From field to fork

Starring at many a dinner party: Home-grown Bok Choy, Mizuna greens, lamb, eggs poulty...

August 19, 2007|Necee Regis, Globe Correspondent

Hot summer day. Cloudless sapphire sky. Bumping down a sandy road in an open Jeep, sun beating down, dust rising in our wake, fields of green crops stretching to the horizon. The only sense I had of being on Martha's Vineyard was a salty edge to the breeze and the knowledge I had stepped off the ferry that morning. Otherwise, I found myself in the heart of a working farm, in another realm entirely from the celebrated beaches, shops, and restaurants on this island seven miles off the mainland.

"You need sunscreen? There's some in the glove compartment," Joshua Hollinger, my guide for the day, shouted over the engine's hum. I shook my head, no. I had come prepared.

A square green map had inspired this trip. "From Farm to Table," produced by the Island Grown Initiative (referred to locally as IGI) catalogs 28 Vineyard farms and encourages the user to "buy local." Certainly familiar buzzwords in the culinary world, buying local is gaining exposure and acceptance in a wider public arena.

IGI was born from a series of "salons" hosted by Ali Berlow, a food writer and radio essayist, where "grocers, growers, and anyone interested in food" were invited to her home to discuss sustainable agriculture.

Berlow, who says she "doesn't grow anything," explained that the initiative and its map were created to educate the consumer about the agricultural community on the island as well as to support local farmers.

"We're not farmers for farmers, we're eaters for farmers," she said.

I arrived as an eater and was escorted to several farms by Berlow, and also by Hollinger, the executive chef at the Harbor View Hotel and Resort here, and a fervent believer in cooking with local products and supporting local vendors.

My first stop was The Farm Institute, a nonprofit organization located on the 162-acre Katama Farm, not far from South Beach. In the 1970s, this property became conservation land to protect it from development. Now, in addition to being a working farm with crops and livestock, the institute offers year-round educational programs, an income-sharing project for teens, summer camp, and a "farmer-for-a-day" program.

"Over 800 kids come to our programs in the summer to learn what a farm is. We have an educational mission to show how food is grown and where it is grown," said Rob Goldfarb, summer programs event and marketing director.