, that makes a lot more sense.

I was going to say that's going to release, or at some point, you know, you don't want to vac them, because then you might compress.

Compress the bread too much, and then your texture is going to get off.

But that's where, like, this whole thing, it's just, like, all those little steps end up mattering.

And speaking of steps.

So, like, I kind of want to talk about flavors, and then I'm sure you also have side options that people can buy as well.

Absolutely.

So, like, I assume, flavor wise, you're really going for those classic Thanksgiving flavors, your sage and rosemary and these, like, savory, aromatic.

Yeah.

Bases for these things, along with a savory base, you know, for the.

You know, for.

For the roast style.

Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, absolutely.

When I first started doing it, I was doing a mushroom fennel stuffing, and then, for whatever reason, like, two years ago, could not find fennel.

Like, I don't know what happened.

I don't know if it just was Too warm for too long or something for it to actually be in season.

And the other thing with fennel that kind of is, I don't know, sad's not the right word, but it always makes me a little, like, not anxious.

I'm not quite sure what the word is.

Like, the amount that you have to chop off, right.

Like, you lose all those stocks, then the core, you got to get out.

And so there was just a lot of processing that had to be done.

So I wasn't really sad to see them go.

I'd much rather chop celery.

Yeah, well, I think that's.

I think that's a fair point too, is like, when you're cooking, you know, if you're really thinking about it, like, you want to reduce waste as much as possible.

Right.

And that, you know, there's this.

It's not like, it's not melancholy because it's not that intense.

Right.

We're not like, we're not weeping over the lost fennel fronds, but at the same time, like, I don't know, do you want to make fennel stock and pressure cook them also?

Like.

Yeah, yeah.

No, like, you don't want that much fennel in your life, right?

Yeah.

So it is a.

It's a tough thing when you see that much waste for something where they are edible.

Like, the fronds are edible, but with that much.

Right.

It's just a lot.

Yeah, yeah, no, it's.

It's like one of those things where, like, if we're making tzatziki, right, I will often not buy dill at, like, Restaurant Depot because I don't need a two pound thing of dill.

Like 1.9 pounds of that is going to get composted.

I can't use it all.

There's not enough, not enough tzatzatziki out there that unless I was only serving gyros, like, it just doesn't make any sense.

Yeah.

And then it's like, all right, what else am I going to do?

Am I just going to infuse, like, olive oil with dill and, like, blend it?

And I'm like, what am I going to use quarts of olive oil, like, olive oil on, like, what am I going to do with this?

It's going to be really green and really cool, but what the hell am I going to use?

I mean, I guess I could make two jars of pickles.

Like, you know, I mean, like, I don't need more than two.

Like, at a certain point, you just run out of things that you're like, what do I, what do I do with this stuff?

So, yeah, I think there's some ingredients like that.

Some are easy, right?

Like, oh, you have some extra citrus.

Okay.

Make a syrup out of it.

We'll figure something else to do with it.

Right.

Cool.

Easy.

Right.

Dill.

Maybe a little bit tougher.

Like you can only have so many trays of frozen dill in your freezer and ice cube trays.

Right.

Like, you can only have so much of that.

That's true.

It's true.

Although I will say right now, now you mentioned citrus.

One of the sides that we do is a Sriracha lime cheese ball.

Oh.

So I got a big bag of limes.

I.

This was awful.

Had to use my microplane to get the skin off.

And then I juiced them and then I froze them in the portions that I needed for the recipes for that.

So going forward, if anyone needs any Sriracha Lane cheese balls, I have many, many, many recipes that I can make of it.

So I love that though.

I mean, you know, having, having a variety of different sides, especially ones that have that depending on your family, a very specific nostalgic sure thing.

And like, is that the direction you've gone with the sides where maybe you're updating some of the flavors?

Like Sriracha lime might not be the classic cheese ball, but, you know, it still lives in the world of modern gastronomy and something that could happen.

Sure, yeah, yeah.

And like, but it's also, it's funny because growing up like Thanksgiving was, all right, everything's ready, come to the table.

And then everyone's like.

And then you're like 10 minutes later, everyone's like, well, I'm pretty full.

I don't know if I'm ready for pie yet.

But my mother in law is always like, okay, we're going to start, we're going to have appetizers out when people get here.

Then we will transition to the table where we will have soup and then we will all help ourselves to the meal.

Like, she purposely tries to draw it out.

So it's a long process.

Yeah.

No, as soon as, like the first time I went, I was like, oh, this makes sense.

Like, this makes a lot of sense.

Well, it's very thoughtful from an experience kind of way.

And I think, you know, if, let's say you're an experienced host, you're an experienced host and you have your timing down, you know what's going to happen.

Obviously you're ready to deal with issues as they come up sure.

But if you're an experienced, you know, event cook, then you can think about timing a little bit more specifically.

To be honest, it probably also helps clear oven space and stove space.

Sure.

By spacing things out, not trying to have it all out at exactly the same time.

Yeah, well, particularly once you try to squeeze a vegan roast in with the turkey at the same time in the oven.

There's only so, so space in there.

So just throw it in the same pan.

There you go.

Yeah, it'll be fine.

So you mentioned the cheese balls.

What other kind of sides?

Like what are, what's your sides offering?

So let's see, what else do we offer?

We offered mushroom pate also for like the opening of the meal.

And we did a gluten free soy curl and mushroom gravy for some people that wanted something that wasn't, you know, all gluten all the time.

And then we do, we sell it out of our case, but then we also sell it as a side for the holidays.

Our bacon Mac and cheese.

Oh, yeah, Yeah.

I mean, that's.

It's something I never grew up having at Thanksgiving.

And like one of my employees was like, oh, no, we have it every year.

Like, that's a staple.

And I was like, it is?

Yeah.

Like, I just don't.

What?

No, not something we ever had.

Like, like we, like our slate was very, was very straightforward, I would say.

But I think as you matriculate south through the United States, I think it becomes more and more prevalent.

Yeah.

But I imagine a lot of places just do it because I don't know kids like Mac and cheese.

Let's just do it.

Yeah, no, definitely.

And it's funny, I just heard on some podcasts some woman was talking about how she was trying to impress her family, so she learned how to make Mac and cheese from scratch.

And she was like, I'm gonna debut it at the Thanksgiving where I meet the family.

And her boyfriend, whose family it was that they were going to visit, went and tried it at the meal and she looked at him and she saw his face and she's like, what's wrong?

And I forget.

Instead of like powdered milk, she bought sweetened, evaporated milk.

Great.

And used that.

And they were like, this is inedible.

So she's like, I don't know what he did.

He did something.

He made it disappear.

And then at Christmas she's like, this is the second time I'm gonna make it work.

And then she did it and she was like, everyone loved it.

And I was like, nice job, nice job.

But I was like, oh, I could totally see me doing something like that.

Where you're like, oh, I grabbed this and I have that.

And I have this thing that looks like the thing I need, but totally is not the thing I need.

Oh.

And trying to debut that at a big.

Is like, I think that's, you know, when you.

When you look at all the content that comes out about holiday cooking every year, a lot of it is, oh, we've got this brand new technique that is the absolute best way to cook this thing you could possibly do.

The real advice people need to know is stay in your comfort zone.

If you want to try something new, do it earlier, test it.

Don't do it day of the first time.

Unless you have that kind of.

Unless you have that kind of cooking acumen where you're like, you know what?

I know all I know, what's going to happen before it happens kind of thing.

You're in your comfort zone.

Don't.

Don't do it the first time on Thanksgiving Day.

Do it.

Do it a month ahead of time.

Test it out.

See if sweetened, powdered condensed milk is probably not the best ingredient for Mac and cheese.

Right.

Right.

Yeah.

I need you to talk to my wife after this, because anytime we invite, like, people over for dinner, she's like, I want to try this recipe.

I'm like, why are we doing this now?

Like, the people are coming over.

You have never tried this before.

She's like, I think it looks good.

And I'm like, okay.

I like that.

I don't.

I couldn't live like that.

That's not the way I do.

I work.

I do.

I love the confidence about that.

Yeah.

And the biggest thing I think about with that is really, if you've cooked enough and you're not doing a technical recipe and it's, like, not super time sensitive, you can just work it out as you're going, as long as you're not to ruin things.

Sure.

But I think that's.

That's one of those steps in.

One of those steps in cooking that is hard to.

You can't write it in a recipe is if you know what you're doing, you don't have to pay attention to this part of it.

Right, Right.

If you don't read it step by step and do everything we're telling you.

Right.

Because that's really part of a lot of recipes.

They skip certain things because they expect you to know how something reacts.

Right.

Right.

And I'm kind of Intrigued.

Like, you know, you're coming up on five years brick and mortar in the space.

Like, do you feel like you're getting to that point where you know things are going to work before you start doing them?

I don't know if I know if it's gonna work, but I feel like I have, I have better ideas as far as like, what technique will work.

Yeah.

And what, you know, maybe like how, how to mix things together.

Right.

Like that.

Like a lot of times there's an order that we have to do things.

Sometimes it's like, these are the best recipes where you're just like, here's all the wets, here's all the dries, minus the vital wheat gluten.

We blitz that together to combine.

Throw in the vital, eat gluten.

Boom, boom, boom.

You've got your dough.

Those are awesome.

And then they're ones where you're like, okay, so we put in this and then we have to blend this, but we gotta blend this long because it has like beans in it.

And we wanna break down the beans enough so it's not like flecks of bean everywhere.

And then you're putting in other stuff and then you throw in the vital wheat gluten.

But you also want to have a textural component.

So after you make the dough, then you're throwing in these other things afterwards and just blending to combine versus blending it to destroy it.

So I feel like I have a better idea of how to achieve, how to get to the end product.

As opposed to like before there was a lot of like, well, let's try this, I guess.

I don't know.

Well, I think that's the thing too is like, at some point there's only so many.

There's infinite varieties of specific flavor combinations to a point.

But at some point there's only.

There's a structure of things, right?

You have, you know, in a fully emulsified base, you have a emulsified base with mix ins.

You have, you have a textured base, you have, hey, I'm making something creamy in a side dish.

Well, there's only so many ways you're going to make it creamy, right?

Are you using silken tofu as your base?

Are you using, you know, a non butter based roux and using a milk like thing, Right?

What are.

There's only so many different ways you're going to do emulsified creamy this.

And then it's like, oh, how do we pick and choose the right thing for the right time?

Right?

Yeah, no, absolutely.

Yeah.

And the other thing I find is that it's also because I make products that are kind of supposed to mimic something that already exists.

Yeah.

As we are coming up on, like, I think it's been 10 years since I've been vegan.

I'm, like, slowly starting to forget how things used to taste.

So I'm like, I have to try to remember just because, like, I can make something that I know is going to taste good, but is it going to be the thing that you're like, oh, well, that reminds me of this other thing.

I think there's a certain freedom to that, though, after a while.

And I'll say, like, I've.

There was a place I ran across in Vermont where they just said.

They didn't even say it was mimicking something anymore.

They just said spicy slices.

And they just picked their flavor profile to make something they thought was maximally delicious.

Right.

And I understand that that's not necessarily the best way to sell something to people that want that specific experience, but there's a freedom to.

I don't remember exactly what this is.

I'm just gonna make it close and make it as delicious as I can do it.

Yeah, no, absolutely.

And I mean, like, that's one of the nice things is that, like, at a certain point in time, I was like, I wonder if I can make, like, a chili cheese dog, but where I use the chili to make the seitan dog, like, and, like, can I incorporate some vegan cheese in that?

Also, like, to make it, like, a little package that's just the flavor that you're looking for.

Or, like, I've always threatened to do this.

I have not done it yet.

But doing, like, a.

Just a dessert seitan, like, sure.

You know, like, why not?

You could.

So, you know, thinking, like, out again.

It is free.

And you're right.

You can say, okay, well, I could make another.

I could try to make a mergetz sausage or something.

Or could I make something that's like, you know, chicken cordon bleu sausage or something?

You know, like, something that, like, exists in a different form, but, like, we can kind of subvert what your expectations are for it.

I love.

I love, love, love the idea of doing that chili cheese dog flavor sausage.

So my first.

So as soon as you said it, my brain just started spinning up into, like, man, what.

What if you use this technique?

And I was thinking, like, what if it was more like boudin, so from New Orleans, which has, like, a grain in it.

Okay.

Yeah.

So, like, they're adding, like, rice in there.

And often that's like, with awful and things like that.

Yeah.

So it means there's textural contrast, which is where like you might mix in beans, but they might be whole beans.

Right.

Instead of like chopped up in the thing and like something like that where you might have those, like.

Oh, when you bite in, you're actually getting a little bit of rice or potato.

Right.

You're getting a little bit of textural contrast to mimic some of those, like, mimic some of those things, like.

Oh, yeah, that is a fun experiment to think about.

How would you do something weird as hell like that?

My favorite story with like mixing in rice with something was my mother in law was making.

She would make these like, lemony kind of Greek meatballs.

Okay.

And I think she thought she grabbed breadcrumbs, but instead she grabbed rice and mixed it in and formed it.

But when she browned them, she then covered them so they would finish cooking throughout.

And when she took it off, the rice was now poking out of all the meatballs.

It was the weirdest.

You're like, what kind of disease thing is this?

Is that COVID 19?

I don't know what that is.

What am I looking at?

So, yeah, it was always kind of funny.

It tasted great.

I was like, this is amazing.

I like it.

Yeah.

I mean, turns out that binding things with rice works really well.

It would work okay.

Yeah.

Maybe not a long grain.

Maybe you want a short grain.

I don't know, maybe one of those.

One with a little bit of extra starch in it.

Yeah, yeah.

Which also would work really well.

It would.

Yeah.

But, yeah, I love that idea.

Like, you know, going down a fun route where you don't have to, you know.

Yes.

You want to meet expectations with a lot of the base things, but that's why you got specials.

That's why you got small batches.

You can just do.

Why not?

Let's try it out.

Let's see how it goes.

Yeah.

And honestly, that's some of the.

Like I was saying before, right.

There's so much daily minutiae of stuff that you have to get done.

Like trying to carve out a spot during the week or during the day where you can just play around with stuff like that is really important just to make it so it doesn't get boring for you.

Right.

Like, there's only so many times I can make, you know, logs of turkey.

And until I'm like, I. I don't want to ever make turkey again.

Like, it's too much.

Yeah.

Only so much turkey Any person can eat.

So, you know, we're, like I said, coming up on Christmas orders as well.

When can people order up until.

For Christmas?

Pick up, as, you know, coming up into December as well.

Sure.

So as I mentioned before, I'm still in denial that that's happening.

So I haven't looked at the calendar yet, but generally I don't know what day Christmas is on.

I think it is on a Thursday.

Thursday or Friday.

Yeah.

Okay.

While you're talking, I'll take a look at the actual dates.

So it'd probably be the pickup the Sunday and Monday before, just like we did this time.

And then orders would probably be like the Wednesday before that.

Sunday will come to an end.

But I got to.

I got to sit down and look at what we did last year and see if we want to add anything.

Yeah.

So Thursday the 25th is Christmas.

So that would be pickup on Sunday the 21st and then 22nd.

So ordering would close on the 17th.

Yeah.

Which is going to be here before we know it.

Not that far away.

Crazy.

Yeah.

So if you didn't get in on Thanksgiving, you're like, oh, geez, I really wanted to make sure you go order on grass.

Fedroc.com grass fed rochester.

Grass Fed Rochester.

See, I always try to do the shortening thing.

I get it.

I get it.

Anything else going on?

So coming up on five years, how are you feeling about everything, about the whole journey so far?

Are you feeling good after four and a half?

Coming up on five years.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's been a. I mean, obviously it's a process.

It's one of those things where you go into it and you're like, I know that this is going to be hard work.

Because if you know nothing else about owning a small business, it's going to be hard work.

It's just that, you know, when you start doing it, there's like so many things that you just don't know that you don't know that you kind of find out and you're like, oh, right.

Like, I remember I was painting.

We finally signed the lease for the space and I was painting the walls, and then I, like, stopped.

I was taking a break and I went to the bathroom and I was like, we need stuff for the bathroom.

Like, I hadn't even thought about that.

I was like, right, someone's going to need to use this, then it's not just going to be me.

I was like, okay, all right.

Like, a trash can would be nice.

That'd be good.

Yeah.

Soap.

We definitely need that so, you know, like, constantly, things like that.

I feel like I'm getting to a point now where there's less of that, which is good.

I feel like, okay, maybe I maybe have a handle on it.

And then I think also one of the nice things is, as I mentioned before, I have a great staff.

They're really fantastic.

And they're very much people where I'm like, I need X, Y and Z today.

And they're like, okay.

Or they're like, don't we also need W?

And I'm like, yeah, yeah, we do.

Okay, let's reprioritize.

But it's nice when you have people that are helping you that are all kind of headed in the same direction and are able to kind of take what you've shown them and move it along and also add to it, which is nice.

Well, I can see it on your face too, right?

Like, your face kind of lights up.

Because that's one of those stages in running your own business where you can't keep up with everything as a.

As yourself, single person.

Yeah, it's not possible.

But when you get to the point where you have staff that you trust that are part of the.

Part of what's going on every day, that's such.

That's such a.

Such a valuable thing.

So you can do the other side of it, right?

You can do stuff like this.

You can go do, you know, go work on promotion.

Go work on how do we do this or a process or an efficiency or something else.

Like, having that ability is so valuable.

Yeah.

I remember I was talking to someone from like, the Small Business Development Center.

I don't remember, but I was talking to her.

I talked to her before we opened, and then I followed up with her like two years later.

And I just remember she was like, well, it sounds like you're working in the business and you should be working on the business.

And I was like, oh, yeah.

I was like, that makes a lot of sense.

So that's one of the things that I try to do because in my mind I was like, oh, wait, it's going to be really hard for a year, two years, probably, I'll be there all the time.

And then you picture it successful.

And you're like, I'm not there all the time.

And I'm like, how do I get to there?

I'm like, I'm still in the all.

Every day I'm here.

But that's, I think, really where I'm trying to work towards, for myself, just for my own sanity, for after five years, I'm like, I can't be here every day anymore, guys.

I can't do it.

Well, I think that's.

I think that's great to know that.

Right?

To know that about, oh, this is where I am.

And there's an honesty about it.

And this is something you have.

Yeah.

I've listened to a lot of like, Polygooglamo shows and he talks a lot about that.

That process of becoming that person.

Right.

Becoming the.

Becoming the owner.

Not becoming, you know, the day to day in the.

You're not in the trenches every day.

Yeah.

Anymore.

And that.

How do you, how do you demonstrate value?

How do you feel Valuable.

Sure.

If you're not running the mixer that day.

Right.

If you're not, you know, measuring the spices.

If you're not, you know, timing out the, you know, timing out the hydration time.

Right.

If you're not doing those things, what value are you providing?

And it's a big shift, mentally.

Yeah, no, totally.

And I've been listening.

I used to listen to just episodes where I was like, oh, I know that person that you talked to.

And now I'm like, oh, new ones up.

Put it in the queue.

I was like, here we go.

Because it is a lot of times it's from people that aren't in the food industry.

Right.

That I hear from.

And I'm like, oh, I feel like there's a lot in every episode that I've listened to, I feel like there's at least one moment where I'm like, huh, okay, yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

So it's a wonderful resource, I think.

And it is for me to do our podcast network.

I appreciate it.

Well, it means a lot to me too.

Right.

Like, as somebody who's doing the passion project is, you know, you never feel like you can.

Oh, I can't.

It's hard to do both.

And when you have to do both and do the day job at the same time.

Same time.

So, you know, you're always feeling like you're behind.

You always feel like you're failing, which is not a fun place to be.

Sure.

But that's why I love listening to that is like, oh, yeah, everybody has felt that way before, you know, any shifts before the rest of it.

We've all felt overwhelmed.

We've all been burned out at different times, you know, and I think we, you know, getting there, working through and hopefully learning a lesson from it.

Right, right.

Hopefully.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And sometimes I think the lesson is like, you're like, I'm I'm doing this wrong.

Like, you know, you're like, I am.

This is failing because of something that I'm doing and how do I switch it so that we can do it?

And a lot of times it's just like, well, we're not going to do that anymore.

Right.

That doesn't make any sense.

Like, why am I putting time and energy into this thing that like, is not succeeding?

It's like, there's no reason to.

There's plenty of other things I could do.

Like, we don't have to do that anymore.

There's plenty of other ways I can make mistakes and failure.

Yeah.

Plenty of other ways that I can beat myself up mentally at night when I lay in bed.

I can do that hands down, no problem.

It doesn't even have to be work related.

Really good at it.

I said this one thing once in fourth grade and it's still there.

It's still there.

Just never omnipresent.

I kind of want to finish off with like, what's something that, like, you know, maybe in the last six months or something, you guys have, you know, tried something new.

You're like, oh, yeah, this really worked in a way that's better than we thought it was going to be.

So I think there was.

So I had made andouille, like a spicy andouille sausage, and I got the recipe and I'm like, I like it.

So quick step back in case people don't know andouille sausage at this point, I think most people do, but smoked sausage, originally pork based, very popular in New Orleans Cajun Creole cooking.

Used in, used in gumbo and jambalaya and things like that.

So it's, you know, that's kind of the origins of it at least.

Us based.

Sure.

Yeah.

And so when I formed it, like the way we normally form our logs of stuff is we'll wrap it in parchment and then we'll wrap it in aluminum foil.

And generally that means we're going to be baking it.

I was like, I really wish I could do like kind of, you know, the, like the kind of bend, like I always think of, like, shoot, what's that?

Oh, Polish sausage.

Kielbasa.

Yeah, yeah.

Where it's like kind of in that, that I don't know what the symbol would look like, but you know, it kind of looks like a teardrop.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I was like, I wonder how I could do that.

I was like, but if I bend it now before I bake it, it's going to like, all the stuff is going to push in it.

It's going to look weird and wrinkly when I unwrap it.

And I'm going to be like, that's not what I want.

So I was just like, well, it'll just be thicker and longer sausage that I'll be like, okay.

But I was never really happy with it, so I liked how it tasted.

I was like, it's just visually not what I want.

So I kind of.

I like if people asked for it, I would make it, but I don't keep it in the case.

I don't really do anything with it other than that.

So one of my employees came up from New Orleans and was like, I want to make gumbo.

And I was like, oh, I have a andouille recipe that we can make.

And I have some shredded chicken that you could use.

Like, put it on the to do list and we'll make some.

And so we made it.

And I was like, okay, so here's what I'd like to do.

Like, let's bake them the way we normally do.

So we baked them, and they were long.

And I was like, now we're going to wrap them with Saran Wrap and then we'll freeze them.

And I was like, but you know what?

Let's see if we can't.

Now that it's unwrapped, how pliable is it?

Can we bend it without it breaking?

And can we make it into that shape?

And we kind of got a container that was about the right size.

We were able to gently bend it into the form, and then we froze it like that.

And I was like, nice.

And then afterwards, I was like, you know what we could do next time is we'll wrap it in the Saran Wrap.

We'll leave an abundance on the ends, and then we could just twist it together and twirl the thing, and then it would.

That would hold it in place and we wouldn't need a container.

Also, because some of those only look like U's, which is weird, but, you know, But I was like, this turned out.

I was like, much better than what I was thinking.

And again, only would have gotten there if I.

We only got there because I was talking to the person that wanted it.

It was like, I really want it to look like this shape.

And they're like, well, I think maybe if we.

Why don't we try getting this?

And I was like, okay.

I was like, yeah, I like that.

So this, like, again, going back to how great staff is, like, the collaboration part of it is.

Is Huge.

And really just that's the thing that's going to get me, get me away from there.

Right?

Yeah.

It's having somebody you can bounce ideas off of and trust that they are trying to make a quality, you know, quality product every day.

Yeah, absolutely.

So awesome.

Well, Rob, let's put out the plugs again for Grass Fed Vegan butcher shop over on Monroe Ave. Near culver.

Yep, it's grassfedrochester.com and head on over to Veg News before November 30th.

Maybe make it a new family tradition that you vote for Grass Fed and the VEG News Restaurant Awards, whatever year that is.

It'd be fun.

Write us in if we're not there, put us in every category.

Who knows?

Is there one for Andouille?

It might be.

I don't know.

Why not?

There's like four pages.

Keep on voting.

Yeah, just keep voting.

Apparently out here there are sites where you can get like burner email addresses.

I mean, I would never do that.

But I've heard, certainly not.

I've heard that people could.

And then people want to prep for Thanksgiving.

I'm sorry, for Christmas.

Coming up on, you know, orders, looks like they're probably closing around December 17th with pick up the Sunday and Monday before Christmas.

If you have somebody in your life or just want to take a little bit of pressure off of your vegan holiday, buying from Grass Fed is always a great option.

26th.

And you are.

You missed the pre orders or you didn't pick up.

You can also check out Lori's and Abundance.

They have some of our roasts in their freezer section as well as I think Abundance has our cheese ball and pate.

Oh, that's awesome.

I love.

That's a great way to collaborate with the community and also offer like, hey, you know, it's great because you need to plan ahead.

But having that where they can just grab that or then grab it for Christmas, keep it frozen.

Yeah, like what, what a great option.

So yeah.

And when people call me and they're very sad that they missed the pre order and I can say, no, no, you're going to be okay.

Just go to Lori's or go to Abundance.

You'll be able to find stuff.

It'll be okay.

Yeah.

And then make sure you swing by, swing by the shop to grab a sandwich.

You know, during this whole holiday time, you know, go and grab a breakfast sandwich.

They're really good, by the way.

They turned out great.

So, Rob, thank you so much for coming over.

Anything else before we close out?

No, we'll be back in the shop on Friday, so we'll see you right after Thanksgiving.

Hopefully you'll have the sweatpants on and be able to come in and still have a little room for one of our sandwiches.

Just a little bit of extra flavor to make your holiday that much better.

This has been Chris Lindstrom for the Food About Town podcast.

We we'll be back next time on the Lunchadore Podcast Network.

Thanks for listening to the Food About Town Podcast.

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Music for the podcast was created by the fabulous Torres Savant.

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Oh no, here comes McKenna.

This has been a presentation of the Lunchadore Podcast Network.

Get off of your seats and make sure you go get your sandwich today or whenever they're open.

Don't go.

Don't go right now.

They're already closed.

Come on.