The Chefs’ Table
May 2008
Brought to you by The Collaborative for the 21st Century Appalachia
Welcome to The Chefs’ Table! We hope that you will find these bi-monthly e-newsletters to be informative, thought provoking, even humorous, but most importantly, useful. Please feel free to forward this on to your peers who may not already be receiving it or perhaps even be involved in The Collaborative for the 21st Century’s programs. In order to grow and prosper in our businesses, we must be willing to share our ideas and our passion for the buy-local movement. Since this newsletter is for you, please let us know if there is an issue, producer, recipe or organization that you’d like to see highlighted. Feel free to contact us at contact@wvfarm2u.org with your thoughts and questions.
Food for Thought
Rod Stoner
I have always loved farmers markets! I grew up in the Lancaster County area of Pennsylvania where my grandfather operated a catering business with a large facility which could accommodate 300+ guests plus a good amount of outside catering business as well. He built his business around the use of locally grown or raised products because he allowed those who raised or grew these products who booked functions with him to supply the appropriate ingredients for their events thus reducing the price of the meal to be served. Fresh eggs, sweet white celery, barnyard-fed chickens and turkeys, fresh ham, fresh cut off corn, tomatoes, and fresh beans of all descriptions were common place. We grew up around and used the farmers markets in Lancaster County. To this day I so enjoy the smells of the markets, the freshness of the products and the people who bring their products to market.
I recently spoke with Gus Douglas, Secretary of Agriculture about his initiative to encourage more farmers markets around the state. I have also spoken with Marlene Pierson-Jolliffe, Manager of the West Virginia State Fair about her interest in potentially having a farmers market at the State Fair grounds throughout the year other than just in August when the State Fair is active.
I travel to North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia regularly and have recently stopped at the farmers markets in Virginia Beach and Roanoke, Virginia, Lumberton Southeastern Farmers Market in Lumberton, North Carolina and Columbus, Ohio. I am extremely interested in how these markets work and who the merchants are. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture operates five markets in their state located in Asheville, Charlotte, Raleigh, Piedmont Triad, and Lumberton. If you have the opportunity, I encourage you to visit any of these operations; they are very much a part of the local attractions for visitors and residents of the state and a great model for West Virginia to benchmark.
So what does this have to do with our efforts to increase the development of sustainable agriculture in the State of West Virginia? I think it speaks volumes about the movement that is underway with The Department of Agriculture, Extension Service of West Va. University, The Collaborative for the 21st Century Appalachia and many other economic development initiatives in our cities and counties.
I suggest that with these types of resources behind them, the small farmers markets that we all support can grow into larger regional farmers markets like have been done in the city of Charleston and in our neighboring states. These farmers markets will attract more attention and provide the opportunity for growth with the sustainable agriculture movement. In order for this initiative to grow, it will take support not only from the bigger contributors that I have mentioned, but also support and help from all of us in our own small, effective ways.
I encourage you to stay involved and show support for the farmers market initiatives that you will be hearing about in the near future. The farmers markets that I have visited offer great diversity of product. Many have a nursery, a café, a bakery, a produce market, a butcher shop and/or a Wine and cheese shop as their base of operations. This keeps the market flourishing year round. There is also diversity of rental space, some outside covered, outside uncovered and inside space. One of those spaces could be just right for you either seasonally or year round.
Farmers markets have always been a part of our culture in typical, small independent ways in the rural parts of our country. They have now become prevalent in cities, beside interstate highways and at the crossways of busy arteries. It may be time that we in West Virginia take the opportunity and challenge to grow this segment of the farming and business community.
Until the next time, have a healthy day!
Get What You Need
Dale Hawkins
Some of you may be able to hum along with me to the 60’s song made popular by the Rolling Stones You Can’t Always Get What You Want. It was true then. And equally true now. It reminds me of the story about Alice Waters starting out in Chez Panisse in the early 70’s. Newly back from France she asked herselfand anyone else who would listen why the ingredients available to her in this country were not on par with what she was able to find abroad. Unwilling to simply complain about the situation she began working with farmers establishing expectations and standards, and soon had them growing customized protein and produce for her.
What Alice Waters did at Chez Panisse is exactly what the Collaborative for the 21st Century is trying to do—with one major difference. Waters was working with one restaurant and we are working with culinary tourism for the entire state by establishing a common language and standards, as well as an actual e-market place on Collaborative 21C’s website http://www.wvfarm2u.com/.
All of this relates to something I mentioned in my last article, my then-pending conversation with the Monroe County producers. That meeting has clarified some important other work that still needs to be donefinding out in fairly specific terms what chefs, restaurants and retailers want in local products. The more information we have, the more we can as a group, shape the marketplace. We also need to develop an open line of communication with producers and then we will need to establish new and further strengthen existing chef-farmer alliances.
As of April first I began working one day a week for Tom McConnell from WVU Extension with the ultimate goal of taking the information I’ve gathered about what the market is in West Virginia and then finding farmers who will produce it. My survey will actually be somewhat “structured.” Yes, those of you who know me well will certainly find that amusing. I just mean that I’ll be asking the same questions of everybody so this will actually have some validity as a research project. Professor Cheryl Brown, an Agri-marketing/economist with WVU, will be providing the structure for the survey so that she can do a meaningful analysis of the data when we finish.
The main purposes of the survey are to find out what interest there is in buy local and what the potential level of participation might be both in terms of dollars and volume. We also need to learn which particular products people are interested in. In order to get that information, I have to look at the various target audiences. I’m formulating lists of restaurants as one target. I’ve found another target in the 1,447 grocery stores in West Virginia including “Mom and Pop” places as well as the bigger chain stores. Another target is institutional food service such as public schools and colleges.
While interviewing restaurants, one of the basic questions I’ll be asking is, “Do you already buy local and if so, what and how much—both in terms of dollars and percentage of product?” We need to find out what chefs are interested in buying from local sources that not currently being produced and how much of it they would potentially buy. We need to examine what the cost relationship is compared to current distributors in order to induce someone to shift to a local buy. We are also interested in looking not only at the food cost but how a buy-local focus could increase a restaurant’s revenues. “Would you be willing to explore a buy-local marketing campaign for your business?” Another question surrounds the chef’s sphere of influence. “If you are buying local, do you have any other chefs that you think you could influence to do the same?”
I should probably share with you why I am passionate about this idea and how I’ve made it work for me at Stonewall. I grew up on the farm and have always had a connection with where food comes from. I’ve tried to live that philosophy through most of my career –and then about three ago when we formed Collaborative 21C I got carried away with it. So did Stonewall management; they quickly recognized the economic potential.
The resort immediately got positive publicity out of our buy local efforts. We easily get over $200,000 in earned media in a year. And we were also able to maintain food costs and so there was no negative effect on the bottom line. During my earliest time at Stonewall, I was spending $20-30,000 per year on local foods, mostly mushrooms and other produce from a farm next door. Then in 2006, I started working with 35 farmers and spending $300,000 within the borders of West Virginia.
That’s an important economic factor for the state and something which I’m interested in working with you on. Now I ask you the first question: “How do we find the chefs who see the value of buying local and then find farmers who can supply high quality products whenever and where we need it at an appropriate price?”
Food, Fun and the State Fair—Yes, You Too Can Be Involved!
Rod Stoner
The State Fair will be August 8-16 and will be better then ever this year. With gas prices being what they are, it is a good time to plan a vacation in the State and what's better than the State Fair. For many years there has been a great deal of focus at the fair on the judging live stock, vegetables, flowers and all of the fresh pies, cakes, cookies, jams and
jellies and much more. Who produces the best, the largest, the tastiest and
the prettiest has always been and always will be a large part of the fair.
The addition of the culinary demonstrations in the West Virginia Building
happened about ten years ago and at that time there was no Collaborative for
the 21st Century Appalachia and very few organized efforts to develop
relationships between the food service operators and growers. In those
early years The Greenbrier furnished all of the chefs doing the demos and
the focus was simply to introduce simple recipes and techniques to the
audience using freshly grown products.
Last year we evolved with a new focus including chefs from all over the state who donated their time and talent to promote the objectives of the Collaborative in addition to promoting their own businesses or culinary programs. The participating chefs created demonstrations featuring their favorite foods produced by local growers in their area of the state. The recipes and information about the Collaborative were handed out at each of
the three demos per day. This was all capped off with Governor Manchin and
the First Lady being there on Governor’s Day to announce the Collaborative's
web site and place the first order on-line.
This was an exciting new venture for The Collaborative and we want to keep
the focus on our initiatives in place for this year. In your position as a
chef, owner, or Instructor, I would like to invite you to participate in
this year’s Fair. We need nine chefs to do the demos. The food used for the
demos is the chef's responsibility to bring but the fair will reimburse you
for the food and provide you with two fair tickets, and an inside the
grounds parking pass. You would be responsible for three demos, 30-45
minutes in length at times to be announced (last year they were at 10am, 1pm and 3pm).
If you are interested, please contact me and I will schedule you at your
convenience and provide you with additional information. This is a perfect
way to promote your business or culinary program in addition to assisting
in fostering the mission of the Collaborative. My e-mail address is
rstoner4@verizon.net or you can reach me by phone at 304-646-2575. I look forward to hearing from you!