Posted: 10/18/05
Foie gras business doing well in rural Caledonia
Native Frenchman using his heritage in duck venture
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
Christian Gasset moved around the group of ducks with the slow confidence of a farmer amidst his livestock.
He spoke in a low, reassuring voice, not quite loud enough to understand, although his French accent could be detected, by human ears at least.
The ducks, which were four weeks old, seemed to flow in front of him like a school of fish, turning this way and that in unison.
He kept them moving down the slope of the yard toward their feeder filled with soybeans and corn. They probably gobbled up a few bugs and worms on the way. Thatís the beauty of being on a pasture.
ìItís like being a mother,î Christianís wife, Liz Gibson-Gasset, said of her husbandís firm and loving manner.
She and her husband took a couple hours on that October 5 morning to explain their business, which is called Au Bon Canard Foie Gras.
Foie gras, pronounced ìfwah grah,î means ìfatty liverî in English. It is the liver from ducks that are specially raised and fed.
Their operation at the former Keefe farm in Winnebago Township seems the ideal place to harvest foie gras, and the Gassets seem like the ideal people to do it.
Christian, 42, pointed out the pastures where the ducks go on a rotational basis. He showed me a brooder house in one building, and pointed out a converted tractor trailer for another one.
These month-old ducks would like to stay out at night, but Christian, good father that he is, insists on their proper bedtime indoors, especially when there is a forecast of chilly weather. Liz, 42, calls them ugly teenagers. Every so often one would rear up and flap its wings. Thatís a sign of a healthy bird, she said.
We climbed over a fence to another pasture, where an older group of ducks were resting under an apple tree dripping with red fruit. Christian had modified a pig feeder for the birds, but it was closed. These birds, which were 11 weeks old, eat only twice a day, so Christian will go out and open the feeder at about 6 p.m. Thatís part of the process of getting their livers to enlarge. The crop can hold large amounts of food, so this expands it. The food is passed through a special vein from the gizzard to the liver, where they can store excess fat.
He said he would start force-feeding 50 of the ducks in a week. Thatís a part of the process that is somewhat controversial, although the Gassetís approach would be hard for most critics to contest.
The ducks are happy in the rain, Christian said. They are hardy animals, well suited to being raised in the fall and winter in southeastern Minnesota.
ìThe colder the weather, the happier they are,î Liz said.
Corn is pressure cooked
Liz and Christian showed me a reconstructed barn next. One corner held a pressure cooker the size of a 55-gallon drum. Thatís where Christian cooks the corn twice a day. ìItís like milking,î Christian said. ìI spend a couple hours twice a day.î
The next room held the pens where the force feeding is done. The ducks are in long, narrow pens, 10-15 per group. A stainless steel funnel is on a cable overhead. Christian herds the ducks into one end, holds them one at a time, massages their crop, then puts the end of the funnel into their beaks, and feeds them the slightly cooked corn. This is done twice a day for two weeks before the birds are slaughtered. Each bird is fed about 1-1/2 pounds of corn a day.
By handling the ducks like that, he can see how well they digested their last meal, or see if one is hurt. Itís a gentle approach to the force-feeding. That is not always the case with some foie gras companies, which may process 10,000 birds a week compared to the 50-75 done by the Gassets. Factories like that may put the ducks in small wooden crates with only their necks and heads sticking out. Those places probably donít have landscape paintings on the walls like the Gassets do either. They might not play country and western music either, which the ducks seem to prefer.
Christian loves to force feed the birds. ìYou are so close to the bird,î he said. He talks or clucks to them while he does it, again with French words sprinkled in.
There is a practical payback for this more humane way too: the Gassets feel they get a superior product. That opinion is backed up by many Twin Cities chefs. Stressful conditions will affect the quality of foie gras.
The slaughtering process is low-stress too. That was our next stop. The first room held sinks and a plucking machine. Everything was spotless. It has to be to satisfy the USDA inspector that is present during the slaughtering.
Everybody tried to convince them to rent a space for slaughtering, Liz said, but that would be too stressful for the birds. Here the ducks, about 20 per group, walk a short distance on their Green Mile, rather than getting shipped somewhere in a truck. Less stress, better foie gras.
Tuesday is usually slaughtering day. It starts at 5 a.m. with chores and preparation for the health inspection. Liz, Christian, and three part-time helpers process four ducks at a time. The bird is put head down in a funnel, then knocked out with a stun gun. An artery is slit in the throat, and the bird is bled, so that no blood goes into the liver. The birds are scalded, then plucked using a special machine imported from France. They are hung by their feet for a final hand plucking. Then they are singed, washed, and checked for fecal contamination. The feet and the tops of the wings are cut off.
The birds hang in a refrigerator overnight, then are eviscerated the next day while hanging from specially-made posts, also an import from Christianís mother country. Room temperature is important in all parts of the process. There is a lot of paperwork and control involved, Liz said.
Christian opens the belly and takes out the foie gras, heart, and gizzard. He loves opening the birds. ìYou donít know the results till you open it,î he said. Entrails are inspected to make sure there is no disease. The rest of the meat is removed too. It comes off like a jacket in one piece, ìle paltoî as they say in France.
The meat is cut up and packaged on Wednesday, the livers on Thursday. They store the meat in a walk-in refrigerator and freezer in the building. The foie gras is graded for its texture, color, and size. Each one weighs between 1-1/4 and 1-1/2 pounds, although Christian recalls one that weighed 2.38 pounds. It sells for $30-$40 per pounds wholesale, and about $77 per pound retail. All the rest of the meat is sold too; the foie gras makes up about 2/3 of their income.
On Friday the meat is delivered, mostly to restaurants in the Twin Cities. (Little Miami Restaurant in Freeburg also sometimes has duck from the Gasset farm as a special on its menu.) ìItís a pretty intense few days,î Liz said. Yet itís fun, she said, a good time.
A long journey
So how did all this end up on Jefferson Ridge seven miles southeast of Caledonia? Liz and Christian explained that answer while sitting in their kitchen prior to our tour.
It started in Africa, where they first met. Liz, a native of Omaha, Nebraska, was in the Peace Corps doing health-related work, and he was employed by a logging company.
They first planned to settle down in Europe. ìWe looked in France, but the economy is so bad there,î Liz said. And raising foie gras is a common business there. She estimates there are 25,000 farmers there raising foie gras. ìWe were going to be one among many in a very competitive business,î Liz said.
They moved to Minneapolis in 1999, then bought their 60-acre farm here in June of 2001 after a year-long search covering about 50 places, Christian said. Nothing flat would do, because Christian grew up in the Pyrenees Mountains. ìSo we started looking down here,î Liz said.
Liz said that Au Bon Canard Foie Gras is the only company in the United States raising foie gras on what she called an ìartisanal family farmî level. That makes it special but harder. ìChallenging,î is the word Christian said, with a slight smile that often accompanies his comments. But Gassetís approach had the potential to be more successful, he said, because of better quality control and better foie gras. ìIt makes us really unique here,î Liz said.
Itís a seasonal approach too, mostly a fall-winter project. ìCooking with what nature is providing as the calendar turns,î Liz said.
That works fine with the restaurants to whom they sell, because those chefs use a lot of fresh local products and change their menus with the season.
Christian does most of the marketing. Au Bon Canard Foie Gras has 30-40 regular customers in the Twin Cities. Christian will call them on Wednesday nights and deliver on Fridays. They sell to a few specialty butcher shops too. Their foie gras has received high praise by many chefs and critics.
Gasset like to be in direct contact with the chefs. The chefs let Liz and Christian know their needs and any changes that need to be made. ìThe chefs weíre working with tend to be at the nicer, more expensive restaurants,î Liz said.
Good chefs like to know the producers, she added. A lot of the chefs have come down to look at the operation. They like the fact the ducks are pasture-raised under hands-on conditions, Liz said.
And Christianís French upbringing doesnít hurt any. ìThe chefs like and appreciate getting this from somebody whose roots are in this,î Liz said.
The ducks they use are called mulards, which are a cross between peking and muscovy breeds. They grow to be about 14 pounds, and make very heavy foie gras. ìA lot of people think theyíre geese,î Liz said.
Gasset buys them as day-old chicks. All are males. Only two places in the United States sell them. The company they use is in California, with its corporate headquarters in France. Slaughtering is done from age 14-18 weeks of age. They buy 300 at a time, and slaughter them over the course of a month.
This will be their third winter raising foie gras. ìWe can pay the bills,î Christian said about their profitability.
ìWe havenít taken a salary yet,î Liz added. She also works 30 hours a week as the librarian in Houston.
Tastes like butter
So what does foie gras taste like? ìReally good foie gras to me tastes like butter,î Liz answered. ìIt doesnít have that livery taste.î
ìItís not liver, itís something else,î Christian said.
In France foie gras is often cut in thin slices and eaten on bread as an appetizer. Here it is more often used as a sauce or a main dish.
France eats 95 percent of the worldís foie gras, Christian said. ìYou can buy foie gras in a gas station in France,î Liz added. ìIts everywhere.î
Christian said he ate it at least once a month when he was growing up there, and on special occasions.
Christian felt this business was a good way to take advantage of his cultural heritage. ìI love all the product of foie gras,î he said. He attended a foie gras school in southwestern France for nine months. ìWhen you want to do something for a living, you better know something about it,î he said.
They are happy with their decision. ìI enjoy every day,î Christian said.
ìIncredible but true,î Liz said. ìHe does.î
Winter is really hard, Christian added. They can have up to 1,200 ducks then.
Christian said they donít really force-feed the birds. ìIf you force them, they donít digest.î The Gassets said they are just pushing a natural phenomenon that ducks have of filling their crops for food on their migration. That ties it to their seasonal approach.
Many people are against force feeding, Liz said, but those critics havenít seen these conditions.
ìThis is true to the spirit of the product,î she said. She also sees a growing demand for products raised on small farms with a similar philosophy.
The operation probably wonít grow, Christian said. ìWe could, but then the quality would not be there anymore,î he said.
I asked the Gassets if they have any children. ìWe have 600 children,î Christian answered with a smile.
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