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Local Flavor

Katie Bray

Sarah Butterfield lives in two worlds-one life tucked away on her family farm and the other in the hustle and bustle of a college campus.

The culture and campus experience Butterfield gets while working at the Goggin Ice Center is completely different than her home life, or even past school days at Talawanda High School.

She grew up on Butterfield Farm, a local farm in Oxford outside Miami University's main campus on Rte. 73. The farm that has been in Sarah's family for more than 45 years, and her father and uncle continue to farm the land.

Some of the revenue generated by Butterfield Farm comes from the produce stand along Rte. 73, while the rest comes from selling and distributing produce to buyers like Miami. Miami accounts for 20 percent of Butterfield Farm's business through produce purchases and corn maze or hayride rentals by groups such as sororities and other student organizations.

For the past 15 years, this business relationship has existed between the farm and Miami, but Butterfield Farms is not the only local name represented in Miami's food offerings.

In a motion to support local Ohio businesses last June, Miami's Culinary Support Center decided during the summer of 2007 to start purchasing food items from local businesses and farms within the Ohio region.

Supporting the community

According to Diana Byrd, general manager at Market Street in MacCracken Hall in charge of network purchasing, the decision was made in hopes of conserving resources and attaining fresh products close to home.

Products from local businesses that are featured in campus dining halls and markets include Amanda Hill's bottled water, Velvet ice cream, T. Marzetti Company salad dressing, Montgomery Inn pulled pork, Bob Evans bratwurst and sausages, Hussman chips and pretzels, Reiter Dairy milk, Klosterman breads, J.T.M. Food Group hoagies, Kahiki Foods stir fry, Libby's desserts, Skyline chili and Glory foods. All of these foods are produced by companies in Ohio.

Sophomore Daniel Mackenzie had no idea that so many of the foods he frequently purchases came from local businesses.

"I knew that Skyline was a Cincinnati thing because I'm from there," Mackenzie said "But I had no idea that the meats and the market foods were local, too. But I'm glad that Miami is trying to support local retailers because it shows that, as a university, we care."

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According to Jon Brubacher, manager of food purchasing at the Demske Culinary Support Center, Miami began purchasing more local products in an attempt to support local businesses while ensuring freshness by purchasing from local farms.

"It all started when someone suggested that we get more local foods, and it just went from there," Brubacher said. "For example, earlier this year someone said we should make a pumpkin smoothie at the dining halls, so we said, 'We've made a commitment to use as much local products as possible, so let's do it.'"

Miami purchased 500 pumpkins from both Downing Fruit Farms and Butterfield Farms to make pumpkin smoothies in the fall.

According to Brubacher, Miami purchases fresh produce from local farms like Butterfield Farms seasonally when a dining hall recipe calls for a certain fruit or vegetable.

"We're doing anything we can to get more food locally," Brubacher said. "So we're getting high quality because instead of ordering food from California which sits in a truck for days, we're getting local produce which only sits in a truck for one day or three days."

Serving it up fresh

With the fall 2007 grand re-opening of Tuffy's market in the Shriver Center, a variety of new treats became available. In addition to the traditional offerings of freshly brewed coffee and breakfast foods, old-fashioned style ice cream was introduced to students.

The specialty ice cream, which comes in original flavors like cappuccino, is not mass-produced like the majority of Miami's food. This popular dessert, highly rated among Miami students, comes from Young's Jersey Dairy located in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

"The ice cream is our own recipe and we've been making it for the public for 50 years," said Young's Dairy CEO Dan Young. "Of course, we've had to modify the recipe some because we make such large batches, but it's been really successful. All our flavors are natural."

According to Young, Tuffy's switched from carrying Ben and Jerry's ice cream to Young's Dairy hand-dipped ice cream because of the homemade appeal. Other flavors include lemon sorbetto, latte gellato, cake batter and chocolate peanut butter.

"Last year, I got an e-mail from some folks in the food service operations at Miami saying, 'Hey, we're from Miami University and we keep hearing about your ice cream from our students,'" Young said. "So we started supplying ice cream (to Miami) this fall (2007)."

Mackenzie has tried the Tuffy's ice cream and was pleased not only with the large selection, but the taste as well.

"It's better because you can choose what you want out of more flavors," Mackenzie said. "And the flavors are real original. You can't just go to any ice cream parlor and get lemon sorbetto."

Young explained why the university is making the effort to purchase his product.

"Miami is making an effort to purchase locally to use fewer resources," Young said. "Instead of getting food 500 miles away, it's 60 miles away. It uses less fuel to get from point A to point B."

The addition of Miami's business doubled wholesale for Young's Dairy.

"We're basically a retail place," Young said. "We're a pretty large attraction for families that come all over the state. Wholesale used to be about one percent of our business-well that was before Miami, which basically doubled that single-handedly."

According to Spring Street Market food service assistant Donna Davis, the market featured local items after a decision made June 2007.

"All the dining halls are trying to move to using all local meat and the markets are starting to carry more local products," Davis said. "For example, we're getting lunch meat from the Walnut Creek farm. We're getting Amanda Hill's water, apples from Butterfield Farm, and the markets have things like cheese spreads which are all local stuff."

Brubacher said Miami spent $2.2 million on foods bought locally out of the $8 million spent overall on food purchases this year.

From the fresh produce of local farms to packaged products from local companies, a large selection of food sold in markets and in dining halls is coming from sources within the state of Ohio.

Even products from larger companies like The J.M. Smucker's Company, Bob Evans, Skyline Chili, Graeter's Ice Cream and Pepsi come from local processing centers within Ohio. RedHawk bottled water, along with other Pepsi products, is bottled and processed at the Pepsi bottling center in Hamilton according to Brubacher.

The Pepsi connection to Redhawk water surprised sophomore Jacob Bellman.

"I always thought the Redhawk water was filtered tap water, like from Oxford," Bellman said. "Now I'm going to get more Pepsi, too, because I'll know it's local and not like months old."

In addition to food products, the paper liners for bakery items sold on-campus are printed locally by Honeymoon Paper based in West Chester.

Following the trend

Byrd said that purchasing items from local businesses is becoming a trend at other universities across the country. Byrd said she has seen this local effort at Ohio Farmers Union conventions.

"When we say local, we mean products within your general region, and I think you have to define local that way when you're looking at it," Byrd said. "Different universities are doing this as well. Everyone is starting out little, but it is a new trend and we are looking to do more and more because after all, you are what you eat. It's all about the quality."

According to Byrd, the campus markets have just started carrying items like Grater's ice cream this year in hopes that students will get to experience foods native to Cincinnati such as Skyline chili.

Byrd added that Miami also purchases seasonal produce whenever possible to increase quality while also gaining the opportunity to work with local farms.

"It goes along the lines of 'going green' and supporting your local businesses," Byrd said. "This is something we have always tried to do, but now we are purchasing more and trying to build more of a relationship with local farms. I mean, isn't it better to go pick it from the vine than from a can?"

Seemingly, the student response shows that this change is already somewhat of a success.

Young said that he has received comments from students, forwarded from Miami, about his ice cream.

"Occasionally I get e-mails from students saying 'Boy, I really liked the cappuccino latte,' and that sort of thing," Young said. "It's really good to hear that the students enjoy it, and I welcome their comments. Our family has been making the ice cream for four generations now."

From what she's seen so far, Davis agreed.

"Students love it; the faculty loves it-so already this change is working," Davis said.

Young attended the re-opening of Tuffy's and hand-dipped the ice cream himself for three hours.

Bellman first tasted the ice cream when Tuffy's re-opened.

"It reminds me a lot of Coldstone," Bellman said. "It's cool that it's local. I like being a part of my community."

But supporting local businesses is not the only new initiative on-campus.

In recent years, Miami has also moved to becoming more recyclable by adding more recycling bins on campus locations, changing to biodegradable plates and napkins and selling more organic foods in the markets.

According to Davis, Miami hopes to "wage the war on waste," a phrase commonly found around campus on flyers and napkins.

Buying goods from local retailers like Young's Dairy supports this environmentally friendly aim.

"Miami has become really big on recycling and conserving resources," Davis said. "I think it's going to be a really effective to provide goods from local business like the ice cream."

Ultimately, it appears to be a win-win relationship as Miami students enjoy the new offerings and the local farms enjoy a boost in business.

Bryan Butterfield, owner of Butterfield farm, said farming close to Miami is something his family has enjoyed.

"We take a lot of pride in it," Bryan said. "We're close enough to town and far enough away from town. It's very nice."

While Sarah Butterfield is pursuing her degree in agribusiness, she intends to follow in her family's footsteps in the future.

"All I know is no matter where I wind up, I want to live on a farm and be involved in agriculture," Butterfield said. "It isn't just a job, a career or a hobby, it's a sort of community and a way of life. It's hard to explain, but the lifestyle is so different from a nine-to-five job, and it's something that takes self motivation and passion."

And with her experiences, Butterfield said she was able to get the best of both worlds.


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