About Us – Why Local?

Local food tends to be fresher, more distinctive in flavor.  The French express it as terroir, “a taste of place.”   The best food travels the shortest distance from farm to table and the best menus change with each season’s harvest.

When you sit at a table to eat a meal, the food on your plate has traveled an average of 1,500 miles.  Those ingredients were grown and raised to travel without bruising, to look good on the grocery shelf, and to have a consistent appearance whether or not it is in season.   How much energy does this process consume?  Energy is measured in calories and it requires more calories to grow, fertilize, process (dry, mill cut, sort, bake), package, warehouse, and refrigerate than we receive from the finished product.

Our farmers and suppliers are small and medium sized farms, each of whom strives to bring us food that has been produced while replenishing – rather than depleting – our resources, land, and people.  These farms are helping bring back some of the vast biodiversity of plant varieties and animal breeds essential to a robust environment and delicious diet.  Local food carries its origins and context with it, and gives us more pleasure and better flavor as a result.  It’s different because of the way it bonds us to our families and friends, neighbors, community, and region, grounding us in what often seems a detached and fragmented world.

Eating locally is eating healthy both for us and our world.  At one time, humans used to eat over 80,000 different varieties of plants.  Now we have limited ourselves to basically five, with one, corn, dominating almost everything we eat.  Supporting local smaller farmers will help us to broaden our seed base once again.

Mission Statement I Our Commitment I Why Local? I Ideas for the Future