Locally produced food finds a place at the table

Some shops, restaurants cater to customers who prefer fare derived from state or region

Sally Mengel puts the finishing touch, a maraschino cherry, on top of a sundae she made of local ingredients (except for the cherry) at The Green Corner Store on Thursday in Little Rock.
Sally Mengel puts the finishing touch, a maraschino cherry, on top of a sundae she made of local ingredients (except for the cherry) at The Green Corner Store on Thursday in Little Rock.

— Locally produced foods are finding their way into more and more restaurants and retail stores across the state.

Restaurants such as Greenhouse Grille in Fayetteville or The Root Cafe in Little Rock are part of a nationwide movement catering to “locavores,” people who prefer food produced within their states or regions.

A case in point is the recently opened Loblolly Creamery - a small-batch ice-cream business that operates out of Little Rock’s Trinity Episcopal Cathedral’s community kitchen and distributes its products through several local retailers.

Tara Protiva-Brown, a co-owner of Hillcrest Artisan Meats on Kavanaugh Boulevard in Little Rock, said her business purchases about $3,000 worth of meat from Arkansas farmers every week, and “in the store there are pictures of farms [from which we buy] on the walls.”

Fort Smith native Protiva-Brown, 41, and husband Brandon Brown - who is a charcuterie chef - opened their shop in November after working in Oregon. Charcuterie refers to sausages, ham, pates, and other cooked or processed meats.

There is no official definition for locally grown, said Ron Rainey, an extension economist with the University of Arkansas Agriculture Division.

“I’ve heard [it’s food grown within] 100 miles, within 200 miles or 400 miles,” he said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn’t have a strict definition for locally grown either. But a 2008 definition in the Food, Conservation and Energy Act designates locally or regionally produced food as being “400 miles from its origin or within the state it’s produced.”

Most of such producers sell directly to consumers and have less than $50,000 in annual sales, according to the 2010 federal report titled “Local Food Systems: Concepts, Impacts and Issues.”

Rainey, who has conducted research on the economic impact of the state’s farmers markets, said that no matter how locally grown is defined, consumers want information about how their food is produced.

And businesses, such as restaurants, can play an important educational role in that.

“Consumers want to connect with the grower and put a face to a grower,” he added.

Tandra Watkins, pastry chef at Ashley’s restaurant in Little Rock’s Capital Hotel, said that with locally grown foods, “you have more of a tie to where it’s coming from, and that makes it even more thoughtful when you put it on a plate for someone.”

She said the restaurant works with the Certified Arkansas Farmers Market to develop a relationship with farmers whose produce is from the state. As a result, Watkins said, it is not a big challenge to find fresh, locally grown produce.

“We know the farmers. We’ve been out to the farms. We work with them closely. We’re trying to make our own Arkansas cuisine with what’s here locally,” she said.

The Capital Bar and Grill at the hotel also follows that practice.

But Jerrmy Gawthrop, 36, whose Greenhouse Grille uses Arkansas farmers’ produce, said locally grown is trendy now, and consumers need to be alert for bogus claims.

A consumer doesn’t know if the claims are true or how much of the food on a menu is actually produced locally, he said.

At the Greenhouse Grille, 95 percent of the meat and protein comes from Arkansas farms, but “produce is where it gets tough,” Gawthrop said.

What fresh produce is available depends on the growing season, making the supply inconsistent and such inconsistencies create problems for restaurants, said Dario Amini, the owner of Le Petit Bistro in Bentonville.

Since the November opening of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, restaurateurs in Bentonville have begun to market themselves as offering “authentic” food.

“We try to use as much local food as we can,” Amini said, but offering certain items year-round is impossible because they aren’t available.

Gawthrop said the work involved in securing local produce suppliers is probably why there aren’t more restaurants in the area like his.

And local-foods-movement critics such as James McWilliams - author of Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly - say production on a smaller scale is less-efficient than on a larger scale.

Also, the local-foods movement doesn’t take into account the expected increase in global demand for food over the next 40-50 years, McWilliams, a professor at Texas State University, told The Associated Press recently.

Still, supporters of the movement say they like the more-personal business relationship they have with their suppliers.

You can “use food to start a conversation about a local economy and the local community,” said Jack Sundell, co-owner of The Root Cafe.

Locally grown is a concept that’s still forming, and “there’s a huge amount of interest in it,” Sundell said. And, “it’s becoming an organized and important movement in central Arkansas.” Information for this article was provided by Madeline Will of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Business, Pages 65 on 05/20/2012

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