Passionate About Food

What Makes Me Different

The other day I was talking to a fellow about one of his family members starting a CSA here locally this year. It got me thinking, since there seem to be several CSA’s in my area popping up and all potently vying for the same customers as I am--how can I compete? Still, with this weighing on my mind, Sherry and I settled in that evening to watch an episode of “Top Chef Masters” on the Bravo TV channel. I watched as each master chef took odd and challenging ingredients and turned them into the most incredible culinary creations one can imagine—oh, the creativity, the understanding of the craft, the passion that they share for the food!

The show started me thinking again. I wish that I had that scale of talent that those chefs apparently had. I have the passion, and that’s a great start, and I have knowledge of ingredients, more than some probably. The ability to recall and creativity, that’s where I come up short, I fear. Passion I have in spades! I want to know everything about food, from how it is grown, where it is grown, how it’s processed, etc. I want to know how each culture uses food. Do they have something in their food culture that we have locally but don’t use as food (such as guinea pigs)? Or do they use nasty bits of the animal we normally don’t eat? I love to know that stuff.

And recipes… boy, do I love recipes and cookbooks! I have them running out of my ears and still I crave more. My favorite thing to do on vacation, second to eating, is to go to the local grocery store. They always have things we don’t have here at home. Even if it’s the same product but made by a different company, I want to know about it. I watch cooking shows as if it were some sort of food porn. Food! Food! Food! I want to grow it, make it, touch it, feel it, and smell it. Food from the beginning to end. It’s not about nourishment or survival. Nope, for me it’s a creative outlet, a passion--I want it, I need it.

This, I have concluded, sets me apart from other farmers and maybe even a lot of chefs. I want to be part of the food from seed to soil, from soil to harvest, from harvest to cooking, from cooking to plate. I don’t see food as a means to an end. I want to share it and watch as people enjoy food that they remember from childhood or watch them enjoy a food they never thought they would like, or for that matter, had ever heard of. I am a food traveler, a grower, a student, and a teacher. I don’t simply grow plants and animals so they will, hopefully, make a monetary return. Sure, it’s great to be compensated, but it’s the journey, the whole journey that I enjoy.

We set eggs in the incubator and marvel at the time of the hatch as each one struggles to free itself from its confines. We nurture and coddle the chick so one day that same chick will become a hen that will provide us with the freshest of eggs, pure and wonderful, to be made into any number of mind-blowing treats. Or maybe that chick becomes a young fryer that I, with my own hands, turn into my version of a gourmet meal for our dinner table or a meal to share with friends.

I do get a great deal of pleasure watching these things grow--the edamame, the Japanese quail, the lowly squash. But being part of its journey to culinary perfection is what I crave. We grow gourmet food with respect for it and for our land; we want the people that partake of our products to share in that appreciation of food and understand this dedication, and recognize the value of it. Our food and our food point-of-view will not be appreciated by everyone, this we understand. That’s what the other farmers are for; they can feed the masses that just want food. We are that “other guy” and our customer is the person who recognizes food as more than just “food.” Our customer is the gourmet lover, the aspiring chef or the seasoned vet, the dreamer and the visionary, the one who enjoys taste, freshness, and food as it’s meant to be (not the chemically-enhanced, genetically-modified stuff found in our stores today). Our target is the person who truly appreciates the art and passion behind food, and aspires for a bit of it themselves.

I am sure this will keep our enterprise small, but so be it. It’s not about the money, it’s about a passion. With all this in mind, I went to bed knowing we had no competition.

Remember, play with your food.

I’m done talk’n, -- Matt