by Diane Pleschner | Jan 9, 2026 | WF News
Full Belly Files Newsletter, January 9 2026, by Matt Kettman
Full Belly Files serves up multiple courses of food & drink coverage every Friday, going off-menu from our regularly published content to deliver tasty nuggets of restaurant, recipe, and refreshment wisdom to your inbox.
New Year’s Resolution: Know, and Support, Thy Farmer
Put your money where your mouth is this year, starting with Pico’s lunch series; plus, stories you may have missed.
Though its popularity is no longer peaking, the winemaker dinner developed a tried-and-true format for hosting a meal that is both indulgent and educational.
The basic formula — for those who haven’t managed to attend one over the past three decades or so — is that the winemaker introduces each course by explaining the chosen wine for that dish, often with the chef also chiming in on the cuisine. Diners leave full of both food and information, often leading to lasting relationships with the wineries and restaurants involved.
(If that piques your interest, check out this “Soul & Soil” dinner at Finch & Fork on January 29 with Chef John Vasquez and winemaker Jessica Gasca from Story of Soil.)
An auxiliary benefit of that format — which still works well for winemakers, by the way, so long as there are enough paying customers in attendance — is that restaurants are applying a similar approach to the farmers, ranchers, and fishermen who fuel their menus. In this age of ever-curious, sustainably minded eating, why not let these frontline food producers share some of the limelight and tell us more?
I’ve advocated for this myself over the years in this column. One call-to-action in my piece about the last farmers’ market in the old location even led to this Lotusland benefit dinner last year, when I was able to ask questions of the highly engaging Jacob Grant of Roots Organic Farm.
It’s great to see more “farmer dinners” — for lack of a better name — pop up around our community. Doing them best right now must be Pico in Los Alamos, which launched their Know Thy Farmer lunch series in February 2022 with Motley Crew Ranch and Sea Smoke Wines.
Kali Kopley (right) with Carla Malloy at last year’s Elder Flat Farm Know Thy Farmer lunch.
Know Thy Farmer is driven by Pico co-owner Kali Kopley, who develops the connections and crafts the menus for these monthly events. She keeps them intimate, with a max of 40 people seated at two long tables, and affordable, at $50 for three courses, dessert, and pairings from Lumen Wine, which are made by Will Henry, Kopley’s partner in business and life.
“The inspiration for Know Thy Farmer was to create a gathering where guests could meet a local farmer and learn about their passion, story, practices, and about daily life on the farm,” she said. “These lunches are my vision to meet your neighbor and learn where your food comes from.”
Last year, we previewed last August’s Elder Flat Farm showcase and I mentioned December’s Luretik Olive Oil lunch, but the next two really caught my eye: Mighty Cap Mushrooms on January 18 and Winfield Farm on February 7.
Even casual readers of Full Belly Files must recognize my growing fascination with mushrooms, and Mighty Cap out of Paso Robles is the Central Coast’s most prominent commercial grower of edible fungi. (I’m long overdue for a story on Solvang’s Wolfe Family Farm, so maybe I’ll finally get on that this year.)
For their event next Saturday, Kopley plans to make a consomme of maitake — which is Mighty Cap owner Chris Battle’s favorite mushroom, she said — as well as a mushroom and bacon salad. She may also make a mushroom cassoulet with Lompoc beans or a lion’s mane fritter. “My head is full of tasty mushroom ideas,” she admitted.
Winfield Farm’s subsistence bounty | Credit: Matt Kettmann
The menu is even more adventurous for the Winfield Farm lunch on February 7. You may remember Winfield Farm from this newsletter I wrote about Bruce and Diane Steele moving from gourmet pigs to subsistence crops in November 2024, which was slightly expanded into this January 2025 cover story. The Pico lunch will highlight both eras of Winfield, including the succulent heirloom pork that Bruce pioneered and the hardy grains that he’s now championing.
“I was going to make cold soba noodles with my hand-harvested durum wheat and have Kali roll it out in her pasta roller,” said Bruce, who serves them with a dipping sauce. Added Kopley, “Bruce is going to teach me how to make durum wheat pasta, and I will teach him how to roll out pasta on a fancy Italian pasta machine. Mostly Bruce will be teaching me!”
For the main course, they are thinking about a sausage dish, either with polenta made from the hand-ground purple maize that Bruce grew or a black caviar lentil from Rancho Gordo. For dessert, Bruce may make a batch of Korean-style acorn starch jelly called dotori-muk to create a dark chocolate pudding that can fill with profiteroles produced from a mix of homegrown and store-bought flours.
Bruce Steele threshes buckwheat in the middle of Winfield Farm. | Credit: Matt Kettmann
As guests enjoy the food and Lumen pours, Kopley and the Steeles will discuss Winfield Farm’s subsistence farming techniques and how they utilize native grains. She is fired up, exclaiming, “I think this lunch is going to be the best ever!”
For more tickets to Pico’s Know Thy Farmer events — including Mighty Cap on January 18, Winfield Farm on February 7, and Figueroa Mountain Olive Oil on March 28 — click here. If you’re interested in learning about future Know Thy Farmer events — or about Pico’s 10-year anniversary party next month — sign up for their monthly newsletter at the bottom of this page. For more info on Pico, see losalamosgeneralstore.com.
by Diane Pleschner | Jun 4, 2024 | WF News
Thanks to our new association with Schreiner’s Fine Sausage in Glendale, we’re now able to produce Smoked Boneless Mangalitsa Ham!
We’re offering Winfield Farm Mangalitsa ham in two styles:
The specialty of the house:
Boneless Mangalitsa Black Forest Brand Ham
Shreiner’s dips boneless Mangalitsa ham in caramel #29 to produce an amazingly succulent, flavorful treat!
Get 4, 5, or 6 pound packs (Price $23 / pound) now from our limited supply of Mangalitsa Black Forest Brand ham at our online market.
We’re also offering:
Smoked Boneless Mangalitsa ham
Get 5 or 10 pound packs (Price $18 / pound) of Smoked Boneless Mangalitsa ham now at our online market.
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by Diane Pleschner | Mar 6, 2024 | WF News
Our hunt for a USDA certified smokehouse that could process our Mangalitsa bellies into hickory smoked bacon led us to Schreiner’s Fine Sausages. Family-owned, Schreiner’s has been located in Glendale since 1952. (Glendale is about 2 ½ hours south of Winfield Farm.)
Wally Schreiner is now the third generation to run the family shop, which still smokes all of its own meat, under USDA inspection. Wally said of course he could smoke our bellies, since our pigs are slaughtered and butchered by USDA certified establishments. But we would need our regular butcher to slice and package the bellies for bacon. (This extra step is now needed because our regular butcher no longer smokes product inspected by USDA – a requirement for resale.)
The saying ‘when one door closes, another door opens’ is so true — and serendipitous. We discovered a veritable treasure trove of unique and very tasty offerings at Schreiner’s — and the opportunities are virtually endless!
To wit, we’re delighted to announce that, in addition to Mangalitsa bacon smoked by Schreiner’s, we’re now offering Smoked Mangalitsa Sausage – Hungarian style. Ground Mangalitsa pork is seasoned with salt, paprika, black pepper, onion, and garlic. The encased sausages are smoked, fully cooked, then packaged and frozen. The flavor is sensational!
The introductory price on our online Mangalitsa Market is $18 per pack of 5 sausages.
A package of Hungarian Style Mangalitsa sausage straight from the freezer. These weiners are so good, we often eat them straight out of the package, cold.
The future of our new relationship with Schreiner’s is bright! Schreiner’s can make Mangalitsa Kielbasa (Polish sausage), black forest ham, and many other specialty items for Winfield Farm. We’ll keep you posted on progress.
Meantime, we encourage you to try Schreiner’s smoked Mangalitsa sausage – Hungarian style.
We love these weiners, and hope you will too!!
Note: Smoked Mangalitsa Sausage – Hungarian style is now available for online ordering!
by Diane Pleschner | Dec 7, 2023 | Recipes, WF News
According to Wikipedia, Pancetta is salt-cured pork belly meat.
In Italy, it is often used to add depth to soups and pastas. Foodies worldwide value Pancetta’s flavor profile. Two basic types of pancetta are arrotolata (rolled) and stesa (flat).
For cooking, pancetta stesa may be cut into cubes for use in carbonara pasta or pizza, as is typically found in central and southern Italy. In northern Italy, pancetta arrotolata is commonly served rolled and thinly sliced, and consumed raw (although guanciale, cured jowl meat, is generally considered more traditional).
Photo credit: Nachoman-au – CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=522168
The art of pancetta, as with all salume products, is in the curing process. Here at Winfield Farm, we are pleased to offer an exclusive treat: Mangalitsa pork pancetta cured by Alle Pia Fine Cured Meats.
Following their family tradition, and inspected by USDA, Alle Pia first marinates the Mangalitsa bellies in vacuum-sealed bags for three weeks, to infuse special seasonings, including rosemary, garlic, juniper berry and sea salt. As part of the curing process, the bellies are then removed from the bags and hung in a temperature-controlled chamber for 30 days.
You can taste Mangalitsa magic by special ordering Mangalitsa pancetta (stesa). Email us directly at Winfield Farm (dplesch@gmail.com). Supply is limited (not listed on our online Mangalitsa Market).
$35 / lb Pieces average approx. 4-5 pounds each
by Diane Pleschner | Aug 10, 2023 | WF News
Winfield Farm now has a bountiful supply of Mangalitsa link sausage in 3 yummy flavors:
there’s the traditional bratwurst and sweet Italian, and also our new favorite – salt ‘n pepper sausage.
S & P is simply pure Mangalitsa pork with a dash of – you guessed it.
Winfield Farm Mangalitsa link sausage comes packaged 4 links per pack — packages are about 1.4 pounds each. Cost is $16 / pound. (Approx. $22.40 per package)
PLEASE NOTE: We’re offering a special introductory price for our new S & P link sausage — this offer is good through August 31.
Try S & P and get a 10% discount on your order – To order, email Diane and enter “summer sausage special “ in the subject line. Let me know how many packages you would like, and I will invoice you directly via PayPal with your discount.
Please be sure to include your name, address and phone number. (Shipping cost is extra).
by Diane Pleschner | Jul 7, 2023 | WF News
We’re so happy to report this neat profile of Winfield Farm Edible Santa Barbara Magazine posted on their Instagram:
Nestled in the Santa Ynez River valley 3 miles west of Buellton on Highway 246, Winfield Farm is dedicated to top quality, naturally grown food that tastes good. Owned and operated by Bruce and Diane Steele, Bruce does the farming, Diane does the paperwork. We’ve been in business since 2003, sharing the bounty of our garden – and now heritage Mangalitsa wooly pigs – with local restaurants as well as the community (our customers span the valley from Los Olivos to Lompoc, and some dedicated customers drive all the way from Santa Barbara and Los Angeles).
Winfield Farm began as a produce operation, growing several varieties of heirloom tomatoes, melons, sweet onions, shallots, the ubiquitous squash, and the best sweet corn on the planet! Our orchard produces Blenheim apricots, peaches and pears. A few years ago we invested in a few rare Mangalitsa wooly pigs, renown for charcuterie, to consume the inevitable superabundance that a garden produces. Long story short, nature took its course… and with more than 100 pigs on the ground now, Mangalitsas have become our mainstay.
