Standing Stone Brewing Company

Standing Stone Farm

By in Ashland Oregon, Community, Food, Other Good Stuff, Standing Stone Farm, Sustainability 1

Streamlining Operations at Standing Stone Brewing Company

Since 2011 we have raised free-range cattle and sheep on our farm, aptly named One Mile Farm for its location to our brewery, to serve in our restaurant. This endeavor has been both a rewarding and positive experience over the past 8 years. After careful and thoughtful consideration however, it is with content hearts that we have made the decision to close One Mile Farm. Many of you may ask “why?” Simply put, we are streamlining operations as well as increasing our support of local farmers by putting the task of raising our cattle in the capable hands of Ashland rancher Dave Westerberg of Valley View Farms.

Dave Westerberg of Valley View Farms, Ashland, OR

As all members of our community can attest to, recent summers of heavy smoke and hazardous air conditions have resulted in a significant decline in tourism.  Some of the hardest businesses hit? Local restaurants such as ours.  Farm operations are costly, and as we focus our attention on strengthening our relationships with local farmers to produce farm-to-table food, it was the right decision to close our farm and transfer the responsibility of raising our cattle to esteemed rancher Westerberg.

The cattle we had previously raised on One Mile Farm were purchased from Westerberg as calves and brought just a quarter of a mile from his farm to ours.  Essentially, the only difference between Standing Stone raising these cattle and Westerberg is that they will be grazing on grass just a short distance away.  The manner in which they are raised will remain the same: 1) The land and cattle are chemical-free – no fertilizer or hormones are used.  2) They graze freely on open pastures using a management-intensive rotational system that helps rejuvenate the grass and soil, with the herds moved from one section to another sequentially. 3) These cattle are raised holistically using organic, responsible and sustainable farming practices.

Adolescent Bull, Valley View Farms

Standing Stone management met with Westerberg recently to take a tour of his farmland and its operations.  It was during this tour that Westerberg shared he and his family have raised purebred Black Angus cattle here in Ashland for more than 70 years on 80 acres of family-owned property.

From left to right: Lauri Westerberg, Elizabeth Westerberg, Dave Westerberg, Nathan Steele

Westerberg has 31 permanent pastures under his care and these are often divided with temporary electric fencing to facilitate their managed intensive grazing goals; the main goal being to improve the biological life of the soil.

Farm Tour with Standing Stone

Westerberg is currently raising approximately 100 cattle and separates them into various groups.  These include cows with their offspring, adolescents on an intensive nutrition plan and mature cattle nearing processing time. Just as they were on One Mile Farm, these animals will continue to be processed humanely, and the quality of the resulting product will remain the same: grass-fed, grass-finished beef that has health benefits such as higher Omega 3’s as well as lower saturated fat and cholesterol versus conventional beef.

These cattle graze on a wide variety of grass species including rye grass, orchard grass, timothy, 3 types of clover, birds foot trefoil, meadow foxtail and plantain.  During our tour with Westerberg we witnessed many cattle “mooing” for his attention while gathered at various gate entrances.  When asked what they were mooing about he shared that they were trying to get his attention in order to be let into other nearby pastures with enticing grasses.  To say these cattle live a happy life appears to be an understatement by our personal accounts.

As we continue to work with local farmers, our menu will also reflect even more farm-to-table choices than ever before.  We currently partner with RA Farms, Happy Dirt Farm, Wandering Roots Farm, Mushrooms All Year and Fry Family Farms, keeping it local while sourcing vibrant, wholesome ingredients.  The next time you dine with us, check out our Weekly Specials Board to see the current items sourced from these farms.

SSBC Steakhouse Burger

As a sustainable, environmentally conscience brewery and restaurant, we are excited for this next chapter in our story and look forward to bringing you, our loyal customers, all things “local.”  Thank you for your continued support and patronage.  We couldn’t do it without you!

By in Ashland Oregon, Food, Other Good Stuff, Restaurant & Menu, Standing Stone Farm, Sustainability, Uncategorized 0

Standing Stone’s Rooftop Garden Embraces Responsible, “Green” Gardening

Standing Stone is constantly striving to serve food sourced from farms that are not only local, but who also grow their products with environmental awareness in mind.  We want to do our part to keep the planet as healthy as possible in a time of global climate change and harmful farming practices.  It’s why we choose to partner with local businesses such as Wandering Roots Farm, Happy Dirt Farm, Fry Family Farm and RA Farms, to name a few. Recently, we also turned a small area of our rooftop into our very own garden to grow as many ingredients as we can here at the restaurant.  It was assembled with the goals of repurposing materials that would ordinarily go to the local landfill and using materials that we already have here in the restaurant.

The structure itself is comprised of wood from an old deck, old burlap sacks we had on hand, fruit bins, drip system parts we already had and finally, compost from our farm down the road.

SSBC Rooftop Garden

Eggplant, Anaheim chilis, summer squash, chives, various types of basil, parsley, purple jalapenos and cherry tomatoes are just some of the vegetables and herbs recently planted. Various types of edible flowers were also planted, which will eventually be used as garnishes.

Purple Jalapenos

 

Cherry Tomatoes

All of the items planted were either purchased locally from the Grange Co-Op & Ashland Green Houses, grown from seed and/or donated.

A Garden Promoting Environmental Awareness

We look forward to harvesting our garden’s bounty, and will be using these fresh, organic ingredients in both our food menu items and cocktails from the bar!  The next time you dine with us, it’s quite possible you’ll be sampling the fruits of our rooftop garden’s labor.

By in Ashland Oregon, Community, Restaurant & Menu, Standing Stone Farm, Sustainability 0

With the Changing Season Comes SSBC’s New Winter Menu!

Showcasing our own One Mile Farm, as well as locally owned farms and purveyors, our Winter Menu is sure to please!

Our new menu items contain fresh, vibrant ingredients that are farm-to-table in every sense of the phrase.  Some of the house-made ingredients in our new menu items include kimchi, Tempest IPA BBQ sauce, Gochujang BBQ sauce, French onion beef broth from the bones of our cows and a vanilla & marionberry vinaigrette, to name a few. * As always, we offer gluten-free options to include pizza dough and burger buns.

 

Fall Ratatouilli

 

Pear & Beet Salad

 

SSBC Bean Burger

 

One Mile Farm Korean Burger

 

Roasted Pear & Chevre Pizza

When you choose to dine at Standing Stone Brewing Company, you’re not only supporting our mission of sustainability and environmental awareness, but you’re also giving your support to the local economy. And for that, we sincerely thank you!

Be sure to check out our weekly specials as well; they change every Thursday, and bring variety and creativity to your dining experience.

For a detailed description of these items, as well as to view the rest of our menu, please click the following link: https://www.standingstonebrewing.com/menu/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By in Ashland Oregon, Food, Restaurant & Menu, Standing Stone Farm, Sustainability, Uncategorized 0

Our One Mile Farm – As Local As It Gets!

Farm Entry

 

At Standing Stone, we are all proud of our commitment to local, organically grown and raised foods.  We especially appreciate the hard work of all the local farmers who provide the raw ingredients for much of our fare. Whether it’s hops from Alpha Beta Hop Farm  going into our handmade ales, or veggies from Fry Family Farms finding their way into one of Chef Javier’s awesome specials, we nurture relationships with like-minded food producers throughout the Rogue Valley.

When Standing Stone moved to make sourcing even more local by raising our own beef, we were especially excited and proud to work with Dave Westerberg of Valley View Farms . For years, Dave has used holistic, organic and sustainable farming practices raising cattle here in Ashland.  These practices are better for the cattle, the environment and consumers, and Dave’s farm presented the model we wanted to follow raising our own beef

Dave has brought his expertise and care to our One Mile Farm, 265 acres of pasture just down the street, where Standing Stone produces ALL of the beef products served in our restaurant, along with almost all of our lamb as well (Not to mention our buzzing bees producing honey used in our ales and sauces). The 50 or so cattle and 30 plus ewes we’re raising graze freely on open pasture using a management-intensive rotational system that helps rejuvenate the grass and soil, with the herds moved from one section to another sequentially.

One Mile Cow

The land and the cattle are chemical free – no fertilizers, antibiotics or hormones are used. This means that we only serve a very full-flavored grass-fed beef that’s humanely raised and free of chemicals. Not only does our grass-fed beef have health benefits such as higher Omega 3’s and key vitamins, it also contains lower saturated fat and cholesterol versus conventional beef.  On the environmental side, pastured beef systems have lower carbon emissions than feedlot-raised cattle, and help sequester carbon.

When it is time to take the cattle to slaughter, we bring the meat back to the restaurant in halves and quarters. Our trained kitchen staff performs all the butchering in house. It takes a full day of two or three chefs working around the clock to properly cut the beef. The burgers are fresh-ground and the steaks are specially cut.

So the next time you come down to the Standing Stone for a refreshing ale and dinner, and see the specialty steak of the day on the specials board, you can dine assured that the cut is freshly prepared and the meat came straight from a sustainable, humane farm right next door.

 

 

By in Ashland Oregon, Brewery & Beer, Community, Pints for a Purpose, Standing Stone Farm 0

Pints for a Purpose-Stand Up For Oregon! No LNG. No Pipeline

Tuesday, March 3- from 5-10pm is the final Pints for a Purpose for 2015/2016. We had an incredibly successful year because of your support and the hard work of the organizations involved. We are ending this season with a BANG!

The Stand Up For Oregon! NO LNG. NO Pipeline is a coalition of organizations, landowners, businesses, climate activists, conservationists and concerned citizens working to stop the Jordan Cove Energy Project. The project consists of a 230 mile pipeline and a gas export facility. The pipeline would run across Southern Oregon from Malin to Coos Bay, where the export facility location is proposed.

The pipeline would transport up to 1.2 billion cubic feet per day of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Rockies and Canada to the export facility. Once there, it would be stored and then loaded onto mega-tankers for transportation to foreign markets.

From a conservation perspective, this project possesses a significant threat to Southern Oregon’s rivers, forests, and people. The pipeline would require a 100 foot wide clear-cut, which would cross nearly 400 waterways, and cross farms and family properties regardless of the property owner’s objection. LNG Map

The export facility will require dredging of Coos Bay to allow passage of the transport tankers, a 400 megawatt processing facility, and huge storage tanks within the tsunami hazard boundaries. This facility, if allowed to operate, would become the largest greenhouse gas emitter in Oregon.

As part of our mission at Standing Stone Brewing Company, we believe in smart resource use, renewable energy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and supporting causes that align themselves with our mission. The Stand Up For Oregon! NO LNG. NO Pipeline campaign encompasses many of our values and we look forward to supporting their work by opening our doors to their organizations and by donating $2 from every pint of beer sold between 5-10pm.

We hope that you will support this cause and stand up for Oregon by drinking one (or two) of our delicious craft beers. Families welcome!

Click here to read the Medford Mail Tribune’s article on this project.

By in Ashland Oregon, Brewery & Beer, Community, Events, Standing Stone Farm, Sustainability 0

Pints for a Purpose benefits Bee Girl Dec. 1st

We want to say a big “Thank You!” to everyone who turned out for our first Pints for a Purpose event. You all drank 213 pints of beer raising over $426 for our friends at Sanctuary One. What a huge success and great way to kick off the Pints for a Purpose program!

Now for round two… Join us December 1st as we benefit Bee Girl. From 5-10PM, $2 of every pint sold will be donated to their non-profit organization. 54d775_d6c21cf14378499282c390782008d18e

Bee Girl inspires communities to conserve bees and their habitat. They offer community beekeeping classes, public lectures on honey bee conservation, work with children through their Kids and Bees program and much more. Founder Sarah Red-Laird has built a dedicated team who are inspiring people all around the world to make a difference.

Why should you love honey bees? Because 1 out of every 3 bites of food we eat is pollinated by a honey bee. Without bees, we have no food; and without bees, we hate to even say it, but we have no beer! These little guys are working hard to keep food on our tables and beer in our bellies. It’s the least we can do to give them a hand.

Here are 3 easy ways you can help, from the Bee Girl herself:

  1. BeePlant Flowers- Choose flowers that bees love like Lavender, Sunflowers, and Poppies. Avoid chemicals and adjust your mower to leave the clovers and dandelions on your lawn.
  2. Vote with Your Fork– Choose local, sustainably raised and farmed food choices. Not only will you support your local farmer and economy, you’re also helping to keep your local honey bee colonies thriving and healthy
  3. Create a Space in Your Heart for Bees– The more we care about honey bees, the more we can do to make choices that benefit them. Whether you’re keeping bees, or planting a garden bed full of flowers, every little bit helps.

We would love to hear ways you are helping to conserve our honey bees! Have a hive or garden at home? Feel free to share your pictures!

We hope to see you December 1st from 5-10PM. Remember, those pints add up fast! So bring your friends and family and come hang out with us and the Bee Girl team. Let’s enjoy a pint or two for a good cause!

Bee1

Our Bees at the One Mile Farm

By in Ashland Oregon, Community, Events, Standing Stone Farm 0

7th Annual Pumpkins & Pints

farm2

Mark your calendar, hold all phone calls, and reschedule all meetings. Pumpkins and Pints is Sunday, October 25th from 12pm-5pm. This annual autumn get-together started with a small group of Standing Stone employees who gathered at the brewpub in October to carve pumpkins with their families. Years later, it has grown to be our biggest event of the year. In 2014 we welcomed hundreds of guests to our farm to carve pumpkins, enjoy BBQ and beer, play games, run amok, and help us celebrate a beautiful southern Oregon day (last year was sunny and 70 degrees). We invite you to come help us do the same in 2015!

hay balesHere’s what’s on the books for this year: weather permitting, we’ll hold the event at One Mile Farm, just down the road from Standing Stone. We’ll provide the pumpkins and carving tools (you’re welcome to bring your own if you take pumpkin carving really seriously), and you just show up with your creative ideas. You can purchase beer, hard cider, lemonade, brats and burgers once you’ve worked up a hearty appetite. We’ll have live music with Swift Pony and Special Guest Sam Cathcart (you can visit their new music store, Hilltop Music Shop, in Ashland) and games to keep kids of all ages entertained.

To get to the farm, follow Oak Street from Standing Stone to the very bottom, where it meets Eagle Mill Road. Take a right, go under the overpass, and find the entrance to our farm immediately after the bridge on the left side of the road. Limited parking is available on the roadside, so we suggest biking to the event to take advantage of front-row, two-wheeled parking inside our pasture. And if these directions are just too confusing, plug in the farm address to your Maps app: 1469 Eagle Mill Road in Ashland.

pastureIf the weather turns sour, our PLAN B is bringing all the pumpkins back to Standing Stone for an indoor/patio event at the brewpub. We’ll call the weather one week prior (check back here or on our social media pages), so you’ll know well in advance where to find us. If the week before is wet, but the event day is sunny, we’ll do it all on the patio outside at the brewpub to avoid the mud and still get some fall-fresh air.

The event is free and family-friendly! And if the weather lets us play at the farm, dogs on leashes are welcome, too. We’re excited to see you all elbow-deep scraping seeds and creating great jack-o-lanterns. Bring along your farm boots and cozy clothes, and we’ll all have some good, old-fashioned autumn time fun!

By in Standing Stone Farm, Sustainability 0

We’ve Joined a Call for Action on Climate Change

We’re excited to announce the debut of the Brewery Climate Declaration, a call to action that urges policymakers to seize the economic and environmental opportunities of tackling climate change. Twenty four brewery signatories have jumped on board, from small microbreweries to major international brands, and we’re one of them!

Members of the brewing industry have signed the Brewery Climate Declaration to call attention to the specific risks and opportunities of climate change on the $246 billion nation-wide industry. Breweries face multiple climate change impacts: warmer temperatures and extreme weather events can harm the production of hops, grown primarily in the Pacific Northwest. Clean water resources are also becoming scarcer in the West as a result of droughts and reduced snow pack.climate declaration

At Standing Stone, we’ve taken several steps to reduce our environmental footprint, and it’s great to operate alongside other breweries making sustainable business a priority. Here are a handful of things we do at Standing Stone to operate more efficiently:

  • Generate electricity with rooftop solar panels
  • Reduce natural gas usage with a heat recovery system
  • Reduce energy usage through lighting improvements
  • Purchase carbon and water usage offsets
  • Reduce our company-wide carbon footprint by giving bikes to employees with our Bike Program
  • Operate a farm to provide local beef, lamb and honey
  • Purchase local wines in kegs
  • Seek Salmon Safe and organic hops
  • Compost brewpub waste on our farm
  • Purchase sustainably-caught fish for our menu

And much more…breweries all over the U.S. are coming up with innovative ways to be sustainable. New Belgium captures and reuses methane to provide 15% of their brewery’s electricity needs. Odell Brewing’s modified vacuum pump triple-uses water and saves the Colorado brewery 25 million gallons of water annually.

Here is the complete list of breweries that have signed the Brewery Climate Declaration. You can learn more at ClimateDeclaration.us.

  • Aeronaut Brewing Company (MA)
  • The Alchemist (VT)
  • Allagash Brewing Company (ME)
  • Aspen Brewing Company (CO)
  • Brewery Vivant (MI)
  • Buoy Beer Company (OR)
  • Chuckanut Brewery and Kitchen (WA)
  • Deschutes Brewery (OR)
  • Fort George Brewery and Public House (OR)
  • Fremont Brewing Company (WA)
  • Georgetown Brewing Co. (WA)
  • Guinness (Ireland)
  • Hopworks Urban Brewery (OR)
  • Kona Brewing Company (HI)
  • New Belgium Brewing (CO)
  • Ninkasi Brewing Company (OR)
  • Odell Brewing (CO)
  • Redhook Brewery (WA, NH)
  • Rockford Brewing Company (MI)
  • Smuttynose Brewing Company (NH)
  • Snake River Brewing Co. (WY)
  • Standing Stone Brewing Co. (OR)
  • Wet Dog Café & Brewery (OR)
  • Widmer Brothers Brewing (OR)
By in Community, Standing Stone Farm 0

Meet Ruby.

rubyWhen we started our One Mile Farm in 2011, we knew we wanted some security on our pastures. The brewery is a mile away and as much as we love being out there with the animals and fresh air, there’s still beer to be made!  So we did some research, drove to Portland, and picked up our three Anatolian Shepherd puppies to be our new farm dogs. Stone, IPA, and Ruby have been staples of our farm from the beginning. Unfortunately, life on the farm hasn’t been ideal for Ruby, and we’re sad to say it’s time to find her a new home. We’re hoping you can help us!

Ruby is a sweet, shy 90 pound girl. She gets lonely on the farm and tends to wander off when there isn’t anyone around. She usually meanders towards houses with kids, and loves to be around people. When she wanders away she always comes back, but we worry about her on the road. She’s accustomed to sleeping outside and gets shy if you ask her to come in. In fact, she hasn’t spent much time indoors at all, so we can’t say what her inside behavior would be. Outdoors, this three year-old is fun and loving.

ruby and brothers

Ruby and her brothers as puppies (she’s the one on the left, snuggling).

Ruby would do well in a home with room to roam. She would also benefit from people around her often, as she loves attention. Chickens and small animals can agitate her, and she would need to meet any other dogs in the family. She’s happiest when she can play outside with people, and is eager to please. If you came to our Pumpkins and Pints event this year, you may have seen her lounging in the sun by the trailer watching everyone have a good time.

This lady has led a simple life – she likes sleeping in dirt and hasn’t spent much time on a leash. She is all up to date on shots and healthy as can be. By nature, Anatolian Shepherds are powerful, intelligent and loyal, and Ruby is no exception.

We want to find Ruby a happy home where she can feel comfortable and at-ease, and we’re hoping you can help us. Tell your friends, and your friends’ friends! If you’re interested in meeting Ruby or learning more, email Alex at alex@standingstonebrewing.com.

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Standing Stone Brewing Co.
101 Oak Street
Ashland, OR 97520 View Map

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