Hello Linkery Community,
Recently we have realized that we could do a better job of updating you on all of our current produce offerings and the farms where they are coming from. For those of you who dont know this, we work with local farms and use seasonal produce. Jay and I also drive up to the Santa Monica Farmers Market and meet up with farmers from the Central coast and bring down their offerings to you all.
There is something so gratifying about supporting local businesses and yet so simple. Working with the local farmers is such a win win for everyone. Every time we talk to the farmers at the market or on the phone they are so excited and happy that there are people out there that appreciate all the work that they put into their harvest.
As many of you know are menu changes pretty often, season to season and you can count on the fact that your meal will be great, fresh, and flavorful. The following is a list of farms, where they are from and what they currently offer to all of us:
- Fountain of Youth, Ramona CA: pastured chicken eggs, and fresh herbs such as oregano, marjoram, cilantro, parsley, . Ethan and I went there on Tuesday and waited as they were freshly picked for us.
- Weiser Family Farms, Rancho Cucamonga CA: green garlic, watermelon radishes, purple potatoes, pee wee potatoes, broccoli, beets
- McGrath Family Farms, Camarillo CA: rainbow carrots, mustard greens, pea tendrils, red turnips
- Wingshadows Hacienda, Warner Springs CA: pastured chicken eggs, quail eggs, frehs herbs, mixed greens, citrus
- Valdivia Farms, Carlsbad CA: strawberries, fava beans, sunburst squash
- Whitney Ranch, Carpinteria CA: blueberries
- La Milpa Organica, Escondido CA: mixed greens
- Polito Farms, Valley Center CA: blood oranges, satsuma mandarins
Next time you are in check out the menu and you will see these farms on there. As you eat your meal you will be able to say, “hey those watermelon radishes are from Weiser Family Farms in the Tehachapi area of Rancho Cucamonga”. Now how cool is that. Stay tuned as more produce offerings are coming up in the near future. Take care, enjoy your weekend and we will see you next time in.
Thanks,
Juan
Would you be willing to share where you purchase your flour from? The one you use to bake your breads?
Thank you.
We buy several kinds of flour to make our breads, from Lakeside Bakery Supply. Our principal flour for “artisinal” breads is Harvest King which I think comes from General Mills. We also use semolina flour, whole wheat flour, and all-purpose flour.
I think our flour procurement could be better, for one thing I’d like us to be flour that we know is from regional mills that use California grown, non-GM, ideally organic products. Also I think we could mix in some wheat we mill ourselves in the kitchen.
We’re going to look at Giusto’s as an option for our next batch of flour, and continue to explore how we could get the “ideal” flour in house, given our low volume (compared to bakeries) and need for consistent quality.
I don’t mean to be a huge negative nancy because I greatly admire and love what you guys do, but how exactly is getting produce from Central California (via Santa Monica) considered local? I tend to think of local as anything within 100 miles or so. Isn’t that kind of like Alice Waters, someone else I admire, pushing the local movement but still getting produce from Chino Farms? I have to think the environmental impact is far greater as well.
Hi Doug,
Thanks for asking, I think there’s a lot of confusion out there. My short answer is to link to a past post which addresses a lot of your question: http://thelinkery.com/blog/the-opposite-of-universal/
Our additional answer is this:
We believe in buying local for reasons of both quality and community, and as such we buy a lot of our produce and products from local farmers and artisans.
For the same reasons of quality and community, we also believe in buying from small independent farmers and artisans, whose love infuses the products they grow and is carried to those of us who consume them. In that vein we buy a lot of products from independent peoples in other parts of California and we buy pork from a few small farmers in Iowa.
Together, local farmers/artisans and independent farmers/artisans from other regions provide most of our produce and all of our meat, along with most of our beer and wine. I believe that the quality and care that comes from buying ingredients like this shows over time in a better experience, and a better restaurant.
Because there is limited local independent farming, a San Diego restaurant that is 100% local would look quite different than ours. Among the items that (as far as I know) are not available in quantities to support a busy city restaurant are: grains (so no bread, rice, tortillas, etc); pork; stone fruit such as peaches, apricots, etc; blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries; asparagus; potatoes. Also other “staple” items like corn and tomatoes are available in much more limited seasons in San Diego than if you include some nearby regions.
Sea Rocket and Spread are, I think, more completely local than us. I don’t know the details of Spread’s procurement, but Sea Rocket specifically chose a format for their restaurant which would allow them to be mostly local, which I think is awesome. If you look at their menu, though, you will see certain items (pinquito beans, rice) they source from other regions.
A couple restaurants I know that I’d say are truly local — getting almost all their products from the surrounding area — are Laja in Guadalupe Valley outside of Ensenada, and Farm 255 in Athens, GA.
I love both of these restaurants, and have spent a lot of time learning about how they work. In both cases, the restaurant is tied directly to its own farm, so the operation itself is able to change what it grows to meet the needs of the restaurant. In both cases, too, the menu is much smaller than a place like ours — about a dozen items at Farm 255 and eight at Laja.
Also, both Georgia and the Guadalupe Valley have a strong culture of small farming, a regulatory environment that makes it easier to buy animals from small farms, and a the necessary infrastructure to connect small farms to the community.
I’m don’t believe the knowledge and enthusiasm for local food in our area is strong enough yet to support a city restaurant with a limited menu and no staples (i.e., you can only get a burger when there has been enough rain to grow enough grass to support cattle). But we are trying to help get it there.
Similarly, we’re not in a position to buy our own farm yet, but we are aiming to in the future.
Most importantly, our goal is to turn people on to independently grown food from our region and others, and to show that people are willing to pay the extra price of unsubsidized, nonfactory food because of its goodness. If we prove that, then local people who are thinking of farming will be confident there will be a market, and they will be able to start more new farms. Basically, we’re trying to create a market for locally farmed products. If we do so, they will then come to exist.
Last week we went to visit a local farm that the farmer started knowing that we, at least, would be able to buy some of his product. I’ll have a blog post up about that soon.