Our Story
Brought together over the love for good food with a dream of growing and raising safe, healthy, honest to feed ourselves and our community Spatzle and Speck was born. Karl and Alex are brothers and knew from early on that they could help each other and work well together. Cory and Karl met back in 2009 while working in Vail, CO together and instantly became friends and knew that one day they would work together again. That day came in 2014 when the three moved to Oregon to pursue a life long passion and love for food.
Starting on a small mountain side farm in West Salem, OR we began our journey and dreams of planting, growing, raising, harvesting, butchering, preparing, curing, foraging, and serving that safe, healthy, honest food to the community. With a few years of experience under our belt, we moved the farm to Mulino, OR where the fertile land is helping our produce and animals thrive.
Meet the Homies
Karl Holl
Karl Holl is a chef, butcher, forager and farmer all tied into one. Growing up in a small town in Vermont, Karl’s passion for cooking started at a very young age. He cooked alongside his Oma at her small restaurant and quickly knew that he wanted to pursue a career in food.
After attending the culinary program at the New England Culinary Institute, Karl decided to head west where he worked in Napa Valley at the Martini House Restaurant. After Napa, he took to the mountains of Colorado for a year where he accepted a roll as pastry chef at Vail's Larkspur, where he worked on his pastry skills and bread baking. After a year of living in the mountains, Karl was drawn back to the Bay Area where he landed at San Francisco's Perbacco Ristorante as the Chef de Cuisine. During his time at Perbacco, Karl developed a deeper love for all things Italian and an even greater passion for making salumi. After almost five years in the busy city, Karl began to wonder what was next.
Karl always dreamt of growing and raising everything he cooked, so he decided his next move would be to the Pacific Northwest to pursue his dream of owning a farm. Before making the leap, Karl joined Outstanding in the Field tour for a year where he had the opportunity to travel the country and see farming first hand, cooking from the farm. Ninety farms later, he found himself with a group of friends on a mountain side in Oregon living his dream. With the move to Oregon he had a lot of work ahead building a cuisine that is driven by what his farm produced, also having never farmed before had a lot to learn. Immediately started connecting with the PNW food community.
After a little over three years building LetUmEat, Karl recently ventured off for a new beginning with what he calls Spatzle and Speck. There, he continues to grow and raise everything he cooks while diving into his love of northern Italian cuisine. In this new chapter, he’s going back to where it all started, alongside his Oma, and is drawing inspiration from her German roots.
Alex Holl
Alex Holl is a Farmer, Event Planner, forager, and entrepreneur all into one. Alex was born and raised in the beautiful Green Mountain state of Vermont, where he also attended college at Castleton State University, he graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration. During the summer months of college he worked for a Landscape and Garden design company and fell in love with working outside.
After Working for Outstanding in the Field For the summer of 2013 traveling to so many farms, putting on events he was inspired to take on the world of farming. Diving headfirst into farming while also building Let um Eat at the time created a perfect learning situation. He feels that his farming and small business career has just begun.