Farmshed and Local Restaurants Serve Up Sustainability
Photo by Kylie Bridenhagen.

Farmshed and Local Restaurants Serve Up Sustainability

Central Rivers Farmshed partnered with the owner of El Jefe’s Tacos Y Tequila, On Sept. 3, to do a local food demonstration at the farmer’s market in downtown Stevens Point.

The Restaurant, El Jefe’s Tacos Y Tequila, had their chef come out to the farmer’s market to show local food preparation in action.

Photo by Kylie Bridenhagen.

Photo by Kylie Bridenhagen.

El Jefe’s, Father Fat’s and Christian’s Bistro are all part of a family of restaurants that are providing local food items on their menus.

Farmshed has worked with many restaurants in the area to get their chefs out to demonstrate at the farmer’s market, including PJ’s SentryWorld, Stevens Point Country Club, Christian’s Bistro, El Jefe’s and Michele’s Restaurant.

This week there was grilled sweet corn, aioli, diced green onions and red peppers. Chef demos always have samples and people can ask the chefs questions.

Becky Veldhoff, a volunteer for Farmshed who was working the booth during the farmer’s market said, “It’s a great opportunity for people to get ideas for using local food, raise awareness and connect people with local food. It’s also a great way to taste flavors they’ve never tried before.”

The local food movement is gaining momentum. People are concerned with where their food comes from and who makes it. That relationship between farmers and consumers is really important, and restaurants like El Jefe’s are fostering that relationship by including local items in their menus.

Katlyn Kreuser, junior communicative science and disorders major said, “I’d prefer to get a food item from a local source because I feel the nutrients in the food itself are probably higher. Because when you ship it from somewhere they pick it before it’s ripe and that ruins the quality.”

Local food can be challenging to come by in Wisconsin since the state has such a short growing season. There are certain times of the year when produce like berries aren’t available because the growing season is shorter in comparison to California or Florida. However, some community supported agriculture shares have local food products available even in winter, due to the utilization of greenhouses which allow produce to be grown all year.

There will be one more Chef on the Square event this season at the Stevens Point Farmer’s Market. On Saturday Oct. 1 at 9:30 a.m. Michele’s Restaurant will be demonstrating some of their recipes.

 

Genevieve Adamski

Environment Sectional Editor

gadam590@uwsp.edu

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