Local farmers speak with Miami chefs and planners Jan. 16 at the Culinary Supoort Center.
Miami University is working to incorporate more locally grown and produced food into its menus.
In a forum held Jan. 16, five local farmers met with Miami chefs and planners at the Culinary Support Center to discuss possible collaboration opportunities.
The event operated similarly to "speed-dating," where the farmers sat at tables while the chefs and planners rotated around them every 15 minutes.
The brainchild of Paula Green, associate director for dining and culinary services, the exchange was an effort to facilitate future sales.
"We're trying to strengthen our relationship with these individuals," Green said. "Also, it's important to get a dialogue going right now, when they're trying to plan crops for the coming year."
She said that while Miami already has been able to increase its purchases of local food during the past two years, this is the next step.
"This is what the farmers need," Green said. "They need to know what to plant. We need to know what they're going to grow."
Some of the farmers participating in the forum had sold to Miami before. Ray Arlinghuas, who owns Lori Ridge Farm with his wife, had not, but he said he was interested in investigating the opportunity.
"In this business you either grow or you diminish and we're looking to expand," he said.
A retired Proctor and Gamble employee, Arlinghaus said he hopes to eventually pass off his business to a new generation so in the meantime, he is looking to keep it thriving.
Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter
"Next year we're going to start coming to the farmer's market uptown," he said. "So since we're coming up here anyway, we figured we might as well at least explore the opportunity to sell to the university."
Brent Marcum, who owns and operates Salem Road Farms, also attended the event because he is looking to expand his operation.
Manager of culinary services Karen Recker and culinary specialist Bev Rambo spoke with Marcum about ways to incorporate his unique fruits and vegetables in Alexander Dining Hall's specialty fruit and salad bar and as possible options at Wok This Way.
While there was some compromise, many chefs brought existing menus and farmers a schedule of crops with the hope of identifying areas of overlap.
Many of the chefs were enthusiastic about the prospect of Tapaahsaia Farm's Karen Baldwin expanding her goat herd and starting a certified goat cheese operation.
Baldwin said she had been hesitant to do so before because a friend of hers already sells goat cheese at the farmer's market and she didn't want to step on her toes, but with the product in such high demand among Miami chefs, Baldwin now has her own market.
Local market creation is part of the reason Miami is pursuing this program, according to Joe Brubacher, manager of purchasing.
"Miami's purpose here is to increase its impact and money spent in the local community," Brubacher said.
Brubacher and Green have been working together on this local food initiative. Both said they hope the program will add volume and regularity in Miami's use of local food.
While Brubacher said that they're not committing to anything yet, the dialogue will help both sides plan ahead.
This way, Brubacher said, farmers won't have to call him and ask if their crop could be used, nor will the university have to contact local farmers looking for excess crops.
However, Brucher said that the issue of local food has proved its staying power.
Green added that Miami's interest in local food is part of its move toward sustainability.
"The sustainability movement is inescapable," Green said. "And it's the right thing to do."
Read More
How one professor and her classes are preserving Oxford’s Black history
By Sean Scott | March 20, 2024Jazma Sutton, an assistant professor of history, teaches The Black Midwest (HST 350Q) and Black Women in America (HST 450D) classes. In both courses, she has students working with the Smith Library of Regional History and Miami’s archives to document and preserve Black history in Oxford.
Miami faculty members recount Freedom Summer in new documentary
By Luke Macy | February 25, 2022After seven years of work, “Training for Freedom,” a documentary highlighting Oxford’s involvement in the Freedom Summer of 1964, premiered on PBS Western Reserve on Valentine’s Day.
“Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic”: History in the making
By Alice Momany | August 29, 2021In March 2020, Miami University’s archives launched “Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic,” a collection focused on life during the COVID-19 pandemic.