In the northwest corner of Michigan is an absolutely beautiful part of the world, known to Michiganders and other mid-westerners, but little known to the rest of the world.
The "big city" is Traverse City, which has exploded in the last 30 years. The winters are cold, but the Lake (Lake Michigan) often keeps this area warmer than the rest of Michigan. Further west is "The County" of Leelanau, with the lovely cities of Glen Arbor, Leelanau, Sutton's Bay, Omena, Northport and lots of cherry orchards. These farmlands, along with the lake, give this area a very special beauty.
As more people (such as Mario Batali)
find this paradise, there are worries that the beautiful farmland which make this part of the world so special, will be developed into condos instead of farmland, as is happening in much of the rest of the country.
This is part of what is driving the "Buy Local" movement in Northern Michigan,
as well as the fact that locally grown food simply tastes better. For several years "Taste the Local Difference" a part of the Michigan Land Use Institute has been promoting the idea of a distribution system to help farmers get their produce in the hands of local chefs.
Funny as it seems, the big distributors had to buy their cherries from Washington.
Along came Eric Hahn, with a background as a chef and experience working with food distribution, all eagerness and energy. Some folks wait for everything to be figured out to the last detail, lots of meetings, spreadsheets, budgets and plans. Not Eric.
He decided that he would just get it done; borrowed a little money, bought a van, and started talking to farmers and chefs. He practically lived in that van last summer -- spending 10, 12, 14 and 16 hour days driving to pick up the produce, then driving to deliver it. NPR ran an excellent story on Eric and Cherry Capital Foods this morning
Cherry Capital Foods now has a warehouse, a second van, and a second driver to spell Eric so he can expand his network of farmers and Chefs. 2008 looks to be a fantastic
year for Cherry Capital Foods and for Northern Michigan
Disclosure: Earthy Delights is getting involved with Cherry Capital Foods as an investor and partner. We hope to expand distribution of Northwest Michigan produce into other areas of Michigan, as well as help CCF supply their chef customers with items such as Aged Balsamic Vinegar, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and other products not grown or produced in Michigan.
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5 comments:
Right On!
Local food to local folks, but Earthy shouldn't hide it's light under a hat, while Earthy fully supports local foods, there are many wonderful products that just can't be sourced locally.
Ed:
One more comment - out here in "The County" we don't have cities, not even towns, more like "villages"
Maybe Sutton's bay is a "town", some barely make it beyond crossroads.
Ciao
Chip
Try Charlevoix once.
You think you're out in the 'county,' we're in the middle of nowhere.
Good food. Now and forever!
Eric
What Mr. Hahn did not tell you is that the Detroit based company was paying him to set up this program for thier company and Mr. Hahn continued to set up the program, only what the company didn't know is that he was setting everything up for himself, WHILE STILL BEING PAID & WORKING FOR THE DETROIT BASED COMPANY FOR MONTHS. Contrary to information given by Mr. Hahn and from what I have personally witnessed, the detroit based company is currently working with seven Michigan farmers out of Traverse City and surrounding counties and are now setting up schedules for the 2008 season and will be looking to add two or three more local farms to thier growing list along with all the Michigan farmers at thier disposal located in the Eastern Market area. As a loyal customer to the detroit based company I will be looking forward to lower competitive prices for MICHIGAN produce they will be offering this summer.
What i am scared of is all of these outbreaks of different diseases, and whenever I get stuff from local farms it's not always clean. I know at most of the restaurants that I've worked at they're pretty clean but I also know that there are some that don't wash thier produce...Does all of your produce get washed before you sell it? Does the farms have thier vegetables tested to make sure there isn't any hepetitis or anything?
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