From Farm to Table

In the upcoming Spring edition of Edible Austin, a lovely quarterly that comes out every three months or ninety degree arc of the Earth's orbit, whichever comes first, there will be an article on a feller named John Lash, who started a fairly groundbreaking business (in our town, at least) as a wholesale purveyor of locally grown produce. You'll likely see some quotes from me in that article and from our chef Tommy Mendez. We've been using his service a fair amount lately, especially for greens, broccoli, and cauliflower. Though I'm not interested in necessarily touting which dish has which ingredient that comes from which farm outside of which two-bit Texas town, I did want you to know that thanks to John's business, we've been able to improve the freshness and localness of our food quite a bit. His is a hidden sort of food story, but important to the efforts of farmers and local food advocates nonetheless. When we were placing an order for spinach the other day, John happened to be standing next to the spinach farmer... he turned and said, "Can we get four cases for the Soup Peddler?" Tommy overheard the answer, "Yeah, we can get them out there to pick some more in the morning," and the deal was done. Needless to say, we're very heartened by this kind of service.