Trends in Farm to Table & 5 Recipes for Using Old Veggies
Last week I had the opportunity to attend the 12th Annual Sustainability Summit and Exposition in Milwaukee. Along with sessions on water, solar power and climate change, there was a generous smattering of food-related discussion from Urban Farming to the Farm to Table movement.
Presentation Slide–Will Allen on Compost Pile
Milwaukee has been blessed to be the home city of speaker Will Allen, founder of Growing Power. For 20 years, Growing Power has been developing the idea of sustainable urban agriculture. In the process they have supplied healthy food to local customers, provided jobs and training in agriculture, spawned entrepreneurs and helped to launch similar efforts across the world.
Growing Power Acquaponics system – fish and vegetables, co-nurture
Farm to Table Movement
Closely aligned to efforts like Growing Power, is the farm to table movement, which per Wikipedia “refers to a movement concerned with producing food locally and delivering that food to local consumers.” Farmer’s Markets reflect this trend and are now viewed as both more mainstream and more diverse. The number of farmer’s markets tripled between 2000 and 2011 going from 2500 – 7500 nationally.
Many new businesses, such as (Growing Power graduates) Tom & Meghan Findley’s Hartland Organic Family Farm, use farmer’s markets to help them get started. Older, established businesses use them to build new clientele or help weather a downturn. Eric Rose of River Valley Ranch and Kitchens hit a business snag when his sellers moved more to brand names. Fortunately, he was able to shift focus to farmers markets, living “hand to mouth” while he established additional products and was able to grow again.
Hartland Organic Family Farm Brochure
Benefits of buying food close to the source include freshness, price, supporting the local economy, better nutrition, and reducing the environmental damage caused by shipping. Restauranteurs are becoming increasingly interested and, in addition to the marketing value, mention that local food lasts longer and tastes better and that local merchants are more responsive to requests and complaints.
A restaurant recently approached the Findleys to become a supplier and said that they would adapt their menu on a weekly basis based on what was available. Their reaction? “That’s pressure on the kitchen but exciting for the consumer.”
In the end, I think that this may be the best summary of Farm to Table. You get few challenges (including in your home kitchen), but the benefits are so exciting that it is worth the effort!
5 Recipes for Using Old Veggies
And speaking of local food challenges in the kitchen (or pantry), shortly after the summit, I opened my email to see an interesting idea. Erica of the blog NW Edible Life, would be eating out of her pantry for the entire month of April and challenged her readers to do the same. With a fridge and freezers loaded with last year’s local food, and a farm to table session under my belt, how could I refuse?
Here are some old favorites for using up any old root veggies that may be lingering. Anyone care to join me in a little spring (refrigerator) cleaning?
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Creamy Carrot Soup (without the cream)
Carrot Soup–No Cream!
A simple soup that gets its creamy goodness from ground almonds and skim (or almond) milk.
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Potatoes au Gratin (without cheese) aka Pommes à la Dauphinoise
Done!
Potatoes layered with garlic and topped with cream, it is an great brunch dish that can be put in the oven and forgotten. Always garners lots of compliments, then completely disappears.
Sweet Beet Chips
A cross between a dried (potato chip like) chip and candied (think candied ginger or orange peel) beets, these were a delightful surprise from Martha Stewart that can disappear like candy.
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Carrot Rutabaga Ring
This casserole is a bit time consuming with all the veggie cutting, but the cheesy goodness makes it worth the effort. A standard on our family holiday table for Christmas or Easter and another great brunch dish.
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Goat Cheese and Root Vegetable Galette
Root Vegetable Galette Up Close
This galette can serve as an entrée, side dish, or appetizer, and brings together tangy goat cheese and flavorful herbs with any hodgepodge of root vegetables that you have on hand. Use a prepared crust if you want to streamline preparation.
Focusing only on local produce is so important but I love the challenge it gives, how exciting! Forced into innovation 🙂
And I love your use of old vegetables, especially in the sweet beet chips 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
The beet chips really were candy like–I”ll bet you’d love them!
Hi Inger, very good posting on Farm to Table Movement. I do agree with you on recipes using old veggies. Thanks for sharing and warmest regards 🙂
Our second refrigerator is starting to look emptier!
To my knowledge, the “Farm to Table” movement has not hit central Pennsylvania the way it has across the rest of the country Inger. I’m not quite sure as to why.
We do have a lot of Amish farmers who usually focus on dairy farming. It seems, most grow sweet corn to sell in late Fall but the rest of the growing season is quite limited. I was driving down the road just yesterday and was thinking to myself that much of the land is not used to its full potential in my neck of the woods.
The good news is a local husband and wife team have recently opened their organic farm and are planning a CSA in the future. However, out here in rural Pennsylvania, that’s about all I can see in the way of Farm to Table possibilities.
You have used some real creativity in using the local harvest, Inger…Thanks for sharing…
You know Wisconsin can be behind on some things, but fortunately usually not food-related. But you could probably still eat out of your pantry with all Marion’s canned goods 😉
oh love the galette. I shall produce that this weekend with beets and carrots. Thanks for the inspiration.
I really appreciate how well it works with whatever is left. We are also loaded with parsnips right now.
Okay, I have everything in the kitchen for potatoes au gratin & beet chips – I cannot wait to try these recipes!
Nice to “see you” again Angela! I should add that lately I’ve been adding the leftover beet chip “juice” to water kefir and capping it off. It gets beautifully fizzy–even better than fruit juice. Have to be a ton of phytochemicals with all that beautiful color!