By Linda and Ted Fondulas
updated
Wed, Feb 1, 2012 08:47 AM
Having implemented the "farm to table" concept since we began
Hemingway's Restaurant in 1982, the idea of reversing the situation
"table to farm" is not a difficult transition.
Having the good fortune of living in these Green Mountains has
allowed us to forage and use locally raised ingredients for over
three decades. We'd like to share our brief history as it provides
some insight to Vermont's food history.
In the mid 1970's as young restaurateurs in Woodstock we readily
accepted beefalo meat from local farmer, Orson St. John. The Rumble
Seat Beefalo Burgers turned out to be a big hit. That was our first
venture into what is now known as the localvore or locovore
movement.
Less than a decade later we were tuned into the nascent culinary
revolution in California and New York City. We too wanted to make
an American statement of dining in a here-to-fore European
discipline, but we loved living in Vermont, so we looked to
indigenous animals and produce and searched out more local farmers:
rabbit from Rutland, venison from Strafford, but a pheasant was to
be our logo and we wanted it on the menu, yet we could not find a
local farm.
For a number of years we drove weekly from Killington to
Brattleboro to meet a pheasant farmer from Massachusetts. As you
might guess we were thrilled when Rick Thompson from Cavendish Game
Farm called to say he would raise pheasants in Vermont.
Back then we were also interested in wild mushrooms, but we only
knew about Chef Joseph Schenker of The Barnard Inn who foraged for
cèpes. We were delightfully envious of his finds and wished to
learn more. Some twenty years later at our own restaurant,
Hemingway's, we introduced an annual mushroom and wild edible
forage which ran for nearly 15 years.
Another highlight at Hemingway's was to serve the first farm-raised
venison at our farmer's dinner in 1990, which we believe was an
inspiration to the Vermont Department of Agriculture who pursued
collaboration between chefs, farmers, and consumers with their
Vermont Fresh Network.
Subsequently in 2002 we had our first annual Vermont Farmer's
Harvest Dinner with farmers on hand to share their personal
stories. Also we are proud to say this inspired some of the then
board of directors at Vermont Fresh Network who attended, to follow
our lead and host annual farmers dinners.
The little ad of The Art of Eating Well was so intriguing and his
newsletters so informative we just had to invite Ed Behr in 1991 to
be guest speaker at a dinner for the American Institute of Wine and
Food. We had many more gifted authors, chefs, and wine producers
over the years and we loved learning from them all.
Happily it is now a trend and great Vermont products are currently
more abundant than ever! We hope in our small way we helped
contribute to that end.
Tagged:
Hemingways, farm to table, table to farm
