Bramble & Hare was among just four Colorado restaurants to earn a green star on this year’s Michelin guide. It was the second time the Boulder-based bistro had accepted the honor, which is reserved for restaurants at the industry’s forefront of sustainability.
Fittingly, co-owner and chef Eric Skokan was parked outside the award ceremony venue when he spoke with DiningOut about the eco-conscious efforts at Black Cat, a sister operation in Longmont. In addition to prix fixe dinner seatings ($165), the site features a USDA-certified organic farm with 500 acres of sheep, heritage hogs, and seasonal produce.
Skokan says, “It’s not everything, but if you close your eyes and put your finger down, almost every single time you do that, your finger lands on something from the farm.” Achieving this impressive feat required fifteen years of hard work and dedication.
Where the Farm Started
“Gardening has always been my thing,” says Skokan, who grew up in a family of green thumbs. He and his wife, Jill, debuted their first Boulder restaurant in 2006 and soon thereafter began supplying its kitchen with homegrown produce.
Skokan notes, “When you find that you’re really good at something, you tend to want to do more of it.” Quickly, their backyard vegetable patch grew to a half-acre in size despite its urban surroundings. “I found that the produce that I was growing in the garden was just so much better than everything that I was buying, then cooking in the restaurant.”
When a pilot program for new, small farmers presented itself, Skokan and a friend embraced the opportunity. Alongside three separate individuals, they leased ten acres from Boulder County Open Space. Initially, a quarter of that land was overseen by Skokan and his partner.
“I jumped into the deep end with both feet, cannonball-style,” he recalls. “The other people in the association sort of dipped their toe in the water and realized that farming is really hard work.” They soon backed out and by the end of the year, Skokan had inherited all ten acres and planted its entirety the next season.
“Before I knew it, I had bought a tractor, hired some staff, and figured out irrigation pumps and the whole crop rotation. We were a good-sized farm producing a massive amount of food for the restaurant in very, very short order.”
With more goods than the restaurant needed, Black Cat began vending at the Boulder farmers market which, unintentionally, became a great place to market dinner seating. When first selling produce, Skokan remembers sharing menus and explaining how vegetables would be used at the bistro that night. He affirms, “That was an incredibly powerful and evocative statement to people in the Boulder community.”
Black Cat Farm Today
Over the years, Black Cat has continued to cultivate a loyal following while simultaneously expanding its farm operation. Skokan says that the introduction of livestock, particularly sheep, necessitated a larger property. While roughly 75 acres are devoted to crops and 25 acres to raising hogs, around 400 acres of the farm is perennial pasture for sheep.
He explained that the flock rotates between limited portions of the plot, “with the goal of producing amazing lamb for the restaurant and, at the same time, taking care of the land.” Known as management-intensive grazing, this is one of several sustainable practices that take place at the farm.
The Longmont operation now supplies local eateries and CSA programs, along with its Boulder farmers market booth and Skokan’s two restaurants. In addition to Bramble & Hare, dinner seating is available at Black Cat Farmstead. What initially started as a solution to pandemic-era dining has become a year-round offering within private greenhouse cabanas and its garden patio.
This is where the chef really flexes his cooking talent, all while bringing the food he grows literally to the table. Wander the grounds and savor hors d’oeuvres before settling in for a four-course, family-style meal starring the day’s harvest ($165 per person). While dishes often rotate, fresh salads, heritage sourdough, and roasted lamb are regular features on the menu.
How Sustainability Sets The Farm Apart
“Recycling nutrients is a cornerstone piece of the operation,” says Skokan, explaining that through a partnership with Eco-Cycle, food waste from his restaurants and other sustainable eateries is repurposed via the farm’s state-registered compost facility. Once processed, that compost is incorporated into the fields to enrich the soil.
Holistic, biodynamic farming methods are also at the center of Black Cat. Skokan notes that when you harvest 5,000 pounds of carrots from a field, it most often results in a deficit of nutrients. The sheep and pigs solve that problem.
“When we close a field down at the end of our harvest season, we bring in animals to graze what farmers call ‘aftermath.’ We’ll paddock the animals in that field for a period of time to essentially allow manure to collect until we’ve hit a fertility target.”
To further describe this process, Skokan uses this year’s field of 10,000 tomatoes as an example. Next year, popcorn will be the cash crop in this section of land.
Post-yield and before the season’s first frost, Skokan will test the soil’s nutrient levels and compare that to the nutrients needed to grow a good crop of popcorn. Then, based on the weight of a group of hogs, he estimates the average amount of manure likely to be deposited over several weeks.
Once a strategic time period is determined, an electric fence is set around the field and “the hogs go hog wild,” jokes Skokan. He describes how they’ll consume hundreds of thousands of pounds of unmarketable tomatoes. Stems are devoured and plants are flipped upside down, exposing edible roots. Weeds and bugs are also part of the buffet.
“They’ll make it look like a lunar landscape and in the process, they’re depositing manure and incorporating that manure with their digging activity,” he explains. After the ideal time period has passed, the hogs are rotated to the next field and a cover crop is planted to lock in nutrients. Following four to ten months of growth, it’s plowed into the field, left to decompose and finally, the land is ready for fresh planting.
While the general farmer applies fertilizer three times annually, Black Cat has only had to implement it twice in its fifteen years due to phosphate deficits. “Otherwise, the system does all of the work for us,” affirms Skokan.
He concludes, “The big drive for me, on a daily basis, is that I love taking care of people.” Doing so in a way that protects the environment, rather than exploits it, is what sets Black Cat apart.
