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| Finnriver Farm Chickens |
Farming is an act of food-growing and community-growing. Although many of
the farmers I know are soulful, quiet folks who would prefer to spend their
time in the fields with hands in the dirt than be out handshaking at a party
with heap of people, still they know that agriculture
(from agra for ‘land’) requires CULTURE to thrive. In our rural community here
in Jefferson County, a wonderful sense of common purpose has developed among
food growers and food preparers and purveyors. The ‘eat local’ movement has
inspired conversation and collaboration that is successfully connecting our
farms to restaurants and allowing folks at their tables to taste what is
growing fresh in our fields.
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| Gathering Eggs |
Chef Dan from the Fireside Restaurant
at Port Ludlow Resort, for example, has been at Finnriver, our 33 acre organic
farm and artisan cidery, many times now. His positive experiences on this land
led him to make a commitment to purchase our organically grown, pasture-raised
eggs for his kitchen. Making this commitment was not simple, although it may
seem logical for a restaurant to source its food from a nearby farm. But in
fact over the last fifty years or more, the modern food system has been moving
away from local sourcing at a commercial scale and has instead looked for the
cheapest source. The industrialization of agriculture has led to a system of
food distribution that does not prioritize how or where food is produced, but
simply how much it costs—the bottom line has turned eating into an economic act
rather than an intimate one.
Chef Dan’s choice to purchase eggs
locally from Finnriver requires him to pay a significantly higher price than he
could get for commercially produced eggs from afar. But he knows who raises
these chickens and, well, he knows the chickens themselves! He can speak to his
restaurant customers with confidence and care about the fresh, local eggs and
share with them the many benefits to both human and community health that come
with eating those glorious, golden yokes.
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| Life on the Farm |
Even though the agriculture system has
been commercialized and de-personalized in many parts of the world, the good
news is that many communities are turning this around by working together to
nurture relationships between farmers and chefs. Through organizations like
local farmers markets, Slow Food, the Chef’s collaborative movement, Cascade
Harvest Coalition and the Olympic Culinary Loop, our local ag network is
becoming stronger and more vital.
Recently a group of Resort at Port Ludlow
chefs and managers came out to our farm to discuss ways we could work together.
It was an honor to welcome them onto this land and to envision ways for us to
grow together, celebrating life on the land and restoring vitality to a rural
farm community.
Photo credit to: Tomo Saito
