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Andy Hampshire of Farmers Gastropub plates a dish featuring peppers from Blue Heron Farm in Marshfield.
Andy Hampshire of Farmers Gastropub plates a dish featuring peppers from Blue Heron Farm in Marshfield.

Fresh from the Source: Restaurateurs consider farm-to-table factors

Buying into farm-to-table dining requires relationships, extra costs and a flexible menu

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Any given chef may be left guessing if asked to name the source of the lettuce or tomato they just placed on a sizzling cheeseburger.

Not so for Andy Hampshire. The chef and owner of Farmers Gastropub since 2015 can recite from memory who he sources each item from on his ever-changing menu. More than 70 percent of Farmers Gastropub’s food comes from 23 local farms and vendors, as well as multiple weekly visits to local farmers markets.

“Instead of buying organic greens from you don’t know who or how long it’s been in the box, Jason from Box Turtle Farm texts me and asks how much greens I want,” Hampshire said. “He picks it today, and I have it tomorrow.”

And if it’s not in season, it’s not on the menu.

“Our Ozarks strawberries are in season for three weeks,” he said. “We have to change our menu with what’s available.”

The farm-to-table movement continues to increase among restaurateurs. The National Restaurant Association reports “hyperlocal” as the most popular restaurant concept this year.

The numbers back it up. Locally produced food sales were estimated at $12 billion in 2014 and they’re expected to increase to top $20 billion by 2019, according to the 2017 Harvesting Opportunity report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Direct sales of local food, now truly a mainstream consumer preference, grew by 223 percent from 1992 to 2012, according to the U.S. Census of Agriculture, far outpacing the average rate of sales growth among other agricultural sectors.

Local buy-in
According to Springfield’s Business License Division, there are 661 restaurants in the city. Yet area food producers say just a handful of chefs have fully adopted all that comes with sourcing food locally.

“There’s a lot of hype around buying local, but a lot of it is just hype,” said James Boosey with Blue Heron Farm LLC in Marshfield. “Buying local requires you to design your business around local.”

At their 50-acre farm, Boosey and his wife Jennie produce micro greens, peppers, herbs, and duck and chicken eggs. They’re just getting started with lamb and beef production.

Boosey considers Hampshire one of the local chefs who truly embrace farm-to-table dining.

“A lot of them think that any old egg will do because they can turn it into an amazing dish,” he said. “He believes the success of a great dish is as much bound to the skill of the farmer as his own skill.”

The farm-to-table philosophy requires a big shift in the restaurant business, said Curtis Millsap, owner of the 20-acre Millsap Farms LLC in north Springfield.

“Six months of the year we can be an exceptional tomato supplier, and six months of the year you have to get it from someone else if you want tomatoes,” he said. “That’s the definition of seasonal: Sometimes you have it, and sometimes you don’t.”

Some restaurateurs have to look throughout the entire region to get their menu needs met. For instance, Farmers Gastropub and Harvest Restaurant in Rogersville obtains poultry from Jim Protiva of Peace Valley Poultry in West Plains.

“The restaurant has to be more flexible,” said Protiva, whose farm produces 16,000 chickens and 500 turkeys a year, the majority of which arrive on local menus as well as stores, such as MaMa Jean’s Natural Foods Market. “They have to learn to use what’s available. A chicken only has so many wings.”

Economic impact
The National Farmers Union reports farmers and ranchers receive only 14.8 cents of every $1 consumers spend on food. When food is purchased directly from farmers or at farmers markets, that figure can be upwards of 90 cents for every $1, according to the Farmers Market Coalition.

Local food proponents say there’s a cost to the environment, too. The Farmers Market Coalition estimates food travels an average of 1,500 miles before it ends up on dinner plates. By comparison, 85 percent of vendors at farmers markets travel within 50 miles to sell their goods.

“When you start thinking about the cost of shipping, let’s say, apples from Washington or buying peaches from South America – what is the true cost of that?” asks Abbe Ehlers, senior instructor in the Hospitality Leadership Department at Missouri State University. “Local food and seasonal food has been something that is showing up on the radar for many years.”

Ehlers teaches courses on local food. She said Tea Bar & Bites Bakery & Cafe LLC, Cherry Picker Package and Fare, and Gilardi’s Ristorante are examples she shares with students on how farm-to-table can be achieved if restaurants are willing to shift their business model. 

“Flavor is driving the trend,” she said. “I feel as if a page has turned in our agricultural playbook here.”

East of town, Craig von Foerster has operated Harvest Restaurant for nearly three years. His hyperseasonal and microlocal menu includes fruits, vegetables and herbs grown on-site, in addition to sourcing from 50 local vendors and farmers markets.

“I’ve managed to source the best quality from the array of local suppliers here,” he said. “I like buying from people who will one day be the customers of the restaurant.”

Von Foerster features Peace Valley Poultry’s chickens year-round in several dishes. He said the quality and freshness is the No. 1 factor for sourcing locally.

“You have to build a customer base that appreciates the difference,” he said.

Protiva said cost is often the sticking point when chefs don’t order. While Peace Valley’s whole chickens are $3.55 per pound delivered, his value proposition is freshness.

“We butcher on Wednesday and you can have your chicken on Thursday,” Protiva said.

“We have about eight employees, so we’re supporting a microeconomy here.”

Worth the cost?
Hampshire at Farmers Gastropub said the mushrooms he buys from Willow Mountain Mushrooms and the beef he sources from Black Gate Farms run about 50 percent higher than what he can acquire through his supplier, Springfield Grocer Co.

But he often can find deals to offset costs, maybe by purchasing “seconds,” misshapen or “ugly” produce at market. A Farmers Gastropub cheeseburger is priced at $11, which Hampshire said is on par for restaurants in town.

“I know if I spend, not just at the farmers market, but at local farms, it boosts the economy and they get busier, I get busier,” he said. “It’s this whole circle and it starts with the farmer and me.

“That translates into an experience that’s full of flavor.”

Millsap said he developed a Restaurant Community Supported Agriculture program after the team at University Plaza Hotel & Convention Center visited his farm and asked how they could incorporate local food in their menu.

The $100-a-week CSA, now also used by Hilton Garden Inn, has a mix of whatever is growing currently at the farm.

“It turned into this really creative and useful partnership for both of us,” he said. “That’s where local really starts to make sense – when you’re working with the chef hand-in-hand.”

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