What Does Farm To Table Actually Mean?

“Farm to table” has become somewhat of a meaningless buzzword in the restaurant industry for the obvious reason that all produce has come from some farm, somewhere. So yes, even if a Philadelphia restaurant is buying strawberries farmed in Mexico in November, they can lay technical claim to “farm (in Mexico) to table (in Philly)”.

But the ethos of the farm to table movement is really about creating relationships with local farmers, producers and makers. The birth of the movement is credited to Edna Lewis’ seminal 1976 work The Taste of Country Cooking, and really started to pick up steam with the rise of Alice Water’s  influential restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkley, California. In the early 2000s, writers like Michael Polan and Barbara Kingsolver painted romantic pictures of hyper-local eating, while journalists like Barry Estabrook exposed the dark underbelly of commodity agriculture with his book Tomato Land: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit and Eric Schlosser detailed the labor, safety and corporate greed issues of industrial food production in Fast Food Nation.

As the 2000’s progressed and these ideas became mainstream, Americans started to seek out local farmers and producers in droves. According to the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, from 1994 to 2019 the number of farmer’s markets in the US rose from 1,755 to 8,771, averaging a growth of nearly 7% per year. Just as quickly, the concept of “farm to table” was co-opted into a corporate buzzword. The rise of fast-casual national chains jumping on the green-washed bandwagon combined with mom-and-pop restaurants misrepresenting their ingredient sourcing made the public understandably skeptical about claims of farm to table purity. In recent years, as restaurant margins tighten significantly and large-scale food distributors form monopolies, the dilemma for every small restaurateur is thrown into stark relief: how do we cover our costs AND support our agricultural community?

We’ll let you know when we have the answer to THAT question, (don’t hold your breath!) but in our little corner of the world we’ve been quietly, imperfectly plugging away at this farm-to-table thing for over a decade now. After culinary school, owner Kelsey Bush worked at Shakefork Farm in Humboldt, CA, an experience which really cemented her connection to local agriculture. When she took the reins at our first business, Green Engine Coffee Co, Kelsey immediately began to cultivate relationships with producers and growers in the Philadelphia area. She expanded these connections when we opened Bloomsday, and again with Loretta’s. In a way, owning three restaurants makes sourcing locally easier, as we can cross-utilize products and share local vendors across the restaurant group.

Looking for some bonafides here? Understandable! Here’s a very seasonal snapshot of some of the farmer/producer friends you’ll find across our menus right now:

Just like our buddies at Middle Child, we’re sourcing juicy boi tomatoes from Urban Roots Farm for Loretta’s BLT’s and Bloomsday’s Tomato Panzanella Salad, but that’s not all: we’re avoiding nasty parasites and food-borne illnesses recently blamed on commodity lettuce and peppers by sourcing those bad boys from Urban Roots as well. 

You heard it here first: just in time for back to school season, Loretta’s September specialty latte is a play on the classic pb&j. We make our latte syrups from scratch, so for this drink we’re using concord grapes from Green Meadow Farm in Gap, PA for that nostalgic jelly taste. 

One of our oldest purveyor relationships is with Ann Karlen of Third Wheel Cheese Co– we’ve been sourcing our local cheese through her since she founded her business in 2018! For the ham & cheese croissants at Green Engine and Loretta’s that we know you crave, we use Galen’s Good Old cheese, a gouda-style that pairs especially well with our buttery, flaky dough. Love the sweet & spicy chicken wings at Bloomsday? (Same!) These wings wouldn’t be complete without our creamy Birchrun Blue cheese dressing, right?

Okay, speed round– we use Pasta Lab for extruded pasta! We source our oysters and mussels from Fishtown Seafood! Not only do we source apples and peaches for our pastries at Three Springs Farms, but owner Ben Wenk takes it one step further by fermenting his fruit into delicious cider under his Ploughman label, which we in turn sell by the glass at our bar and in bottles in our wine shop!

But I won’t get into the local sourcing practices in our beverage program… yet. That’s another story for another blog!

For us, the concept of farm-to-table extends beyond the agriculture sector and into our community of makers, producers and distributors. Above all, we are heavily invested in supporting our local economy. Community support is a circle, and we wouldn’t have it any other way! From the folks who shop at Head House Farmer’s Market every Sunday and then treat themselves to a pastry at Loretta’s afterwards, to our Bloomsday restaurant and wine shop regulars, there are so many people in this city who keep us in business. And by supporting local farmers and purveyors, we keep that circle going. Farm-to-table? More like community-to-table, if you ask us.