Nonprofit Helps Local Food Get to Region’s Restaurants

ABINGDON, Va. – David King loaded eight boxes of broccoli, salad greens and herbs into the back of Laurel Flaccavento’s Toyota Prius as it idled in the back parking lot at Appalachian Sustainable Development.

Freshly picked from King’s Hayter’s Gap farm, the produce filled the Prius’ hatchback, along with a few boxes of fresh snow peas from Charlie Foster’s farm in Abingdon and some cauliflower and zucchini that Flaccavento grew herself.

Combined, the boxes made up the first delivery of the year for the Farm Fresh Connection, a program that links local farmers to chefs at area restaurants. Flaccavento spearheads the service for ASD, a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting healthy, diverse and environmentally sound opportunities in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. The Farm Fresh Connection makes its farmer-to-chef deliveries every Wednesday so the restaurants have their food for their busiest days at the end of the week.

“We have a few restaurants that are really into local foods,” she said, ticking off the stops on this year’s inaugural run: the Troutdale Dining Room in Bristol, Tenn.; the Harvest Table in Meadowview, Va.; and the Wildflour Bakery and Cafe in Abingdon.

Chefs at these restaurants seek out locally grown produce because they think it’s fresher and of better quality than what comes through a traditional food distributor.
They also like serving local produce because it gives them a chance to build relationships with the sources of their foods.

Finally, restaurateurs know that when they serve local produce, especially if it’s organically grown, they can bring in diners who are willing to travel and pay more for their food.

“It’s definitely a draw,” said Wildflour Chef Roger Goodson, who alters his menu almost weekly depending on what he can get from local farmers. The menu includes sandwiches, soups and salads for lunch with prices between $5 and $10, while dinners range from $12 to $26.

“Any time I buy local or organic, I put that on the menu and it does spike my sales,” Goodson said.

The Farm Fresh Connection started about two years ago when Flaccavento was looking for a way she and other farmers could sell their farmers market leftovers, or what they harvested to sell during a particular weekend but couldn’t.

Restaurants seemed like a natural venue because many chefs were already shopping at the market. The arrangement took an even bigger step forward last winter when Flaccavento organized a meeting between chefs and farmers so the two groups could plan out this year’s harvest season together.

“If I can sell to somebody like Laurel [Flaccavento] who sells to so many restaurants, then that’s good for me,” King said.

Restaurant sales are big business for local farmers like King, who estimates that 8 percent of last year’s total sales went to restaurants through the Farm Fresh
Connection. Another 12 percent of his sales went to the Harvest Table, he said, which has been buying directly from local farmers since the restaurant opened in October 2007.

The restaurant specializes in serving entrées made with locally grown organic produce, free-range chicken and pasture-finished beef. Its meals range in price from $10 to $15 and include lamb strudel, stir-fry beef and chicken gravy with grits. Harvest Table Chef Philip Newton said local chefs have always purchased some ingredients from local farmers. But his restaurant was the first local one to devote its business solely to local foods.

“This is a farming community to begin with, so people enjoy local food fresh from the farm,” Newton said, explaining one of the reasons people frequent his restaurant and don’t mind paying a few extra dollars for its cuisine.

The idea of local eating also attracts eco-tourists or people whose destinations are based on ecology or socially conscious beliefs, he said, adding that “eating is a natural part of the experience” because agriculture is a way of life for this region.

To get the Harvest Table’s ingredients, Newton said he started shopping at the Abingdon Farmers Market and then slowly started working out direct supply agreements with farmers like King. His menu reflects those early beginnings as it features some of the market’s most popular vendors.

The restaurant gets its lamb from Grandview Farm in Abingdon, its chicken from Tilson Farm in Chilhowie and beef from Rich Valley Grazers in Saltville. Its produce comes from other farmers, including Flaccavento, Foster, King and Tom Peterson, who sells $8,000 to $10,000 worth of produce to restaurants each season.

“Every year, we’re doing more and more with the local restaurants as they seem to be interested in purchasing more and more of our stuff,” said Peterson, who grows heirloom tomatoes, greens and asparagus on his Blue Door Garden Farm in Abingdon.

Restaurants owned by the Troutdale Kitchens are some of the latest to pick up the local foods ball and run with it. About a year ago, company owner Ben Zandi started buying local ingredients at his main restaurant, the Troutdale Dining Room, which is a five-star dining establishment. He furthered this commitment when he opened the Troutdale Bistro in August with the goal that 85 percent of the food he serves comes from local sources.

The restaurant’s new decor includes pictures of many farmers who supply the restaurant and the Troutdale Dining Room. Chef Jassen Campbell, of Troutdale Dining, said the photos represent another reason chefs buy local foods – building relationships with the source of their ingredients.

“It’s about knowing who grows the produce,” he said. “You know they’ve put something good into it, they’ve put their passion into it and that’s going to trickle down through whatever we do.”

Campbell’s restaurant was the first stop on Flaccavento’s Farm Fresh Service run. When he met the Prius at the Troutdale’s parking lot, Campbell laughed at the overstuffed vehicle.

“Laurel’s going to need a truck,” he said.

About two-thirds of the food it carried was for Campbell to split between the two restaurants. That one trip’s order was worth $300 and Campbell promised to double or
even triple it as more produce comes into season and more Troutdale Kitchens restaurants come online with the same philosophy.

Campbell said he would probably use Flaccavento’s cauliflower in a vichyssoise, a cold French soup like gazpacho. He also might use the cauliflower, King’s broccoli and Foster’s peas in a sautéed vegetable medley that would be served as a side dish to red snapper or another fish.

Flaccavento said it takes a “special commitment” for restaurants to buy local produce through her service because what’s available varies depending on the season. It also costs more than what’s sold through traditional, large-scale distributors, she said.

But that’s a cost Goodson said he doesn’t mind absorbing – because the ingredients he gets at the farmers market and the Farm Fresh Connection are better.
Goodson said 60 percent to 70 percent of the produce he buys at the height of the harvest season comes from local sources.

The ingredients he buys locally are no more than two days away from the farm, while the fruits and vegetables he gets from normal sources are usually shipped from California and might sit in a warehouse for some time before reaching the restaurant.

“It’s just better eating,” Goodson said.

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The following restaurants are regular customers of Appalachian Sustainable Development’s Farm Fresh Connection:
* The Barter Café, Abingdon, Va.
* The Harvest Table, Meadowview, Va.
* The House on Main, Abingdon
* The Martha Washington Inn, Abingdon
* The Tavern, Abingdon
* The Town House, Chilhowie, Va.
* The Trail Stop Cafe, Damascus, Va.
* The Troutdale Bistro, Bristol, Tenn.
* The Troutdale Dining Room, Bristol, Tenn.
* The Wildflour Bakery and Cafe, Abingdon