Carrying the Fire

Patrick and Audrey Ramer were planning to get a water truck, not a food truck. They would sell their home in Sacramento and return to Humboldt to work fire seasons from Hoopa, where Audrey was born and raised on the Hoopa Valley Reservation. But when Patrick, who grew up in Eureka, went ahead to start work for the Hoopa Fire Department, he found few food options.

“Why do people have to drive all the way [to Willow Creek] for pizza?” he wondered. Then he pitched Audrey a new idea for a pizza truck.

The Hoopa Valley was declared a food desert by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2016, and while the opening of the supermarket and other food sovereignty initiatives have helped increase food availability, it’ not an oasis yet. Compared to other parts of Humboldt, Audrey says, “There’s no food here, no buildings … there’s nowhere to rent.”

It looked like an opportunity and a community need worth risking everything they had on, and something positive to bring back to Audrey’s home. On Aug. 6, with “major support” from family and friends, Gal’s Firepit Pizza fired up its wood-burning oven and started serving customers out by the Hoopa Trading Post run by the Hoopa Valley Tribe.

It took some Facebook “stalking,” but the Ramers found the trailer with a built-in oven they wanted from the Breadstone Oven Co. in Dallas, Texas. They traveled to Dallas for a three-day training course on the equipment, and customized the truck to meet California laws and county of Humboldt Health Department standards. The oven sits with its fiery mouth open to the inside and its rounded back exposed on the open “back porch” of the trailer. After a few days of burning to season it, the oven takes a couple of hours to heat to the 450 F required for a wood-fired pizza’s signature browned and blistered crust. That means adding wood and tending the flames starting a couple of hours before lunchtime.

“I love to cook, especially Italian food,” says Patrick. “My dad’s side of the family is Italian from Sicily.” But making pizza was new to him, so he dove into research. “I’m just taking in everything like a sponge.” After a lot of experimentation, he eventually settled on a 6-hour dough he starts at 5 a.m., and sauce with onions and garlic first roasted in the oven, and canned San Marzano tomatoes. His father has a visit planned soon and Patrick thinks he’ll love the perfected recipe. “I’m a little pizza-ed out myself,” he adds with a laugh.

Patrick is moved by the reception so far. “They’re so welcoming there,” he says, adding how grateful he and Audrey are for support from the Hoopa Valley Tribe, especially Valerie Richards at the Self Governance Office, who helped with their business plan and has been a “cheerleader,” pushing them to open.

“We’re still learning, too; we’re open to any constructive criticism,” Patrick says, adding the learning curve has been steep in terms of workflow and speeding up service, especially with the unexpectedly high customer turnout. “It seemed like everybody in town showed up at once.” Still, “People are real appreciative they don’t have to drive so far for a simple meal.” Gal’s, the name of which comes from the first initials of each of the couple’s three daughters, had a strong turnout during Sovereign Days over the weekend, too, and he says they’re getting the hang of the workflow now that they’ve hired a couple of young people to help out.

Audrey says she knew nobody would give it to her and Patrick straight like her community, and that would make them better. That honesty is part of what makes her people special, she says. “Hupa people, we’re known as carrying the fire,” she says.

“We’re Na:tinixwe,” the Hupa name for the people. “Our energy is what keeps us going, our fire and our love, we keep that fire going.” As a basket weaver, she sees her cultural practices as way of carrying that fire.

The return to the reservation where she grew up is bittersweet for Audrey. “A reservation is rough and it’s hard,” she says, and she sees the toll poverty and addiction take, and how intergenerational trauma has impacted her family and others, from the boarding school her grandfather was forced into down to her own younger years. “I was not the best kid … they saw me grow up,” she says. “But coming back home and doing this business here, that was my motivation.” She sees the business as her livelihood but also a positive example of what folks can do together and what they can bring back to the community. “That woulda’ been an eye opener when I was a little girl.”

Audrey’s voice breaks a little telling how good the support for the business and for her family has felt. “That’s what I love about my community. When times get rough, they show,” she says. “We carry those wounds on our sleeve but that’s where our passion shows.”

Jennifer Fumiko Cahill (she/her) is the arts and features editor at the Journal. Reach her at (707) 442-1400, extension 320, or jennifer@northcoastjournal.com. Follow her on Instagram @JFumikoCahill and on Mastodon @jenniferfumikocahill.

This article appears in Elk Crossing.