Farm to Fork dinner promises fresh food

By Katie Williams
Collegian Editor
September 27, 2006

Find yourself complaining about La Salle’s food pretty often? Then this Thursday will be perfect for you. On Sept. 28, the Blue and Gold (B&G) will be hosting Farm to Fork, an event where all the food served, from the vegetables to the meats, will be freshly delivered from local farms. Spotlight spoke with both Glenn Jones, the manager of the B&G, and Royer Smith, the executive chef, to find out more information about this momentous event.

Spotlight: What local farms are participating?

Glen Jones: Lansdale Farms, Green Meadow, Overbrook Farms Indian Orchards, Oley Valley, Urban Girls, Shellbark Hollow Farms and Meadow Run Farms.

Royer Smith: It’s a lot more work for this dinner. Usually, we’ll just call up a produce guy and tell him what we want and the next day it shows up at our back door. Now we have to deal with the heat, the rain, the frost, plus the fact that many of these farmers aren’t always set up for this kind of wholesale business; there’s a significant learning curve on both ends. But the quality is so much better, so the headaches are worth it.

SP: How did this whole project get started?

GJ: Our executive chef [Smith] had local contacts, and he wanted to get the word out and promote local farmers, as well as have better quality food for the students. He’s taking the lead in designing the menu.

RS: Over the summer I had the opportunity to meet some small, organic farmers, and I was inspired by how hard they work, and how much they care about the fruits of the earth. They take an inordinate amount of trouble to ensure that there are no pesticides or artificial fertilizers used, and that their animals are cared for properly and raised humanely and fed well. And it just doesn’t seem like anyone knows about this, or cares. They don’t do it because it’s the easiest way to make a buck—nothing could be further from the truth. They do it only because they take pride in their work and care about the earth and all of its bounty. Chefs everywhere have had the same inspirational experience that I had, and want to help the farmers make a better living for them and their families, and to encourage them to conduct their work with the same high standards that they have been using for decades. The extra work on the part of me and my staff is very small compared to how hard they work.

SP: Can you give us a preview of the “cow-tipping good” desserts?

RS: “Cow-tipping”? I didn’t design that flier. We’ll have apple crisps from an orchard. We’ll also have fresh figs, which is unusual to get locally, but there’s a place in South Philly where we can get them fresh. We’ll have ricotta cheese with that.

SP: Tell us more about the tickets to Farm Aid.

RS: Before Thursday, we’re having a trivia contest of about 11 questions. You can fill out the forms at the B&G. The questions are all pretty easy, and whoever gets them all right will be put into a drawing. We’ll draw the names of two students on Thursday, and they’ll be attending the Farm Aid concert at the Tweeter Center in Camden on Sept. 30. SP: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

RS: It was a remarkable coincidence that the timing of this dinner coincided with the recent outbreak of E.coli connected with spinach. I was hoping that we could serve spinach at the dinner as a way of highlighting how safe and nutritious food is when you skip the traditional high volume food chain, but unfortunately, the University-wide ban on spinach has not yet been lifted. There’s no doubt that buying directly from farmers that we know where the vegetables aren’t packaged at some huge plant where occasional breakdowns of the safety barriers are inevitable - is much safer and more nutritious. There are complicated issues involved in the nutritional and safety issues of agricultural big business, and there will be some folks from the White Dog Foundation and the Fair Food Foundation at B&G next week to talk to interested students and hand out literature. We’re expecting some of our farmers to stop by as well, and talk to students about what is involved in making vegetables and fruits and meats safe and nutritious and delicious. This will be an interesting evening on several levels. And the food will be delicious.

williamsk1@lasalle.edu