♪ She left me standing way up on a mountain.

♪ ♪ She left me standing way up there.

♪ Natalia Boyce: This atmosphere out here, this farm that you've created makes us more creative in what we do, and that your food doesn't have to travel hundreds of miles.

When people are gonna be here, they're gonna enjoy the beautiful scape that you've created and eat your food, but it--really, all I had to do was walk 50 feet to grab the tomatoes or the zucchini and bring it and cook it for them and have it be on their wedding plate.

♪ Way up on a mountain.

♪ ♪ She left me standing way up there.

♪♪ Natalia: I'm Natalia Boyce, and I am the chef-owner of The River Orchard.

I was born and raised in Humboldt County.

I have been cooking professionally in Humboldt for over a decade now.

For the past five or so years I have been working for myself doing pop-up restaurants and catering.

Well, I was really inspired to build The River Orchard because seasonal--eating seasonally and locally and organic is very important to me and it's very much a part of who I am as a chef, and I--my dear friends own Luna Farm.

They moved to this property from their property in Willow Creek and it on--and it's on the Eel River and everything's dry farmed and I was able to collaborate with them to be able to do catered events that are seasonal and local and to be able to show the farm-to-table movement to the community.

The farm-to-table movement is so important because we live in an area where there's just an abundance of amazing food and I feel like it's not utilized as much as it could be.

Tony Tubiola: Yeah, I met Natalia through mutual friends who worked at Wildflower where I work now, which is the restaurant I work at.

I started helping her with work a few years back at another restaurant and then this wedding venue came up and she wanted me to be a part of it so here I am.

Pretty excited about it.

She's a hard worker, an amazing chef with amazing ideas for food.

She really cares for her workers and shows us.

She's an awesome friend.

Trevor McTear: I've been in the same circle as Natalia for maybe four or five years but it was only relatively recently, about like, six or seven months ago that we started working together.

And I did a pop-up with her and after that I did a few more and we just clicked really well, and it was really just one of those perfectly aligned situations where we both kind of needed what we had to provide to help each other out.

I think she is very generous.

She is a really, really excellent leader and she has a great vision.

I think definitely one of her, like, biggest, biggest strengths is her ability to, like, truly, truly listen to other people and hear what they have to say and hear what advice they have to give, regardless of, like, who that person is or how--what their credentials are or whatever.

Like, if someone has something good to say, she wants to hear it.

male: And you're not just saying that 'cause you're on camera?

Trevor: No, or because she's right there.

[laughing] Natalia: Just talking about it.

Trevor: You heard nothing at all.

♪ Where the honeybees are ♪ ♪ buzzing round the flowers there, ♪ ♪ that is where she vanished, ♪ ♪ somewhere in that mountain air.

♪ ♪ She left me standing way up on a mountain.

♪ ♪ She left me standing way up there.

♪♪ Natalia: I had this idea, I wanna start a farm-to-table wedding venue.

But it's like, where do you start?

I took a few business classes at College of the Redwoods and that really transformed my business plan and my marketing plan.

I worked with the Small Business Development Center.

I started calling around and asking people, like, tax professionals and, of course, really the big hurdle for any small business is money and the funding.

One of the other big challenges that I'm definitely on my way overcoming is trying to find the crew that can build all the things that I want and need, so the shade structure, the ceremony site, the bar, music stage, all of that.

Natalia: So yeah, today and yesterday, these past few days we have been working on clearing out the ceremony site, so that is the space that overlooks the water.

It's in a grove of pepperwood and redwood trees and that is where the ceremony deck is going to be.

That's where all the guests will sit and watch the couple get married.

So we have been clearing out brush piles and removing poison oak and raking all of the redwood duff and we're just clearing out the space and getting it ready for the redwood slab benches to be put in and the stage to be built there.

I was working in kitchens and restaurants and chefing and, you know, doing the daily work in working on the line and I just got really burned out.

I've been working since about 2016 on pop-ups and now, 2021, really the past year has really transformed into something that isn't just a fun hobby, pop-ups, and now it is a career.

With The River Orchard, I was able to team up with Fred and Amy of Luna Farm.

They're dear friends of mine and, you know, we talked about it.

I was like, what--like, this place is perfect for a wedding venue.

And I've catered so many weddings and farm-to-table is something that I really believe in and we were just like, "Yeah, let's go for it.

Let's try it out."

So this is just the next step in my career where I'm going from pop-up restaurants to having my own venue.

And they are in a sense a pop-up restaurant because they're only happening once a weekend, so it's kind of my preferred and perfect place to be, is to be able to showcase, set up, break it down, have it be one night, but have it be extremely special.

♪♪♪ Fred Diekmeyer: I fell into farming pretty later on in my life, randomly ended up working on an organic farm in Germany, ended up working there for two full season, and then I thought, "This is way too much work.

How can you ever become a farmer?

That's, like, crazy.

You make no money but you work so much."

And then I thought, "I never gonna be a farmer."

Twenty-five years later, I definitely changed my mind very quickly.

It didn't take long to realize that this is what I love to do.

So the dry farming is what we do all across the street, the entire field has never been watered once and we plant the seed and then we just cultivate to not allow the weeds to compete and there's enough moisture in the ground due to our sub-irrigated prime ag soil here that's really exceptionally suitable for this technique.

That's our preferred method of farming since it also conserves our resources, the water, which is like a big issue these days.

So dry farming also makes a superior quality in the product because things are not watered down and they're nutrient dense and just concentrated flavor.

Yeah, so I'm a big fan of the dry farming for more than one reason, really, yeah, definitely.

Natalia: And I'm a huge fan 'cause it makes the flavor just that much more exceptional.

It really does.

I mean, you--when you were out in Willow Creek growing food, it was incredible, but really, coming here and the soil quality and the dry farming, it's just-- you have the best produce in the county.

Fred: So it has to do a lot with the soil which is just we're in a flat plain here.

We have low elevation and we're sitting on class one ag soil, silty loam.

It doesn't get any better, and there's no rocks in here and it's really rich soil which makes just for good nutrition also in, you know, produce.

Natalia: Oh, there's lots of things that inspire me.

And really truly, it's the great company that I keep in my culinary world, the chefs that I work with, the local producers that I work with.

I like the challenge of trying to create something new out of ingredients that we've all seen a lot.

And it's just--it's so fun.

I can't see myself not cooking.

And I love to eat and I love--and I love creating special experiences for others.

I'm trying to show unique ways of using ingredients that people have already seen and for people to think about their food and where it comes from and what--different things that they can do with it and, you know, because I don't--I hear a lot of times people say, "Oh, I don't--I'm not a good cook," or you know, they'll be nervous to cook in front of me and I just am like, "No, like, everybody's good at cooking something, like, there's something, you know, and maybe you haven't even realized it yet."

But, you know, when you come into Luna Farm and there's dry farmed tomatoes, the water table up here in the Eel River is so high that you put the tomato plants in the ground, you water 'em in once and then the water table just naturally feeds it water.

You don't need to water anymore, so that's saving resources right there.

And it creates a juicier, more amazing piece of fruit that, you know, that's in season that you wouldn't be, you know, you can get tomatoes around in the store but when you have one that comes from the farm and farmed in that way, it's a whole new thing, and I want people to be able to experience that and see that and really find it important.

And then you can make a pasta sauce out of that instead of just buying a jar or you can jar it yourself in season, you know?

Or just--I want people to be excited about food, and to be able to think about it in a different way than they're used to.

I don't know exactly what drew me to cooking.

Cooking came out of necessity.

My brother and I grew up with not a whole lot to work with, and not a lot of means.

And so, you've gotta get really creative with the small amount of ingredients that we had.

I remember being young and just getting weird combinations of food and just kind of trial and error, like, what works here and what works there, and you learn really quickly the things that worked well together and the things that don't.

And I just found it very interesting and putting flavors together, you know, I wasn't eloquently saying "putting flavors together" when I was younger but, you know, that's what was happening young.

I grew up in Humboldt County in a community where there is an abundance of things around you, you know, and if it wasn't necessarily at my house, it was happening at other people's houses or, you know, my godmother.

She had chickens and we would go picking huckleberries and she taught me how to make jam and just really going out and getting our hands dirty and then bringing it home and being able to create sugary treats after you've been working all day to harvest all the berries and wash them.

You know, it's the whole process, it's very rewarding.

♪♪♪ Natalia: So we are in the newly built reception area and we have this gorgeous shade structure that just came up last week and we had four guys out here building it.

And as you can see, it's beautifully timber-framed and this is all reclaimed old rough redwood.

It was so hot, it was a heatwave.

It was, like, the hottest time of the year out on the farm, and these guys, there were four of them, and they came out and they just busted out this gorgeous wooden structure, timber-framed structure, in a week.

It's all coming together.

They were so super-professional and it was so great to see the, like, every--at the end of every day, you know, 'cause I'd be on other parts of the farm getting ready for other things and I would come.

Every few hours, I'd come back to the job site that they were on and it was just so beautiful.

It just transformed every single day, and now, seeing it, it's like it's been there forever.

It's meant to be there on that property, it just fits so well in with the esthetic of the farm.

Natalia: I love it because when you're in here, it feels so grand and big and you can hear the echo in it and it just feels like it's all really coming together.

And it makes me really happy to be in here.

Behind this reception area, people could hang out amongst the apples, pick apples, eat apples, take photos in front of apples.

I mean, I think an orchard is just timeless and beautiful.

And that's the esthetic I wanted to create with this--with this whole area: the beautiful redwood mixed in with the apple orchard, and we are, you know, amongst Avenue of the Giants with old-growth redwood so I just think it's really--it all kind of ties together.

You drive through Avenue of the Giants to get to this piece of property and then you celebrate with this old-growth redwood structure that's all reclaimed, and hanging out in front of the apples.

You know, a lot of the food that will be served will have apples in it so you're eating the apples, you know, drinking the hard cider that we make.

It all comes from this orchard.

Natalia: Oh, this is a big guy.

I should just take it anyways, even if I don't use it 'cause the bigger they get, the more bitter and fibrous they are.

Yeah, I mean, it's all coming together.

So we have two weeks from today.

It's crunch time.

There's some landscaping that needs to happen and a few things that need to get built and we need to finalize the menu but I really feel like it's gonna come together.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Natalia: Let's see what this tastes like added to some falafel, so.

Natalia: Just like come together like how it came together in my head.

Natalia: There's always a stigma of working in the restaurant industry and how difficult it can be.

It's this grind that people think of.

I mean, of course it's hard work but if people showed up at work every day at the restaurant really excited and loving what they wanted to be able to do and be able to create the things that they wanted to, I mean, it doesn't have to be that difficult if you're in a good space for that.

Success is being able to take the same ingredients that you have year after year after year, but then also being able to think about it in a different way, because every year I'm a different person, slightly.

I have a new spin on things, I've grown.

Natalia: Hmm, that's going places.

I think it's gonna end up being really good.

Natalia: You know, I wanna sit down and try it all.

It's just been a long day, so sometimes, after you've been tasting everything and working all day, sometimes what you've got in your head has maybe just transformed into exhaustion.

I don't know, I think the flavors are gonna come together pretty well, and I think this will give us a great over--of like, idea overall, like, what we want to use for the soft opening, but I definitely wanna work on the plating and I do have to remember that we're gonna have more people, more hands.

It was just me and Trevor today, so there is that.

Natalia: Hi, Amy.

Natalia: We came up with a lot of recipe ideas to use for the soft opening.

You know, I really wanna come out with a bang and have a lot of the food pop and really showcase the things that Luna Farm is known for: dry-farmed tomatoes is like their biggest seller, you know, that's the biggest draw to Luna Farm, I think.

So we're gonna do tomatoes two ways.

We're gonna have a savory rustic tomato galette.

It's like a tomato pie.

And then we'll have a tomato salad with, like, the raw tomato so you're gonna kind of get to see the tomatoes in two different varieties.

And the tomato pie turned out really good.

We put pistachios in the crust, it was really beautiful but it needed a little bit more.

It needs to be thick with tomatoes; a little too thin.

I want a little bit more garlic coming through, a little bit more sweetness.

So we're just gonna see.

We did smoked duck with a poblano pumpkin seed sauce that turned out excellent.

It needs a few little tweaks but I think it's great.

We smoked some baby back ribs which are always a hit.

We got a whole albacore, broke it down, made some smoked albacore that we're gonna turn into a smoked albacore dip.

But we grilled some of it and we made a red pepper cream sauce to go with it and a plum salsa.

And while it was really delicious, I don't know if it fit with the smoked meats so much.

I really wanna have a fish element but I think we're gonna go with using the smoked albacore instead.

So, lots going on but I feel so fortunate to have so many amazing people in the community that have come together and seen the vision and wanna be a part of it and have made this whole project come together with me.

Natalia: Using, like, 100 pounds of tomatoes for this event.

That's a lot of tomatoes.

So we're prepping all day.

I'm so happy that I have Tony and Trevor here right now.

We really needed a 'fridge to make this whole thing possible because storing all of our food in coolers just wasn't gonna cut it for such a big event for about 100 people.

So I was looking on Facebook Marketplace, found this 'fridge up in Oregon, about five hours from here.

Was only for $1000 and these things brand new are--can be up to $4000 so I was like, "Let's do it."

About halfway up, my truck starts breaking down, engine starts shutting off.

So he lets it rest, you know, it keeps breaking down, but you know, we're determined to get this 'fridge.

I'd paid a deposit for it.

The car completely just shuts down.

What was supposed to be a one-day trip took three days.

But we got this thing and it's beautiful and it's huge and it holds all of our stuff that we need.

So it was worth it.

But with hotel and everything, it ended up being, like, an extra $800 but still way cheaper than brand new and it works great, so, winner.

Ha, ha.

Natalia: I'm right now cutting tomatoes for tomato galette, so this is gonna have roasted garlic and fresh herbs and cheese and so it's kind of like a savory tomato pie.

I smoked all the ribs yesterday.

We're deboning chicken right now and we're gonna brine that in some buttermilk and spices so we're gonna have, like, a nice fancy fried chicken to go along with the smoked baby back ribs.

We're just getting all the sauces and appetizer things put together today.

Everything's coming together today.

Tomorrow, we have two more chefs arriving so we're gonna have a lot of hands on deck, and just gonna try to bust everything out we can today.

I'm trying to get mostly everything prepped out so that tomorrow can be smooth sailing and just some last-minute finishing touches on the whole project.

Natalia: The slabs are here.

Myself and Morgan and Steve sanded them down, all by hand, and we had some belt-sanders and some orbital sanders.

It took us a few days, but we did it.

We got 'em nice and smooth.

They're beautiful.

They're a little over 10 feet.

They're gonna have, like, ten to twelve people at each table so I think it's just really--the redwood, I just love the whole redwood ambience.

I'm feeling good.

Everybody's really come together in support-- supported me and has been a huge help.

I've had so much help on this, so many people working so many hours and have been really dedicated to the project so I'm really lucky.

Everything's coming together and I'm not feeling too stressed.

I'm feeling, actually, pretty good about tomorrow.

So that's good.

But we just really need to bust out all this cooking today.

That's the big--that's the big issue.

♪♪♪ Natalia: I feel like at this point right now I have such fatigue of, like, looking at the space so much that I'm like, "Is it really as good as I think it is?

Is it really as beautiful?"

You know, I've just seen it so much, I'm just working so hard to get it open, to the soft opening, that I felt it was all kind of overwhelming and then there was just so much going on but people really, I feel were very genuine when they said that it was beautiful and they loved it.

And it seemed like everybody had a great time.

I mean, with--between, like, the food and the music and, you know, bringing the community here, there was a lot of friends and family, industry people, and I feel like it really was a good way to, like, kick it off.

John Callahan: We are in one of the most beautiful spots in Humboldt.

It's Luna Farm right on the middle fork of the Eel River and our good friend, Natalia, is opening up, like, a wedding and event venue here, and it's like in the middle of, as you can see, this amazing farmland and they've set up a cool stage and all these structures and everything, and this is just the kick-off here.

Yeah, we're just breaking it in, I guess you'd say, and getting some photos and some promotion so they can really start getting the wheels rolling on it.

Drew Weitzel: So, my friends, Byron and Chris, and I, work in construction.

Yeah, we got the contract for this through Natalia who's the head chef and whole brains behind the whole thing, and she wanted everything to be really natural, kind of going with the land, just 'cause it's such a beautiful piece of land.

There's a lot of history, and so we got all locally milled redwood.

Yeah, we spent the last week here building that and excited to see it in use now.

We got the speakers on and everything.

It's cool to see it--cool to see it happening, cool to see it going.

Iyshwerya Seber: As you can see, right behind me there's a lot of people trying to, like, grab their food and trying to get set up for dinner here.

We kind of have, like, a mock wedding today to have the soft opening at River Orchard.

And I'm very happy and honored to be here and be part of this.

Yeah, we're gonna go have fun and party with all our guests here and welcome them to River Orchard.

Natalia: It was so funny.

People told me that they started crying during the fake wedding, even though they knew it was a fake wedding.

You know, if we can do that for a fake wedding of just my friends, I can only imagine what it's gonna be when it's the real deal and people are actually spending their time to set up for the most important day of their life.

Natalia: Let's go back to the reception area and get some cocktails.

We're gonna start bringing out apps, and we'll do a bouquet toss, so ladies, get ready.

Get ready, ladies.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for being here.

♪♪♪ Natalia: Today, we're trying out some crostinis with corn butter and some grilled steak and some pistachio pesto and some smoky eggplant dips.

Luna Farm is also really known for its dry farm melons, and so there's a few varieties of watermelons and cantaloupes and honeydews and so we're gonna start playing around with that next.

♪♪♪ Natalia: We had a stage area.

All the food we prepped in, we would assemble it all on the platters and then send it out to the tables.

And we set up just big cast iron pots and fire oil and just did it the old-fashioned way, and it ended up working but it definitely made it so that dinner got out a little bit later than I wanted.

But it was still--it was still delicious.

It was still the product that I wanted.

♪ I had no employment and back to home I go.

♪ ♪ "It's according to your wages, according to your pay."

♪ ♪ He said "I'll--" ♪♪ Natalia: I got really great feedback from the food.

That was one of the things that everybody really said was that the food was amazing and so that's the cornerstone of the whole project, is the farm-to-table aspect and the food.

So, knowing that people loved that, I feel like that was successful.

The land itself is beautiful and it speaks for itself, and we're gonna have all these projects in the works that are gonna create just an even more beautiful and professional-looking space.

But the food has to be good because it's a farm-to-table venue.

♪♪♪ Natalia: I would find myself kind of tearing up, choking up, just because it's so much work, so many hours of preparation, of recipe testing and coordinating, and it was finally here and it just felt--it felt so good.

I--what felt the best was that I had so many people in my life and in the community that came and showed up for me in a big way.

They took--people spent so much extra time helping get the space ready, from picking flowers to decorating the altar for the fake wedding, people--the models for the fake wedding, all the bands, everybody coming together.

It was just--I felt so overwhelmed with joy that people cared so much to show up for me and for the business.

♪♪♪ Natalia: Hello, everybody.

Good evening.

Probably gonna get a little emotional up here.

Being from Humboldt, and being able to bring community together like this, is so important to me.

And there have been so many people involved in this project and without them it wouldn't be possible, so we'll do a big cheer.

Thank you so much.

And up next, we have Horse Mountain and I hope you're ready to dance your booties off.

'Cause they're some fun bluegrass country music, and they're amazing.

So stick around for that.

Thank you so much, everyone.

♪ She left me standing way up on a mountain.

♪ ♪ She left me standing way up there.

♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ "Darling, will you marry me?"

♪ ♪ I asked a maiden fair.

♪ ♪ I turned my back upon her, ♪ ♪ when I looked she wasn't there.

♪ ♪ She left me standing way up on a mountain.

♪ ♪ She left me standing way up there.

♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ I would give most anything if once more she'd appear ♪ ♪ and tell me that she cared a little for this mountaineer.

♪ ♪ She left me standing way up on a mountain.

♪ ♪ She left me standing way up there.

♪ ♪ She left me standing way up on a mountain.

♪ ♪ She left me standing way up there.

♪♪