And he’s not content to stop there-just over three acres of the land is currently being cultivated, and he’d love to be able to extend that, expand their livestock populations of goats, llamas and chickens that all do their part, and to start a vermicomposting program to let worms create valuable manure out of the waste cardboard that the restaurant generates. In his “spare time” at home, he raises the pigs that provide pork for the restaurant and is trying to start a program of making goat cheese. Jacobsen became the Head Farmer in 2014 and, since then, has been able to increase the yearly output from around 4,000 pounds to a mind-boggling 23,000 pounds of fresh produce for the restaurant. As his interest in sustainability and agriculture grew, he was connected with HBG and moved down here, line-cooking in the kitchen and volunteering on the farm his first season. Speaking of his bosses and chef partners, he says, “Blake and Jen, at no point, have tried to make a different place.” A Utah native, he’s lived all over the state and worked in a variety of industries, including coffee shops and bike shops in Salt Lake City. But Jacobsen believes that these measures are important to keeping the farm balanced. The strict no-kill policy inspired by Spalding’s Buddhist principles extends even to pest insects like the aphids that sometimes infest the plum trees present on the property. Everything on this farm is done with human power, and the days can be exhausting-no tractor, no weedkiller, no pesticides and no chemical fertilizers. His small team exhibited attention to detail and willingness to work hard as they painstakingly hand-weeded long rows of lacinato kale, and scarlet nantes carrots are the standard here. “Everything in the restaurant has a purpose.” Photo: Sara Stathasįarm Manager Tony Jacobsen took a break from his work to show me the farm and walk me through this special relationship. Fully grasping what makes HBG so special takes driving a few more miles down Burr Trail Road to Hell’s Backbone Farm, which was started in its current location in 2005 to supplement the restaurant’s increasing need for fresh produce grown to meet their exacting standards of taste and environmental sustainability. Having met while cooking on river trips in the Grand Canyon, both Castle and Spalding were up for a challenge, but the full extent of the project they started would continue to develop in ambition and scope for the next two decades. Now in its 20th year, HBG embraces the rural setting and its surrounding wilderness, and tries to get us all to slow down a little. But the trip down state Highway 12 to this unique desert oasis is more than worth your time for the food alone, and the gorgeously rugged scenery is just a bonus. The remoteness of the location alone precludes the reservation-only weekend dinner services and the hour-wait, mimosa-fueled brunches common to urban establishments. Started in 2000 by chefs Jen Castle and Blake Spalding, HBG was an experiment in letting ethics rather than profits decide how a restaurant should be run. It was in this unlikely eden of sagebrush and piñon pine that I was to find one of Utah’s only James Beard Award–nominated restaurants, the Hell’s Backbone Grill, nestled along the highway in the comfortably idyllic embrace of the Boulder Mountain Lodge. With a population of just over 200 people who mostly engage in ranching and farming, it sits on the northeastern corner of the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument. Hell’s Backbone Grill & Farm 20 North Highway 12, Boulder || 435.335.7464īoulder, Utah, is a small town.
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