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Enjoy harvest week in hunt country
It's harvest time in hunt country. During the last week of September, restaurants in Middleburg, Upperville and The Plains will mark the occasion with a culinary celebration of their finest fare.
The idea is simple -- enjoy a meal at one of the participating restaurants and discover how really delicious fresh, local foods are.
The weeklong celebration will bring local farmers, vintners and food artisans together with chefs and diners. Local produce, meats, cheeses, wines and artisan edibles will take center stage at the best dining spots throughout the region.
By bringing together regional food producers and chefs, Celebrate the Harvest Week hopes to support local businesses and provide the public with information about the food choices available.
According to The Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, agriculture in Virginia generates $2.69 billion in sales annually. The Virginia Cooperative Extension says we can increase that number to $4.34 billion – and keep more of our hard-earned dollars in Virginia – by spending just $10 of our weekly household food budget on local produce instead of foreign produce or produce that's been transported great distances.
"What we're hoping to achieve is to get more restaurants to use local produce on a regular basis," said Alyson Browett, owner of the Edible Complex and one of the coordinators of the event.
That goes for home cooks too, she said.
"A lot of restaurants use local provisions year-round these days, but we want everyone on board," Browett said.
Encore presentation
The idea for the celebration came last year when Sally Bolton, gourmet vegetable farmer at Vineyard Nursery in The Plains and owner of the Corner Garden Florist in Middleburg, thought it was time for a showcase of local fare.
Bolton knew there were many wonderful foods, flowers and wines in the Middleburg area, and thought other people should know about them too. Adding restaurants to the mix was the icing on the cake.
A list of area producers was compiled and given to local chefs. They left the details of how to showcase the foods up to them. Some used local provisions in special appetizers, others as the main course. Some offered prix fixe menus paired with local wines. Even a local sandwich shop got into the act by featuring a different sandwich each day made entirely from local ingredients.
Following the success of last year's two-weekend inaugural event, Celebrate the Harvest was expanded to a weeklong event this year and includes restaurants.
Health benefits – and taste
Using local provisions has to come as a grassroots groundswell, Browett believes.
"Many of the products that will be used by the chefs during this week are available to consumers at their local farmers markets, or directly from the farms," Browett said. "The public has to ask their favorite restaurant, 'Where did you get this?' They also have to make suggestions to the restaurants, passing on tips about wonderful produce, meats, cheeses and wines they've seen at farmers markets and on farm tours.
"We'd like consumers to realize the nutritional, economic and environmental benefits of eating locally produced foods."
Organizers say this understanding is growing.
"Over the past year, public awareness of the quality of mass-produced food and environmental issues surrounding food production has been raised significantly," Browett said. "[It's important] to eat more local, seasonal and fresh foods."
This campaign is a cooperative effort of the Middleburg Business and Professional Association, the Middleburg Office of Economic Development and the Middleburg Restaurant Symposium.
Plans are already in the works to make the harvest celebration a whole month instead of just a week and to link it to the much-anticipated Middleburg Tomato Festival, slated to make its entry next summer.
"I'd love to see it grow," Browett said, "but my real goal is to see a time when this isn't necessary – when buying and eating locally is the norm."
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