August 23, 2011

What to Eat Now: Raspberries from Park Hill Orchard


Raspberries are in season, and as it so happens, the incredibly picturesque Park Hill Orchard farm is just a quick mile down the road from my house. I visited the farm the other day, chatted with the owners for a bit, and picked my own sustainably-grown raspberries.

August 22, 2011

The Kitchen Garden- Sunderland

            Many of the restaurant owners I have talked to cited The Kitchen Garden as one of their most reliable produce venders. So I was excited to head down to the farm to see what Caroline Pam had to say about her uniquely restaurant-focused farming operation.
            Caroline and her husband, Tim Wilcox, founded the farm in 2005. Caroline has an extensive background in the food industry, and her love of cooking inspired her to create a farm that would cater to local restaurants. Before establishing the farm, she worked at Green Street CafĂ© as a baker and formed relationships with the people there, including Paul Hathaway, the head chef of Chez Albert restaurant in Amherst. Paul later became The Kitchen Garden’s first customer.






August 19, 2011

Bistro Les Gras- Northampton




For Daniel Martinez, the owner and head chef at Bistro Les Gras in Northampton, buying locally is a “way of life” rather than a mere business strategy. “We have this lifestyle instilled in us,” he said. “My wife and I come from agricultural backgrounds. This has always seemed like the natural way to do it. And then there’s the flavor. I don’t think you can say enough about how much better everything tastes when it’s fresh rather than supermarket.”
            Daniel opened Bistro Les Gras in 2008 with the help of his wife, Beth, and together they have achieved the challenging balance of serving up authentic, French cuisine while remaining loyal to local food sources.
Before moving to Northampton, Daniel lived in New York. “I was big on the farmers markets there,” he said. And when he later moved to Portland, Oregon, he again claimed that there too “eating local was very easy.”
“In fact, it’s pretty hard not to eat locally in these areas,” he said. “My philosophy is based around the notion that local food just tastes better. That’s the point we try to get across because it’s the easiest for people to obtain.”
When he finally arrived in the Valley, he was impressed by the sheer number of farms in the area as well as the community’s increasing awareness of local eating.
“I’ve seen a big change just in the past year,” he said. “With the presence of the Tuesday market and the growing popularity of young farmers, I think we’re headed in a great direction.”



August 8, 2011

Blue Heron- Sunderland


Chef Deborah Snow
In speaking with farmers and restaurants owners about their decision to grow and buy locally, I’ve been impressed by the intensity of the their commitment. Deborah Snow, the owner and chef at Blue Heron in Sunderland, certainly falls in with this league of passionate people.
“Eating, for me, is a political act,” she said. “By using local ingredients I’m working against the large corporations that own most of the food industry.”
It didn’t take me long to realize that Deborah is much more than a working chef with compassion for local farms. She is fully dedicated to the cause as it stands as a worldwide issue. In fact, she's working on a book. 
“It’s focusing on the politics of food, sustainable capitalism, and how it can work practically. I’m trying to define what local eating can be within the context of a community."

August 2, 2011

Mountain View Farm- Easthampton

Liz Adler and her husband Ben Perrault established Easthampton’s Mountain View Farm in 2006. The farm offers CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares to individuals, families, and some local restaurants. I talked with Liz to get a better sense of her farm’s customer base and see why the model she and her husband have established works well in the community.  

What is your reasoning behind offering CSAs?
We really like the CSA model; it works well for the consumer and the farmer. By cutting out the middleman, the consumer gets a better price, so it works out for everyone. And as farmers, we also like being able to grow a wide variety of things and having a sort of built-in crop insurance.  It is also valuable in terms of educating people. We always have lots of kids running around—it’s really great to have that community aspect.

July 30, 2011

Karma- Northampton

“The whole idea is to make people feel good,” said Brian Aussant as he sat beside me on a barstool. “That’s where the name Karma comes from. What you put in is what you get out.”
Brian opened Karma Restaurant in Northampton in August of 2010 with the help of his wife. Among the incentives other restaurant owners have listed for buying locally, it seems Brian’s primary motivation is health. Karma is 100 percent vegan, and half of the dishes are raw. The restaurant is also soy and gluten-free and offers one of the only elixir bars is the country (meaning if you find yourself with a sore throat, you can order up a “5th Chakra Tea” made from licorice, marshmallow, echinacea purpea, fennel, cinnamon bark, orange peel, ginger, and clove).
“People get turned off by words like ‘raw’ and ‘vegan,’ so we try to keep it out of the advertising,” Brian said. “They don't think vegan food can taste so good.”

July 27, 2011

Hope and Olive- Greenfield

When I first walked in to Hope and Olive, I was greeted by a blackboard advertising the names of all the local farms that sell to the restaurant. Clearly, I thought, supporting local agriculture is not simply an afterthought for a restaurant like this—it is the very core of their operation.
Jim Zaccara, his sister Maggie Zaccara, and Evelyn Wulfkuhle, opened Greenfield’s Hope and Olive in September of 2007. From the very beginning, they were committed to sustaining their values of good, quality food and community by offering seasonal dishes made with local ingredients. 
“We do have a reputation as being ‘farm to table’ in our approach to the menus, and people respond really well to this,” said Jim. “Some are even okay with the occasional bug in their salad greens because they appreciate that it was cut and delivered so recently that the little sucker is still alive!”

July 19, 2011

GoBerry- Northampton

Regardless of whether it’s a hot summer’s day or a chilly winter’s night, GoBerry always seems to be packed. Alex and Molly Feinstein opened the frozen yogurt joint in May of 2010, and it has since become one of Northamptonites’ favorite places to grab a refreshing treat. And in a long list of similarly formatted fro-yo vendors such as Pinkberry and Red Mango, GoBerry has established itself as unique in its commitment to using local ingredients.
“Our mentality is one of ‘if we don’t, who will?’” Molly explained.
            GoBerry buys its dairy from Stonehill Farm in Ashfield and Mapeline Farm in Hadley, both of which are located within twenty miles of Northampton. “From an environmental standpoint,” Molly said, "local just makes a lot more sense.”

Local Burger- Northampton

When I stepped into Local Burger to talk to co-owner Jeff Igneri, I found him in the back of the house, frying and flipping busily and racing to deliver orders. But the packed lunch hour didn’t stop him from serving the meals with a smile and taking time chat with his customers. And when he finally found time to sit down with me, I learned that Jeff doesn’t just know the people that eat his food—he knows the people that grow it. The family-run burger joint, which opened in December of 2008, lives up to its name by maintaining close ties with the community and buying produce and grass-fed beef from local farms.
“Our buy local philosophy wasn’t in the works until we came to the area,” he said. “Out there local isn’t as important. But coming out here and seeing farms everywhere— it makes sense. All the resources are here.”





June 20, 2011

About the blogger and the blog


My name is Amanda Minoff, and I am currently a sophomore at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME. I have lived in Northampton my whole life, and so I’ve had the privilege of sampling the best, freshest cuisine that the Valley offers. Over the past couple of years, I have become deeply concerned with the nature of our current food system—all of the risks to health, animal welfare, and the environments that it entails—and I have become interested in the prospect of achieving one that is more sustainable.
The value of local produce was instilled in me—even if subconsciously—from an early age. My family had a CSA share with the Food Bank Farm for many years, and over the past six years I have helped my mother maintain a vegetable garden. Recently, I have done significantly more research regarding the current state of agribusiness in the U.S., and I have involved myself with a number of events at Bowdoin that promote local, sustainable food sources. I traveled to a farm in Utuado, Puerto Rico with a group of twelve other Bowdoin students from March 15-22 where we worked on an organic farm and educated the students of a nearby school in the importance of organic agriculture. The experience left me with a greater appreciation for the occupation of farming and and a strong desire to continue working to promote sustainable agriculture.
Luckily, the Pioneer Valley is an ideal place to pursue any type of sustainable food initiative. Northampton, with its biweekly farmers markets and CISA's widely supported Local Hero movement, has proved itself to be a model in the local food scene. Many of the restaurants here, as well as restaurants in surrounding towns, are impressive in their support of local farms and their commitment to sustainability.

In this blog I will review local restaurants’ and farms’ efforts towards sustainability. I hope to shed some light on these commendable relationship between farms and restaurants that exist here in Western Mass. and show how buying and selling locally so profoundly impacts carbon footprint, animal welfare, and (perhaps most importantly) taste! 


Feel free to leave questions and comments directly on the blog, or email me at aminoff@bowdoin.edu.


Thanks for reading!

Amanda








Tuesday market in Northampton, MA