Sourcing Local and Regional Foods

The Harvest Table Restaurant

Rooster

Sourcing foods for our restaurant is both a delight and a challenge. Local and regional foods are the freshest we can find, but the availability changes seasonally and even weekly. Our main food shopping goals are twofold: First, to provide our customers with the freshest and healthiest foods from our extended region. Second, we favor and hope to help sustain small diverse family farms, who respect the land, the plants and animals they raise, and the cultural heritage of our region.

While it sounds daunting, we are finding that there is a healthy number of small-scale farmers and artisans who are eager to enter into a working relationship with us. We consider these farmers to be our partners in this enterprise, and our practices support and encourage their sustainable operations. The availability of quality regional food is, in part, a function of the local demand by both family and business buyers. Two regional organizations, Appalachian Sustainable Development in our own Washington county, and their sister organization, Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project in the Western highlands of North Carolina, have been instrumental in raising awareness and facilitating this sustainable agriculture culture in our region, and we gratefully acknowledge their hard work.

We are always looking for new suppliers for our products. If you're interested in selling to us, check our supply information page, or contact us with your ideas.

     Although there are many growers in our region, and many who sell their produce and meats to us, to other regional restaurants, and at the area Farmers' Markets, we have learned that the supplies are limited in several areas, particularly because much of the local foods we use are the by-product of people growing for the farmers' markets. Because the needs of a restaurant are very different from the needs of direct-sales, we have begun a new chapter in the Harvest Table story, breaking ground on our own restaurant farm. The Harvest Table Farm has been in operation since fall of 2010 and grows specifically for our needs, and is in the long-planning to push the seasons, the growing zone, and the regional availability of produce.

Below are listed some of the farmers and food artisans that supply us with the backbone of our our menu.

Abingdon Organics, Wyndale Rd., Abingdon.  Anthony and Laurel Flaccavento use innovative techniques to produce over 20 different fruits and vegetables including heirloom tomatoes, berries, melons and eggplants.  They are tireless advocates of sustainable development in our community.

Appalachian Harvest is a network of certified organic family farmers in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee who have come together to make organic produce available and affordable in our region.  Growing produce is a positive venture for many former tobacco farmers, and each year Appalachian Harvest’s growers mentor more farmers in the transition to organic. 

Dark Hollow Micro-Roasters, Sugar Grove.  Personally seeking out 100% organic Arabica coffee in Central America, John Cason makes fair trade arrangements directly with farmers, and roasts the coffee beans to order, to guarantee freshness.  “Aging is for wine,” he insists, “not coffee!”

Kenny's Farmhouse Cheese is a family dairy farm in Barren County, Kentucky, producing Cheddar, Colby, Jack, Asiago, Swiss, Havarti, and blue cheeses, from cows raised in the pasture without hormones.  "It started out as a business decision," says Kenny Mattingly, who worried about the future of dairy farming before studying European methods to become a cheese-maker.

L&N Farm, Meadowview.  Sherman Lamey provides us with pumpkins, ornamental gourds, and several varieties of winter squash, including a line of cushaws saved by his family for generations.

Rich Valley Grazers, Saltville.  The Clark family raises their poultry and beef on fresh grass, without harmful additives.  “We believe fresh air and sunshine, clean pasture paddocks and an all natural balance in vitamins and minerals give you the best poultry and beef products you'll find anywhere.”

River Valley Farm, North Fork, Abingdon.  David King has been selling organic produce for 22 years.  He grows a wide variety of vegetables, herbs and berries, along with corn and hay to feed the horses with which he tends his fields.

 

 

 

Harvest Table Restaurant ~ (276) 944-5142

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