Dallas locavores emphasize importance of buying local food

by Steve Thompson

DALLAS — Dallas Chef Julian Barsotti is known for his authentic Italian cuisine. But to get the right ingredients he doesn’t wander through the Tuscan or Sicilian countryside. Instead, he travels no more than six miles from his Highland Park restaurant.

Twice a week, Barsotti, co-owner of Nonna, drives to the Dallas Farmers Market in search of the best local produce. The food is on display in a parking lot covered by a giant yellow steel roof at the downtown market.

“The idea is to cook philosophically like they do in Italy,” Barsotti said as he picked out some okra and peas at the market one day recently. “And in the summertime, the best ingredients come from right around here.”

But Barsotti, 29, isn’t the only one looking for local food to keep his menu fresh. Chefs and ordinary citizens across the nation are increasingly buying or eating local vegetables, meat, poultry, fruit and dairy products. It’s a way of life that’s been dubbed “locavore.”

Whether it’s to support the local economy, get a fresher product, or decrease pollution, locavores have been buying more, increasing the number of farmers’ markets across the nation. According to Richard Pirog, Associate Director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, farmers’ markets have risen 167 percent, from 1,755 markets nationwide in 1994 to 4,685 in 2008. There’s even an iPhone application dedicated to finding local produce.

The increase in interest is obvious in downtown Dallas, said farmer Steve Heddin of Heddin Family Farms, who’s been coming to the farmers’ market since he was 8 years old. Heddin, 46, said business is starting to pick up and is much better than it was in the ‘80s or ‘90s.

Located in Canton, Heddin’s farm is roughly 60 miles east of the market. Heddin believes the freshness factor of local produce is responsible for the recent boost in business. In 2001, the Leopold Center found that while conventionally grown produce traveled an average of 1,494 miles to get to the market, locally grown produce in Iowa traveled an average of just 65 miles. Pirog, who studies food miles, is quick to point out that while local may amplify the freshness of the product, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is better for the environment.

“Local isn’t always going to be less energy intensive then conventional,” Pirog said. When considering local potatoes compared to Idaho potatoes, for instance, Pirog said the method of transportation (rail is much more fuel-efficient than trucking) and the pounds of produce being transported must be considered.

But chefs like Barsotti believe the reduction in travel time of local produce helps the creations he makes from them in his kitchen stand out when customers dig in.

“It’s going to taste better almost always when you know the farmer that it’s coming from, and you're able to see it and taste it right after it’s come from the earth,” Barsotti said.

Chad Houser, chef and partner of Parigi restaurant on Oak Lawn Avenue, uses farmers like Lemley’s Produce & Plants at the farmers’ market to get items like eight-ball squash. He agrees with Barsotti that local produce tastes better, adding that local farmers have a more personal relationship with their crops.

“For a lot of them that’s what their family does and it means something to them, more than just making a quick buck,” Houser said. “By that token, I think you can really, really taste the difference.”

This way of life, or a real commitment to cooking seasonally and sourcing fresh local ingredients as Barsotti puts it, isn’t necessarily a new idea in the rest of the country.

“I’d say it’s a philosophy that, in the States, was kind of birthed with Chez Panisse in northern California in the early ‘70s,” Barsotti said. “And it’s been kind of slow to catch on here.”

Chez Panisse is the famed restaurant of chef Alice Walters, which opened in 1971 in Berkeley. Waters is considered an American pioneer for cooking with fresh and seasonal ingredients, and for building relationships with local sustainable farmers. Her philosophy grew across California.

“Not only is the philosophy more practiced there, but it’s also the most fertile growing state in the country,” said Barsotti, who worked in the Bay Area before moving to Dallas.

But other cities have caught on over the past 38 years. Restaurants like Frontera Grill in Chicago and Wink in Austin use local produce to deliver the freshest ingredients. Barsotti said that while fresh local produce is limited during the winter, the Dallas locavore community is growing, becoming more interconnected as chefs search for the best ingredients.

And, if they’re looking in the right places, locavores will probably find Tom Spicer, Dallas’ go-to-guy for specialty produce, herbs and spices. Walking into Spicer’s store, Spiceman’s F.M. 1410 on N. Fitzhugh in Dallas, customers are bombarded with an aroma of exotic smells. Crates of wild mushrooms, arugula, and olive oil line the storefront, almost guarding the garden behind the shop.

Spicer, who’s been growing and scavenging unusual crops for the past 25 years, does business with top-rated restaurants in Dallas including Nonna, York Street, Craft, and Charlie Palmer at the Joule.

Spicer said he expects all chefs to look for the freshest ingredients and is surprised when it’s considered a trend. But chefs like Barsotti and Houser count on Spicer to do the work for them. In order to keep the cost of his gardening down, Spicer uses free wood chips from a tree trimming company and scraps from a sushi restaurant to create compost.

“You have to know exactly what you’re looking for, and he knows how to find it,” Noe Garza, a chef by trade who is currently between gigs after traveling outside of the country, said.

Spicer called Garza a few years ago and said he had a surprise for him. He had found fresh coriander, a seed in the parsley family that Garza described as having a strong floral scent. Garza said he immediately incorporated the discovery into his menu. Today, Garza still likes to hang out at Spicer’s shop in search of rare ingredients.

This sense of community is common with local growers. Brandon Pollard, an “urban beewrangler” that sets up shop at the farmer’s market every Saturday and Sunday, said that the growers “all kind of know each other.”

Pollard, sporting a bee-patterned smock with a teal handkerchief around his neck and an antenna headband, attracts a large crowd with his display of live bees. Across from him, Joe Mitchell sells beans, sweet potatoes, peppers and squash for Little John’s Plant and Produce, waking up at 5:30 a.m. everyday in order to get to the market. Down a few tables, customers Nick Minton and Christina Presti peruse some of Lemley’s produce.

Minton, a Commerce resident, said he enjoys cooking at home and comes down to the farmers’ market about 10 times a year, because he believes buying local is better than getting commercial produce. Presti adds that they also come down to support the local farmers.

Chefs like Houser, who is on the board of the Dallas Farmers Market Friends, also find pleasure in working with the farmers. Houser said that the camaraderie of the cooking and farming community is one of the reasons he got into the profession.

“I’m a product of an old-fashioned southern family that had Sunday suppers at the grandparents' house where everybody showed up,” Houser said. “I need that sense of family and community.”

This article was submitted by a member of the Pegasus News community.

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