At the Intersection of Eat Local and Good Taste

Her commitment to sustainability began when she moved to Clarke County more than 20 years ago. Her father had grown up there, and she knew it would be a perfect place to raise a family and connect with the land. Mackay-Smith began growing her own produce and raising poultry and hogs. She and other community growers formed a farmers market that still operates.

During the formative years of daughters Isabel and Ellie (now 17 and 15, respectively), Mackay-Smith developed recipes for the chutneys, sauces, pickles and preserves she routinely put up. She also started a catering business that helped her amass a large local clientele, especially "over the mountain" in Winchester and Leesburg.

Her parties apparently were legendary. Store manager Peggy Simon remembers a game-themed bash for 375 people that Mackay-Smith threw for wine distributor Kysela.

"Rack of yak, squirrel, wild boar, kangaroo," Simon says. "You name it; we had it. I don't think she had even made any of those things before, but she pulled it off. It was theater."

Mackay-Smith dropped the off-site catered affairs about 18 months ago because they distracted from the rest of the business. But Locke offers a handsome assortment of takeout party foods for at-home entertaining, all made in the store's humming, cozy kitchen: terrines, dips, spreads, focaccia, savory tarts, sundry salads, sandwiches, boxed lunches, dinner/lunch/brunch entrees, vegetable and starch sides, baked goods, etc. The in-store deli and bakery cases hold soup, lunch and dinner features that change daily.

One key to making Locke work -- and keeping prices low -- has been Mackay-Smith's insistence on hiring others who are as committed to sustainability as she is. At last, she says, everything is coming together. "People are getting it, this thing about supporting local business and knowing where your food comes from. I have a really good mix of people who are passionate in their roles but understand that we need to be working toward an entire system."

Take Simon, 60, who has managed the store for five years. Before that she owned Stoneground, a natural-foods store in Middletown. "My whole life is either growing food, cooking it, selling it or talking about it," she says. "I'm obsessed."

That's why she doesn't mind stopping regularly at the orchards, berry farms and fruit stands along the 30-mile route from her home in Strasburg to the store in Millwood. It's Simon who finds most of the local foods on the store's shelves. But until a few years ago, she says, it was difficult figuring out how to get them without driving to the producers' houses. "Everyone is so into the sustainable now that we were starting to worry how we were going to make all this happen, but it's happening," she says.

Now producers deliver to them, but it has taken three decades for that piece of the eat-local puzzle to fall into place. Joel Salatin, the famous owner of Polyface Farm in Swoope, led the way when he started making deliveries to Front Royal, 18 miles away from Millwood.

These days, Dave Farinholt, who once worked with Salatin, uses the same methods as Salatin to raise 300 Cornish Cross meat chickens on 10 acres he leases on Mackay-Smith's farm.

Doug and Lois Aylestock, who own Blue Ridge Meats, a USDA processing facility in Front Royal, represent another piece in Mackay-Smith's farm-to-plate puzzle.

The Aylestocks have a working relationship with pig farmers and a beef farmer and raise their own lambs. They slaughter the animals, then cut them to Mackay-Smith's specifications, vacuum pack them and deliver weekly to Locke, where some of the cuts are sold from a freezer case out front and the rest are used in prepared foods. Chili is a big item at the store, and that is a good thing when you have 600 pounds of ground beef per steer to use up.

Simon has a soft spot for her growers, and Sally Bolton, a farmer in nearby Middleburg, is her favorite. "She was the first person to deliver to me," Simon says. "She has the most beautiful vegetables I've ever had. It's a joke around here that I wax poetic about little turnips. But I just think she has taken it to a real art form."

Bolton, who calls Simon and Mackay-Smith visionaries, says her first priority is her local clients, because they make it easier to fulfill her goal of only 10 to 12 hours from field to table.

"One silly thing I do: I determined a long time ago to sell to people who were on the daily travel routes of my employees so we didn't make a special trip," she says. "It eliminates a lot of transportation expense, a lot of carbon footprint problems, because you are not burning up fossil fuel to get the product to the customer."

As Mackay-Smith and company know, that's about as modern as you can get.

David Hagedorn, chef and former restaurateur, writes the Food section's Chef on Call column. He can be reached at food@washpost.com. Locke Modern Country Store, 2049 Millwood Rd., Millwood, Va., 540-837-1275, http://www.lockestore.com.