475: A Top Chef Doesn't Need Tweezers with Dan Barber

26:46GMO, as it is referred to today, is actually not GMO. It is transgenic, which means that you are taking a foreign DNA, a foreign gene from something that would never be a part of your genetic imprint of a vegetable. Naturally. Naturally. And you're inserting it. The first transgenic GMO was literally a shotgun, a gun that was shot into the DNA structure of a grain to produce a variety that had an attribute that would not naturally have happened in nature. That is not something that interests me. the explosion of GMO technology has been because seed companies are owned by chemical companies. And 65 % of our seed supply is owned by four chemical companies today, as we sit here today.

27:44So you got the seeds and you got to buy the chemicals. I mean, they go part and parcel. You don't make money on the seeds. You make money on the intervention. And that's why GMO technology is so valuable to these companies. It is not valuable to you in your garden and is not valuable to you as a chef because it's never produced anything delicious to eat. Never. So, you know, I'm not a fan. I'm interested in the technology. I'm not I'm not Luddite. I love technology. Do you think we hang on that term as a culture, as a food culture, a little bit too much? Do we focus on like this no GMO edict that we have in our mind or am I?

28:26Not really, not really. Actually, it's funny. You know, the world's changing now. The no GMO thing is breaking down. You know, it's becoming much more acceptable than it was 10 years ago. Much. You know, Europe was, you couldn't, part of the reason that GMO didn't actually really explode in the US is because of Europe and Japan with, you know, no, they're pure. They banned it. They banned it. Yeah, they banned the imports. That's changing. And that's frightening. But that's a lot because of the influence of big corporate monetization of this stuff, not because it's working. Yeah. What about solving hunger in America?

29:03That would be one, I would say, one argument for GMO is that we are a country over 300 million that doesn't really have a famine problem. And that's kind of a remarkable thing. I'm only putting this out there for you as a, you know, just as an idea. Food tonnage is not the problem with hunger. There's enough tonnage to feed two worlds, double the population. You could feed it. There's hunger because of unfairness, because of politics, because of corporate greed. There's so many reasons for hunger that are so cruel. It is not about tonnage. But the interests that are there to make a lot of money conveniently point to the fact that if you prevent GMO crop technology, you are making people starve.

29:54And that's a very powerful argument. It just happens to be very untrue. Yeah. So it's sort of like Trump. You keep saying it and people are like, oh, I guess it must be true. It's not true. It's just not just root and branch. It's not true. So, like, you know, you have to start with the idea that, like, efficiency is not one crop. You know, that's what GMO is. If you got a GMO seed, you're growing one thing of one variety on a very large set of acres. Very large. That's baked into this whole body. That's all eggs in one basket. Yeah, man. That's so, you know, that's not that if the weather agrees with you and for the last 40 years, we've had we had the most stable weather patterns of many centuries in the U.S.

30:50But now that's changing. And if you believe that chemicals don't degrade environments and are not bad for your health, and you believe that the stability of climates will continue, that you can grow one thing on 30 ,000 acres, one variety, then you should bet on GMO. But it's not a good bet. Not a good bet. And you've got to diversify in your life a lot of things. I mean, it's kind of the name of the game of having a healthy and happy life. Well, that's a very good philosophy, man. Diversification, yeah. Yeah, diversification in everything. And that is the biggest learning from agriculture. From what we call sustainable agriculture, if there's one thing to boil down to, it's diversity.

31:35I love that. That was great. Thank you for sharing. The GMO topic is difficult, and you said some really great things to chew on. Let's go back to Row 7 Seed Company, and you've kind of teased out one product to beat, But there's a big, big, big mission here to grow this into a much larger thing. You just announced and released the garlic. And it's kind of been all over my gram, just have to be honest. Nice, dude. It's everywhere. It was at Quarter Sheets, I think, this weekend, which is a great restaurant in Los Angeles. But, Dan, kind of outline how you see this company growing. Well, we started, like I said, as a small, tiny, that's a tiny seed company of a handful of weirdo breeders who love food and who had in their desk drawer a variety or two that they were saving because everyone had told them, no, this will never work.

32:33But they believed in it. And that's that we were like the Ellis Island of the rejects. You know, that was row seven. We still are today. I think every week we get a call from a breeder around the world. We have a network now of 50 or 60 breeders. It's crazy. And they all say the same thing. I hear you are interested. That was the Garlik. The president of a big seed company. It's an independent seed company, not GMO-related anything, but they're in Europe. And their alien breeder, who's quite famous, Hans Bongers, had a... That's a name. It's a name. it's truly great he hans banger's alien breeders very well in the alien world this guy is pretty pretty hot actually just retired but he had a his his rosetta thing rosetta stone was was the love child of a of a garlic and a leak you met i talked about parent lines a minute ago but you take the parent line of of a garlic a really delicious garlic take a parent line of a really just like you marry it and you get a awesome well that had been almost it had been impossible to do for a lot of reasons.

33:39One of it being garlic is really hard to outcross. That's what's called an outcross. And he figured out a way to do it at scale. And it took him 11 years. Now, this company spends$75 million a year on R &D for seeding. Okay, this is like one of the major ones. And what the president called me and he said, it's very exciting, but we're not going to release it. I was like, wow, you're not going to release it. He's like, yeah, there's no market for the outcross. I was like, you know, I played. I was like, yeah, there's probably no market for it. Inside, I was like, of course, there's no fucking market for it, man.

34:13It's like, it doesn't exist. So, yes, there's no market for it. And I tried it. I was like, you know, I was like, it's incredible. I mean, seriously, like, really delicious. I mean, before you continue with the story, because I love where we're going here. Like, how do you describe the flavor? I could say my bit, but, man, I really. What's your bit? Well, I think it's got the allium root and the kind of the core of a garlic. but the aesthetics of a scallion or a green onion. So it's kind of a visual trick. And I'm getting that like allium, like kind of like sofrito. Yes, sofrito. Nice, dude. Nice.

34:50I like that. And you can use the greens too, which is not a small thing. And the top, so you can't really use leek tops. No, not really. I mean, we try. You try, but like you really got to cook those a long time. But like these tops, I cooked the tops as well. Thank you for reminding me. I even tried them raw and they were fine. You know, they weren't that bad. Right. No, it's very versatile. I have it on every station in the kitchen. I can't get enough of this stuff. It's incredible. So the president's saying there's no market for it. The costs of bringing it into market are too much for the risks.

35:23Do you want it? They just gave it to us. You know, so we pay a royalty to him, but on 10 years of R &D from Hans Bongers, it's like, it's such a gift. Wow. And I'm excited because also another parable. It's like, how do you use chefs to, to not use is the wrong word, but how do you excite chefs with anything better than something that is new and stunningly delicious? As we said, that's catnip because it makes chefs look like better chefs. And so they're the ones who have brought, the reason you're hearing about garlic and it's on your social media is because of chefs. And I'm not, we're not doing marketing in that sense.

35:59We're just like releasing really delicious stuff that can scale, that has a place on the larger distribution chain. So for our listeners, can we buy it in green grocers? How are we? You can buy garlic at Whole Foods right now. Right. And then you're probably going to expand it. We're going to hopefully go across the country. So let's talk about the Row 7 pipeline. You've got this garlic launch. And just to add, you know, it's like you're a marketing agency as much as a seed company. You obviously have to win the media over in some ways to get the word out. Of course, it's about merchandising, too, within the Whole Foods.

36:40Exactly. Get people to taste, then they come back. The conversion rate of taste to sale is wild. It's wild. You know, me, I didn't know. What do I know about produce and supermarkets? You know, before this, we started the produce end of our seed business at Whole Foods. I was told, I was like, oh, you know, the best way to do this is demos in the store. So I was like, no way. I'm like, when I walk into the supermarket and someone's demoing something, I run to the other aisle. I mean, I just like, I don't want your junk shit. But you're not the average. We're not the average. And what I learned is that it's actually very compelling.

37:13And when you've got something that actually is compelling and delicious, the X factor's huge. It's really wild to see kids, like you're in the store, you're demoing. I've done a lot of this. And, you know, like that Badger Flame beat, You see kids in the cart, and you give them a free taste of the raw beet, raw beet with a little bit of salt. And then two minutes later, if I could tell you how many times I saw this, kid, they leave with a cart and then whoo, in a circle. Wanted a second. And mom's like, they want seconds. And then they got the bag and they're at the cash register. So what's the pipeline looking like for new products?

37:48Because it sounds like you probably have a big whiteboard with other seeds, other vegetables. There is some great stuff, man. It is so exciting what's out there. And some of it we're helping to shepherd. You know, we're creating with conversations with our network of chefs, with breeders. But a lot of it is also stuff that like was near, you know, was on the 10-yard line and we're helping to finish. There's a breeder. There's a former Monsanto breeder. Talk about GMOs. You know, there's a former Monsanto breeder, the head lettuce breeder for Monsanto. Brilliant guy in California who left Monsanto because he's like, you know what?

38:22But I don't want my headstone to read, I was the head lettuce breeder for Monsanto. And he's like, there's a nutrition crisis in this country, there is. And salad's the number one eaten vegetable in the United States. And I can do something about it because we could breed salad for intense nutrition. And it would be a Trojan horse into nutrition. And I've been out to his breeding field now a lot. It's so exciting what's possible. and you know there are a couple varieties that we're bringing on to row seven that one of its spinach lettuce here's an example spinach a couple years ago i was out in his field i'm walking by i see this thing i was like oh you know bill i didn't know you're you're breeding spinach he's like no no this is a romaine i like picking up i swear to god looks exactly like a head of spinach and he's like no it's it's romaine because i know i i get really pissed off when people eat spinach salad.

39:15I was like, why would you eat spinach salad? It's the spinach meant to be cooked. You know, you don't. Disagree or agree. I don't like spinach salad either. So I was me. I was like, OK, so what are you talking about? He's like, well, I made the romaine, a head of romaine. I bred it to look exactly like spinach. Wow. And it's really photos that you've never seen a romaine like this. It's completely photos like dark green, looks like a head of spinach. and it is so delicious. It is so wildly delicious. And this is funny. He said to me, yeah, I had dinner with him that night. I was like, and we ate the spinach.

39:50I was like, God, this is like so great. And, you know, we ended dinner. I was like, I was running the airport for a red eye. He's like, yeah, you know, I did the nutrition on this a couple of years ago. And they said it was, it was as nutrient dense as spinach. And I turned around, I remember at the door, I was like, Bill, you mean a lettuce, is as nutrient dense as maybe the most nutrient dense vegetable there is. He's like, yeah, yeah, I really got to find that study. So I followed up with him a couple of weeks later. I was like, you know, you said that about - You didn't really believe it, I bet.

40:19Well - You thought maybe it's an embellishment. I'm a skeptical guy and I embellish sometimes, you know, like we all do. And I was like, this guy, you know, he's really proud of this one. It's baby, sure. So I had to follow it up just gently. I was like, in the email, I was like, hey, you said, could you find that study? And he's like, oh yeah, yeah, I got to find it. Never sent it, nothing. You know, a couple months later, I was on the phone. It was like, hey, you remember that study about that thing? You know, the spinach lettuce. Oh, yeah, yeah. Let me find it. Nothing. Crickets. So I was like, okay.

40:46He's a brilliant guy. He's in his 70s. I'm not going to bother him with this thing. Meanwhile, I still was very excited about spinach lettuce. I'm just like, okay, it's not as nutritious as spinach, but it's like 10 times romaine lettuce. You know what I mean? So anyway, we go to release it. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to test this thing myself because it's still staying with me. You're making your own study. Yeah, why not? Well, it's a lot of money. We paid for it. And the nutritionist who I've known for years, he's this also very brilliant guy in Arizona. You know, he called me.

41:17I've never spoken to him on the phone. I've just done through email. And he calls me up and he's like, I've never seen anything like this. I was like, what, what the fuck? He's like, look at, go to your computer. He emailed me the thing. And he's like, I put it, I did it next to spinach. And you look at it and the levels are exactly, I mean, this thing is so nutrient dense. It is equivalent to spinach. It's crazy. It's crazy. That's an incredible story about how, you know, one idea can kind of expand into a large cultural movement. And I could see lettuce, spinach blowing up. And it's going to blow up because it tastes so good.

41:57Not because Bill's thing was like, I want to get nutrition into everyone's mouth. But mouthfeel is a romaine? But Mal feels wrong because he knows that there's a huge market for romaine and something unique because people think spinach salad is incredibly healthy. It's actually not. Cooking spinach is much more bioavailable. But anyway, that's the association. So that was where he was going. I was very brilliant. And he actually freaking nailed it on the equivalency. And the thing tastes – it's meant to be salad. It's so interesting. So, but why chefs for that? Because it tastes so good. Here's another level to the chef's advocacy, which is that like, we have to rethink our relationship with salad.

42:45Our relationship with salad right now is, salad is like a vector for like mix-ins and junk and ranch dressing. And, you know, it's a vector for fat. That hurts. Sorry. It's a pro ranch dressing podcast. Dude, I love ranch dressing. I know, I'm kidding. I love ranch dressing. It's good on pizza, maybe not on salad. It's good on iceberg. Yeah. But that's why iceberg is so popular because it doesn't taste like it. So then ranch is there and it serves a purpose. But lettuce, if it has the kind of flavor that I'm talking about, the spinach lettuce, you don't want to junk it up, man. It's like it is a meal unto itself.

43:18I am interested in what you just said about changing our relationship with salad because many would say, I would argue that we are in a boom of salads. if you walk around any major city college campus. Yes. Suburban areas. Yes. And 98 % of that boom is two varieties. That is the genetic diversity of saying like A to B. It's nothing. It's iceberg, which is 99.9 % water, and romaine lettuce, which is a little bit better photos in size, therefore a little bit better, but not much. You basically have things, as Bill said, with almost no nutrition, and I should know it because I bred them. And probably what you ate, your last salad, was probably bred by this guy at Monsanto.

44:02I mean, that's the concentration. And 95 % of those Romaine icebergs come from the salad bowl, the Salinas. That's, you know, Yuba in the winter is where salad comes from, and Salinas rest of the year. That's 95 % of our salad, two varieties. That is crazy cakes with no nutrition. We're shipping water around the world, around the country, but around the world too. And we have a nutrition crisis. Yeah, and it's mismarketed as actually being nutritious. Do you think the major - Well, it's fiber. So in that sense, it's probably better for you than a lot of other things. Well, yeah. But it could be so much more.

44:39I see what you're saying. Now, what about the major salad bar chains? Do they play a role in evangelizing this new romaine spinach hybrid? Yeah, I'm actually, you know, Sweetgreen is always ahead of this stuff. I'm talking to them now. They're always looking for innovative stuff like this. They're interested. I mean, also, it's not to point blame because the salad chain people who profit off of romaine and iceberg are also doing something great. I mean, there's something very healthy about the salad. So you can't go nuts. I appreciate that. You know, right? I mean, it's steps that you have to go in at the culture.

45:14It's steps, man. So row seven is going to do a spinach romaine is what I'm hearing. It's out. We have the seed now. It's out and there's some farmers growing it. On the East Coast, there's some farmers growing it. What's it sold under? What label? Spinach lettuce row seven at the farmer's market. Yeah. Go to the Unisquare Farmer's Market this fall in New York City and you'll get it. Good to know. Anywhere else? Norwich Meadows. It will be elsewhere very soon, next year. I'm excited to try this product and I'll definitely pick it up at the farmer's market. This has been really a great conversation.

45:46You're welcome back anytime. Thanks, man. For real, I think we just scratched the surface. It's a great way to start my weekend. I appreciate it. Monday morning as we speak. I still want to hear a little bit about the transition for the Blue Hill and the Village, which I loved going to. I went to a couple of your wasted dinners, which back in the day were very cool and certainly well ahead of the game. But after the pandemic, you switched the concept. It's now a prefix, right? It is, yeah, it's shared plates. Cool. And we did it coming out of COVID, you know, like, I didn't know what we were going to do.

46:24It seemed like going back to what we did, which was Blue Hill, New York is very similar to Stone Barns with one 15th of staff and one 15th of space. But they were using the same ingredients. I like, you know, I love Blue Hill, New York is where we started. But it was time for something new coming out of COVID. And it was really our management team that wanted to reopen it with something very informal and relaxed and shared plates. And it's what people wanted then. But it stuck because it's worked and it's great. It's a great. So what's the structure? You're paying X amount? Yeah, you play X amount.

46:59There's no, you know, there's one menu and it's executed for the whole dining room. And it changes quite a bit as well because our ingredients are always changing. but it's a convivial, the music a little louder. You know, it's a very relaxed way to get the kind of flavor and, you know, nutrition that we serve and I'm all for it. I love it. I dined at Blue Hill in 2004 and I just remember I was blown away the most yellow butter and lardo with bread. Nice. First time I ever had that in my life. Oh yeah? Yeah, first taste of that. It was 2004, I think. That was at Stoneburns or Blue Hill, New York?

47:36No, New York, downtown. Yeah. Yeah. Are you still doing two spreads with your bread there? We're doing, yeah, it depends on the season, but yeah, we try and mix it up. Yeah, Lardo's a good one. Dan, and this is Taste. We have guests and brother discerning taste that closes the interview. Here's a little rapid fire, fast and furious taste check. Are you ready? I'm sweating here. I'm like, what the fuck? Okay, go. This is good. The best fruit. Depends on the season. Well, let the - Right now, pawpaws are, you know, I mean, have you ever had a pawpaw? I have. I grew up 20 minutes from Pawpaw, Michigan.

48:06So it's a connection. Jesus. I nailed that one. That's you, man. A good pawpaw is like, you can't, you know, for those who don't know, it's, it's a, it's, it's a north. Well, it's actually northeast down. It goes down south to Virginia too. But it's, it's like a tropical cross of a mango papaya thing. It's, it's got acidity and sweetness. Acidity and sweetness. Exactly. Creaminess to it. Yep. That is, that is like no other, I mean, it's like no other fruit. But it was never brought into the big food chain for a lot of reasons. Very finicky and doesn't last long. It has a short season here. One of the best this time of year.

48:49I like a pear in the winter. Yeah, yeah. Good pear. I think pears are eaten too early around here. We eat them year-round. Yeah, well, that exactly. But people who eat locally eat them too early. You really wait until December, January. I agree. This, we ask all of our guests, the worst vegetable. And overcooked vegetable is the worst vegetable. I'll let you answer that way. Thank you. Because I feel running a vegetable company, you... If I had to like zero in it, I'd go, I wouldn't go to the actual vegetable class, like a brassica, you know, like a broccoli or kale. Really overcooked is just a disgrace.

49:23Yeah, I know. Because it's a disgrace of like what's possible, you know, and it like pisses me off. So overcooked kale would mean what exactly? Describe what that is. Actually, it depends on the variety of kale, but generally speaking, overcooked kale would mean either you haven't gone far enough. Like, you know, if you're going to overcook kale, you go all the way, you know, so that it really falls apart. It becomes sort of like a puree. And then, you know, and then the sugars are there that are there. And it's, I think it'd be very delicious. But it's sort of the, that, quickly cooked and thoughtfully and like not too much kale in the pan.

49:58A splash of acid, like vinegar. A splash of, I like sherry vinegar and kale. Me too, my guy, I love that. It's the best. Yeah. And that's great. That takes some concentration. But everything in between that two round, forget it. We, as home cooks, forget that there is this evil in between with vegetables and many things. And meats. Meats. Turkey. Thanksgiving turkey. Not that that's on anyone's mind right now, but Thanksgiving. I always say the dead zone is anything below 500 and anything above 260. I just, it's just 375, dead. It's dead. Dry and dead. Dry and dead. All right. the best dessert.

50:33I just had the best dessert from Nancy Silverton in Los Angeles. I won't, I'm not going to say it's the best dessert I ever had, but I tell you something, I'm just thinking like, I don't even know I can describe it. It was Tierra Masse. It was a reinterpretation of Tierra Masse. But it wasn't the dessert. It was Nancy. She came to the table. It's not, I really don't like going out to the table to die. And I've known Nancy Silverton for many, many, many, many years. I don't think she likes going out to the table either. And, but she came out and And what struck me about the dessert was her. It was the description.

51:08Why am I serving the dessert? What she said is, I go to L.A. every summer, and I try and learn one thing and take it back and work with it in L.A., you know, back when I'm in L.A. And this summer, she had just gotten back. I was just in L.A. She had just gotten back. And she said, this summer, I didn't find anything. I usually find it right away. I didn't find anything. And with the last night I was in Italy, a small little restaurant near where I was staying served me this reinterpreted Tierra Masue. And it blew my mind. And she talked about her relationship with Tierra Masue and her relationship with Italy.

51:45And it was so real and direct and unfiltered and beautiful. And I learned so much from it. I was like, this is what I should be doing more. It's like the story is everything. And so, see, I'm telling you it's my best dessert, but I don't even remember what the reinterpretation of Tiramisu was. It really hits the core of what you do at your restaurants, which is obviously serving exquisite cuisine that tastes great, but there's a lot more going on with the story. Yeah, well, I learned how to do it right. She did it right. The restaurant you are most excited to visit in the world. I'm most excited to visit restaurants where my former cooks are now chefs.

52:29And I've visited almost none of them. There's one in particular, Bastion Guillauchon opened a restaurant, Gamma, in southern France, that he was a chef at Blue Hill for me for many, many years. So I'm excited. Like, I'm just, all of them. Anyone who worked for me who now has their own place, you know, I think it's like, you know, It's like a father visiting their daughter's anything, going to see their daughter speak or going to see their daughter's work presented. I mean, it's just like it's got to be the most gratifying thing in the world. I can't wait to do that. And those shared meals when you walk into an alumni's restaurant and when they start cooking for you, that's got to be extremely special to have them hosting you in the restaurant.

53:17Yeah. I think in an earlier day, I would have been jealous or competitive. Today, I think I would actually enjoy it. You've matured with that thing. I like to think that. With that competitive thing. Well, I'm still very competitive. I know you are. But in this particular realm of former cooks, I feel only excitement. So that's my next venture. Set out to eat at as many former cooks. That's very cool. Yeah. Pretty fun little trip. Maybe film it. Maybe film it. Let's do it together. I love it. Your favorite cookbook of all time? I mean, Margaret Visser wrote this book called What's for Dinner. And it's not a cookbook, but it is.

53:56She took one meal and her whole book was talking about the meal from its historical, cultural, and agricultural perspective. And I thought it was the best cookbook ever written. And it really influenced my life. I read it when I was in my 20s. And I was like, that's such an interesting way to think about food. And that's what gastronomy is. It's everything. And we forget how rich that is or can be in the experience of food. So there wasn't a cookbook, but it was a book that really influenced me. Favorite city outside America to visit for food? I mean, you know, Paris. But I'll give you one that's not, you know, Fargo, North Dakota.

54:41It's not restaurants. it's just seeing agriculture out there. It is really interesting to understand our food system when you go to the Midwest, wherever it is. But I go to Fargo a lot because there are a lot of breeders at the University of - UND? North Dakota, yeah. North Dakota is incredible. I mean, there's a lot of sugar beets up there too for fuel. So there's that whole industry. Sugar beets, wheat, corn, soybeans. And you just, you're meeting, it's a whole world. And it is our food chain. And it's very interesting for me. But that's, what was the question? The question was your favorite city outside America to visit for food.

55:18But that is, I like to visit there because you see how people are thinking about real food production. It's not my shiv, but it's always, it's like, it is a graduate school thing in what's happening with food. I respect that. It's a great answer. Last one, your favorite sandwich. At this time of year, what's better than tomato matz? I don't know. Tomato matz. Bread choice. You know, I'm a whole wheat guy because that's a restaurant. We only do 100 % whole wheat. So I've been doing tomato matzah a lot for my kids on my Monday. Just like that's our dinner. And I've been really excited about eating some white bread, you know.

56:01Yeah. Why not? Because it's so delicious. Yeah. And I don't allow myself that in the restaurant. because I want the bakers to go for the ultimate. The ultimate is you keep the wheat seed whole and you manipulate it, but always intact because where all the flavor is really and all the nutrition, the thing is the sweetness isn't quite there. And so, you know, because you've got a lot of bran and that nutrition and sweetness, I think it's the most beautiful way to eat bread. But last night I made tomato moths. We love sugar as a culture in America. Yeah, yeah, my kids do too. And I do. Yeah, me too.

56:38Exactly. What about what's the condiment though on this sandwich dessert? Oh, well, like tomatoes. I douse them with some. Last night I did like a raspberry thing, raspberry vinegar, nice olive oil, basil, and really good matzah. And it's like, I don't know. What else is there? All right. I could eat that forever. Dan Barber, this has been such a treat. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, man. Nice to be here. Thank you.

57:07This is Taste is hosted by Eliza Abarbanel and me, Matt Rodbar. The show is produced by Shalia Harris and Pat Stango and edited by Clayton Gumbert. Theme music by Steve Rydell. Visit Taste online at tastecooking.com and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter for updates on all cool things that are happening.