Frederick Grown

Farm to Table Brings Local Produce to Country Plates

By Gina Gallucci-White

Photography by Turner Photography Studio

When Emma Jagoz decides to eat at a restaurant, she often chooses those establishments where she has a business relationship. The owner of the Woodsboro-based Moon Valley Farm sells produce and products to more than 100 restaurants in the region.

“It is amazing,” she says. “The restaurant customers that we sell to specialize in hospitality and it is a fantastic experience to eat the food that I grow. … Chefs are incredibly talented and they have been able to take ingredients that I cook with every single day and almost make them unfamiliar to me by the time I eat them from their dishes because they are just so creative and talented and just really transform them into something that is spectacular.”

Moon Valley Farm

Moon Valley Farm is just one of many in the area, like Iron Roses Farm, Richvale Farm, Pleasant Hill Produce and others, that provide locally grown produce and products to local restaurants. In the county, there are many restaurants that eagerly buy the products from local farms, like Tapia’s on Main in Middletown, Boxcar Burgers, Frederick Social and Brewer’s Alley.

“We hear from a lot of people who want farms here in Frederick and want to be able to support them and want to make sure that our view stays the same, but one way to do that is to actually buy local,” says Katie Stevens, director of the Frederick County Office of Agriculture. “Supporting restaurants that are buying local is another great way to do that.”

Food has been grown in home gardens for centuries, but the bounty was limited. In the mid-to-late 20th century, many turned to processed foods for convenient cooking and supermarkets for their produce. But as demand grew, consumers complained of shorter shelf lives on fruits and vegetables, while food did not taste as vibrant as it once did. Also, transporting food cross-country raises environmental concerns. 

The farm-to-table movement, emphasizing the use of locally grown produce in local restaurants, began in the late 1960s and 1970s, but the effort really gained traction in the early 2000s as issues of food security, sustainability, proximity and self-reliance became prominent. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for local goods as grocery store shelves remained bare for weeks at a time due to supply chain issues. 

Pleasant Hill Produce

“I think consumers are very connected to farms,” Stevens says. “I think during COVID, it really revealed the cracks in our food system and so people are more aware of where their food comes from. There is more interest on both the side of the consumer as well as the restaurant to support local as much as possible.”

Farms selling to local restaurants benefit by diversifying their revenue, especially when new consumers discover their products. “It is more marketing assistance for that farmer in getting their name out there,” Stevens says. A consumer may eat at a restaurant, see the name of a local farm on the menu and then buy it directly from the farm to use in other dishes at their home.

Farms aren’t the only beneficiaries.

“For the restaurant, buying local and directly from a farm, you know where your product comes from,” Stevens says. “You can make choices for your restaurant and your business just like consumers can make.” Restaurants can work with farms that match their values and growing practices. This partnership also reduces the need for transporting produce harvested weeks ago across the country or from other parts of the world, limiting food waste. 

“I think for consumers it is always great to support local restaurants and keep your dollars local,” Stevens says. “In addition to supporting that restaurant, you are supporting that local farm by keeping your dollars local.

FARM

Moon Valley Farm offers staple and speciality crops during all four seasons—everything from kale and potatoes to edible flowers for garnish. Some of the most popular items being sold to restaurants are salad mix, sun gold tomatoes, herbs and strawberries. 

The 70-acre farm is also a “food hub” that aggregates from over 50 other farmers and bakers throughout the region. “[This] allows us to bolster and diversify our offerings to also include things that we don’t grow on our farm, including gourmet mushrooms, sourdough bread, tree fruits, eggs, greens, beans, honey, all sorts of things,” Jagoz says. 

Tapia’s on Main

First selling to restaurants in 2013, the ordering process has evolved from the days Jagoz would simply call customers and tell them what the farm was offering, along with a quantity and price. Today, the farm uses a software program, with inventory updated frequently. Chefs place their orders on Sunday and Tuesday evenings, with harvesting and delivery during the next two days. “We do have some chefs that prefer calling or texting or emailing orders,” she says. “We just create the order for them, but most chefs are ordering online through our software program.”

Ordering is on a first-come, first served basis. Some items, like ramps and certain types of mushrooms, have short seasons and sell out quickly. “We also get to know our chefs really well and we know what they like, what kinds of foods they are preparing, what’s on their menus and we will reach out to them to let them know when their favorites are in,” Jagoz says. “A lot of times we are reaching out and saying, ‘Hey, our first sun golds are in. Do you want me to reserve them for you?’ We do that as well for those customers that we know.”

Local farms are also able to provide speciality produce varieties that are unavailable from larger distributors. Moon Valley grows more than 30 varieties of peppers with a range of heat and flavor; many, like the Trinidad scorpion, are not offered through distributors. 

Freshness is also a huge factor in the farm-to-table movement. Local farms will pick produce at peak ripeness, while distributors often harvest far in advance, leading to a loss of flavor and freshness. “Local organic food tastes better. Period,” Jagoz says. “Humans have evolved to have our taste buds correlate with the nutrient density of food. If it tastes better, it generally is better for us but also on my farm we grow a lot of speciality produce that you can’t find anywhere.”

Tapia’s on Main

TABLE

While dining at Tapia’s on Main, guests can nibble on cheese from a charcuterie board, take a bite of their special wild mushroom ravioli or munch on microgreens that adorn several dishes. Each ingredient adds its own pop of flavor and freshness to the dish.

The Middletown-based restaurant is committed to having as much local produce and products in its dishes as possible and works with four farms. Moo Cow Creamery at Walnut Ridge Farm provides eggs, cream, ice cream, butter and cheeses. Microgreens come from another farm in Middletown while Chestnut Hill Farm and Market in Smithsburg grows all of the restaurant’s seasonal produce, including tomatoes, cauliflower and cucumbers. Inspiration Acres in Middletown provides mushrooms. 

Tapia’s on Main

“It is important to us to deliver the best high-quality product, first and foremost,” says owner Stasa Tapia. “It is also nice just building relationships with the local farmers, which we have the opportunity to do. We have become rather close with some of them because we work with them regularly.”

With the produce and products being so fresh, the ingredients make their dishes even better. “You really can’t beat that coming right from the farm freshness,” Tapia says. “You can tell in the taste and the presentation, the vibrant colors from the produce. … You can just tell the color of the tomatoes. [We] get a variety of different colored cauliflower. It just adds a nicer presentation as well as flavor.” 

Some customers do inquire as to where ingredients come from for each dish. Tapia notes she and her family are happy to be able to provide guests with quality products but also have the opportunity to build relationships with local farmers and supporting them. “They have so much competition with big box stores and distributors that it is nice to be able to support the local farmers,” she says. 

Moon Valley Farm began as a CSA farm in 2012. It offers a flexible CSA with a full- or half-year option with small, medium and large boxes. “CSAs are awesome,” says Jagoz. “They connect you to your food. These days it can feel really impersonal, food in a grocery store—it is hard for people to trust it. You are not really sure where it came from. You are not sure who grew it. Often times they are grown hydroponically and they don’t have a lot of flavor or nutritional value. Our customers [want to] make sure that they are feeding their bodies and their families produce that they can trust, that has fantastic flavor and that will offer some cool variations too that they might never even find in a grocery store.”

Tapia’s on Main

BUYING DIRECT

Consumers who want more locally grown produce in their diet can also buy direct from the source through community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs and farmers markets are happening across Frederick County.

There are 15 farmers markets in the county.  “Farmers markets are going strong,” says Katie Stevens, director of the Frederick County Office of Agriculture. “We have them in every area of the county. … People are very excited this time of year because farmers markets are opening and they can get to know that farmer directly.” 

In a CSA, consumers agree to buy their products a season or all year in advance. “Some people … want a guaranteed box of produce or agriculture products every week,” Stevens says. “We are seeing more interest on the farmers side in starting up CSAs and also a tremendous interest in signups from consumers.”

Katie Stevens

Many turned to CSAs and farmers markets during the COVID-19 pandemic. CSAs offered a local option with low or no contact while farmers markets were outside and made people feel more comfortable. “I think COVID completely changed the food system, in my opinion,” Stevens says. “People are looking to find local foods in many different ways and I think farmers markets and CSAs are one of those.”