Putting Local Farms on the Holiday Menu
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Six hundred turkeys awaited their destiny at Springfield Farm in Sparks, Md., last week.
Owner David Smith began counting and rounding up the birds to be plucked, cleaned, cooled and readied to become the centerpiece of customers' Maryland-grown Thanksgiving dinners.
And Smith's farm was not the only local establishment to experience a flurry of activity from consumers looking for food with hometown flair. Farmers markets and wineries statewide have seen an influx of traffic, too.
"It has a lot to do with reconnecting with their food," Smith said. "I like to say it puts a face on their food."
That's why farmers, vintners and agriculture marketing experts are betting that when Marylanders sit down for Thanksgiving dinner this year, the cuisine will have a decidedly local flavor.
"If I get my food from California, then it takes a lot of fuel to get it," said Dale Johnson, farm management specialist for the University of Maryland at College Park.
"If I get my food locally, maybe I can reduce my carbon footprint," he said. "It's decreasing global warming through your diet."
Food that has not traveled cross-country is often fresher, said Brenda Conti, a board member of the Anne Arundel County Farmers' Market.
"Instead of being picked weeks beforehand and sitting on shelves or sitting in trucks, [the produce is] picked when it's almost ripe," said Conti, owner of Herbal Touch, a company that makes jams, fruit butters and salves from market produce.
"The farmers try really hard not to take the prices to an outrageous price, but they have to go up a little bit to cover the costs," she said. "They can also keep it down because they're not going hundreds or thousands of miles to go to the market."
Customers also can build relationships with local farmers.
"Farmers can tell you the best way to cook something, or the best way to prepare something or how to best clean produce," said Tracy Baskerville of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts, which runs the farmers market there. The advice is especially welcome "during Thanksgiving, when people are trying new recipes."
