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Coffee People: Richard Masino, Rancho Delfino Coffee Farm · Coffee People Podcast

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People podcasts show notes. Hey, good morning everyone.
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Welcome to the coffee people podcast, which is part of the
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roast, West Coast Coffee Network.
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I'm Ryan Walt and this is the first official episode of Season
1:16
8. Today you're going to hear my
1:18
conversation with Richard Messina.
1:21
He and his father, Mike, run the coffee and avocado Farm Rancho
1:24
Delfino in Carpinteria California Rancho.
1:28
Delfino is part of The Fringe network of coffee Farms, these
1:32
small coffee, farming operations are springing up all around,
1:35
Southern California. You may remember earlier
1:38
interviews we've done with J russki, the founder of Fringe
1:41
and good land Organics, if you miss those chats, I'll be sure
1:45
to link to them in the show notes and again, on roast
1:48
westcoast.com, I know you've already pulled out your phone to
1:51
look for that. And since you're, they're
1:53
scrolling, be sure to follow at Rancho Delfino on Instagram
1:57
rich. And I met recently at the
1:59
specialty coffee Association Expo in Portland, Oregon.
2:02
He shared a sample of his coffee and I had a chance to sip it
2:06
while getting some green therapy from all the coffee plants.
2:09
He had brought into the convention.
2:10
Center. It was quite lovely as it is
2:14
being back in the podcast Booth. I'm drinking a good cup of
2:17
coffee that I proved myself today.
2:19
It is a V60, pour over that I brewed with beans, I picked up
2:22
from one of this shows, Partners steady-state.
2:25
Roasting. I hope you're out there
2:27
somewhere enjoying a great cup of joe from one of your favorite
2:30
Roasters to because it is time for this coffee people
2:33
conversation with Richard, Messina Farmer at Rancho
2:37
Delfino, Honestly, it's great.
2:56
Just to see again. After the Expo, you're my first
2:58
interview since the Expo. I'll cool.
3:01
But for the listeners, could you say who you are, what your farm
3:06
is and what your role there is? Yeah.
3:09
So my name is Richard and see, know my dad has a little avocado
3:16
Farm up in Carpinteria, which I have been working with him,
3:22
really like I don't want to say full-time, but as much as I
3:26
possibly can since about why I've always helped him out up
3:31
there. But really, since the pandemic,
3:33
when my work shut down is when I really got into it and we kind
3:37
of went full poor. My Roll.
3:40
It's just him and I really a little bit of help.
3:43
We can get help but you know, he has a farm manager that takes
3:48
care of the avocado trees and does a lot of the fertilizing
3:53
avocado trees and stuff like that, and he'll help us pick the
3:56
coffee cherries when he can. But the problem is, is the big
4:01
time for picking avocados is same time for picking coffee
4:05
cherries. So a lot of times it's just my
4:07
dad and I, and any friends or People that we can get to come
4:11
and help us out. So you just you said, coffee
4:14
cherries, you have planted coffee trees there.
4:18
How long have the trees been in the ground?
4:21
And I don't want to forget it. What is the name of your farm?
4:24
The name? Oh sorry.
4:24
Yeah, the name of the farm is Rancho Delfina and we're part of
4:29
the, I guess you can call it the Fringe Network Fringe California
4:33
Coffee? Which I know you've had J russki
4:36
on here a couple times. So we're Rancho.
4:39
Delfino. And Carpinteria the backstory to
4:42
the farm is kind of really funny.
4:44
My dad his background. He had a construction company
4:47
here in California, Southern California and the bay area for
4:51
a while. And he retired in about 2008 or
4:56
9 him and my stepmom actually is my stepmother.
5:01
Found the property in Carpinteria in about 2011, I
5:05
think and it was just a rundown On a steep hill about 500.
5:11
Avocado trees. And she loved it.
5:13
He loved it. So they bought it and built a
5:16
house on it. And my dad was he became like an
5:20
avocado farmer, kind of as a hobby.
5:23
He fixed up the plants, the trees learned about irrigation
5:27
and nutrients and all that stuff and started, you know, working
5:30
on the avocado trees and it was about 2015.
5:34
I think, when my dad saw this article in a local It's a I
5:41
guess avocado industry. And he saw this article about
5:48
this guy named Jay russki from Goleta that was growing coffee
5:53
and so my dad thought well that sounds kind of cool.
5:56
I think I'm going to do that. So he went to the Santa
5:58
Barbara's farmers market. Found jstand walked up to him
6:03
and started a conversation and said, hey I want to grow coffee
6:07
and this is all before Fringe Jay was still, Jay had been
6:11
playing with coffee, since about 2002 and he was ramping up to
6:17
start getting these other Farms involved to grow more coffee.
6:21
And so, we are one of the really early early people farming with
6:25
him. So we started pretty small in
6:28
2015. And then Then the company Fringe
6:32
came online in 2017. So, 2015 is, when we really
6:37
started, I don't want to growing coffee, but really learning more
6:43
and make me bad, and having to replant.
6:46
And, you know, it's been an interesting ride.
6:50
I've heard stories from other burgeoning farmers and a few in
6:54
The Fringe Network, as well as just about how the awareness
6:59
that it might take three to five to six years before.
7:02
You're really kind of the plants have matured and you have a
7:05
second crop or you know they're starting to produce product that
7:08
you actually are proud of. It was a surprise before we get
7:13
too far down that Farm Story. You mentioned that you've really
7:17
been working with your dad since kind of the beginning of the
7:19
pandemic. What were you doing before you
7:24
were doing this? So, for the last 25 years I was
7:30
in film. I was a camera assistant first,
7:34
its focus puller first assistant cameraman in Motion Pictures and
7:40
I was on the road, a lot. And well actually, I was on the
7:45
road between about 2009 until the beginning of 2020.
7:52
I was mostly I'd come here to Lala prep the next job.
7:55
Go back on. Rhodes, I was constantly
7:57
traveling and then when I was here, I would go up mess around
8:04
the farm a little bit, but during that time, like you said,
8:08
we weren't really producing a lot and so, you know, we go up
8:11
pick a couple hundred pounds, give it to Jay, keep a little
8:14
bit play with it and that's when it became well.
8:20
Okay, well, how do we make this better?
8:22
What are we going to do? And then in 2020 when the
8:27
shutdown happened work just completely stopped for us, which
8:32
was kind of a blessing in hindsight.
8:34
Because that's when I spent more time up there it was a perfect
8:38
place to be during the pandemic. That's when I really, really got
8:43
a lot more involved with my dad and 2020 was the first year that
8:47
we really had like a I would say a real Harvest.
8:53
Mmm. Yeah, sorry, go ahead.
8:56
No, no, I well my question that, I mean, I'm going to follow that
8:59
up. Questions is my side of this.
9:01
Yeah. Review, by the way, that's what
9:03
I do. You're on the road a lot.
9:06
You're experiencing things around the world you're
9:08
traveling with film and I've seen some of the films that
9:10
you've worked on some pretty big names.
9:12
People recognize yeah did you kind of have a first experience
9:15
with coffee before any of this coffee farming concept came
9:19
along that you remember that you thought?
9:20
This is something that is important to me?
9:22
Or I mean, how was coffee involved in your life?
9:26
I always considered myself. You know, I like good coffee.
9:31
That's what I thought. I knew what good coffee was.
9:36
I mean, really I shouldn't say that because good coffee to
9:39
anybody is whatever you like. That's the biggest thing that
9:41
we've learned, you know, I have, of course, my biases.
9:45
But whatever you enjoy, then that's a great cup of coffee.
9:48
So I thought I knew a little bit about coffee and but really it
9:55
was in 2017 when Jay started Fringe and he was looking for
10:02
investors and my dad and I both wanted to invest separately.
10:06
So we went out to meet with Jay and he made us a cup of his
10:13
natural geisha. And I never had a cup of coffee
10:18
like that. I'd never in my life, tasted
10:22
something so fruity floral and you know this nice sweet acid to
10:29
it, it was just mind-blowing and so I thought oh okay well this
10:35
is cool. I meant you know I want to do
10:37
this. This is great.
10:39
So we invested in Fringe and then we thought, okay, well
10:42
since we're going to grow coffee, let's like get into
10:44
coffee. So we're going to start roasting
10:46
our own coffee. We started out with the bay more
10:49
and just kind of self teaching each other, you know, watching
10:53
videos online. Figure out what first crack is
10:57
we pretty quickly grew out of the bait.
11:00
I mean the bay more so it's a great way to start and it's a
11:03
fun. You can make great coffee with
11:05
it. You can roast great coffee and
11:07
you can learn a lot but The more that we watched, the more that
11:10
we thought, okay, well we need to move up in this and so we
11:14
ended up buying a couple of a Leo bullet Roasters and that's
11:19
where we started. Really learning a lot more about
11:22
the roast and the curve and the rate of rise and all that stuff.
11:26
But it was really sorry to go back to your question.
11:28
It was really that cup at Jay's that was just I had no idea
11:32
coffee could taste like that. So I'm going to plead a little
11:36
bit of ignorance about you and and the farm.
11:39
Are you know, I do research the guests on this show, I always
11:42
say that I don't, but I do at least Google you and I really
11:46
couldn't find a lot about Rancho Delfino.
11:48
You don't have a huge presence online or anything like that.
11:51
Are you roasting and selling coffee?
11:53
Or were you doing this just for you?
11:55
We were just doing it for us. All of the sales went through
11:58
Fringe and still go through Fringe gotcha.
12:02
You know, you can go to Fringe, you can pick Rancho Delfino
12:05
coffee, and that's where you can buy it from.
12:07
And so really, we were Just roasting to learn more.
12:10
I was giving a lot of it away to friends just to get feedback how
12:14
they liked it. And we are trying to build more
12:17
of a presence online, you know, with the website, with the
12:20
Instagram and all that stuff. But again is just the two of us
12:25
and neither of us are very good at that.
12:27
Admittedly. I'm not very good Instagram so I
12:30
don't, you know, I always hashtag wrong or I do at wrong,
12:35
you know, all that I'm trying to learn and it's It's a lot to
12:40
take on kind of. It seems so simple.
12:43
There's so many intricacies to your online presence.
12:46
It's an entirely different. Skillset, it's a full-time job
12:50
in and of itself. I mean, if you're going to do it
12:53
really well, well, I've certainly learned that it's the
12:57
least favorite part of my job or at least what I call my job,
13:01
which is the show. But it's also, you know, one of
13:04
the few ways. If you're starting out that you
13:07
can reach out to people, And kind of create an audience and
13:10
make, you know, few mistakes. But you can at least people can
13:14
find you just organically. It's not as easy as it used to
13:17
be, but it's still possible. You work with your dad, it
13:23
sounds like you have a good relationship based on the little
13:25
bit that I know about you. And I've seen in pictures.
13:28
I have also worked with my dad and it can be a lot that might
13:34
just be my dad, but what is working with your dad?
13:36
Like you know working with your family is the other are other
13:39
parts of the family involved. You know what is that
13:41
experience? Like for you Luckily, my dad.
13:45
And I have always been really, really close.
13:48
He knows everything about me, probably too much and I probably
13:52
know too much about him, but we've always been really close.
13:55
So we have a really good working relationship.
13:59
There are obviously things that frustrate me about him and I'm
14:04
sure you would say. The same thing about me, we have
14:07
a good relationship, there's just things that, you know, I'm
14:11
very organized because of my A job.
14:14
You know, we were trained being in the camera Department.
14:16
We had a lot of gear in and out I had to manage departments, I
14:19
had to manage people and so you become very organized and that
14:25
really goes into the farming aspect and you know a lot of
14:30
data collection every time we do anything, I've made charts that
14:36
both of us can get access to and share and so like for instance
14:42
if we're going to To fertilize the plans, you know, I want to
14:46
know how much fertilized we use, you know, the date the time and
14:50
even now we're putting in like the temperature of the day.
14:53
The weather conditions, you know, because it's all about
14:56
data collection. And so, He's not as good as
15:00
that. So I know that there are gaps
15:02
there so I'm trying to fill them in and stuff like that is gets
15:07
to be a little challenging from time to time.
15:11
But you know we're also very good with each other.
15:14
He listens to me. I listen to him and we're both
15:17
learning at the same time. So that makes it kind of fun.
15:22
When we make mistakes, you make mistakes and no harm, no foul.
15:25
We're just going at it together and so all in all, it's a really
15:29
good relationship. You know, you really got started
15:34
at the beginning of the pandemic, I keep coming back to
15:36
that, but it's such a big thing. And we're talking just after
15:39
they announced the that the pandemic is over officially from
15:43
an emergency standpoint, you know, however, they make those
15:46
decisions. But where are you at?
15:49
Are you going back into working in film?
15:51
Have you gone back? Have you transitioned your life
15:54
into your Richard, the farmer now, I mean, what is your kind
15:58
of life work-life balance, where you at?
16:02
I've been pretty lucky once we started working again in film.
16:08
I've been lucky enough to have jobs where I'm in town now,
16:12
which I think is, that's part of the pandemic is, we were
16:17
traveling much less there was more things.
16:21
Spread out across the country, more jobs, found across the
16:24
country, I should say. So, there was a lot more work
16:26
here in la la, and I was able to go in between back and forth.
16:33
So, I'm still in film, of course, right now, it's really
16:37
slow for everybody because this writer's strike for instance.
16:43
I didn't work in March and April.
16:46
That gave me a lot of time to, you know, be up there.
16:49
Go to the SCA For example, drive all those trees up there and get
16:53
to meet everybody, all that kind of stuff.
16:55
So if I can make a living in farming it would be fantastic
17:00
and I'd love to do that. I just am not sure yet that we
17:05
can do that with just coffee alone.
17:08
Our farm were very lucky that the avocados are there because
17:11
that kind of pays for everything that pays the overhead and the
17:15
coffee is more of a passion project at this point.
17:19
But I think that there's a great market for it.
17:23
And, you know, California coffee is delicious.
17:27
It's fantastic. You know, I mean we were in the
17:30
Brewers finals in Portland which is a big milestone for
17:37
California coffee. So I definitely think there's a
17:40
market for it. You know, when is that when are
17:44
we going to be able to see more money to make a living off of?
17:48
It is the big question. But it's a passion for both of
17:51
us that has really taken over both of us.
17:55
So we're constantly talking about, you know, where can we
17:58
put more plants in our property? Maybe we should lease property
18:01
somewhere else and do another part grow somewhere else.
18:04
So we have more coffee Those talks were always talking about
18:09
that and looking for the right opportunity to do that.
18:12
And like I said, if I could make a living off of it I think it
18:17
would be great. I just The life is so rewarding
18:23
and, you know, the life and film was great, went to a lot of
18:28
really spectacular places, but it also takes its toll on you.
18:32
It's very all-encompassing and you make a lot of sacrifices for
18:37
that. And frankly, it feels like it's
18:40
a young man's game, more and more, you know, as you get
18:45
older, you kind of like all the sudden when I was here for six
18:49
months. Straight.
18:50
I thought, wow, was kind of nice not to have to go anywhere.
18:54
This is yeah I can have a life and oh wow.
18:57
This is kind of cool. Yeah, so and then you know
19:00
working with the dirt and with nature and you know there's
19:04
something about Picking the coffee.
19:07
Cherries is a tough job. It's very tedious.
19:11
We're doing. Oh, you know, obviously it's all
19:13
by hand. We pick.
19:15
We start really in July, and go and tell about Late October and
19:22
we'll pick 15 16 sometimes 20 times and you're going back to
19:28
the same tree over and over because the cherries are
19:31
ripening at different times and you want the ripest cherries
19:35
with the most sugars in them for all those flavors.
19:37
So it's tedious, but it's also super rewarding.
19:41
You're out in this beautiful landscape and the interesting
19:44
thing about the coffee tree is it will flower while the
19:47
cherries are, right? So you have these Flowers.
19:50
And I don't know if you've ever smelled a coffee flower.
19:53
I mean, they're just there. I don't know how to discuss.
19:56
Just delicious. It's so nice.
19:58
So, you've got all these fragrances, you're picking your
20:01
hands are just so dirty because there's all the juices on them
20:05
and all this stuff. And these bees are working the
20:08
flowers around you and it's just it's this relationship that.
20:12
I mean it gives me the chills to talk about.
20:14
I love it. It's great.
20:16
And at the end of the day, you're beat, but you feel Active
20:20
because you really producing something.
20:24
That's what I love about it. Do you remember the feeling of
20:29
having picked a batch of cherries and then roasted them
20:32
and drinking that first coffee? It's amazing.
20:35
Did you remember having that expectation and how that coffee
20:38
turned out? Yes, the first time we did, it
20:42
was early on. So when you say the trees don't
20:46
really produce 43 until three to five years, that's correct.
20:49
But they do have some cherries on them about your three, not a
20:53
whole lot and they're not very good but you know, we would pick
20:57
on and then all of a sudden we got these cherries and you're
21:00
thinking okay, you know because again we give Most of them to
21:04
Fringe but we always keep some for ourselves because of both my
21:08
dad and I when we get into something we get into it, we
21:11
don't want to just pick the cherries and give in to Jay and
21:14
have them sold. Well how do we do it?
21:16
What's what's the post-harvest? Like this is the funny thing
21:20
about being a coffee Farmers, you can go online.
21:23
You can find tons of information on how to roast coffee on, how
21:27
to brew coffee on different Brewing techniques.
21:31
What water do you use? You know, there's all these
21:34
different when it comes to farming, aspect is really not a
21:38
lot of information on, so we're trying to figure it out as we go
21:43
along. So the first coffee we picked,
21:45
we thought, okay, this is cool man.
21:46
We grew this coffee, we pick this coffee, we processed the
21:50
coffee. It's rested for now, two months
21:55
where you're just waiting to see what it's going to taste like,
21:58
and I'll send you drink it. We went, huh?
22:04
You want to like it so bad. Okay.
22:10
Well, what did we do wrong? What's not?
22:13
And then, you know, we learned, okay, well, they need to be on
22:16
the tree longer. They have more sugars in them.
22:19
And these are the things that you learn as you go along, which
22:25
in the world of coffee is takes a long time.
22:29
You know, like I said, when you pick your cherries and you
22:32
process them, you know, you're waiting depending on the
22:35
processing, you're doing like if you're doing a natural that's
22:38
four weeks of drying, typically, and then you want to let them
22:42
rest for at least another four weeks before you do kind of a
22:46
gut check on them. So that's two months that you
22:49
see what the results are. So that's why the data going
22:53
back to what I said about the data is so important because
22:55
then you can look and say, okay, What did we do?
22:58
What can we do different? What can we do to make it
23:00
better? Or this is great.
23:03
We need to mimic this next year. And oh, yeah, you're working
23:07
with the weather and the climate and all the changes that happen
23:10
day-to-day year to year. What you have no control over.
23:14
Yeah, there's a whole I mean I don't want to say religious, but
23:18
it's almost it's just this you there has to be some sort of
23:22
faith, I would imagine in what you're doing.
23:25
And if I'm doing things this way, I believe that they will
23:28
work out, but when they don't, I have to react to that.
23:31
I would think not only physically, you're reacting to
23:34
it and how you're treating your Or plants.
23:36
But also emotionally, you have to be able to withstand those
23:38
ups and downs as you go. Yeah.
23:42
And you know, go that was a big thing in the beginning because
23:45
we're planting in different parts of the property and some
23:49
parts. It's just the soil is not it's
23:53
too compact or it's there's too much clay in it and so those
23:57
plants don't work. But these plans over here work
23:59
really, really well. Now why is that?
24:01
And where can we find this? Okay, well this seems like a
24:04
good place over here. But for some reason that doesn't
24:07
work over there. Maybe there's too much shade or
24:10
maybe the trees aren't protected enough.
24:13
So these are all things that. Yeah, you have to consider and
24:16
you're right. You do have to when you go into
24:19
it, you go into a all in, right? And you do the best you can and
24:24
you just think well, this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
24:26
So this coffee should be great and when it is great, you're
24:29
really happy. And when it's not great, then
24:32
you go back to the drawing board and figure out.
24:33
Okay. What's different?
24:36
Yeah, I know a lot of us over the last three or four years,
24:38
have learned what it feels like when you spend $100 at the
24:42
Garden store to get one 25-cent tomato.
24:45
Yeah. The name Rancho Delfino, where
24:48
does that come from? And what does that mean?
24:52
Delfino is a family name. My dad's name is Delfino he goes
24:57
by Mike or Michael but he's Delfino, the third.
25:02
So his father his grandfather and I was supposed to be Delfino
25:07
the fourth but my mother said, no, not gonna happen.
25:11
But yeah. So Delfino is a family name and
25:15
so it's kind of an homage to the ancestors and were It's the
25:22
ocean. So Delfino.
25:24
Italian dolphin. It all comes together.
25:28
You kind of mentioned, California, coffee and now it's
25:32
getting better. And now it's recently been
25:35
recognized as as the quality of the coffee.
25:38
The US has been importing, coffee forever and ever and
25:41
ever. How do you envision kind of that
25:44
Marketplace growing and changing and then also, do you consider
25:48
the ethical questions as opposed to Growing here?
25:51
As As opposed to importing. You know, where do you fall on
25:54
that line? Well, I Look at California
25:59
coffee, like California one for example if you've seen the movie
26:06
Bottle Shock it's a pretty good history of California, wine and
26:13
California makes great wine, obviously California in general,
26:18
has something like over 3,000 different crops.
26:22
And so, why not coffee, why can't we grow coffee here?
26:26
But to do that, you know, we're out of the coffee belt.
26:30
And so a lot of people Think that?
26:33
Well, you can't grow coffee there.
26:36
Well we can and but to do that, it has to be really high.
26:41
Quality has to stand out which is luckily, what's what?
26:45
We're producing, what's happening?
26:48
You know, on any given day if you Google the most consumed
26:51
beverage in the world, there's coffee and tea that are always
26:55
kind of back and forth, right? It gets ten sites and say coffee
26:59
and 10 sites and safety. There's enough room for
27:02
everybody in the coffee industry to grow coffee.
27:06
But the way that I look at it my dad and I look at it is that
27:10
we're growing a different type of coffee, so high-quality
27:14
coffee, it's going to be, maybe you're not buying it, and
27:17
drinking it every morning, but maybe it's for special
27:19
occasions, maybe you're having a big brunch and so you're going
27:22
to get California Coffee to serve everybody.
27:26
And there's a market for that in.
27:28
I think all beverages with craft beer with, you know, Tequila any
27:32
kind of spirits. There's always a higher grade
27:35
and it gets A region that is interesting that you just said,
27:39
tequila and there are some Southern California, local,
27:43
tequila distillers that I really like that are really good and
27:46
high quality and they're they're getting their Agave from Mexico
27:50
as well, but I don't know that anyone has ever asked them about
27:53
kind of ethical question. Like, I just asked you, I'm not
27:56
saying it's not a valid question.
27:57
I just don't know that people approach other beverages with
28:01
kind of the same magnifying glass as we do coffee, perhaps
28:05
because it impacts so many People every day I want to ask
28:09
you a little bit about the community that you are in the
28:12
farm is still, I mean young and farming.
28:15
Terms, your father met Jay at the farmers market.
28:21
Are you guys engaged with the community at the farm level?
28:24
Or is it more? We're doing our thing.
28:26
We're passing it on to Fringe to kind of push out into the world.
28:29
For now, you mentioned that you have website and Instagram and
28:32
that sort of stuff coming or up, how are you engaging with the
28:36
community? Unity.
28:38
Yeah, well within the community, you know, there are a couple
28:42
really great specialty coffee shops in the area funny enough.
28:47
There's a great Turkish coffee place in Carpinteria in a very
28:50
obscure location that we stumbled onto one day and the
28:55
guy that runs it Syed. He just he loves coffee and
28:59
although it's Turkish coffee, all his coffee specialty coffee.
29:04
He's does light Rose for everything.
29:07
And so, when we go into him and introduce ourselves and you
29:11
know, yeah, he kind of had no idea that there was coffee grown
29:15
in the region. So there's a lot of that word to
29:18
mouth stuff and Fringe really is doing the marketing for it and
29:24
pushing the word out there. Getting the word out there.
29:28
Whereas, for us, it's more about like I said, Word of Mouth,
29:33
talking to people and There's about.
29:38
Well, they're in Carpinteria itself.
29:40
Carpinteria proper I think there's five coffee Farms
29:44
between Goleta and San Diego. There's about 60 Farms right
29:50
now. Over 100,000 coffee trees are in
29:52
the ground in Southern California.
29:54
Wow, those are going to come online, they're going to start
29:58
producing in the next year or two.
30:00
So there's going to be a lot more inventory and that was one
30:04
of the challenges with fringe in the Getting is that there just
30:07
wasn't a whole lot of inventory. You know, we had there's about a
30:11
dozen Farms producing get the word out there and all of a
30:14
sudden people are buying it. Next thing, you know, you're
30:16
sold out and you're sold out for five or six months because
30:20
you're waiting for the next Harvest I think is we get more
30:24
product. The word is just going to get
30:27
out there more and more. And, you know, going back to
30:30
like, the sca, for example. I mean, our booth up there was
30:35
beautiful and everybody. Came up and I can't tell you the
30:37
amount of people that said, where are these plants from?
30:40
I said California. No, no, but really where they
30:43
come from, you know, they were grown in California.
30:45
What? And that's why I always have the
30:47
coffee. They're here, let's taste some
30:49
California coffee. And, you know, as with farming,
30:54
it's just a game of patience and spend more and more time doing
30:59
it. And eventually, I think it'll Be
31:04
pretty big in the coffee world again, going back to us, just
31:08
being in the finals. I mean, that's a big milestone.
31:11
A lot of people found out about it and it was funny, Jay and I
31:15
were at one of the industry parties on Saturday of the Expo
31:22
and people were coming up to us. All a sudden saying, hey, aren't
31:25
you guys guys are those California Coffee guys, right?
31:28
Oh yeah, Okay cool. So just like that, you know,
31:32
we're starts to spread it just like Else, it takes time I
31:36
command you for having the energy to go to a party after a
31:39
day at SCA, I made it back to my Airbnb.
31:43
And that was it for me. I wasn't going anywhere.
31:48
It was lat, it's that whole week.
31:50
I needed like a week of recovery after this.
31:54
Well, what did you take away from that event?
31:56
Besides, obviously the connections and meeting people?
31:58
I mean, we met there that's, and that was cool.
32:00
And, you know, what was that experience?
32:02
Like, I know for me, I came into it with really, I had never been
32:06
to SCA before, so it was all a new experience for me.
32:11
It was new for me, too. That was my first time up there.
32:14
It, it was great. I had such a great time and
32:20
really the most fun I had was sharing our coffee with all
32:24
those people that didn't know it existed, or didn't think it
32:29
would be good. In fact, I was kind of funny.
32:32
I had one guy, walk up and he said to me again you know where
32:35
these trees from Ethiopia and I said no no Eric's first excuse
32:39
me said these are Geisha trees. I see Yes, Ethiopia and I said,
32:43
no no. These are California and he
32:44
started laughing and I said, no really, they're California.
32:46
I'm just finishing up Brewing. Some why don't you wait a
32:48
second. You can try some coffee and he
32:50
just walked away, and I just kind of we all kind of start
32:54
laughing. It was pretty funny but having
32:57
people taste the coffee up there and seeing their reaction for me
33:01
was the biggest thing and talking about what we're doing
33:04
talking about, you know, really how you know, going back to
33:09
coffee is grown all over. All over the world.
33:12
And what's interesting about California coffee, is, It goes
33:17
from the farmer up to Jay up to Fringe for post and then
33:24
roasting and then selling. So it goes through two or three
33:29
hands before it gets on the UPS truck and gets to your house.
33:33
That's a great thing. You know, that's it's kind of
33:37
changing the whole name of the game and for me telling people,
33:41
that's exciting and fun. Raising Awareness on the world
33:48
coffee is important to me as well because a lot of people
33:51
don't think about the farmers and how much work gets put into
33:55
it and how little money they get at the end.
34:00
And so to raise awareness on that to I it's not California
34:04
Coffee. That's fine.
34:05
But you know we need to really think about the whole supply
34:09
chain and from beginning to end I love teaching people.
34:13
All about that. And I think it's important for
34:15
people to know Yeah, it is a very interesting Dynamic that
34:20
the supply chain questions of it and not even that as we're
34:24
talking about moving forward. In an era where this generation
34:29
of next Generations are going to be aggressively dealing with the
34:32
impacts of climate change. The idea that a product is grown
34:35
and stays in its Community, to some extent.
34:39
In its region, is, people are going to say new.
34:42
But it's also a throwback to a time when towns had, you know,
34:46
you had the Town Brewery You have the Town Market, you have
34:48
the Town Farmer and, you know, that's kind of, was your world
34:51
with the exception of kind of special things coming through on
34:55
trade routes. I personally kind of see a
34:59
future in which we push a little bit more in that direction when
35:01
people are more aware. I mean, I live in Southern
35:04
California and until I started talking to some of the farmers
35:08
at my local farmers market, I didn't realize that I could
35:10
pretty much get all the fruits and vegetables I wanted grown
35:13
locally. Yeah.
35:15
For the most part, you know we can get a farm box and We'll
35:17
have more food than we could ever eat and instead of going to
35:21
the grocery store and buying say, strawberries from Peru or
35:24
wherever, you know, it's just terrible thing earlier on when
35:27
you're talking a little bit about how you were traveling,
35:29
for the better part of a decade and a half or so, pretty
35:33
exclusively with your work. What lessons did you learn from
35:36
from those travels? Is there anything that you can
35:38
look back on now as you had a chance to?
35:41
I don't want to say slow down, but a chance to spend time in
35:46
one place a little bit more. That maybe you think we're good
35:49
life lessons. Hmm.
35:57
Well, I've been an avid traveler pretty much my whole adult life
36:01
I've Loved traveling. And when I go to places, I
36:04
really like to immerse myself in the local culture and so kind of
36:11
is a full circle back to exactly what you were saying.
36:14
If I'm, you know, I don't know. Let's say somewhere in Eastern
36:20
Europe, I want to eat what they, you know, I don't want to go to
36:23
McDonald's or, you know, Hard Rock Cafe or something like
36:27
that, right? I want to know what they eat and
36:31
the time of year, they eat it because still a lot of places in
36:33
the world, you know, here in the States you can get apples year
36:37
round, you can get bananas year round, but a lot of places in
36:40
the world still like, you know, Germany for example, when they
36:44
get there I'm going to pronounce it wrong.
36:47
There's Bagel. It's the white asparagus comes
36:51
out in the end of spring and everybody's really excited and
36:54
all these restaurants. And start serving it and people
36:57
just go crazy for it. Then it's gone and then you have
36:59
to wait till next year and that to me makes the food that we
37:03
eat. So much more exciting if that
37:05
makes any sense. You know again being in Southern
37:08
California like yourself in the beginning of the year you get
37:12
those delicious oranges and there's nothing like them and
37:16
then they're gone after a couple of months.
37:18
And of course you can still buy oranges from all over the world
37:20
like you said, or blueberries or any kind of fruit or produce.
37:24
But me, it's more important that You eat the things when they're
37:30
supposed to be eaten. When Nature tells you it's time
37:33
to eat them and to me again, it makes it more special.
37:36
And so I think going back to your question and the travels
37:39
that's really been a big part of my travel experiences and what
37:46
I've learned and being a lot more open to every culture and
37:52
really Being grateful for what you have, what I have.
37:57
Yeah, I think that's Yeah, well, I'll turn a little bit towards
38:04
the rabbit hole that you found yourself in with coffee.
38:08
Am I mistaken in thinking that you became a q greater?
38:13
I am a curator. That's actually really kind of
38:18
funny story again. We really do have into the
38:23
coffee when the shutdown happened during the pandemic.
38:28
And so we picked One day I was driving back to LA.
38:32
My dad had dropped the coffee off, it Fringe with cherries.
38:36
I should say up at Fringe, and then he called me and said, hey,
38:41
Paige and Griffin. Their two employees at their
38:43
page. And Griffin are going to get
38:44
their cue. You need to go with them and I
38:47
said, get my what he said. Because I said though, what what
38:52
is that? And he goes, you know, your Q so
38:54
you can like rate coffee or something.
38:57
I said, okay. And he said they're going to go
38:59
up to this boot coffee campus up in San Rafael, okay?
39:05
I went online and signed up looked into it and I thought,
39:07
oh, okay. Well this is going to be, this
39:09
will be cool and I thought that I was going to go up there and
39:16
be trained, take the tests and then get my certificate, which
39:22
anybody that's done the queue, that's 100%.
39:25
Not the case in some Oh uh, well actually pretty funny I called
39:29
up there a couple days before the class started and spoke with
39:32
their campus director. Valerian her Allah and told him.
39:37
You know, I'm coming up and he said, oh did you take the
39:39
century course? And I said no.
39:41
And he said well you need to take that before you come.
39:44
I said I think I'll be all right.
39:45
He kind of laughed and I remember the first day we showed
39:48
up everybody introduce ourselves and there were seven of us
39:52
including myself in the class and I was the only one with like
39:56
zero cupping. Experience and the first
39:59
calibration we did, I remember looking at the cupping sheet and
40:03
I was thinking, oh my God, what and William is talking about it
40:08
and everybody seems to know what's going on and I just went
40:10
out there and thought, okay? And I just kind of watched
40:13
everybody else did and tried to mimic them about halfway
40:17
through. The first day, we broke for
40:19
lunch and I remember going outside calling my dad, and I
40:21
was saying, if any idea what you got me into holy now, God, this
40:25
is all my god. What have I done?
40:27
I can't believe I'm here Jesus and then I just went through it.
40:30
And, you know, the class was cool.
40:33
Everybody was so nice, made a lot of good friends there and
40:36
everybody. Weirdly kind of started rooting
40:39
for me because I was like the underdog in the whole thing.
40:44
It was. one of the most difficult things I've ever had
40:47
to do and the first time I passed 15 of the 19 tests which
40:54
I was so proud of And then I learned when I came back home
41:01
after it, I practice and practice, and practice, and
41:04
practice for about six months before, I went up for my
41:06
retakes. And yeah, I'm really happy that
41:10
I did it because it taught me so much in what people are looking
41:15
for in quality and what constitutes high 80s, low 90s
41:20
coffee versus a low 80s coffee versus a commodity coffee.
41:25
having that Knowledge from a growing standpoint is, I think
41:29
really helpful because I kind of know what notes we should try to
41:35
be looking for, you know, To help us get a coffee that's more
41:42
in that range as much as we can. And the great thing about my
41:48
personal experience, getting the cue for me.
41:50
It worked out, not knowing what I was getting into, because had
41:53
I known what it was going to be. I'm probably wouldn't have done
41:56
it. So going in blind really was the
42:00
best thing for me. And those guys up there Willem
42:03
Boot and Valerian have been mentors.
42:06
Great teachers, we're all good. Friends were still in
42:10
communication. We talk all the time.
42:12
We went down to Panama and my dad and I and visited Willam.
42:16
Farms down, there's Islam mullah and Macabre and you know it's
42:21
just really expanded. I think our knowledge from a
42:24
growing stamp sure they saw someone else who's, you know,
42:28
drank the Kool-Aid of course you're going to stick so to
42:34
speak the truth, the coffee's on this week well and that is to
42:38
when you go into this coffee industry.
42:41
People are also passionate about it, which is what's so much fun
42:45
about it is. Even the hobbyist everybody is
42:50
just, they've got this deep passion and appreciation for it,
42:54
which I love. And eigen passionate about
42:58
people's passion for things, which is why this show exists.
43:02
Is there anything that we didn't cover today?
43:04
That you think people should know about, you know, Rancho,
43:07
Delfino, farming in California, and what comes next for you as a
43:12
coffee person? Well, I think a big thing that
43:19
we've learned, which we are very passionate about to is the type
43:26
of farming that we're doing, you know, we're trying with like,
43:30
biodynamic farming, regenerative, farming, you know,
43:34
we are using the when we mulch, when we prune the coffee plants,
43:39
we mulch those cuttings and use the mulch and the coffee plants
43:43
because that's where you get the better.
43:46
Go bacterial growth for the soil and that's important to us.
43:51
And the products we use are important to us.
43:53
And when you're learning, you know, what kind of nutrients are
43:55
you using? What kind of stuff are you
43:57
putting into the ground because that all plays into what's
44:01
growing there? And so ants, for example, answer
44:07
a little bit of a problem when it comes to Coffee growing, but
44:10
you can do some boric acid and some sugar water, you put those
44:16
cups of Around the property and the ants go into that instead of
44:19
the coffee. And, you know, it's all organic
44:22
material. It's all natural stuff.
44:24
We're not certified organic. We looked into it.
44:28
My dad looked into it when he first got the farm, but it's a
44:31
lengthy process and it's an expensive process.
44:34
So we're not certified but everything.
44:35
We use organic because we're concerned about what we're
44:40
eating as well and you know, there's Plum trees on the
44:43
property. There's blood orange is, there's
44:46
Meyer lemons. There's a bunch of stuff that we
44:48
eat as well. And so that's important to us
44:50
and learning that whole aspect of Agriculture is very exciting
44:56
to me and I really, really, really love it.
44:58
So what the future holds hopefully we'll be able to
45:03
expand. Hopefully, we'll be able to put
45:04
a lot more trees in the ground because We love doing it and I
45:10
would not to toot our own horn but I think we're getting pretty
45:12
good at it. And we're producing some really,
45:15
really good coffee. And so there's nothing quite
45:19
like somebody comes up there and you brew some coffee that you
45:25
have grown on the property and you give him that cop or even
45:28
when you first grind it in that, Aroma comes out and people are
45:31
going well what does that you brew it?
45:34
And they drink it. And the look on their face is
45:36
really sober word. Eating and it just makes you
45:38
feel good. Made something really delicious.
45:40
People love. I have kind of two last
45:44
questions for you. This one is normally my last
45:47
question, but it is. When you are out in the world,
45:49
you're not drinking coffee that you've grown yourself, which is
45:52
insane to me. What do you order at a coffee
45:54
shop? Boy, that's one of the tough
46:03
things about being learning so much being not a want to say,
46:08
being a curator but learning about the different notes and
46:10
coffee and then kind of figure out what you really like and
46:14
what you don't like, because it does make it difficult out in
46:17
the world. So, I've two things, whenever
46:19
I'm in a new town, I always look at the different coffee shops.
46:23
If anybody's ever offering like a cup of Excellence for over,
46:27
I'll go there first and try that.
46:30
And a lot of times, I bring beans with me, and if I have to,
46:33
I'll just chew on the beans as I'm going along.
46:37
If I'm going somewhere for a long time, I bring a brewing kit
46:40
with me with a grinder and my little pour over kid.
46:44
And, you know, I'll bring coffee with me, but if not, yeah, I
46:48
worse comes to worse. I just have some beans and I'll
46:50
just eat along the way. I have not done that, I, but now
46:57
I might I'm taking a long road trip here in a few weeks.
47:00
So I'll have to keep some, some good beans in the car, maybe for
47:04
Rancho Delfino. Yes.
47:06
So, the last question I'm going to ask you and it's selfish and
47:09
based purely on your career history, which is if you had to
47:13
become a superhero, what superhero would you be?
47:18
Oh my gosh and why is the important part of that?
47:22
Oh my gosh. oh, Boy, I really have to think about this for a
47:28
second. What superhero would I be?
47:31
This is why I like answer asking the questions because I don't
47:34
actually have an answer for myself either because every time
47:37
I think of one, I'm like, oh well, but they have this skill
47:40
and they have this skill, and there's this emotional aspect to
47:42
their story. So I'm leaving it up to you.
47:46
I guess with my film history, I worked on a lot of Marvel
47:52
projects so and I'm not a big kind of comic book person.
47:57
It never was when I was a kid but I think I know the most
48:01
about those superheroes, you know, Iron Man is pretty cool.
48:06
The suit can do just about anything and everything and to
48:09
be able to fly around, or to go underwater to do, all that stuff
48:13
with that suit, and be virtually indestructible.
48:15
Abel. I think that would be a pretty
48:19
cool superhero to be. And not only that, just because
48:24
you could go so fast up in the air dive down.
48:27
Go underwater for so long. Yeah, I think it would just be,
48:30
I guess it would be Iron Man. Well, when, when the writers
48:34
strike ends, I'm going to start working on a script about an
48:37
Iron Man, like character who is fueled by coffee beans also had,
48:43
you can collaborate on that. I would love to Sounds like a
48:46
good movie to me as we were sitting here, I came up with the
48:49
superhero. I would be who doesn't exist
48:51
yet, but I've got this squirrelly, little puppy walking
48:54
around, jumping on me in the podcast Booth.
48:57
So I my superpower would be understanding what is going on
49:00
in the mind of a dog. I think we'd all be man, you see
49:05
what's going on? You had me on the spot.
49:07
I was trying to sounds like you're a dog lover like me and
49:13
my dog. I'm Just in love with her and if
49:17
she could just tell me what she wanted.
49:19
It would just make are if I could tell her if she could read
49:22
my mind. It might be easier.
49:23
Yeah Richard I really appreciate your time today and just kind of
49:29
hearing your story. I like to your stories where
49:31
people have made choices in their life.
49:34
That may not have seemed obvious in the first place, you know.
49:37
I doubt there was a time 10 years ago, where you thought you
49:39
know, what I'ma Do someday Farm coffee.
49:42
That's what I'm going to do that one.
49:44
So that's inspiring to And I just appreciate you being here.
49:48
Well, thank you so much. I'm so glad that we met.
49:51
I've always really enjoyed your podcast.
49:53
I think you have a great show. So I really appreciate being on,
49:57
it's exciting, and you're fantastic.
50:00
And it's really cool. I really appreciate it.
50:03
Well, thank you. Okay.
50:14
Here are some key takeaways from today's As episode Fathers and
50:17
Sons working together. Boy, I've been there, it can be
50:22
incredibly rewarding but no one knows how to push my buttons,
50:26
like my dad and I get the impression it works in Reverse
50:29
for him I commend Richard and Mike for tackling a challenge as
50:33
demanding as farming together. Rancho Delfino is in Carpinteria
50:37
California notably outside the traditional coffee belt.
50:42
They are one of many coffee Farms popping up in the region.
50:46
For a long time, Richards career in the film industry, kept him
50:48
on the road when he wasn't working.
50:51
He was engaging with culture and community in the locales that he
50:54
found himself for a few years. There were only brief interludes
50:58
at the farm. The coronavirus grounded him for
51:01
an extended period in retrospect.
51:03
He sees that as a blessing in disguise Rancho Delfino has
51:07
become much more a part of his life at the farm.
51:10
Richard found another use for the skills.
51:12
He has been cultivating in his first career in Killer being
51:16
organized and collecting data working with his hands and
51:20
cultivating a product to share with the world is a bonus.
51:24
However, this is the Modern Age and a small business.
51:29
Even in agricultural, one needs an online presence.
51:32
I can attest that the need to build and maintain a website.
51:35
Social media can be daunting even if it is an oft semi
51:40
necessary, evil, the at Rancho Delfino, Instagram is up and
51:44
running and a website. Is on the way even if the focus
51:47
is generally on the land Richard used to term near the end of the
51:51
show that I wasn't familiar with.
51:53
So I looked it up. Biodynamic farming is a way for
51:57
Farmers or gardeners to build a symbiotic, relationship with the
52:00
soil called an alternative agriculture biodynamic Farmers.
52:05
Look to maintain and restore soils in a search for efficiency
52:09
sustainability and a limitation of soil erosion.
52:13
There are other ethical and ecological reasons for
52:15
biodynamic farming, but balance between the farmers needs and
52:19
doing what is best for. The land.
52:21
Seems to be the gist of it. Finally Richard, if he could
52:25
choose would be an Ironman. Like superhero one who may be
52:29
filled by the coffee, he grows, you can learn more about Rancho
52:33
Delfino and Richard on roast westcoast.com.
52:36
I'll make sure the important links are in this shows podcast
52:39
notes which hopefully you can find wherever you're listening.
52:43
Thanks to Richard for spending some time.
52:44
Sharing his story with me. His interview came with the
52:47
added stress of being the first guest of the coffee, people
52:50
podcast season 8. I'm always a little bit Rusty to
52:54
start a season but he made the conversation, really easy.
52:57
I thank him for that too. And I think you for being here
53:01
for listening to the stories of coffee people for being inspired
53:04
by their entrepreneurial efforts.
53:06
And for supporting this podcast, if you are in the early stages
53:10
of your coffee journey, I want to support Port you to season
53:14
two of The Coffee smarter education.
53:16
Podcast is currently recording the first episode drops next
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week. So be sure to find it on your
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Subscribe button, it is specifically geared to enable
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coffee drinkers to brew, a better cup of coffee at home.
53:32
If you're like me, and you're trying to recreate that great
53:34
coffee, that you just had at the coffee roaster.
53:36
You don't want to miss any episode of the coffee smarter
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If you're listening to this show the day, it drops.
54:17
I'm probably at a say right now cupping with co-owners and
54:21
brothers Jared and Luke Hales, and ogling the burlap sacks
54:24
filled with green coffee beans, this podcast, coffee people will
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be back next week with Charles Carpenter the founder of tech
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wani design in Denver. Colorado, this episode of the
54:36
coffee people podcast, which is part of the roast West Coast
54:39
Coffee Network you. Is was has been written produced
54:42
and recorded by me Ryan Walt. I hope this episode is found you
54:47
happy healthy and with at least a thread of sanity left enabling
54:51
you to make it through the day, always tip your Baristas and be
54:55
sure to drink. Good coffee.