A worker at Twin Buttes tends to the garden earlier this summer. Twin Buttes is among several local farms that are now supplying produce to restaurants, stores and CSAs in Durango./ Photo by Steve Eginoire

A growing taste for local

Durango restaurants, farms increasing local food offerings

Upcoming Eat Local Celebration events

by Missy Votel

In case bacon and chard tagliatelli, crunchy thai salad or a barbacoa burrito weren't tempting enough, perhaps the fact that they all are made with local ingredients will help sweeten the deal.

Such dishes, as well as dozens more in a weekly rotating cast, are being served up as part of Local First's annual homage to local food, the Eat Local celebration. This fall, Eat Local offers four weeks of foodie heaven, with various restaurants offering up the best of locally produced food through Sept. 25.

Now in its third year, the event has not only expanded in size, but offerings as well.

"We've really seen an increase of restaurants participating and also in the variety of what people are doing with local food," Local First Executive Director Leeann Vallejos said. "The menus have really expanded."

Vallejos said the idea for a local food campaign was hatched when Local First was founded five years ago. Among the organization's tenets is not only encouraging residents to shop locally, but to eat locally as well. She said eating food locally produced is one of the simplest steps a person can make that has the biggest impact.

"Not only are you not trucking that food thousands of miles, but the money you spend stays here, and you're getting fresh, healthy food," said Vallejos. "It's a no-brainer."

The impetus behind the Eat Local event was to show the community how easy it is to incorporate local food into everyday diets. "We wanted to show that a family can feed itself with locally grown food," she said. "Even if it's just going to the Durango Farmers Market once a week and getting something. It's an easy piece that people can take baby steps with."

Vallejos said a growing number of local restaurants are also taking steps to put local food on the table. Right now, about 20 restaurants offer local ingredients, everything from fine dining  establishments to casual cafes. "It's growing exponentially," she said.

Some examples include Zia Taqueria, which uses two hoop houses at Twin Buttes to grow everything from chile to lettuce, and Cyprus Cafe, where owner Alison Dance uses her land to grow heirloom tomatoes, herbs and other vegetables.

"She calls it 'Dance Ranch,'" said Vallejos of the garden, which is located on County Road 250.

Smaller restaurants are getting in on the action, too.  Raider Ridge Cafe, which started out by offering local eggs for breakfast last year, now offers a veritable cornucopia of local fruits and vegetables, from turnips and squash to cilantro and peppers.

Raider Ridge owner Jarrod Regan said the decision to bring in more local food was partly the result of customer demand. "It's definitely increased, especially in the last two or three years," he said.

After dipping his toe in the water last year, he decided adding more local food to his menu was not going to be as hard as he thought. Last winter, he sat down with Gabe Eggers of Twin Buttes farms to dial in what the cafe's needs were. "He sat down with us in February so he could plant things we use," said Regan.

Currently, Raider Ridge offers items from four local food sources, including Twin Buttes for vegetables, Mountain Roots for potatoes, Turtle Lake for microgreens, and Sunnyside for bacon. Often, he has local spinach from April to December. "People are surprised to see how far we can stretch local ingredients," he said.

And as demand for local food rises, he can also stretch his dollar further, too. Although it's still slightly more expensive to buy local – he estimates he pays 10 percent more than he would a corporate wholesaler like Sysco – it's a vast improvement from four years ago, when it would have cost double.

But money is only a small piece of the pie for most who decide to use and consume local ingredients. For Isabel Borman, programs coordinator for Local First as well as a part-time farmer for Homegrown Farms in Bayfield, it all comes down to personal satisfaction. A self-proclaimed refugee from the "food desert" of upstate New York, Durango's local food culture has been a welcome change. "I realized I didn't need to be eating food that didn't make me feel good," she said. "I love fresh, organic food. There's something so rewarding about putting something in the ground, watching it grow, harvesting it and creating a beautiful, organic dish."

Borman, 24, said she sees a similar sentiment among people her age, from the young people who work with her on the farm, to students who work at the Old Fort Farm in Hesperus to the two FLC students who started "Fields to Plate Produce," which sells beets and carrots to local restaurants.

"A lot of people my age are getting involved," she said, "Durango offers a lot of opportunities for young people to get involved. There's a lot of awareness."

And with the harvest season in full swing and only two weeks left in the Eat Local celebration, there's no time like the present to sample the best that local farmers have to offer.

"I encourage people to look at the menu, it changes every week," said Vallejos. "Get out and enjoy a taste of local food."