Connecticut’s Farm-To-Chef Program—

Local Farms Improve The Menu In Newtown Restaurants

By Kendra Bobowick

A pinch of parsley and splash of seasoned olive oil accompany summer vegetables and fresh tomato sauce, which taste better once the chef’s’ secrets are revealed. Some ingredients on the plates served at local restaurants, including the Inn at Newtown and Sal e Pepe’s Restaurant, come from nearby fields. Cherry Grove Farm LLC and Ferris Acres Creamery, to name just two, are among producers in Newtown who deal with the local kitchens directly.

“We absolutely love it,” said Sal e Pepe owner Angelo Marini.

Aside from squash, he also purchases eggs, eggplants, and more from Cherry Grove Farm. Taste, freshness, and selection all improve with the restaurant-to-farm relationship. “The end product is better, it plates better, and tastes better overall,” he said.

Local food that never sees the back of a semi, and does not have far to travel to reach chefs’ hands may be mouth-watering, fresh, and appealing to the eye, but Mr Marini finds additional reasons to do business, literally, with the farm next-door. The neighbor-to-neighbor accessibility with the farmer who provides some of the produce on his menu allows Mr Marini a greater degree of control over what he serves.

“We handpicked the seeds from a catalog,” he explained. The farm is “planting our choices.” Thinking of the fare in his dining room and bar seating, he said, “We really know what’s on our plates, absolutely.”

His relationship with Cherry Grove was accidental, but has everything the state Department of Agriculture could want.

Without realizing it, Mr Marini’s partnership with the farm is a perfect example of what the state Department of Agriculture’s Connecticut Grown initiative — the Farm-to-Chef program — is aiming to achieve. The state-promoted network helps farms and businesses find each other. Connecticut Grown is “really working to promote Connecticut products,” said Department of Agriculture Marketing Representative Linda Piotrowicz. Now that he is aware of the state’s effort, Mr Marini said he is “looking into meat locally.”

Farm-to-Chef relationships come with “perks” that Ms Piotrowicz quickly named: “freshness, quality, [produce] doesn’t have to travel, it’s harvested at the peak of ripeness. It increases flavor and nutritional value and doesn’t have to be packaged and shipped.” Similar to Mr Marini’s ability to choose seeds from a catalog, Ms Piotrowicz explained other benefits created through the Farm-to-Chef program. “Producers could grow varieties that are more fragile, they could have heirloom tomatoes, that don’t fit packaging.” Heirlooms could be random shapes and sizes. “No two are the same, some are huge and misshapen,” she said. “Chefs love to have them on their menu.”

Since the Farm-to-Chef initiative kicked off in 2006, it has grown. Ms Piotrowicz said, “The word is getting out.” Mr Marini has heard it, and so has Cherry Grove Farm Manager Jerome Mayer.

The farm has been following Farm-to-Chef practices both with the Department of Agriculture and “on our own for a few years,” Mr Mayer said. What are the advantages? “The chefs tell us what they want…it’s easier in some ways, there is no issue if you sell [or not], there is a built-in market,” he said.

As a resident who frequents local restaurants, he said, “it’s a nice feeling,” to know that the herbs or vegetables are from Newtown. Also, being involved in the “loop” provides him with feedback from both chefs and diners.

His farm got involved with Sal e Pepe’s when Mr Marini bought his house in town, which happened to be around the corner from Cherry Grove Farm. “I was up the road from the farm and I saw [a man] toiling in the fields early, we struck up a conversation,” said Mr Marini. Since then, Mr Marini enjoys the relationship, adding, “It’s great to know [food] comes from up the street and it wasn’t picked early from the vine.” Cherry Grove Farm has also found a market through the state’s Farm-to-Chef efforts.

“The Department of Agriculture has been helpful; we’ve gotten calls from people that got our name through them,” Mr Mayer said. Also boosting business is the interest he sees in locally grown goods. He said, “Right now there is a very strong trend toward buying locally raised vegetables.”

This week, as the wind rushed across his family fields on Platt’s Hill Road, and the farm sign swung on its hinges, Mr Mayer stood with Joel Thompson, who has been working the land at the farm since 1973. As they stepped around a wooden barn and past a tractor, Mr Mayer glanced at the winter’s frost-beaten grass and brambles on the land that has been in his family since 1912. He and Mr Thompson are aware that farming takes a certain devotion, and is an ever-dwindling way of life in the state. Weather and market conditions aside, farmer’s have to like the work.

“A farmer has to insist on results and go until you get what you want out of the land,” Mr Thompson said. In addition to vegetables and fruits and herbs are livestock scampering in a penned area across from the farm’s main entrance.

Also picking up on the Farm-to-Chef Program is Ferris Acres Creamery. Shirley Ferris said the farm has just begun selling tubs of ice cream served in local restaurants. “Any time we can do more business is a good thing.” The program is also a plus for consumers and restaurants. “It’s locally made, good for the local economy. People like to get produce locally,” she said.

“I know when I go to a restaurant that uses locally grown goods I know it supports local business and I want to do that as much as I can,” she said. “You do what you can for local business.” As the trend toward locally grown produce builds in a state that does not grow year-round, Ms Ferris anticipates improvements. “As we grow in greenhouses, we’ll see change in that as well.”

Learn more about the Farm-to-Chef program at the state’s website, www.ct.gov/doag/. For more details about the farms visit 144 Sugar Street, where the creamery is located, or drive past Cherry Grove Farm on Platt’s Hill Road.