REPLY TO A SEASONAL CHEF
To Anonymous Chef:
Thanks so much for your great post (below, under comments for Chilling News, Heart-Warming Chefs) and all the key info you’re providing the public by speaking out. I wish I knew the name of your restaurant so I could dine there and help eat up all those collards! Love 'em. (And everything else you mention you’re cooking up.)
Once harvest starts with the first of spring’s berries, asparagus, rhubarb, herbs, lettuces and peas, I’m hopeful farmers will be posting here, to let chefs and others know what’s in its prime. That way, both pro cooks and home cooks can seek out local produce in peak season. One thing you might consider this spring/summer/fall, Anonymous Chef, is doing some of your produce-shopping right at local farm stands and farmers’ markets so you can buy exactly how much you will use, and not suffer losses from any surpluses. (That IS dispiriting.) As soon as harvesting starts in the spring, I’ll be out visiting farms and reporting in with my finds, both here in this blog and in my Foraging column (which appears on Wednesdays, in the Food section). Please feel free to join in with your peak-season finds – and also ask me where you might be able to find, say, English peas or lemon cucumbers. Whatever I find, I’ll gladly share.
Meanwhile, thanks again to this chef-poster for the info – and I hope more pro chefs use this blog to spread the word about what they’re cooking up at their restaurants.
P.S. A parting thought: Chefs, if there are ingredients you'd like to use in your cooking, are there local farmers willing to grow them for you - in a cooperative effort? And, farmers, do you find reaching out to local chefs worthwhile? What can be done to make a chef-farmer collaboration easier and more effective?
Cheers,
Andy
2.8.07
Thanks so much for your great post (below, under comments for Chilling News, Heart-Warming Chefs) and all the key info you’re providing the public by speaking out. I wish I knew the name of your restaurant so I could dine there and help eat up all those collards! Love 'em. (And everything else you mention you’re cooking up.)
Once harvest starts with the first of spring’s berries, asparagus, rhubarb, herbs, lettuces and peas, I’m hopeful farmers will be posting here, to let chefs and others know what’s in its prime. That way, both pro cooks and home cooks can seek out local produce in peak season. One thing you might consider this spring/summer/fall, Anonymous Chef, is doing some of your produce-shopping right at local farm stands and farmers’ markets so you can buy exactly how much you will use, and not suffer losses from any surpluses. (That IS dispiriting.) As soon as harvesting starts in the spring, I’ll be out visiting farms and reporting in with my finds, both here in this blog and in my Foraging column (which appears on Wednesdays, in the Food section). Please feel free to join in with your peak-season finds – and also ask me where you might be able to find, say, English peas or lemon cucumbers. Whatever I find, I’ll gladly share.
Meanwhile, thanks again to this chef-poster for the info – and I hope more pro chefs use this blog to spread the word about what they’re cooking up at their restaurants.
P.S. A parting thought: Chefs, if there are ingredients you'd like to use in your cooking, are there local farmers willing to grow them for you - in a cooperative effort? And, farmers, do you find reaching out to local chefs worthwhile? What can be done to make a chef-farmer collaboration easier and more effective?
Cheers,
Andy
2.8.07
posted by Andrea Clurfeld at 1:05 PM
1 Comments:
Andrea,
It would be awesome if local farmers would use your blog to post what the have that is at its peak during the growing season here in Jersey. I know I'll post here if I find anything that's particularly interesting, or just really good! Coincedentally you have dined at my restaurant in the past, and written about it!
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