For nearly 20 years, Farm Fresh RI has connected farmers to chefs. It's a partnership to celebrate
Applauding the farmers is a good thing. Farm Fresh Rhode Island did just that last week at its annual Local Food Fest at Castle Hill Inn in Newport.
It's a good reminder to appreciate not just those who work the land but also this organization that has done so much in less than 20 years.
Farm Fresh connects farmers with chefs and home cooks alike. You'd be hard-pressed to find another organization in New England that does all they do. They promote local food with the people who love it.
Farm Fresh had a grassroots start in 2004 when Brown University graduate student Louella Hill was working on a thesis project. It turned into Farm Fresh. A year later, she was joined by fellow Brown student Noah Fulmer. They began by creating an online database of local farms, restaurants, grocers and other businesses sourcing and serving locally grown foods.
They organized farmers markets to bring local food to the people. In 2007, Farm Fresh launched the Wintertime Farmers Market in Pawtucket. It was the first weekly winter market in southern New England.
Its groundbreaking food-distribution program Market Mobile began in 2009, offering a new way for chefs and farmers to interact and facilitate the delivery of fresh goods. I remember an early conversation with Louella, who is now a cheesemaker in Virginia. She talked about teaching farmers to use computers to list what they had to sell. Imagine?
Each week, the farmers went online to post their harvest, and the restaurant chefs signed up to get what they wanted. Farm Fresh delivered the local food. With the pandemic, they made a pivot to home delivery in 2020. Now they do both. With 269 partners, they've sold more than $30 million worth of local food.
In 2020 they build a new home. The Farm Fresh Food Hub is a “purpose-designed” 60,000-square-foot building at Sims and Kinsley avenues in the Valley neighborhood. They host their farmers' market there and have full-time tenants who include Wright's Creamery ice cream, Tallulah's Taqueria, New Harvest Coffee & Spirits, Providence Brewing Co., Anchor Toffee, Rhed's Hot Sauce, Red Tomato and Robin Hollow Flowers.
Farm Fresh's Local Food Fest is their big annual fundraiser. It reveals the breadth of their reach.
They featured farms that grow apples (Steere Orchards), harvest sea salt (Newport Sea Salt), make cheese (Narragansett Creamery), cultivate mushrooms (R.I. Mushroom Company), harvest oysters (Ocean State Shellfish Cooperative) and grow grapes to make wine (Greenvale Vineyards and Newport Vineyards).
There were the farms that raise animals. Blackbird Farm's Ann Marie Bouthillette raises Black Angus cows and Berkshire Pigs in Smithfield. Baffoni's Poultry Farm raises chickens and supplies many restaurants with meat and eggs. Gnarly Vine's Farm's Ester and Joe Bishop pasture-raise animals on 16 acres of coastal land in Tiverton. In Exeter, Ben Coerper and Rachael Slattery raise their animals on Wild Harmony Farm and sell grass-fed beef, organic pork and pastured poultry. North Scituate is where Donald and Debra Hopkins have a flock of hormone-free purebred sheep on their 100-year-old farm.
Wright's Dairy Farm in North Smithfield bottles their milk on the farm and also uses it for cow-to-cone Wright's Creamery ice cream. Meatworks in Westport, Massachusetts, is a processing meat facility and has a retail store.
Farm Fresh also featured those who grow a variety of produce including Wishing Stone Farm in Little Compton, Moonrose Farm in Rehoboth, Schartner Farms in Exeter, Long Lane Farm in Warren, Four Town Farm in Seekonk and Ward's Berry Farm in Sharon, Massachusetts.
The Food Fest offers a chance to talk to farmers, artisans, chefs and business owners and learn a thing or two.
Looking for a tasty food tip?: Talking to strangers can pay off, even if they're picky.
Narragansett Creamery owners Mark and Pattie Federico never miss a chance to share their wonderful award-winning cheeses and yogurts. They were excited to pair with Easy Entertaining, who used their newly imported French butter to make Petite Butter Cakes. That butter will soon be in markets.
Ellie's owner Ellen Slattery was on hand to share the news that the Providence bakery and cafe has resumed hosting intimate cooking classes.
New Rivers' owner/chef Beau Vestal was happy to showcase the fresh oysters from Ocean State Shellfish Co-Op, which consists of six different oyster farms. They cover about 50 acres, and the co-op acts as a "microbrewery" for oysters.
It all reveals a vibrant local food community that keeps thriving and growing, in the most unique of ways.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Farm Fresh RI celebrates farmers at Local Food Fest in Newport
