about Coyote Cafe ––

The coyote cafe is the name for the public facing food program at worlds end farm. It is a pay as you wish, just good enough, all day cafe that employs many unique charms. Its ethos is elaborated on below. 

In and around the area where we farm there are many coyote that roam the large plots of undisturbed woodlands and open hay fields. Coyote are nocturnal pack animals who work in large families consisting of 10-15 animals spread across many generations. At Worlds End, its not unusual to hear them yipping, barking and howling at night - the sounds they make defending either their territory or a recent kill. The coyote diet in our region is primarily rabbits, field mice and other small rodents, grasses and occasionally berries and fruit. Many people are surprised that coyote eats vegetarian at times. Coyote can work in pairs or teams to take down an adult deer. A delicacy for coyote is a fat sheep.They especially love baby lambs, and can smell the blood of birth from far distances. This is why we run livestock guardian dogs (LGD’s) in with our flock. The specific guardians we use are called Maremma’s - they are large white dogs native to the Italian Alps - where sheep herders graze their flocks in the mountains in summer since ancient Roman times. These dogs are instinctual guardians and deter roaming predators like coyotes, wolves and hawks mostly by prowling the perimeter fence at night and barking fiercely at anything that approaches.

When we were first farming livestock, there were many situations that necessitated navigation through humor. (Coyote would have it no other way.)

Losing sheep and chickens to illness required the quick disposal of bodies. Farmers generally don’t eat sick or maimed animals, nor is it realistic to perform a burial. We would (and still do) drag carcasses to the edge of the back 60 acres of woods where, come nightfall, coyotes would make quick work of disposing of remains. We dubbed this area of the farm the ‘coyote cafe’ as we hosted our coyote cohabiters to feast.

One morning, very early I walked with Nea just before sunrise down to the lower fields. I was half asleep, but Nea saw something that pricked my attention - it was a small strange dog which seemed to be dancing to us from across the half lit field … pouncing playfully as if to entice us to join it. Nea looked back at me confused, waiting guidance. When we both looked again, coyote was gone. Later I learned that coyote packs will send a pup out to lure a prey animal back to where adults are waiting to pounce. 

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Throughout many cultures, but especially amongst many North American Indigenous traditions and myths, the coyote is a powerful trickster figure; simultaneously powerful and foolish. Their innate gift is shapeshifting - perpetually collecting and dispersing of identities and twisting reality for their entertainment. Coyote wander in packs looking for their next pleasure, uninterested in rules or convention. Coyote are always curious and always hungry; they eat…almost anything. In coyotes world, the concepts of good or bad do not exist. Their interests are bound by survival and play. 

This is the ethos of our work at Worlds End; serious as a heart attack - a fist gripped against the sky - And - as ridiculous as our imaginations allow , dancing under the largest disco ball the barn could accommodate and shooting flaming arrows into gasoline soaked funeral pyres. 

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Restaurants, and the basic ideas around hospitality are ripe for rethinking. We hope that the coyote cafe creates some space for that work, and we invite everyone and their ideas to the table. We believe that only by envisioning uncanny new worlds will we save some important vestiges of this one. 

We will do our best to accommodate dietary restrictions. The chef at coyote cafe is always someone else, always with a shapeshifting agenda. The ingredients are mostly grown here, and the kitchen is definitely not up to code.

May all of us be fed in strength, power and a healthy foolishness.