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There’s been a growing demand for local food. But getting the food from the farm to consumers can take a lot of time and effort. WNPR’s Nancy Cohen reports on one business that’s trying to fill that niche.
The restaurant at the Copper Beach Inn in Ivoryton has set a big goal for itself. 90% of the food it serves this summer will be local
“Potatoes, onions, salt, everything!”
Chef Tyler Anderson defines “local” as New England, New York and New Jersey. He says food from nearby tastes better. But that means getting it from multiple farms and food venues to his kitchen
“For a chef that sort of presents a whole new work load. That in turn means we have to figure out how to get it into our restaurant and get it into our restaurant consistently we end service here at 10:30 at night and we’ll be at the docks at New London at 3:30 this morning.”
That’s right. Anderson himself goes to the dock to buy fish.
Just as chefs want food that’s freshly harvested so do some people who cook at home
“Aren’t they gorgeous? These are oyster mushrooms.”
Deb Marsden used to rely on a CSA, a community supported farm, for the food she cooked for her family. She liked the food, But she wanted more.
“Choices. Not just one farm telling you what you’ll have on a weekly basis, but to have many farms and many choices and to do it all year long.”
About three years ago Marsden launched a new food delivery business in East Haddam, Connecticut Farm Fresh Express.
“I only had four farms and eight customers the first few weeks that started I was driving around in my Jetta and I was working out of my basement.”
Now she’s moved into three times as much space with seven refrigerators, a walk in cooler. And a small mountain of colorful beach coolers. 12 part-time employees pick up deliver and make sure that the greens, mushrooms and raw milk from the exacts farms chosen by customers are delivered to their door.
“76 orders this week to fill and we went to 25 farms. We probably have another 20 to 25 vendors.”
Marsden’s mission is simple. Deliver to homes and restaurants in Connecticut. And only buy from Connecticut bakeries, fishermen and farms. But sometimes she can’t get enough. For instance this spring she searched two weeks to find a farmer with asparagus.
"I hope I’m going to get it. We put in for ten pounds. We might get I get six. It’s a challenge. It’s definitely a challenge.”
It’s also more expensive. The farmers name their price and Marsden adds on a delivery charge
“I have a new container for you too. I don’t know if they’re all going to fit in that one this week.”
Alison Corcoran manages Chatfield Hollow Farm in Killingworth.
Today she’s handing over bags of freshly picked shitake mushrooms to Kevin Walls of Connecticut Farm Fresh Express
“12 half pound bags”
Corcoran is a small farmer. She says Farm Fresh Express makes marketing her mushrooms simple.
“I think it would probably be next to impossible for me to sell these without having help. It’s so easy they come and get them. All I have to deal with is grow them, pick them and have them ready.”
But it’s not only small farms who work with Farm Fresh express. Lyman Orchards, one of the bigger orchards in the state, is one of their suppliers. John Lyman says the traditional food distribution system relies on large volumes, pallets full of food. But he says selling small amounts of Connecticut grown food on a regular basis could be key market in the future
"While the volume is not really significant for us its important, we feel. to support that effort. And hopefully proves successful and others will do the same thing.”
Lyman says no matter who the distributor is they need to be competitive when it comes to price for local food
“At the end of the day the end consumer will pay a certain amount. They’re not going to pay too much of a premium before what they’re going to get in a more traditional way. It just wouldn’t make sense.”
Back at the Copper Beach Inn Chef Tyler Anderson says price is one of the biggest challenges to meeting his 90% local food goal
“It’s a lot more money. It’s because I understand the farmer has to get a lot more money -these farmers put a lot more love and effort into the product. Their product is ultimately worth more to us because of that. But charging a premium is also a tough sell sometimes.”
One solution? Grow it yourself. Anderson is raising some of his own tomatoes in a garden outside the kitchen. He got the plants from Starlight Gardens in Durham, delivered by Connecticut Farm Fresh Express. For WNPR, I’m Nancy Cohen