Eat Locally: Local Farms Benefit Local Wildlife and Economies
By Bruce Ingram
“I picked cucumbers, squash,
and green tomatoes this morning,” says a tall
man in jeans and work boots. “I happened to
be in town this morning, and I thought you
might want some.”
“Got plenty of cucumbers and squash,” replies Philip Newton, head chef at the Harvest Table Restaurant. “But we’ll probably have a pretty good crowd coming for lunch and dinner today, and fried green tomatoes are really popular this time of year. Bring me some of those tomatoes over in a little while.”
And so a transaction is made. It is a sultry, mid-July morning. My wife Elaine and I have just arrived at the Harvest Table Restaurant in Meadowview, Virginia — a hamlet in the southwest corner of the state.
In a country where much of our food comes from hundreds (if not thousands) of miles away, it is somewhat astonishing that a place still exists where a tomato can be growing on a farm at dawn and end up a few hours later on someone’s plate at a restaurant. But if rural America is to remain rural — and fishing, hunting, birding, and other outdoor pursuits are to continue — more of this type of transaction needs to occur.
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