Local Licks: Season by Season (podcast + contest)
Jul 13th, 2012 | By Cecilia | Category: Featured Articles, podcast, the show
Farm to Table Tomato Harvest
ENTER TO WIN A $25.00 GIFT CARD TO A RESTAURANT THAT SERVES LOCAL PRODUCE
John Lash has had an interest in food his entire life, but that interest goes beyond what he puts in his own belly.
He runs Farm to Table, a produce delivery company that specializes in locally grown seasonal food, which he distributes to area restaurants, schools and other commercial interests.
I met John at his south Austin warehouse in late spring, 2012. He told me he has always enjoyed good food. In fact, visiting farmers markets was a highly anticipated weekly activity….and after hearing a story on NPR, something clicked for him, and his food-centric avocation quickly evolved into his occupation.
John said: “I was driving one day, wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my life, and I heard a story on the radio about a man in Michigan doing something similar to what I’m doing now. So, I bought a ticket to Michigan, and shadowed him for three days.”
That three days was all it took to convince John Lash that a business, as a middleman between Texas farmers and restaurants, was for him. “I realized there was a missing piece in the food puzzle here. I knew restauranteurs who said they’d love to use locally grown produce, but found it not easily accessible. And farmers told me they’d love to get their produce to restaurants, but didn’t have the resources to do so.”
So, this one time marketing and design director with the Austin-based Calendar Club, cultivated an opportunity created by the local food movement. When it comes to what constitutes locally grown food, however, mileage may vary. For John, it’s an approximately 115 mile radius around the city, with a few exceptions: sweet potatoes from East Texas, apples form the Panhandle and citrus from the valley.
Getting a foothold into the marketplace didn’t happen overnight, but it did happen just as the public’s seemingly insatiable interest in all things local started gaining momentum. That momentum continues, and John Lash and Farm to Table will be there to help meet the demand.
ENTER FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A $25.00 GIFT CARD TO AN AREA RESTAURANT
Good food is all around, and when it is locally grown, that makes it even better. Several restaurants that get local produce from John Lash’s Farm to Table, were kind enough to supply us with gift cards to give away to you. The restaurants include: Parkside, Olive & June, The Backspace, 34th Street Cafe, Blue Star Cafeteria, and Gusto Italian Kitchen + Wine Bar.
To be eligible to have your name included in the random drawing for the cards you MUST follow the rules below.
RULES of Eligibility:
- Must be 18 years old to enter.
- Open only to people living in the Austin, Texas Metro Area.
- Entries must be received by 6 p.m. CST Monday July 16, 2012 to be eligible for the drawing.
- Must leave a comment below telling us why you currently eat locally sourced food (even from your own garden), or why you are interested in giving locally grown food a try.
- Comments that do not meet that criteria will not be entered into the drawing.
- Only one entry per person | household | IP address.
- Must include your full name and valid email address to be eligible for drawing.
- Only entries from people who have not won anything from Field & Feast in the last three months are eligible to win.
- Winners will be selected at random using random.org, after 6 p.m. CST Monday, July 16, 2012.
- SIX winners will be selected to win one gift card each. Winners will be assigned cards randomly, and may not choose which restaurant card they receive.
- Each winner will be contacted by the show’s producer via the email address provided when entering contest to arrange mailing of the winner’s gift card. Ensure that the email address you provide is free of typos. Producer is only responsible for her own typos–not yours.
- In the event a winner does not claim their gift card by 6 p.m. CST Monday, July 23, 2012 — by replying to the producer’s email — they forfeit their claim on the card, and producer will contact the next eligible contestant, and offer them the card. If the next eligible contestant does not respond to the producer’s email by 6 p.m. CST, Monday July 30, 2012, they also forfeit their claim on the card, and the card will not be offered again. Be sure to check your bulk/junk folder in case your email client filters producer’s email.
- Email the producer with any questions about the contest at info@fieldandfeast.com.
- Producer is not responsible if a winner’s gift card gets lost or damaged in the mail.
- SUBMITTING A COMMENT BELOW INDICATES YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTAND, AND AGREE TO THE RULES.
NOTE: These comments are monitored, so don’t fret if you do not see your comment for several hours. It will be time stamped and counted if it meets the deadline and eligibility requirements.
We’ve always believed that when it comes to tasty and healthy produce, local and organic simply makes good sense. Plus, we’re helping our neighborly Texas farmers.
For me, one of the very best things about food is its ability to foster community. What better way to reinforce that idea than to support the food producers in our own community?
Not only is it the right thing to do, it tastes right too. What a great business concept.
Local food is the freshest, crispest, juiciest, and tastiest. Food that travels more than 150 miles simply doesn’t compare.
I love local produce as the flavor is amazing and the satisfaction of growing your own (I have a backyard garden). Thanks for the giveaway!
Eating local means so many things to me and they are all good. It means sharing best tasting produce and local products available. It means supporting local farmers and our neighbors who sell at the farmers market. It means not taking food for granted. It means spending time with friends cooking and eating and raving over the seasonal flavors you’ve been waiting for since last year – like the first crop of Fredericksburg peaches! It means the joy of walking through a garden and popping a cherry tomato in your mouth while it’s still warm from the morning sun. It means knowing the food you eat offers the most nutrition possible and you are honoring Mother Nature and your body by making this choice. It means being intimately connected to the cycle of life.
In the small town where I grew up Mom, my brother, and I picked vegetables from a nearby farmer’s produce fields twice every week of the summer. We were up just after dawn – before the heat – took our sulfa and cream of tartar tablets (to keep the chiggers away), grabbed our buckets and boxes and headed for Mr. Jackson’s. There we picked okra (prickley), cucumbers (with small stickers), corn (with worms), tomatoes (juice down our faces as we ate a few), black eyed peas, squash, cantaloupes, watermelon, peaches and plums. We ate like royalty every day. The closest I can come to those wonderful memories is my weekly trips to the farmer’s market to load up. Summer is vegetables and fruit and teaching my grandkids what real fresh food tastes like – and they love it!
I grew up on a farm in Canada. We always grew our own veggies, rhubarb, raspberries, and apples. My uncles raised heards of cattle and pigs, we often traded hay for meat to see us through the winter. My belief comes from how we lived, everyone should try to grow something themselves, this knowledge came with me to Texas. This year I have canteloupe and tomatoes thriving in a small green house in the back yard. If you own a home there are no excuses – get your hands dirty! Apartments usually have at least one window, make a window box of herbs. Check out City Dirt on Food52.com for tips, and talk to local growers to find out when to plant your seeds. Another great resource is gardengirltv.com My kids love getting dirty, planting seeds, watering, then watching our crops grow!
We eat local food (our own homegrown) because food transported over many miles loses nutritional viability, and in a desire to live a more sustainable life, reducing our carbon footprint on our world.
Who chooses a dry, tasteless tomato when they can have a locally grown, heirloom one? We grow our own and I definitely love to eat locally sourced tomatoes and other foods at restaurants and farmers markets. It takes smart, taste driven consumers to keep the cycle going!
It is nice to start a Saturday morning at the farmers’ market. I never know what new vegetable/fruit/freshly canned item will make it into the bag. Austin and surrounding areas have some great farmers working hard to bring us fresh food. I shop locally for the farmers and the great food!
We like knowing where our food comes from so eating from local growers and from our own garden gives us greater peace of mind. We also love to support local businesses whenever we can!!
Our family buys seasonal organic foods from milk co-ops, farm stands, and local farmers’ markets before heading to the grocery store in order to foster community, keep our dollars local, and eat the freshest food we can. We love to know who grows our foods!
Eating locally is sustainable eating. It helps the planet, and it helps the person doing the eating. When you can look your grower in the eye, and maybe even see her garden, you know more about the food that you eat. You know if it is organic, and how fresh it is.
Restaurants that use local food, care about their community and their customers. They are keeping both the planet and us healthier.
I like dirty food. That which is plucked, bought, and consumed within a couple days of harvest. It’s fresh and I know where it comes from either my garden or the farmers market. Plus, I love helping sustain local farmers by buying their produce.
I’m interested in locally sourced food b/c of better taste and less environmental impact. Right now, the local food I eat most often is that grown in my back yard garden. Yummy tomatoes!
It is almost a no-brainer as to why I eat locally – it tastes so good, the price is good/fair value and the product lasts longer in fridge/home.
Apples in the fall are my fav.
We love Austin’s awesome support toward all things local – especially when it comes to food! Thanks for the great story and commitment to the cause.
Eating local means that you eat fruits and veggies in season, which in addition to being more flavorful and healthy, also inspires new dishes by forcing you to use unfamiliar ingredients.
What a great idea- John. Thanks for your efforts in making it possible for local farms- my taste buds thank you too.
One word—-TOMATOES!!! I grow my own (first time successful this year!) and the flavor is incomparable compared to what you might get at the supermarket. The smell of them is heavenly…
I also “grow” my own eggs. My pet chickens are a great source of amusement and a great teaching tool for my friends’ kids. I feel good knowing I can get a meal from my own backyard without contributing to extra CO2 or animal cruelty.
Since I was a kid I always found something deeply satisfying about growing part of my food, starting it all from a seed and waiting for the day that I could harvest green leaves, herbs, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant. I still do this as an adult and I’ve also come to realize the power of my dollar- how I spend it, who and what I support with it. Buying locally, regionally produced food, and cooperatively if possible, are the best ways to support our local economy and all the good things that come from it.
We enjoy growing our own food as much as we enjoy eating it. There’s a wonderful sense of pride that comes from growing your own food, and a great feeling of comfort in knowing exactly where your food comes from and what went into its production. It’s a sustainable practice because you only eat what you can grow when you can grow it, and this practice inherently supports good nutrition and a balanced, diverse diet. It’s great to support these principles when dining out as well.
We always had a vegetable garden when I was a kid. It taught me how to eat with the seasons and tempered my pallet to favor the distinct freshness that only comes through local, close-to-home produce. Having experienced first-hand the satisfaction of eating a homegrown tomato, zuccini, or eggplant, I can’t imagine not supporting other farmers who take on the tilling of the soil to bring such important nutrition to so many families. From someone who misses her own farming days dearly, many thanks to these farmers for sharing their victory gardens with our community.
Eating local makes me feel more a part of the natural world around me. It tastes great, makes sense, and I believe what they say about connecting with the nature around us in the way we live, learn and play–we get healthier, happier and smarter!
Cecilia, you might consider posting a permalink for this particular article on Facebook, to make it easier to see how to enter your giveaway contest, rather than just your site’s home page. When you go to the fieldandfeast.com landing page, you don’t see the entire post about the Farm to Table founder, you have to click “more” to arrive at the page with the full post and the contest rules. And you have to know which post to click “more” for, there are abbreviated entries for several of them.
Some folks might not be aware which post to click “more” for. Currently, it’s two steps, and it’s not clear where or how to take that second step.
I eat local food because you know what you’re getting! Plus, the money goes straight to the person who made the food.
My family family roots are in texas farmer and ranching. My brother owns and operates Marburger Orchards. I am committed to the healthiest food for everyone. Food is more than a commodity when you grow it yourself. It is working and living with the earth, and sharing your work with others so that they may eat what this earth and you have have teamed up to produce.
We love growing food and eating local because of the taste, to help the local community, and to reduce waste and greenhouse gasses. We like the food better and we love that the money we spend stays in Austin. And as they say “Two things that money can’t buy. That’s true love and home grown tomatoes!”
I grew up with a garden in the back yard (which was quite a feat considering we moved a lot … I went to five high schools and eight elementary and middle schhols. I can still taste the cucumbers, tomatoes, squash I picked and immediately ate.
As grocery stores moved away from carrying local produce to factory farm produce, the taste Profoundly changed and not for the better. So the recent transition back to local farm products in stores, farmers markets…. And yes! restaurants is wonderful! We have the pleasure of fresher flavor and higher nutrition.
And the bonus? We are supporting our local farmers and ranchers!
I like local food because it just seems to taste better and we are supporting our local farmers.
Friends call our place the “Harm Farm” since we have a 60′ X 20″ raised-bed, organic vegetable garden, a separate large asparagus bed and lots of native grapes, flowers, and berries in every other corner. We like the Barton Creek Farmer’s Market for fresh peaches and locally produced bison. We do everything we can to support local businesses and since we know how tough it is to get out there and pull weeds and squish the squash bugs, we especially appreciate the hard work it takes for our area farmers to bring us such fresh, healthy and delicious varieties. Thanks so much Cecilia for the education and inspiration — we listen every weekend!
Susanne and Greg Harm
Eating local means I get the tastiest, freshest, best product available plus I get to support my local foodie community. I also love eating at restaurants that source local because it means my dollars are doing double duty in supporting what makes the Austin food scene so vibrant.
I eat local food because it creates the least harmful footprint on the earth. I also come from a family of farmers, two generations back, and respect farmers, and the great taste that is created when foods grown in sesason.
I like to eat local & visit farmers’ markets for many reasons. I think that eating local food is essential in the long term, since transporting food is a complex matter. I also think locally produced food provides much better nutritional value, not to mention, more flavor. Although I can’t readily plant a vegetable garden, I thoroughly enjoy growing my own herbs. I also really enjoy visiting markets and talking to the producers; for me it is an ideal shopping-entertainment outing.
We eat local because it is healthier, tastier, good for the local economy, and the awesome home delivery companies and farmer’s markets in the Austin area make it very doable (even for busy people
!!! I am in the health and wellness field and have seen the incredible impact that eating more local, organic fruits, veggies, and whole foods can have on the health of my clients! People (unfortunately) often think of improving their nutrition as very time-consuming, expensive, or just plain inaccessible, however with options like community gardens, locally-sourced restaurants, farmer’s markets on different days, home delivery, etc., you can feel better about your health, the environment, and knowing you supported local business! So cool to hear that some Austin schools are getting involved too!
Thanks for sponsoring this contest! I eat local because I like knowing the people who grow/raise my food and that it is at its peak when I buy it.
Locally grown food tastes better (I have been relishing the homegrown tomatoes from several friends’ gardens all season, yum!), it’s better for the environment and it helps the local economy. Food should be grown for the wonderful natural qualities it has, not tinkered with to make it more shippable. Factory-farm tomatoes? Yuk!
We eat local because it’s very simple —why would you eat food that has traveled thousands and thousands of miles away when you can enjoy delicious, fresh food from your backyard (or close to)? Also, local food supports the local economy, which is obviously beneficial.
I eat local because it is healthy, promotes good stewardship of the earth, and gives me piece of mind. Also because the practices of “breaking dirt”, growing, harvesting, and sharing give depth and richness to our community.
I currently live in an apartment, but I grow a few herbs next to the bushes that surround my building because there is just nothing better than the taste of fresh herbs in whatever it is you cook. I hope to one day have a garden of my own (and maybe even a few chickens so I can have fresh eggs!), but for now, I get whatever I can locally, either from friends who have gardens of their own, or from vendors at the Farmer’s Market or at Wheatsville, because local food tastes better and I like knowing I’m helping support Austin’s economy and the people who strive to make our city a happier, healthier place with their food.
My first comment says it is awaiting moderation, but I noticed my last name didn’t show up – I’m not sure why, so I’m reposting my original comment below in hopes that this comment will be the one considered for the drawing, since it includes my last name. My apologies for the mix up.
I currently live in an apartment, but I grow a few herbs next to the bushes that surround my building because there is just nothing better than the taste of fresh herbs in whatever it is you cook. I hope to one day have a garden of my own (and maybe even a few chickens so I can have fresh eggs!), but for now, I get whatever I can locally, either from friends who have gardens of their own, or from vendors at the Farmer’s Market or at Wheatsville, because local food tastes better and I like knowing I’m helping support Austin’s economy and the people who strive to make our city a happier, healthier place with their food.
Flavor first, then relationships.
I want to thank everyone who took time to enter the contest by sharing your reasons why you love local food.
Using the website random.org, I input all the eligible entries and the site randomized the list. The top six people on the list won the gift cards. I have sent them notification via email at the addresses they provided.
We’ll have more opportunities for you to win gift cards, cookbooks and other goodies down the road.
Thanks again…and keep loving local.
Cecilia Nasti
Producer and Host | Field & Feast | http://www.fieldandfeast.com