A Shorter Link Between the Farm And Dinner Plate

Loudoun County, with its mix of country pastures and suburban developments, has become a welcome place for local food.

About half of the county is made up of farmland, yet Loudoun has experienced an increase in what Warren Howell, who promotes agricultural businesses in the county, calls "NPR farmers," enthusiastic newcomers who sell their goods locally.

For years, they have helped populate the county's farmers markets and some have started you-pick operations and community agriculture programs. Others have added restaurants that cook using produce tilled on site.

They have also found customers among local restaurants. Tuscarora Mill in downtown Leesburg has long bought produce offered by local farmers, and Magnolias at the Mill in Purcellville, owned by the same family, buys greens from the local farmers market.

Elaine Boland, the owner of Fields of Athenry, supplies several Loudoun County businesses with fresh lamb and sells ready-to-eat packaged lamb meals. Sandy Lerner, a co-founder of Cisco Systems, operates a 1,000-acre organic farm and sells her meat at two of her businesses, the English-style pub Hunter's Head Tavern in Upperville and the Home Farm Store in Middleburg.

Big business has jumped aboard. When Wegmans opened its first store in Sterling three years ago, it struck a deal with John Whitmore, a fifth-generation farmer, to provide melons, tomatoes, peppers, squash, eggplant and cucumbers. Whitmore now also supplies Wegmans stores in Fairfax and Hunt Valley, north of Baltimore. Whole Foods Market has been pushing a return to local goods in the last year. The company is in negotiations with at least two Loudoun County food producers.

Sarah L. Roussos, co-owner the Green Alchemy Herb and Mercantile Co., is one of them. She and her husband began selling her herbal tea mixes to businesses in Loudoun last year. She now works as a liaison between farms and restaurants that want to do business with each other as part of an organization formed in March, the Farmers and Artisans Alliance for Responsible Mercantile.

Consumers appreciate the local connection, even if not everyone would go to great lengths to get these foods -- attendance at the local farmers market has been down this year.

"This is the only corn that they have here, so that is why I buy it," said Jennifer Vassar, 30, gesturing toward the rows of local sweet corn on display at the Wegmans in Sterling. "I really like the idea that it wasn't driven across the country to get here. But I still buy the other stuff."

Another Wegmans shopper, Jo-Anne Barnard, 59, said she seeks out local produce. "It is very important to me," Barnard said while picking out yellow squash. "It tastes better because it is fresh and I have some knowledge of the origin of the food. It's also an ecological thing and I like the idea of supporting local farmers."

American Flatbread is a Vermont-based pizza company that stresses using local, regional and organic ingredients in all of its products. Its frozen pizzas are sold in Whole Foods and gourmet grocers nationally.

Scott and Janice Vasko first considered opening an American Flatbread restaurant in the Washington area five years ago. He had tasted one of the pizzas while traveling on business in Massachusetts and liked it.