Organic, Local and Sustainable from Farm to Table in New Jersey

Fabulous Jersey Tomatoes

Local and sustainable are my watchwords all year long when it comes to the food I eat, but summertime is when I totally pig out on local, fresh-picked produce of all kinds.  Not for nothing is New Jersey, where I live, called the Garden State.

My part of  Hunterdon County is full of wonderful little organic farms and farm markets where corn, picked just hours ago, as well as tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce and much more can be bought from asparagus season in the spring to pumpkin-time in the fall.  It is a wonderful, progressive, seasonal banquet that has permanently  ruined me.  My taste buds revolt now at supermarket carrots from the west coast and winter blueberries from Argentina : too many food miles and not enough taste or nourishment for me.  I’ll stick to frozen out of season and wait for the strawberries and  tomatoes until the  Homestead Farm Market down the road from me has the local ones.

Not only individual consumers like me, but also local chefs and specialty grocers  are looking for homegrown suppliers of  meat, poultry, eggs, and produce.  These range from elegant gourmet establishments to down home family spots.  It’s all part of the international  trend to local and sustainable food  and away from international agribusiness and corporate farming.  It’s about food, but also about a philosophy of life and respect for nature. It’s about balancing an ecosystem rather than destroying it. It is fueled by the young,that is the twenty-somethings who will be around to reap the poison harvest we older folks have permitted to happen in the name of keeping food affordable and  plentiful and the profits rolling in.

The newest wrinkle locally is a company called “ Zone 7” named after the growing zone in which it is located( isn’t that cool?) and serving as a distributor of local food for restaurants, grocers and institutions. Can you just imagine a school , nursing home, or hospital actually serving nutritious local food instead of overcooked cardboard?   Makes sense to me!

I am thrilled that there is a critical mass of local  farmers as well as a big enough demand from local chefs and  consumers to make this happen. I am hoping that Zone 7 does well and that there are more and more local, sustainable food distributors springing up everywhere.

More About Zone 7

Dinner at the Farm Menu & Info

Zone 7 is also shortening the distance between farm and dinner table by sponsoring a series of farm to table dinners, mostly on the premises of participating organic farms.  It is a prix fixe, reservations only, dinner featuring the local bounty. Though not cheap, it is a way of introducing the farmers and consumers to one another and of highlighting the advantages of  “ slow food”

There is information on upcoming events on the organization’s website. Here’s what Zone 7 has to say about itself and its mission.

Our mission is to strengthen our local and regional food chain by enabling restaurants, grocers and institutions to buy from and support small- and medium-sized sustainable farms. Zone 7’s role is to act as a direct link between farmers and chefs. We create a new and dependable outlet for farmers and offer a consistent and reliable source of locally grown products to chefs and grocers.

I am thinking that strengthening the local, regional food chain is something we all need to participate in to the extent that we can.  When you get right down to it, knowing where your food comes from is the essential connection that has been broken by fast food chains and factory farming.   Let’s hear it for states like New Jersey where family farms enjoy state support and local, sustainable farming is on the rise and where a company  like Zone 7 can fill a growing need to provide an alternative business model to the factory farm that has become the American norm.