Locavore Adventures: One Chef's Slow Food Journey

Chapter 16. Getting Your Hands Dirty

Getting Your Hands Dirty If you don’t understand how the words New Jersey and farms fit into the same sentence, well, clearly you haven’t been to the Garden State. Out-of-staters tend to picture us as an urban outpost, a slightly smaller Big Apple that hasn’t fallen far from the tree. But here’s the truth: yes, we are part of the tri-state metropolitan area, undoubtedly the most influential power center in the world. But New Jersey is also chockfull of some of the sweetest and lushest farmland on the continent. Likewise, when you think of Princeton, you may picture campus greens. But you ought to be picturing field greens as well. In reality, the Princeton area is a hotbed of small farms, many so close that they don’t even harvest their products until they get the order from local restaurants and markets. As chef and owner of one of those local restaurants, I really appreciate how this cooperative effort keeps getting better and better. Every year there seem to be a few more local farm sources and the distribution chain between them and us seems to get a little more organized. I like to think that Slow Food has had something to do with the forward momentum. For me and my Tre Piani team, watching the movement take hold has been like seeing our favorite kid grow up and do well. Since the late 1990s, we’ve worked hard to spread the word about local, sustainable agriculture. In those early years, when we first brought customers and farmers together to talk, eat, and get to know each other, our undertaking was still pretty unusual. Now people are really getting it. Most of them want to support local agriculture; they just need to know how to do it. Likewise, producers need to know there is economic support for getting their product to the public. Today the two sides are starting to work well together and, in the process, to revive the small-farm, local agriculture system that used to thrive in this country. Farms come in all shapes and sizes. There are small family farms, organic farms, and mushroom farms. There are farms that produce feed for cattle, 16  173  grow stone fruit, or harvest sod. Some enterprises concentrate on herbs; some are living-history farms. Other businesses cultivate cranberry bogs or pickyour -own produce. These creative, energy-filled establishments are springing up everywhere—some of them near our largest cities, others tucked away in small communities. What they have in common is that they have carved out their own niches and are thriving. One of the most interesting enterprises near the Princeton area is Pitspone Farm. Ask owner Mike Brown to describe his business, and he’ll reply, “It’s my big backyard!” He really means it: Pitspone Farm is his backyard. Mike and his family live on a quiet suburban street in Kendall Park, New Jersey. Behind his house, he has about a quarter-acre under cultivation. The name Pitspone is derived from a Hebrew word meaning “very small”; and here, from his tiny corner of Mother Earth, Mike supplies a half-dozen restaurants in the Princeton area—including Tre Piani—with the freshest of produce. He drives it himself to our doors, all of which are no more than thirty minutes from his home. So if you happen to see 174  Locavore Adventures A beautiful farm landscape worth preserving in the Hudson Valley Photo by Jim Weaver cherry tomatoes, basil, squash blossoms, padrone peppers, or figs on our menus, chances are high we got them from Mike Brown’s farm. Mike likes to joke, “I only sell to restaurants I can’t afford to eat at.”Though you might not read about this business model in a textbook, it sure works for Mike. He’s developed a high-end clientele that can afford to buy his naturally grown and absolutely fresh products. All of them are seasonal, and some of them, like his figs, are an unusual find in New Jersey. Launched in 2006, Pitspone Farm is literally Mike’s summer job. During offseason , he works as a school librarian, and he got inspired to create the farm in a roundabout way. For one thing, “I just like to grow things.” For another, he lived in Israel for ten years, where he met his wife, Nurit, and learned...