Idea Engine

By J.J. Hudson

Bring up the topic of squirrels, and Simon Ennis can barely contain himself. He is truly enthusiastic about our furry, tree-dwelling friends. By day, Ennis is a mild-mannered teacher, researcher and squirrel scientist.

By night, he is the "Simon" in St. Simon 3, a jazzy, swing, rock ‘n’ roll trio slated to play the Brick Coffee House Saturday.

"He’s been studying squirrels for many, many months," said Tara McConnell, bassist for the trio. "I’m not making fun of him at all, but we tease him."

Ennis is six months away from earning his Ph.D. in psychobiology at the University of California, Davis, much of his research focusing on the effects of stress on the brain. That is where the squirrels come in. He stresses out squirrels by exposing them to rattlesnakes. By studying the physiological response of the squirrels to stress, we can learn how the human brain works.

What does this have to do with music? Well, nothing, really. It is just an interesting side note about the cerebral frontman of St. Simon 3.

Sacramento-based St. Simon 3 is Ennis on guitar, harmonica and lead vocals, McConnell on electric upright bass and Chip Conrad on drums. Both McConnell and Conrad are formally trained and come from classical and jazz backgrounds, McConnell having studied music at the University of the Pacific and Conrad having studied percussion under Harold Chang, the drummer for exotic jazz artist Arthur Lyman. All three come together to make smart, often funny and extremely eclectic pieces of music.

"There’s a lot of stuff. It’s really hard to categorize us," McConnell said. "We’ve been described as Elvis Costello backed by the Stray Cats."

Music off their debut album, "The Future We Were Promised," is a mix of blues, Tin Pan Alley jazz and guitar-driven rock ‘n’ roll from the ’50s and ’60s. Ennis points to pop icons Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello and Chuck Berry as influences. He even looks a little like Costello and Holly.

"I really like Elvis Costello," Ennis said. "His songs and mine have a lot of words. If I could play one guitarist in the world, it would be Chuck Berry. He is so succinct, which is something I try to emulate."

As for a St. Simon 3 show, the trio’s music has been observed causing humans to move their bodies rhythmically to a beat. Other physiological effects include a lowering of stress levels, a heightened state of well being and a stimulation of certain locations in the brain important to understanding humor. Further research is needed. No squirrels or rattlesnakes are harmed during a Simon show.

Published March 25, 2004 in the Appeal-Democrat.

By J.J. Hudson

Walk down Center Street in downtown Yuba City any summer Saturday morning and you can taste the bounty of this land.

Juicy cherries and sweet strawberries are just two such pleasures. Growers sell scallions, fresh garlic cloves, apricots, plums, peaches and nectarines. Later, as the summer grows hot, tomatoes and melons will appear and the market will build to a mid-July crescendo.

Everything is grown nearly within a plum pit’s throw of the Yuba City Farmers’ Market.

Along with garden vegetables and tree fruits, there is a wealth of unique products such as apriums, a hybrid cross between an apricot and plum, and olives stuffed with hickory smoked almonds. Perhaps the most unique product is a private brand of olive oil pressed from olives grown in the foothills overlooking Marysville and Yuba City.

Michael and Monica Keller sell their own private label of extra virgin olive oil called Calolea. To be considered extra virgin, an olive oil must contain less than 1 percent free fatty acid. Calolea has an extremely low fatty-acid content of 0.13 percent.

Michael Keller has been making olive oil for five years, the last three of which he has owned his own olive orchard. Most of the olives he grows on his 10 acres in Loma Rica are of the Mission and Manzanillo varieties, which he grows on trees more than a hundred years old. Recently he started raising some unique Tuscan varietals such as Frantoio, Leccino and Coratina.

"I’m growing 35 Italian varietals which are very fruity," he explained. Eventually, he hopes to blend the oil from his Tuscan varietals with the oil he presses from his Mission and Manzanillo olives.

"Every year is different," he said. "You never know what you are going to get. Last year, the oil had an apple taste. This year it has a grassy-nutty flavor with a pepper punch." He encourages passerbys at the farmers’ market to sample Calolea as if it were a fine varietal wine.

After olives are hand picked in fall and winter, they are stone crushed and pressed at the McEvoy Olive Ranch in Petaluma. Keller explained that stone crushing is better for releasing antioxidants and polyphenols from the olive. Antioxidants and polyphenols are believed to have positive health benefits.

After crushing, Keller presses his olives cold, which means that the oil has never been heated over 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Olives are pressed within 24 hours of picking to keep the acidity of the oil low.

The final stage of the process is the bottling and labeling - all done by Keller in the kitchen of the Bonanza Inn Convention Center. When not managing his olive operaiton, Keller tends bar at the Bonanza on Monday and Tuesday nights.

The final product, sold in 500 and 250 milliliter bottles, finds its way to retail outlets and farmers’ markets throughout Northern California.

"It is full-bodied. It’s so different from what you get in the stores," he said.

Keller and his wife Monica, affectionately known as "Honey Bear" of Honey Bear’s Farm in Loma Rica, have also branched out into soaps and scrubs using olive oil as a base. Much of the soap is sold to spas under their own private label. The scrubs are a new product this year and come in two varieties, lavender rosemary and lemon sea salt.

Published June 12, 2003 in the Appeal-Democrat

By J.J. Hudson

A mother and her young son look a bit lost as they walk through the front door of an unassuming Olympia home with one huge backyard.

"We came to pick out seeds," she says to a tall man sitting at a table in what should be a living room.

"That room right there is seeds galore!" The man, Blue Peetz, smiles and points to a room off a hallway to the rear.

A few minutes later, the two leave with a box full of seed packets and dreams of growing good grub for their own table. This is just a typical scene at the GRuB Farm, also known as the Sister Holly Garden. GRuB is Garden-Raised Bounty, a nonprofit organization dedicated to nourishing community by empowering people to grow good food. The GRuB family not only grows their own organic food but empowers low-income neighbors to grow healthy food in their own gardens.

"We grow pretty much everything on this farm - all your standard vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, carrots, et cetera. We have a number of fruit trees and perennial berries like raspberries and strawberries," Peetz, co-director of GRuB, explained.

The garden has graduated to farmhood. Expectations are to double and even triple production this year. After harvesting, GRuB donates produce to the Thurston County Food Bank. Additionally, a fair amount of production goes to members of GRuB’s Cultivating Youth program.

"All of our youth and their families get a share of the farm," said Peetz. "We do about 18 low-income family shares a year that the youth are a part of, growing that food, harvesting that food and taking it home."

The farm puts at-risk youth to work. GRuB approaches every school district in Thurston County, taking on 15 low-income students annually for a two-year program. Peetz reported that students who work at GRuB experience an 82 percent graduation rate.

"This is a vehicle for these young people to turn their lives around. If you want to end hunger, a big issue is looking at the roots of why people are hungry in the first place," he noted.

Farm Manager Emily Dietzman articulated how best the GRuB Farm has become something special for the community: "It’s the people we grow out here that are really special. It’s the youth that really make our farm outstanding."

Published March 16, 2006 in The News Tribune