Have you ever been to your favorite restaurant, perhaps a coffee bistro or café, a pizza joint all loud and spicy, or maybe even a ritzy and pricy 6-month wait type of establishment, and wanted to order a salad? Of course you have. Has that salad always been fresh with nutrient rich leafy greens of all sorts still crisp to the taste, and with those tomatoes still looking taut and fresh and like they could survive a good chuck against the wall? Of course you haven’t. Salad fixings are something you usually can’t use as leftovers. When you order a salad just pray it comes something like what you have in mind. But we have all been there when we do order that fresh salad and it just does not come to the table looking the way it should.
So, what does a guy like me, who enjoys only the freshest of salads do when I’m not at home to make one? I go to a restaurant that has the freshest of produce and enjoy my salad. And who is there along the way to make sure my dining experience is all that it should be? FarmsReach.com, that’s who? This San Francisco area based green company has figured out how to make a one-stop shopping experience for chefs to find locally grown fresh produce from many farms at once and make side-to-side comparisons of prices among farmers, distance traveled to the restaurant, and products offered. The restaurant buyer makes an order to be shipped based on once a day needs, not the once- a-week method of the farmers’ market.
Product is shipped when the restaurant buyer wants it and in the quantity needed and is delivered in a timely manner. Now, a farmers’ market is just fine for me. But what if you run a restaurant and you make the same thing every day over and over again. That once-a-week at the farmers’ market experience won’t cut it nor will spending once-a-day time shopping at different locals. Time is money and time spent shopping and visiting different markets means less time preparing. Restaurants and schools benefit most as schedules can be set up by seasonal product availability well ahead of time and less time is spent shopping around.
“We are not attempting to give the general public the opportunity to buy directly from a farmer. They have that opportunity at a farmers’ market,” said Lana Holmes, FarmsReach.com CEO. The site gives institutional buyers like schools and restaurants the ability to more easily buy food directly from nearby farms. That means more local food on more plates — and an extremely expanded marketplace for farmers. I see a win-win situation here.
Now let’s revisit that salad, make mine a Caesar (hold the anchovies…extra croutons, please). Would you spend your well-earned cash at a local eatery where the food is always as fresh as can be and not too pricey because the restaurant owner doesn’t have to spend so much time and money to purchase the ingredients? Less money spent by the restaurant owner means lower prices for the fare, and that translates to savings for you. Win-Win again. Let’s see. Farmers see more business. Produce is fresher and thereby more tasty. You know a good deal when you see one. The restaurant owner sees more business. And the fine folks at FarmsReach.com provide a valuable resource that allows them some green, some of which can be passed on to you in the form of constant and fair prices.
Now, how about a salad? I was serious about the croutons. And even more serious about the anchovies.
