@ForkReporter | Hour 2

Bennett’s Honey Farm
Salt and Pepper
Evo Grills
Big Green Egg

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, it's Niel Savedri. You'relistening to kf I am six forty the
four Report on demand on the iHeartRadioapp Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Hey, everybody, it's the fourReport, all things food, beverage,
out and beyond. I am yourwell fed host. Don't forget. You've
got to Wallace Sharp coming up atfive o'clock with so Cal Saturdays. Then

(00:24):
you've got Steve Gregory with Unsolved,and then after that you will have Before
the Coast with Clay Row and thenCoast to Coast. Look at the weird
looking bald man with a weird goateeand a weird hat. It's not my
reflection. There's actually another one ofme here apparently, So you can stick

(00:45):
around through all of that, andthen tomorrow morning, the Jesus Christ Show
is live. And if I've gotto be up to produce and Tony has
to be up running the board,then I sure would love for you to
join us there at six am,won't you all right? Broadcast live today
from Barbecue's Glore here in Valencia twofive five five zero. The old Road

(01:06):
and folks have come out, andI really appreciate you taking the time.
My dad taught me a long timeago the only commodity you can't make more
of is time. So it meansa lot to me that you guys came
out here. I think it's probablyfor the raffle, but I'm gonna I'm
gonna just think happy thoughts for now. If you haven't yet, make sure
you get some food. These aredelicious. A little street tacos that they're

(01:32):
making right now are outstanding, andCraig's they're manning those. If we get
a chance to give them a breakfrom there, we'll have them on as
well. However, speaking of which, as I was chatting, this is
one of my favorite things to dois be able to meet you folks,
so please don't be shy. Anda gentleman popped up to me and we've

(01:53):
had a contact before, you've reachedout to me, and I said,
well, then come on, whydon't you come put this headset on and
uh and we'll talk about what youdo. And it's al here. I'll
turn that on for you, allright, Al there you go. It's
al fortune like I wish I had. Yeah, yeah, I always say

(02:16):
it's Neil like you do in church. There you go and nobody understands what
a church is anymore, but they'llget it. So you work with a
honey farm, that's correct. Yeah, Bennetts Honey Farm and Chips Bees.
It's actually two companies under the HeavensHoney Incorporated and at the honey farm.

(02:37):
They're on Highway WIN twenty six betweenPiru and Fillmore and oth side of the
road. Sure, we pack andsell honey. We sell it retail as
well. We sell a lot ofwholesale honey and we have many, many
different varieties. It's a premium orraw honey that we that we collect from
the bees and the beekeepers. Wesupport the local beekeepers but buy in their

(02:58):
honey. That's great, So explainwhat raw honey is. Raw honey is
essentially honey that hasn't been filtered andsuperheated and processed. So our honey is
extracted from the comb in a temperatureof this equivalent to what's inside of the
hive. And then we have aproprietary straining method where we strain out pieces
of you know, bee parts,wax and things of that nature. Yeah,

(03:20):
I prefer meat personally. I don'tknow about any of them, but
I don't want bee parts, right, yeah, yeah, this is me.
I prefer my honey be part less. Right. Well, you know
that'd be protein. Would have tocharge you extra for it. Well,
we're not far off from eating uhyou bugs people, they are. They
do have a lot of protein,right and and raw honey. You know
it will crystallize. But you knowthat's if the honey doesn't crystallize, And

(03:45):
that's because it's been heated and filtered. So when your honey crystallizes, you
just warm it back up. Usea double boiler. If you live in
southern California, any givens, youknow, summer afternoon, put in the
back window of your car and a'llwarm up plenty good enough to yeah,
you know, return to it's anatural state. Remember, honey is the
only food that doesn't spoil. Itdoesn't have enough moisture to support bacteria growth.

(04:06):
They took honey the Egyptian Pyramids.It was several thousand years old,
it was it was crystallized solids arock. But they warmed it all up
and they had honey and their taste. Put it on a cracker. Could
you imagine there's no fermentation, there'sno none, But would there be any
difference in the taste at that pointa little bit. You know, when

(04:27):
we test our honey before we buyit and start to pack it, we
test it from moisture for pertickly whatyou mentioned. You know, if it's
above eighteen percent that it can potentiallyferment and then you're transitioning the meat,
which we do have a lot ofcustomers to make meat, but that would
take it. Sure. But yeah, honey with time will sometimes tend to
darken. Yeah, but usually that'sabout it to test that tastes the same.

(04:47):
Remember when you see our honeys withsage, buckwheat, avocado, blueberry,
that's the nectar from the blossom ofthe plant, you know, that's
what it is. So we don'tadd anything to that. People will come
up and they have avocado hontey.They one it was avocado honey taste.
Like I said, well, ittastes just like doritos and guacamola. Said
no, I'm just kids. It'sa it's a very dark, rich kind

(05:10):
of molasses. You flavored honey oneof the darkest ones, and uh you
are were clovers one of the lightesthoneyes. You know. So they all
have their own unique flavors and it'sat the honey farm. You can taste
them all and taste the different rials. It's kind of like wine tasting,
so it's it's fun. And youknow, I like a good cocktail and
I like being creative with them.And honey is one of the ways that
I will change an old fashioned becauseI'm a big fan of the old fashioned.

(05:33):
So as my sweetener, I'll usea honey and you get a really
good quality honey, or you getone with that is mixed with some other
natural flavors. Sometimes it can takeit to a whole different place, you
bet, you bet. The avocadohoney is one that's very popular with our
coffee drinkers. They like it andtheir espresso. It's got a real nice

(05:53):
flavored to People will buy our eucalyptushoney and mix that with their teas,
particularly fair you know, fighting thecoll or something like that. Yeah,
because it's going to give them mentallated kind of vibe kind of Yeah,
yeah, I get it's from thenectar of the blossom. We do make
flavor and honeys, and we identifythat all our honeys because they're premium and
they're pure raw. They're Kosher certifiedby the Los Angeles Rabbinical Council. But

(06:15):
if you buy honey where we've addedraspberry or limit or things of that nature
to do it, and we haveto black that out because we've actually added
something to do it. So wewant to be pre raw. And that
goes to say for our bees.We're also commercial beekeepers running about twelve thousand
colonies, and our bees now arejust coming out of the North Dakota area.
We're moving to Bishop, California,so we move all over the country
with our bees producing honey. Nowdo you how do I say this without

(06:42):
sending extremely stupid Do they let youknow when it's time to move? Or
are you doing something? I mean, is it? Do they want to
move? What's the purpose of youmoving them around? Good question, excellently
I could have gone down real bad. No, the bees are put out
a food source and then when thefood source, it's called the honey flow.

(07:02):
When the plants stop producing the nectar, then you can either move them
to a spot where they can producea nectar or you have to feed them.
When you're feeding that many bees,it's very expensive. So the honey
flow is over in North Dakota.So we'll put them into the Bishop area
and that's for a couple of reasons, the ones that keep them fed.
But when the bees have been inNorth Dakota, they're producing the corolla clover

(07:23):
honey, which is what you supplyto the big box stores, you know,
several million pounds. Because they havesuch a high comic custod to demand.
They can't rely on the varietals.You can only make so much sage
and blueberry honey, so you canmake them big before the big box stores.
But when the bees are on amonocultural food source, you got to
put them on a poly cultural foodsource so they can detoxify, build their

(07:43):
abune and strengths the immunity up intheir calmy strengths. So we move them
into the eastern slopes the Sere andNevada, and that's what they're doing now.
So we'll be brought back in tobring for the bee health and to
support the bees and prepare them tomove in the almonds for the almond pollination
of spring. Bees have more interestinglife than I do. They really do
have. It's pretty cool. Cool. Yet you ever see bees entering uh
oh, ever see bees landing inslow motion look like idiots. They bump

(08:09):
into each other, they hit thewalls. But man, when they're in
regular motion, I don't want anythingto do with them. Well, well
thanks, that's u al for Chinbecause he wants the money Bennett's honey Farm
and Chips Bees. That's correct,excellent, Well, what a pleasure,
Thanks very much. You appreciate Iappreciate you. It is the Fork Report

(08:33):
on Neil Savadra KFI AM sixty.You're listening to the Fork Report with Neil
Savedra on demand from KFI AM sixforty. Hey, everybody, it's the
Fork Report on Neil Savadra. Hangingout today in Valencia with a group of
good folks that are coming in gettingsome good eats, signing up for the
Raffle, for the Big Green EggMinimax and for some cutting boards that we've

(08:58):
got some Fok Reports swag, andwe appreciate you all taking the time to
come out here. We're at twofive five five zero the Old Road in
Valencia, and even had a surprisevisit by my wife and my boy Max
who popped in. I love thoseguys like a lot, like like from
the moon then back maybe even further, what's fun than the moon. I

(09:26):
loved your family. They were beautiful. Oh I get it. Tracy adores
you. She talks to you onthe phone and she's all she needs to
be on radio. I'm like,you're like a superhero. She's like,
I am my kind of woman.Yeah, she will take that, and
she is, trust me. SheI remember we were at some event and

(09:46):
some very nice lady came up toher and said, I love your husband.
I listened to him all the time. He's so wise. You must
be so proud to be married tohim. She goes, that's the type
of person you want in your life. Keep your grounded, keep the love
going, keep you grounded. Soanybody here, we've been talking about grilling.

(10:11):
Obviously we're here at Barbecue's Galore.You're gonna talk about grilling. If
you notice on the back wall there'sa big wall of rubs and things like
that. If you have any questionsabout that, if I can't answer them,
I'm sure somebody here can. Butchecking your flavor base is always a
big deal. I love rubs.They have their place. There's certain cuts

(10:31):
they work fantastic on. But fora steak, sometimes I'm really just oil
and salt and pepper. Thing is, you don't want that crap pepper that
we all had on the table growingup, or in some red and white
container box that sat in our pantryfor a bazillion years that we didn't even

(10:54):
know. And you smell it,it's like it smells dash, a little
bit like cardboard and sawdust. That'sno good. You want a mill,
even if it's the one that youget to go to the grocery store.
The little mills both for pepper andfor salt, so salt enhances flavor.

(11:18):
Pepper changes flavor, So salt shouldn'ttaste salty. It should taste if you
put it on meat, the meatshould taste meateor it should taste more like
it is. If you go somewhereand they have they baking chocolate chip cookies,
now you might see them flare tosalt or something like that, this
little light flaky salt on top,because that's not to make it taste like

(11:41):
salt. It's going to make thechocolate chips or whatever else taste more like
they are pepper. There are manydifferent types of peppers too, and so
the combination of those can make fora totally different flavor as well, and
oftentimes I use those things in combination. You know, I've talked about our

(12:03):
friends there at vom Foss in Claremont. They have a mix of peppers that
I love, so I keep someof them on hand. One might be
a little more peppery, just you'llfeel it on the back of your throat.
One might be a little sweeter,like the Tasmanian pepper if they have
it in, is a little sweeter, and it adds a whole different kind

(12:26):
of layer of flavor versus your standardpepper. That route is always great.
You're never going to go wrong withsalt and pepper. That's why they're everywhere,
because they work and dance together beautifully. But when you're cracking the peppercorns
in, when you're doing it,the oils release differently, so they're releasing

(12:50):
right in that moment, so you'regetting it at its peak rather than to
the best of the ability, ratherthan going ahead and having it sit in
its tiny little pieces drying out.The oils go away, and the oils
are what you really want from thatstuff too, and that's what builds those
flavors. We come back, we'lltalk more about seasoning and wind to season,

(13:15):
when not to season, and allthose things that go on when it
comes to grilling as well, aswe broadcast live from Barbecue's Galore and Valencia
two five five five zero. TheOld Road, I like that, very
clever, clever name. What doyou want to call that road? It's
been around for a while. It'sthe old road. What about that one

(13:37):
that's the new road? What aboutthat one? Younger than the old road,
but older than the new road?Got it. We'll get everybody where
they need to go. All right, stick around. More to come as
we broadcast live today out in Valencia. It is the Fork Report on Neil
Savadra kfi EM six forty. You'relistening to the Fork Report with Niel Savadra

(13:58):
on demand from Kfix. Hey,everybody, it's the four Report, all
things food, beverage, out andbeyond. A wonderful crowd of folks come
out here today as we're broadcasting livein Valencia two five five five zero.
Old the old road, not thenew road, not the the teenage road.

(14:20):
It's the old road. Very simple. You know, My wife was
born here, her father was bornin Manawa, Nkarawa, and we went
out there years and years ago whenwe may not we weren't even married then,
so long over fifteen years and theyhave like no road names. It's

(14:48):
like that bumpy road that goes pastthe tree there, but it's in Spanish,
so it sounds pretty and you're like, oh, that's beautiful. What
does it mean. It means likeit's kind of in this area, but
in Valencia they're just one step abovethat with the old old road. So
we are here off the old roadand we're at Barbecue's Galore across from Wood

(15:09):
Ranch, and I'm looking out atCraig as he grills away. It looks
like he's got an X a largeand an EXCEL. I think, yeah,
that looks like an extell to me. Another thing with grilling is controlling
the airflow. You're controlling the airflow. You want to keep consistency. Yeah,

(15:30):
you want to hold a temperature whenyou're cooking certain things, and one
of those things is baking. Sojust talking to some folks right now about
really knowing what you're gonna cook mostI kind of went like, I want
this, I want that, Iwant this, and it's really taking care
of my needs. It's got alot of things I don't know. Do

(15:52):
you do you folks sell EVO atall? Do you have evo Evo grills
in here? Yeah? SOO isa thirty inch cast iron cap that's this
the grilling surface solid and it's theclosest thing is it's kind of like it's

(16:14):
kind of like a Mongolian barbecue kindof and it's dual ring. It's spitting
out about sixty thousand bt US Britishthermal units and it gets hot, but
it's got two rings, so it'simagine it kind of like a walk where
in the center you can keep ithot, piping hot, and then the

(16:40):
outer ring you can keep a littleless so you can do your fancy stuff
and then move it to the sideto keep warm, or the reverse you
can make it cooler in the center, hotter on the outside, but super
fun to cook on. And sothe process of hanging out on that that
was something that when I saw itthat I gotta have this. And I

(17:02):
had experts telling me, dude,it's beautiful and it really is beautiful,
but are you going to use itthat much? And I said, I
don't know. I just think itlooks cool, and sure enough, I
use it a lot. Now youcan roast on that thing too. You
can do you know the direct stuff. I love stir fry on it because
it really is like having this massivewalk when you're dealing with it. So

(17:23):
really what it comes down to tome, and if you're thinking about buying
one, I will help you andbe honest about any thing that I know
that I've worked on. They allhave their pluses and minuses that are different
to different people. So the stuffI have has mostly pluses because it's what
I wanted. You've got to knowif you're the fullness of what you're going

(17:47):
to get is with the accessories.We're talking about one of the grills over
here, it's it's an al Fresco. Said al Fresco or al Fresco.
I always it's al Fresco, Right, That's what I thought, looking at
me, I should have a foodshow the i'll Fresco over here. The
forty two inch is beautiful. That'sthe one that I have in my backyard.

(18:07):
But you have to know that you'regoing to buy some accessories with it.
It's got some really neat additives toit. Like the rotisserie is not
a box on the outside, it'sactually built into the walls of it,
so it's just slipping the thing in. You don't have this other extension.
It's built into it, and itworks really well. There's things like that

(18:27):
where somebody to go, I don'tneed that, I don't want that.
I'm not worried about that. Thenthat's a Then that's technically you know,
a down point for you or minusfor you. Space is always a big
deal. I was talking to somegood folks right here about building their encasement
for it. And when you're doingthat, I can't stress enough. Plan

(18:52):
for your countertop space because it can. It can go very quickly and you
you will love it. You willlook at it and go this is beautiful,
and you'll cook on it three timesand you're pulling out folding tables and
chairs and all this just to getwhat you need done. So thinking through
those things are important. And pricepoint is really up to you. It's

(19:15):
what you feel comfortable with. Youcan it really I have. I have
a crapper one. I'm telling youit's like cooking on a box of matches.
But I make it work. Ifind ways to make it work.
Get a cast iron, you know, kamal on top and let that heat

(19:40):
up, and I can get agood seer because it's absorbing all the heat
and the cast iron. You canmake anything work depending on what you want
to do. So I'm really bigon pointing people into directions based on your
needs. So don't be shy aboutthat. And it's not about how much
you spend. It's about what youneed and how much you want it to
laugh asked, and you know youmight have to treat it a little more

(20:03):
gingerly if it's if it's got someleak issues or things like that, and
I can walk you through those things. But there is a beautiful amount and
variety here because they're not just abarbecue isle. They're a barbecue store.
Hold the whole store. Actually,all right, we'll be back with more,

(20:25):
So go nowhere as we broadcast liveat two five five five zero the
old road in Valencia. Here atBarbecue's Galore. I think this is called
the Valencia Marketplace. Is that wherethis is? Yeah, the Valencia Marketplace.
Come by, it's off of thefive. They're easy peasy, better
that you're not going south, andwe'll be back with more. It is

(20:47):
the Fork Report. I'm Neil Savadra. You're listening to the Fork Report with
Nil Savadra on demand from kf IAm six forty. This one guy's clapping
and you're letting him do that.I'll buy himself. She yes, he
probably felt horribly weird and awkward aboutit. Probably shouldn't even be saying anything

(21:10):
right now, but I already amsorry, sir if I made you feel
awkward. They're just between you andme. It's a handful of people that
should be feeling way more awkward thanyou right now. Most of them's my
crew. But that's okay. That'sokay k IF I Am six forty Live
everywhere on the iHeart Radio app.We're hanging out here at Barbecue's Galore and

(21:36):
Valencia at two five five five zero. Yeah, well Claver again, don't
make him feel weird in Valencia havingsome food, hanging out at Barbecue's Galore.
We're kind of talking through some things. It's not a commercial for the
Big Green Egg, but I wouldbe lying if I said that I haven't
fallen head over heels with it.And I will tell you something funny is

(21:59):
that my wife, the Tracy andMax are popping in and out of here,
and I apologize to my wife wheneverything got set when we started our
kitchen, because it's big. Ouroutdoor kitchen is pretty big, and it's
probably if I didn't do what Ido, I wouldn't have gone that big.
But when they delivered it, Iwas like, oh my god,

(22:19):
I'm so sorry. I didn't knowit was going to be this much.
And she's like, no, thiswill be great. So she when she
saw when I talked about the biggreen egg, and I said, this
is the one thing that we didn'tget. We talked about it, and
we didn't put it in our Itwas in the first draft. We didn't
put it in because I said,you know what, the last thing I

(22:41):
want to be told is that Ican't use it because there's a no burned
day or something and drive me nuts. But because of the purity of the
wood and the way they build these, it actually works out pretty nicely.
So for me, I'm seeing howother than the fact that you're probably gonna
leave it when you move because ityou know, they're heavy, I'm not

(23:07):
going to leave it. I'm kidding. It's going with me. No matter
what. I will leave my wifeand child behind. Look at that beauty
over there, green, Look atthose dimples. There's one, two,
three, four hundred and eight fifty, but they really really are substantial,
And I'm bold and so I'm kindof in that honeymoon stage figuring them out.

(23:32):
Accessories. Accessories when grilling, sometimesyou need none. Sometimes you just
get creative. You can go tothe local hardware store and find something that
you can put fish in so thatyou're not flipping it over and having it
stick to anything. But there's waysaround that. Mayonnaise is a great fat
to use on fish when you're grilling, and a lot of people go,

(23:56):
what, But because it is madeup of oil and egg, you get
the tanginess of the egg and alittle bit of the the tarkness the vinegar
and things in there, but theoil, the vast majority of it isn't
oil. It also works good ongrilled cheese sandwichins. By the way,
use it instead of butter and grillwith it. You're shaking your head,

(24:18):
No, you didn't like it onyour grilled cheese. Oh so we're not
friends? Now? What other tipsand tricks that I tell people that you
hate? Like? What where didwe go wrong? You and me?
But I mean, did you hatemayonnaise before? Oh yeah, I would

(24:44):
have said, you're white, youshould like it. No, it sometimes
it's too tangy for people. Anotherthing about a grilled cheese is funny enough
if you want to get it crispy, or don't put as much butter on
it. Very thin coat of butterwill get that really hard edged. Or
you can throw it and broil itfor a little bit on the outside.

(25:04):
I can sometimes take up to likethirty minutes to build a grilled cheese.
I'm like, it's like okay,and then I'm gonna do this and and
then I'm also known for we havea kitchen thing at the at KFI and
it has vending, and then ithas some higher end vending sandwiches and things
like that that I will take asandwich out of there and they'll be,

(25:30):
I don't know, ham and cheeseand whatever on a sub roll, and
I'll take it out and I'll openit up, take it apart. I'll
grill the bread toasted nice up there, and then put the mayo on there,
and then put the cheese on,melt the cheese. And they're like,

(25:51):
where'd you go? I said,you get a sandwich like thirty minutes
ago? I said, well,we only have the small, you know,
the little toaster oven. So Ithink we're going to do this on
Conway's show soon. It's talking toBellio and her challenge was for me to
go in there and make a goodmeal and a good dessert from just a

(26:12):
crap in the vending machines. Sothat's kind of a cool challenge, right
Like now, I'm like, I'lldo that. It'll probably cost me one
hundred and eighty dollars to make onesmall dish, just pulling little pieces off
there. But listen for that.You're late, but you didn't miss anything,
Darling. Really it's been it's onlygetting cooking now because of you.

(26:34):
It is the Fork Report. I'mNeil Savedra kf I AM six forty.
Let's get the We're at the topof the hour. This KFI and KO
is THHD two, Los Angeles,Orange County. You've been listening to the
Fok Report. You can always hearus live on KFI AM six forty two
to five pm on Saturday and anytimeon demand on the iHeartRadio app.