Produce
What inspires us. What motivates us. What sustains us. What tastes good . In this age when we live in a culture in which people are at once: obsessed about food and yet so unaware of the true nature of most of the food they eat, how do we restaurateurs give our customers the best.
Food is rarely just calories. It’s about taste, memories, convenience, entertainment, sustenance and nourishment. These days we need as a culture to reconsider sustenance and nourishment. Food is our life force and it must be rich in nutrients to sustain us and make us strong, as individuals, communities and nations. The great part of nourishment is that it can taste great. Pick a plum, or a peach or any stone fruit. A ripe, ready to eat, still hanging on the tree plum. Pick it and bring it to your open mouth. Take that first bite. The deep reddish skin is tart, but the lush red flesh is sweet and juice runs down your chin. Now take another plum from another tree. When you bite into it, it’s not so sweet, infact it’s tart and has very little juice. It does not delight your senses. Now take a plum that has fallen on the ground, laying there for a couple of days. It feels soft, too soft and almost as soon as the first bite is taken it is spat out. Yuk, it’s rotten.
Fruits and vegetables (produce) are best when fully developed and ripe. Our ability to taste informs us of what is good, not so good and bad for us. Nourishment can taste great.
Some fruits and vegetables can be picked before maturity and ripen in shipping or finish ripening in the market. But the very best is picked when ripe. Certainly plenty of fruits and vegetables raised thousands of miles away can taste better than poorly grown local produce. But if all is equal, I will choose local for better taste, greater nourishment and sustenance.
Taste! There it is, the real reason. Local sustainably raised fruit and vegetables can taste incredible, like fireworks of exploding flavor. Scientists and nutritionists can explain why, but the truth is in the taste. Good for you, good for the environment and it tastes great.
Buying locally/regionally has many other benefits, as well. When neighbors work together relationships are forged and businesses prosper. There is a reduction of carbons through transportations of goods and it strengthens regional economies as more jobs are created and a community has greater self-sufficiency and more insulation from the highs and lows of national and global markets.
The consumer has an opportunity to know his or her farmer and have a voice that is heard. They can see the farm and discuss the farmers farming practices because there is simply greater transparency. Walk onto any farm and one is going to see equipment, fertilizer, sprayers, workers, etc. Family farmers are business people; too, they are listening to their customers and sometimes following trends.
A community that supports family farms is a community that is buying locally and creating greater food security. The consumer can demand more sustainably raised food and the availability of food is less flighty, as more and more food stays in their local communities.
We are going to dinner at your restaurant tonight for the first time and I am very much looking forward to it. So, I was poking around on your website as I looked for your phone number.
I was disappointed to find that your wine list didn’t include any even New England wines let alone Massachussets ones. We are a small winery in Vermont and don’t sell our wine in Massachussetts, but we are of course very supportive of the growing local wine industry. So, just wondering why, if you have such an emphasis on local food, you don’t have any interest apparently in local wines.
There are some very good local wines, in particular the new generation of fruit wines which are unusual and tasty. I haven’t had Nashoba Valley wines recently but they have some good ones I believe and of course West County Cider makes a good alternative to beer. I’m sure there are others that I’m not familiar with.
I urge you to expand your philosophy to include this growing agriculture industry, which of course also offers an important added value market for local growers.
Thank you,
Kate