For farmers and chefs, spring may be the busiest time of the year. Even still, in late May, five restaurant owner/chefs and fifteen local farmers took the time to gather at Andre’s Restaurant in Newton for the first North Jersey Farmer-Chef Meeting. Organized by the Foodshed Alliance of Blairstown and the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA-NJ), the event allowed both parties to explore how they might work together to bring fresh, local foods to restaurant customers.

Fresh ingredients are essential to great-tasting food and customers can tell the difference. These interested restaurants, including Andre’s Restaurant in Newton; Casa Maselli in Stillwater; Silver Springs Farm, Flanders; the Wallpack Inn; Alberta’s in Fredon; Perona Farms in Andover; Black River Barn, Randolph; and Bula World Cuisine in Newton, know this. And farmers are open to another way of selling direct.

After fueling up on coffee, local breads, cheeses, and honey, participants listened to array of chefs, farmers, and specialists. Owner/chef Andre de Waal spoke about his preference for locally grown, picked ripe, super fresh produce that’s in season and tastes great rather than looks pretty. He was followed by Chip Shepard, garden manager for the Ryland Inn in Whitehouse. Chip believes that the most important factor of being an excellent chef boils down to one word: procurement. In other words, being able to get the freshest, best quality ingredients. He also encouraged chefs to visit local farms where they can see the plants growing and the many possible uses for buds, flowers, stems. Products don’t have to be perfect since most get cut up and bruised or slightly overripe can also taste better.

Bill Walker, Agricultural Marketing Specialist, outlined the challenges and opportunities of the restaurant market, urging farmers to group together in threes and fours to offer more variety and share responsibility for distribution, and encouraging restaurants to promote the local farms from which they source. Diane Mylecrain, a small farmer in Wantage, tries to deliver consistent, high quality products. She sells everything she grows and says, You vote every time you spend a dollar, and you vote for local agricultural every time you buy direct from farmers.

As planned, the heart of the meeting was the networking that followed. Farmers and chef introduced themselves, speaking about what they grow and what they need, respectively. An animated conversation ensued with farmers expressing their concerns such as not having time and resources to deliver, not being comfortable marketing and chef/owners not knowing which farmers want to sell to them.

In the end, great ideas came out of the meeting. Maybe they could set up a farmers’ market for restaurants; set up an email exchange for what farmers have to sell and what restaurants want; have a Restaurant SA similar to a CSA; arrange farm visits for chefs; allow farmers to use restaurant kitchens when the restaurant is closed to process value-added products such as salsa, jams.

Already, there are about a dozen participating farms and restaurants, respectively. Any chef or farmer who would like to participate in these programs, call Mikey Azzara, NOFA-NJ, (609)737-6848 or the Foodshed Alliance at (908)362-7967.