Westport Green Village Initiative has helped restaurant owners and farmers join together to support each other in building a completely not-for-profit wholesale distribution organization.
The organization, RSA, which stands for restaurant supported agriculture, has been functioning for more than two months and has begun to gain momentum, already adding new restaurants and new farms.
Bill Taibe, owner and chef of Le Farm restaurant in Westport, and GVI member, helped forge the relationship between restaurant owners and farmers.
“We have the resources here,” Taibe said. “We have the farm land here; why are we looking anywhere else?”
According to the American Farmland Trust, Connecticut has in recent years been losing three acres of farmland per day.
“Whether it”™s losing farmland faster than any other state or even in that top consideration, it”™s a scary situation,” Taibe said. “This is a region of money, and that comes with real estate and development.”
He said it is those same resources in Fairfield County that make RSA a feasible venture.
“GVI and all its volunteers make this opportunity possible.”
Taibe, originally from Patterson, N.Y., has used locally-generated ingredients himself since his entrance into Connecticut 12 years ago. Prior to Le Farm he was the owner of Relish in South Norwalk and executive chef at Napa and Co. in Stamford.
“Now it”™s a trend,” Taibe said. “Everyone wants to go to the farmers market on Saturday mornings. A few good things come out of trends, though trends tend to die. It”™s always been about putting forward the best ingredient, now people are actually listening and caring about what”™s going on.” He said one positive that has come out of such a negative economy is a return to realistic values.
The Westport Green Village Initiative is a grass roots non-profit working to help Westport “become a model of what is possible in regards to local, environmental and community change.”
The model for RSA is based on the much more common Community Supported Agriculture, which GVI also has an initiative for, in which members of the community purchase a ”˜share”™ of the anticipated harvest, and make payment in advance at an agreed price. In exchange, the farmers plant, cultivate, harvest, and distribute a selection of vegetables, fruit, flowers and herbs. Currently, there are over 1,700 CSA farms feeding hundreds of thousands of people throughout the U.S.
Westport also provides a unique starting point for the RSA model with The Wakeman Town Farm, a formerly private farm willed to Westport that GVI has in the past year leased and opened to Westport residents for farming projects. Wakeman Farm also acts as the pickup and drop off point for the CSA members and the RSA restaurant owners.
GVI has allowed Mike Aitkenhead, a Staples High School environmental teacher and 2009 Westport Teacher of the Year, to move onto the farm with his wife Carrie and newborn child. Carrie, also part of the GVI team, has taken over the Wakeman Farm operations of RSA.
“It”™s really exciting,” Carrie said. “We”™re all on board. GVI is doing some really great and unique things here. It”™s great to see the restaurants and farms in one room committing to each other.”
GVI is responsible for the widely publicized ban on plastic shopping bags in Westport and multiple green-area projects in the town and surround municipalities. Ridgefield and Fairfield have since started GVIs and one is to soon launch in Bridgeport.
“If you have an idea they”™ll consider it, and give you volunteers and time to develop it,” Taibe said.
His idea was to create initially a not-for-profit wholesale distribution company between area farms and supported by area restaurants, what is now RSA.
“Eventually we want to be able to control local crops and ensure the farmers product will get bought and utilized and they can thrive,” Taibe said. We are not fighting against each other or undercutting each other. There was no obligation. Buy what you want to buy, supply what you can supply.”
Taibe called upon a group of restaurants and chefs to pilot the process including Dressing Room in Westport, Fat Cat Pie Company in Norwalk, The Boathouse at Saugatuck Rowing Club in Westport, School House at Cannondale in Wilton and, Sugar and Olives in Norwalk as well as one farm stand, the LL Farm Stand in Westport.
Taibe said he hopes to be bringing on Aux Délices in Riverside and Skinny Pines Brick Oven Caterer mobile caterers in the next few weeks.
The farms involved in RSA are Sport Hill Farm in Easton, Stone Garden Farm in Shelton, and Hickories Farm in Ridgefield. Le Farm also has its own land in Monroe that”™s being developed into farmland specifically to the needs of RSA; trying to grow vegetables and legumes that are hard to find locally sourced. Taibe said a number of other area farmers are in talks to join RSA.
“We”™re in an area here that we have Yale Agricultural Studies and UCONN Storrs Agricultural School,” Taibe said. “It”™s the responsibility of this RSA to tap into that talent rather than watching them run off and do great things elsewhere.”
Typical crops that come from the RSA include varieties of tomatoes, corn, kale, cucumbers, squash, beets, onions, herbs, potatoes and eggplant.
Taibe said the restaurant model provides consistency.
“Involved farms can justify buying a new greenhouse if our restaurants are able to say we will use their product through the winter,” Taibe said. “It”™s about understanding we”™re on the same team, the same page.”
