"For Gwen Jones, the Paleo diet isn’t just about the kind of food you eat – it’s about where it comes from and how it’s grown. From farm to food truck, she’s on a mission. Meet Beast."
-The Small Business Revolution
-The Small Business Revolution
The Small Business Revolution's Q&A
Q: What’s the inspiration behind Beast?
I got cancer, and I didn’t have insurance, and my doctor said, “Well, you need to change your diet. If you change your diet, and work like that, come back to me in six months and we’ll do another test.” And I kept coming back, and my tests kept getting clearer. I had fewer cells. So I actually beat cancer by changing my diet, and that’s what got me interested in the farms to begin with. I didn’t know where my food was from until then.
Q: What would you be preparing on your truck if I walked up to order today?
Our menu rotates depending on what produce we’ve got, but we try to run it protein heavy so we can keep it fairly consistent. We always have breakfast tacos. Our eggs are local. I make the chorizo. I make the tortillas. It is ridiculous. We’ll have the Dunbar kale salad, which is bacon bits from Freckle Face Farms, kale that I picked at Dunbar Community Garden, caramelized onions and two fried eggs. The Cindy is charred chorizo, caramelized onions, and two fried eggs. We’ve got biscuits and gravy, of course, but they’re gluten free.
Q: When you say you work a farm two days a week, what all are you doing on that farm?
I milk cows, I feed cows, I feed pigs. I pick all the produce that is on our truck right now, I picked it by hand myself. I pull weeds. I do whatever needs to be done. When I say I want to work with my farmers, I literally want to work with my farmers. I learn about crop rotation. I learn about why I can’t plant something next to each other. Did you know that you can’t plant English peas next to sugar snap peas because the sugar snap peas will take over the vine? Things like that. I went out and picked the chard and the kale that I had on the truck yesterday. It’s the best part of my job.
Q: Talk about a strict paleo and primal diets. What does that involve?
Paleo is no gluten, no grains, no processed foods. You shop on the outer rim and don’t go down the aisles. It’s no dairy, no soy, and it’s locally sourced. It’s grass-fed and finished beef. It’s pastured pork. It’s chicken that was actually raised in the sunshine. It’s meat and ingredients that aren’t really messed with. It’s things that you find in nature. It’s what your ancestors ate. That’s the idea behind it.
Q: What is your life like when you’re not working at the farm or on the truck?
I don’t have one [laughs]. That’s not a bad thing. I love it. I love my life. I don’t make a dime, really. But I would not trade it for anything.
Q: What’s the inspiration behind Beast?
I got cancer, and I didn’t have insurance, and my doctor said, “Well, you need to change your diet. If you change your diet, and work like that, come back to me in six months and we’ll do another test.” And I kept coming back, and my tests kept getting clearer. I had fewer cells. So I actually beat cancer by changing my diet, and that’s what got me interested in the farms to begin with. I didn’t know where my food was from until then.
Q: What would you be preparing on your truck if I walked up to order today?
Our menu rotates depending on what produce we’ve got, but we try to run it protein heavy so we can keep it fairly consistent. We always have breakfast tacos. Our eggs are local. I make the chorizo. I make the tortillas. It is ridiculous. We’ll have the Dunbar kale salad, which is bacon bits from Freckle Face Farms, kale that I picked at Dunbar Community Garden, caramelized onions and two fried eggs. The Cindy is charred chorizo, caramelized onions, and two fried eggs. We’ve got biscuits and gravy, of course, but they’re gluten free.
Q: When you say you work a farm two days a week, what all are you doing on that farm?
I milk cows, I feed cows, I feed pigs. I pick all the produce that is on our truck right now, I picked it by hand myself. I pull weeds. I do whatever needs to be done. When I say I want to work with my farmers, I literally want to work with my farmers. I learn about crop rotation. I learn about why I can’t plant something next to each other. Did you know that you can’t plant English peas next to sugar snap peas because the sugar snap peas will take over the vine? Things like that. I went out and picked the chard and the kale that I had on the truck yesterday. It’s the best part of my job.
Q: Talk about a strict paleo and primal diets. What does that involve?
Paleo is no gluten, no grains, no processed foods. You shop on the outer rim and don’t go down the aisles. It’s no dairy, no soy, and it’s locally sourced. It’s grass-fed and finished beef. It’s pastured pork. It’s chicken that was actually raised in the sunshine. It’s meat and ingredients that aren’t really messed with. It’s things that you find in nature. It’s what your ancestors ate. That’s the idea behind it.
Q: What is your life like when you’re not working at the farm or on the truck?
I don’t have one [laughs]. That’s not a bad thing. I love it. I love my life. I don’t make a dime, really. But I would not trade it for anything.
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