An Ode To All Things Spring
Heidi Siegelbaum, Calyx Sustainable Tourism
I don’t think I had a “real tomato” until 1992 when I traveled to Michigan to visit friends from Iowa who brought tomatoes so impossibly red they looked fake. That’s because I had grown up eating imposter tomatoes, gas ripened and trapped in their travel 1,500 miles to our dinner table (until my Iowa experience) …and I never looked back by looking closer to home for local food.
In this late gorgeous spring we are having, our surroundings bursting forth with earthy fecundity, we have renewed appreciation for the riot of diverse food we enjoy here in the Evergreen State– Washington’s 230 agricultural products are only second to California so there’s ample choice, both cultivated and wild, from which to choose for home, restaurant and field tables.
We rank first in the nation for the production of red raspberries, hops (for you beer lovers out there), apples and sweet cherries, and second for our luscious herbaceous asparagus, teasing us for a short time in spring’s emergence (2007 Production (Pride of Washington Farm Stats, US Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Washington Field Office).
Why We Need Farm to Table
We didn’t used to need a term for “farm to table,” because that is how we ate naturally. With a number of “modernizations” in the U.S., from the introduction of new transportation routes such as canals, railroads, tractors and automobiles– to methods of keeping food edible for longer periods of time such as canning, refrigeration, and pasteurization– to social trends like people working outside their communities– we became a nation of long-distance food and packaged convenience (Kulikoff, Allan. Households and Markets: Toward A New Synthesis of American Agrarian History. The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser., Vol. 50, No. 2, Early American History: Its Past and Future. (Apr., 1993)).
Nearly 40 years ago, concerns over pesticides, tired food, environmental impacts from long distance food routes, precipitous loss of farmland and a desire to support local communities, cultivated our farm to table ethos and practice. It grows stronger each year, a fulcrum and cornerstone for greater social trends that speak to saving humanity from itself and its reliance on a dangerous confluence of monoculture, industrial agriculture and fossil fueled farming.
Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, and the more recent architect of the Edible Schoolyard, brought her powerful and simple philosophy gleaned from living in France- ” [e]ating together was the most important daily ritual in their lives, a crucial and non-negotiable time when the flavors and smells of roasted chickens and sizzling garlic, the crunch of crusty bread, and the taste of local wine drew out everyone’s most passionate ideas and feelings.” Eating at the table together and forming relationships with local farmers is at the heart of community and more dispassionately, local economic development that’s non-exportable.
Stories from The Field
Farm to table became a metaphor for community, love, caring, joy and the embodiment of what we feel is authentic. Folks come to farm to table practice in the broader tourism industry through many different paths. For Tammy Guill from Graham Cracker Farm in Graham, it was a serious interlude with her favorite horse.
” On a beautiful November day in 2009, I took a spin on my youngest horse. As soon as my seat connected with the new English saddle, another horse ran into the arena and picked a fight with my mount. Not having any time to respond, I was thrown. The resulting fall introduced me to eight broken vertebrae, three broken ribs and a collapsed lung. Now with a few titanium rods to keep me upright, I walk and talk j just fine with no pain, which is a miracle in itself.”
With no more riding in sight, she took to organic farming and now has a CSA (community supported agriculture) program which features at least 23 different products, including homemade breads, vinaigrettes and pies to flowers, herbs and beautiful vegetables including purple foods such as Purple Viking Potatoes (blue or purple food is the most unusual food color; cocktail factoid alert).
Josh Delgado, sous chef at the Barking Frog at the Willows Lodge in Woodinville, came to farm-to-table through his migration from Tucson to Seattle where he spent summers to escape the heat ad where he discovered our riotous diversity of food . As he explains in his cheerful enthusiasm, the pros of farm to table are really good ingredients at reasonable prices, better tasting food, and supporting the local food movement, which in his view, has moral implications. And the cons? It’s difficult to create a menu because you don’t always know what you will have from week to week. The vicissitudes of mother nature gift us surprises so he writes his menu is a general way to accommodate whatever fabulous product comes to his door.
Rather than relying on a distributor he visits farmer’s markets or the farmers around Woodinville himself who provide him with a fresh sheet every Monday. This shortens the distance between the Barking Frog- and Josh- and the farmer, a relationship concept he clearly loves. His parting words concerned health… “this is not a fad… this is the way we should be eating anyhow.”
From here we traveled from terra firma to the waters of Emerald Water Anglers, Dave McCoy’s first class fly fishing company. For Dave, it’s not so much river or Sound to table, but in-your- hands- back- to- the- water. This is classic catch and release fishing and the release is what makes him tick. We discuss why catch and release and the answer, it seems to me, comes down to fish numbers which is a healthy ecosystem issue.
In Washington, you have to appreciate each fishery for what it is and what if offers. Washington offers more pristine, untouched small streams full of native fish compared to other part of the lower 48. That said, challenges have been logging down to the river’s edge, pollution, commercial by catch and ocean conditions. have all led to deterioration of many our more prominent watersheds. Washington’s fish live in the dual worlds of fresh and salt water conditions so ocean issues such as acidification and pollution complicate their habitat needs.
When asked which restaurants were doing a good job of serving sustainable fish he mentions Steelhead Diner, Blue Acre and Mashiko. He says “be educated about the state of the fisheries where you buy your fish,” rather than relying on sustainable seafood labels. The take away for home and restaurant chefs is that they need to know what the state of wild steelhead in the State is before buying it as their stocks are extremely low and they are vulnerable (see the Wild Steelhead Coalition). Discussions about steelhead tends to be incorporated into salmon and they are distinct fish. In 1895, the Stillaguamish River sported over 90,000 steelhead and now we only get 500-700 fish a year. The total Puget sound wild steelhead population is 4% of historical levels. After having seen the romantic and gauzy film The River Why, I asked him about the romance of the river. He told me, with a twinkle in his eye, that “fly fishing (for couples) ruins lives” but that shouldn’t stop you from falling in love and or re-falling in love with Dave’s outfitters and your partner.
Traveling north to Whatcom County, I prepare myself for the upcoming June 27th Farm Fam Tour, a take on classic familiarity tours for media and tour operators. Jacqueline Cartier from Bellingham Whatcom Tourism describes what seems like an endless array of farm and farm to table initiatives in dairy-rich Whatcom County. They promote agritourism through group media tours, annual farm tours, and opportunities for behind the scene tours for visitors… the nooks and crannies of authentic farm operations which provide a lens into farming life. “We were able to talk to owners.. customers are expecting it… and in the process, we build a strong rapport with them.”
Every year Sustainable Connections arranges a farm tour to 12 distinct farms in a self-guided, go-at-your-own pace journey. The hallowed Willows Inn on Lummi Island is the epitome of farm to table. Their web site follows each month of the year, highlighting what’s available, sometimes with your own assistance (as in digging for razor clams), and building the menu from Nettles Farm on site and enticing the reader with foraged edibles and the romance of wild herbs, seaweed, mushrooms, flowers and young seeds and shoots. Chef Blaine Wetzel just received best new chef of the year from Food & Wine.
Jacqueline mentions a few other notables, including catering company Ciao Thyme, a lovely play on words, and the creation of Jessica and Mataio Gillis. With their team, they offer seasonal menus for guests and have a firm foot in preserving local farms through farm dinners and cooking classes. Appel Farms, home of alluring cheese and the iconic squeaky cheese (cheese curds), along with 500 cows. This family owned business has been making cheese for over 50 years and their products include Paneer and Quark. The final parting news is about a new distillery being built at BelleWood Acres in late June or early July, following another trend in locavore culture (watch out beer and wine!).
For Harry Dalgaard of Pacific Northwest Vacations, farm to table is nearly unavoidable, like being smacked with a wild fish. He favors farm-to-table operators when they are available and on the “locavore index,” the Pacific Northwest is nirvana. Harry’s company receives one to three queries a month about local food but he admits the local drivers are beer and wine, nothing better after an invigorating day in the mountains.
In another nuanced take on farm-to-table, Michael Rogers from Beeline Tours and Seattle Food Tours, provides an intimate introduction to finding local culinary treasures by foot. He and his wife were indoctrinated years ago when a server in the restaurant where Michael was working gave him a list of hidden culinary assets in San Francisco. From there on out, all their trips were focused on finding local food.
Their local food tours are intimate, only 12 people, and are designed to mimic a friend showing you around town for the first time. They have several vendors that are exclusive to them and all are culinary icons, such as De Laurentis and the Crumpet Shoppe in the Pike Place Market. Seattle Food Tours also offers a progressive dinner tour through Belltown including Local 360 and Shiro’s, a master sushi restaurant that marries Pacific Northwest flavors and techniques. These restaurants focus heavily on using local food.
As we move into the country, we arrive at farm centric Whidbey Island and home to the Inn at Langley and Chef Matt Costello’s famed 7 course prix fixe dinners that have been wowing diners for years. Matt greets you at your table and can tell you where every single product came from on the table, including food grown on site along Saratoga Passage where the inn and restaurant are located. The kitchen uses between 40 and 45 full time growers and backyard farmers growing delectable items at peak season, including the Rockwell bean, found only on Whidbey Island.
If you think that seasonal winter cooking spells root vegetables only, think again with beef short rib with blue foot chanterelles and yam jus. Matt was an early star at Tom Douglas Restaurants and a mature member of the Chefs Collaborative, a national network of chefs and other food lovers dedicated to local and sustainable food systems.
Tracing another iconic hotel/restaurant, Bite restaurant at the Hotel Murano in Tacoma also gives honor to local food. Jeff Bowe, sales manager at the hotel, notes that local food has been top of mind each year in national tourism conferences, noting both culinary and farm-based tourism (agritourism) are on everyone’s lips. Chef Matt Stickle need only go 15 minutes outside downtown Tacoma to pick berries or walk a few blocks to the farmer’s market. He visits the Tacoma farmer’s market every Thursday and sometimes Tuesday to boot, to select local produce and other local products which he features in a Farmer’s Market Special menu featuring names such as Terry’s Berries, Zestful Gardens and Collins Family Orchard. Chef Matt got his start working on a Puyallup area cattle ranch which is now home to over 200 homes– a reason he is so committed to preventing further farmland conversion.
Bite hosts cooking classes and found that geoduck (pronounced gooey- duck) was so popular last year that comedian Jay Thomas talked about it on his show (he was performing locally and was fortunate enough to have a bite). Stay tuned for their August 9th cooking class with kids at the farmer’s market.
Buying local produce and other products from local farms fits in with the hotel’s support of sustainability and Jeff’s own emerging sensitivity to the use of pesticides, now that he’s a dad of two young children. Tourists are looking for “guided relationships,” so rather than going alone to farms, the Hotel Murano would like to take them on farm tours that are unique and interactive, with opportunities for on-farm interpretation.
Bon Appetit and happy spring!
