STONE TO TABLE BY JESS STONE | PUBLISHED 1/15/2024

This is the first piece of a weekly series contributed by Jess Stone, owner of Cold Spring Farm and organizer of the Colchester Farmers’ Market. Each week, Jess will write about all things local food and agriculture for your healthy consumption. 

Locally sourced, farm fresh, farm to fork. Have you heard these phrases before? That’s good news! They are all synonymous with the farm to table movement that sprouted back in the early 1970’s with Alice Waters and her famous Chez Panisse, America’s first farm to table restaurant. 

Consuming produce, meat and dairy products raised within 50 miles of where we live is at the heart of the movement. Doing so has the following results: supporting farmers with sustainable practices, reducing our carbon footprint, eliminating the use of pesticides, increasing native plant species and pollinators, and building a local economy to keep the dollars you vote with every day right here in the community.

We can all do our part in supporting local farms by buying directly from farmers via CSA, shopping the Colchester Farmers’ Market, farm stands, and farm websites. We can order meals from the menus of local restaurants that buy ingredients directly from farmers for a particular dish. When ordering, we can also ask our local restaurant staff to point out what menu ingredients or meals came from a local farm and prioritize ordering those items.  

Farm to table is truly about developing meaningful relationships with farmers and gaining access to fresh and nutritious food. For those who love to cook, nurturing these relationships can yield incredible results in the kitchen. 

We do hope you’ll follow Stone to Table and help us put the culture back into agriculture and bring soul back into cooking here in the kitchens of Colchester.

 This is the first piece of a weekly series contributed by Jess Stone, owner of Cold Spring Farm and organizer of the Colchester Farmers’ Market. Each week, Jess will write about all things local food and agriculture for your healthy consumption.