A sampling of the locally sourced vegetables that Raider Ridge Cafe is currently working into its repertoire: micro-
greens from Turtle Lake and carrots from Twin Buttes./Photo by Jennaye Derge
(Editor’s note: This marks the first in a series on Southwest Colorado’s burgeoning local food scene. This week, we’ll look at local farmer-restaurant collaborations as well as how to get your own slice of the homegrown pie without pulling a single weed. In week 2, we’ll examine the dirty business of gardening, sustainability and turning those leftover scraps into black gold. Week 3 will focus on the Durango Farmer’s Market, in all its bountiful glory.)
Dishing Durango
Farmers, restaurants sit down at table to plot local plate
by Joy Martin
With more restaurants per capita than San Francisco and no less than 1,124 farms in La Plata County, penning an article about the farm-to-table scene in Durango is like trying to throw a party for 18,000 personalities: impossible to please all of the people all of the time.
JustthefactsWhat: “Just Eat It: A Food Story About Waste,” |
With more restaurants per capita than San Francisco and no less than 1,124 farms in La Plata County, penning an article about the farm-to-table scene in Durango is like trying to throw a party for 18,000 personalities: impossible to please all of the people all of the time.
So, while I invite you to sit back with your pint of Jesus from BREW or Buddha Bowl from Earth Girl Goodies and enjoy the following 1,500 words, I’d like to ask you to consume this literary scrap with a grain of salt. Forgive me if your restaurant, farm or CSA doesn’t show up in here. Thanks for remembering that I’m just a salad-eating storyteller.
The sit-down
Scene One is the corner table of newly remodeled Raider Ridge Cafe, where owner Jarrod Regan and Twin Buttes Gardens distributor guy, Chad Goodale, plot this year’s Raider Ridge produce plan.
As I slurp a smoothie, the boys pour over a spreadsheet of last year’s leafy orders. Goodale updates amounts based on Regan’s weekly needs for his tasty array of burritos, sandwiches and smoothies.
“Pound of basil, half a pound of cilantro, 5 pounds of cucumber ... .” The two go down the list, from arugula to zucchini, Goodale confirming “you can never have enough onions” (100 pounds a month), and Regan pausing at spinach.
“People are eating more spinach,” says Regan. “Let’s bump it to 12 pounds a week.” Is spinach the new kale? It appears that the Kardashian of health food is not as hot as it was in, say, 2014.
So what is the new kale?
“You never know what’s going to be the next sheeshee pepper,” says Goodale.
Despite not being able to pinpoint the next foodie fad, the modern-day chow trend is an easy one to spot, as over 80 percent of Americans say sustainability is a top priority when it comes to food purchases, according to the New York Times.
Ah, sustainability. Are we really going down that rabbit hole? Not exactly. This series is a snapshot that shows we’re a few steps closer to a sustainable local food landscape: the farm-to-table restaurant, Community Supported Agriculture, your very own garden, and of course the farmer’s market.
Tasting the difference
Loosely, farm-to-table means that four hours ago, your lunch was pulled from the dirt, loaded onto a truck and dropped off at the kitchen to be cleaned, chopped and lovingly displayed with a host of other locally sourced ingredients, like cheese from James Ranch, herbs from Dancing Willow, chorizo from Sunnyside and gluten-free bread from the Intolerant Italian.
 Volunteer Kristi Good, left, and Chad Goodale, with Twin Buttes, wash lettuce last fall, which was sold to local restaurants./Photo by Jennaye Derge |
“I can taste the difference when we use local greens,” says Tracy Regan, co-owner of Raider Ridge. “Besides, it’s cool for the customers to see the farmer coming in with a huge bag of spinach over his shoulder and drop it on the counter.”
In the not-so-olden days of local food sourcing for restaurants, a farmer would roll up to the backdoor and sell whatever was in the back of his truck, or chefs would amble to the farmer’s market on Saturdays to get their foodstuffs for the week. But now, in the space age of 2016, seeds can be bought ahead of time and restaurants can share their input so farmers can better plan.
Six years ago, Gabe Egger, then Twin Buttes’ director of agriculture, latched onto the lofty ideals of a farm-to-table utopia and shifted the focus of the gardens to meet the demands of local restaurants instead of sacrificing unwanted crops. He thus reduced waste by steering a fashionable belief system into an efficient, year round business model that kicks off each growing season with meetings, such as Goodale’s and Regan’s, and ends with the ultimate aim of a bounty of local food that lasts through winter.
Initially, he approached the inspired food artists at Season’s.
“We wanted to make it so that eating local produce doesn’t have to end with the first frost,” says Season’s executive chef David Stewart. “And that goes back to talking with growers at the beginning of the season. Maybe we’re eating storage potatoes and winter squash, not salad mix and tomatoes, but we’ll do what we can to keep local foods on everybody’s plate.”
A food desert
Plotting what goes in the ground is tricky but imperative business for La Plata County, which is considered a food desert. That is, we have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables, thanks to a scarcity of resources and a short growing season.
“Not only are we far from any interstates, but we’re also surrounded by mountain passes,” says 24-year-old James Plate, of Fields to Plate Farms. “We definitely keep that in mind when it comes to what we plant and how we store it.”
So, Plate and partner, Max Fields, put in a cold storage root cellar where they can preserve their summer root vegetables for up to six months.
Fields to Plate is a relatively small operation, working out of the Old Fort in Hesperus. But from 100-pound deliveries of Twin Buttes onions to enchanting bundles of Turtle Lake Refuge microgreens, it’s important to remember there are no small parts in this farm-to-table saga, only small actors. And those small actors have found ways to connect with the community through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).
The CSA programs are essentially a symbiotic relationship between small farms and your belly. Farmers need your money to grow the food you’ll eventually consume, so you pay up front for a share. Your down payment funds seeds, labor and other beginning-of-season costs, while you wait patiently for prized, juicy produce each week.
Reaping the rewards
Enter Scene Two. Your weekly box of CSA goods overflows with fresh chard, beets, radishes, rutabaga and whatever else is ripe and didn’t get pummeled by hail, withered by drought, plucked by birds or nibbled by rabbits. The season roughly runs 18 weeks.
“We offer half shares for $250 and full shares for $500,” says Fields. “We like to say that a half share is good for one vegetarian or two omnivores, while a full share is good for two vegetarians and four omnivores. We encourage people to group up because if you receive too much produce and don’t use it, people tend to feel bad.”
The cultural and environmental climate of Southwest Colorado is challenging but all the more rewarding for the budding local food movement, say Fields and Plate.
 Raider Ridge’s local supplier wheel, listing the day’s providers./ Photo by Jennaye Derge |
“It’s really an incredible region for it,” says Plate. “There’s such a huge Western appeal and historic backdrop to local food that’s so true to our pioneer roots.”
In an effort to include even smaller players in the local food epic, Southwest Farm Fresh Cooperative has introduced the region’s first multi-farm CSA, says Dana Thompson, project coordinator. Featuring 18 farms from Durango, Mancos, Cortez, Bayfield and Dolores, the Co-op aims to “spread local food as far and to as many people as possible.”
“The idea is to get local food to individuals and families in order to connect our community to our local farmers,” says Thompson. For a list of participating farmers, visit www.southwestfarmfresh.com.
As of now, there is no exhaustive collection of our mounting population of farms (“People will put two cows on their property and call it a farm,” laughs Plate), nor one club where local farmers mingle (besides farmersonly.com, of course).
So my invitation to you, eager sustainability evangelist, is to compile this overwhelming amount of information into one well-kept database, or, heck, somebody write a book already.
Because this story isn’t over. Remember, we have two more scenes to visit: your own backyard and the farmer’s market. But there’s no room here to open that can of worms, so you’ll have to hold onto your fork till May. And as farmers start the backbreaking, soul-stirring work of planting and chefs stretch their imaginations plotting this summer’s mouth-watering creations, your job is to carefully consider your options when it comes to choosing where and what to eat.
“Think of your neighbors, think of your community,” says Tracy Regan. “When it comes to choosing, you can make a huge impact with your dollar.”
Meanwhile, I’ll keep digging into La Plata County’s boundless plate of scrumptious possibilities.
Want to get down and dirty? Visit Twin Buttes Gardens website (www.twinbuttesofdurango.com/open-space-and-trails/gardens/) to see upcoming volunteer events, such as the annual Onion Planting Party held the last week of April.