Gardener Meets Cook: Farmers and Chefs Speed Date

by Anne Williams

Men and women filled Bemidji State University’s Crying Wolf Room this past Monday, February 9. They had gathered for a one-on-one session known as “speed-dating.” But it’s not what you think.

Farmers, food growers, restaurant owners, grocery store managers, chefs and specialists in food production attended a farmer/buyer workshop which included a session based loosely on the principles of speed-dating, designed to allow buyers to meet with local growers.

Minnesota Grown, the Minnesota Arboretum, Green Routes, and the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture sponsored the forum catered towards growers and consumers who are interested in the local food market, but are unsure of where to start.

“We hope to create the initial meeting between growers and buyers,” said Brett Olson of Renewing the Country Side, a non-profit organization working to educate communities on this topic. “Many farmers don’t know who is interested in what they have to offer,” he said.

In today’s tight economy, many food businesses have been forced to try new, creative approaches to get an edge on their competitors. For Reed Olson, owner of Wild Hare Bistro, a restaurant located in Bemidji, Minn., buying food from local growers has helped fill seats.

Last summer Olson was approached by local grower Mike Kerr, owner of Kerr Family Farms located south of Bagley, Minn, who asked Olson if he would like to buy fresh fruits or vegetables directly from his farm. Kerr had reached a higher level of food production on his farm and was looking to expand his business.

“As a grower, I have very little experience selling to local restaurants, but I have been building relationships with people all my life,” said Kerr. “To me, it’s about making a friend, being a friend, and hopefully making money off the deal.”

Restaurant-owner Reed Olson has worked with Kerr to bring in a variety of vegetables and mixed greens to his business for almost a year. Currently, 25 percent of Olson’s menu includes foods grown locally.



Olson hopes to continue to increase the amount of local foods purchased every year, but still depends on his distributor for supplies such as paper products and canned goods. “My distributor has noticed my produce dollars were going down, but I think they know the quality is better than what they can deliver,” Reed said. “If anything it will force them to compete at a local level,” he added.

As appealing as it sounds, buying from local growers do not come without extra costs and challenges. Most restaurants are not used to doing business this way. Restaurant owners may feel strange buying directly from local growers. Their menus have most likely been set in stone for a long time.

“If restaurant buyers want to buy locally, they will have to make a serious commitment and menus will have to change,” said Terry Nennich of U of M Extension. “Menus will have to change frequently and chefs will have to work with specials. The season aspect is important,” he added.

Jon Cameron, owner of Tutto Bene restaurant in Bemidji, buys from local growers throughout the summer. To make it work, Cameron says his chef adapts his menus frequently by including 3 to 5 unique specials daily. But, this can create extra work, too. Depending on the grower, more labor may be required, such as scrubbing potatoes and washing greens, reminds Reed, in discussing extra work needed.

Growers in northern Minnesota face the added challenges of a short growing season and limited resources. “If I had 10 different restaurants asking if I had Swiss chard, I couldn’t do it,” said Kerr. “At a certain point everyone has tomatoes. It would be neat for buyers if growers could diversify their gardens so they all wouldn’t be competing.”

Similar to some restaurant tendencies, grocery store owners are used to stocking their food items on shelves and buying in large quantities. They are used to buying from mass food distributors, which in today’s global market culture, have often made it more cost-effective and convenient for food buyers to purchase their food from them.

But some grocery stores, such as Lueken’s Village Foods in Bemidji, have found the prices from local growers comparable. Since he started nine years ago, store director Brent Sicard has bought a variety of vegetables, fish, grains and wild rice from six or seven local food growers from September through late spring.

While he has found irregularities in some products and occasionally may not always get the original amount requested, Sicard finds local growers easy to work with. “Their prices are comparable, and they are generally reasonable people. I’d like to think we’re reasonable, too, so it works well,” said Sicard. “Our local barbecue sauce is our number one seller. It beats the other brands 4-to-1 so I feel we’ve had tremendous success with our local foods.”

Restaurant owner Reed Olson knows building relationships between buyers and local growers is a balancing act, but it has been worth it to add local foods to the menu. Olson relies on word-of-mouth to market his business.

“The best plug is when people see the exchange between the farmer bringing in his fresh fruit and vegetables and the cooks who receive it right in the middle of the restaurant,” he explained. “When people see where their food comes from, when they taste the quality of fresh locally grown food, they want more of it. If I see more butts in chairs, that’s a good thing,” Olson emphasized.

In the above pictures, Reed Olson of Bemidji's Wild Hare talks with Jeff Brown of Brown's Gardens while numerous regional growers, restaurateurs, and grocers take part in speed-dating in order to create business relationships.

READER COMMENTS:

Debbie Warne-Jacobsen:

I'm very glad this forum was covered, but was really disappointed that Luekens was mentioned and Harmony co-op was not . I see Lisa Weiskopf (produce manager at Harmony) in one of the photos.

Harmony works more with local growers than probably any business in the area, and is currently involved with a "Food Shed" project with locally-based international non-profit organization, the Indigenous Environmental Network as well Bemidji State University and the University of Minnesota-Crookston to identify and map local food producers within the 10 county/three reservation region here in Northern Minnesota. Their primary goal is to use this information to create a viable network between food producers and food consumers in our community. So I'm sure Lisa would have had quite a bit to say about this particular topic.

I think it is especially important for community based journalism to make a special effort to speak with organizations (like Harmony) that are really focused on community and community building in the areas that are being covered in the story.