A REALLY EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!

So let’s just get right into the big news and then we’ll break it down: starting this summer I—with a massive amount of assistance from Hannah, of course—will be taking over as the head chef and executive farmer of a new restaurant in Versailles called Spark Community Cafe. I will still be a full-time farmer at Rough Draft Farmstead, but I will also be a chef. Let me explain.FIRST, WHAT IS SPARK?Spark Community Cafe is a nonprofit, pay-what-you-can restaurant opening in downtown Versailles, Kentucky (this summer), and Hannah and I are beyond excited to be a part of it.It is estimated that 17 percent of Kentuckians and 22 percent of Kentucky children are food insecure—that’s roughly one and five of our fellow citizens. Food insecurity exists in every county in Kentucky, and every county in the United States. Spark’s pay-what-you-can model is a brilliantly simple way of addressing this issue head on.HOW IT WORKSPatrons can pay the suggested price, or more, or less, depending on their financial circumstances. Payments are kept anonymous so no one knows how much anyone else pays. Patrons who cannot afford a meal are able to volunteer at the restaurant and earn meals that way. One can also volunteer his or her time to donate meals so others may have a meal. Ultimately, the goal of Spark and the many other restaurants like it is to end food insecurity in the community—to make sure kids and adults, single parents, poor, or just cash-strapped people alike can get a good, nutritious meal when they need it - and can dine with dignity.HOLISTIC GOALSOffering food to those people who may not have access to a nutritious meal every day speaks to Hannah and me as citizens, but also as farmers. Hannah and I have always struggled with how expensive our produce is. There is no easy way for us to grow it cheaper, sell it cheaper, and still make a sufficient living. So this pay-what-you-can model presents a very exciting opportunity for us to get our produce to those who may not normally, or regularly, be able to afford it while still making a living for ourselves. This is especially true as Spark’s founders seek to pay a living wage to their workers and support local farmers by paying a fair price for the food.My role will be to create seasonal menus and train the staff on how to prepare them. I will likewise be utilizing ingredients from our farm and others (so if you’re a farmer or artisan in the area, make sure to email me at roughdraftfarmstead@gmail.com so I can have your info—I will be actively looking for people to provide certain crops, meats, etc..). The goal will be to use as much local foods as possible, with an emphasis on farms and artisans closest to the restaurant and within Kentucky first, and pay what the crops are actually worth.This project will certainly be extra work for us, but it’s something we believe is not only important, but in line with our values, goals, and faith.Ultimately, almost a decade ago now, when we looked around and asked ourselves how we could affect the most change, Hannah and I chose farming. Now through Spark, we will be able to amplify that goal.Of course, Rough Draft Farmstead will still be running our CSA (SIGN UP HERE). We will still be selling to other restaurants, but Spark will be our other exciting (ad)venture this year. So we hope you will check out and follow Spark!If you would like to get involved, volunteer, donate, or just learn more, check out Spark on Facebook, Instagram or at sparkcommunitycafeky.org. We hope you will come support this cause while we all work to eradicate food insecurity in our communities.-Jesse.

THE FARMER AND CHEF SERIES: COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS.

 We don't, and can't really, grow everything chefs may want. Even if we did, we may not grow as much as they need. Though its true for most any produce, as we'll get to presently, this is especially true as it pertains to foraged items. I've said it many times before, but I can sell all the chanterelles I can find. Unfortunately, I can only find so many on my own. I need to employ other farmers to be on the lookout for them. Not for any discount to me. Not for any finders fee. But for reasons far more rewarding, and far less tangible.With our friends Sugar Camp Farm and Pond Creek Gardens, we began doing this "collaborative order fulfillment"––or COF as none of us called it––to a small extent this year, and I think we all benefited. Lizzie from Sugar Camp said she had a chef looking for sassafras root, but didn't have any more herself to sell. So she called us and we were able to fulfill the order. Or in another case, I needed more lambs quarters for an order so I tapped Christian, who helped me flesh it out. This sort of collaborative foraging, which could work just as well for general farming, holds a lot of potential for working with chefs. Farmers have their own relationships to individual restaurants, retailers, or what have you, that all have specific produce needs. Fulfilling those needs, I believe, behooves us all.Because, for starters, isn't finding a market part of the challenge in wanting to grow new and different things? It's hard enough to want to grow or raise something interesting without knowing how it will perform. Add to that not knowing if you can sell it and suddenly, what's the incentive? Perhaps having other farmers in your corner, who have their own relationships with their own chefs, could be a great way to move items you may not normally be able to throw at your CSA or market customers. Maybe those farmers know you grow ginger, and a chef mentions they're looking for it. For lack of a better sound effect––blamo.There are also definitely areas where chefs lack for enough of something––larger crops like onions and garlic, for instance. Maybe fingerling potatoes. Maybe sweet potatoes. But even greens or tomatoes. Ask the chefs. Or if you're a chef, tell the farmer. They may only be able to supply half of what you need, but chances are they know someone else who could supply the other half.So why would it "behoove us all" to involve other farmers in my dealings with my chef? Relationships. This is a business of relationships. If you are satisfying that chef's produce needs, while bringing more business to other farmers, that chef and those farmers will begin to think of you first when they need something. In a recent, and poignant, episode of Chris Blanchard's excellent podcast, Farmer to Farmer , guest Steve Tomlinson, from Great Road Farm pointed out that "[Chefs] kind of want to order from one place or two places, and not have a whole entire list." And I've started to see this, too. If chefs can count on you to do a percentage of their sourcing, that saves them time and helps build that relationship. Sure, it may be a bit more work on your end, but you also may get a call one day from a farmer you helped who has an order for beans, or squash, or carrots, or sassafras––locally pronounced, "sass-fris"––root. That's paying it forward. And that's a sale you didn't have to work for.Perhaps finding a way to make the execution of this easier on the farmers and chefs in your area to see what's available and what needs to be fulfilled would be taking this a step further. Tomlinson in his interview recommended the app Slack. A website could be probably be set up for your area. Instagram also has a message option where groups of people can talk and share photos. Group emails? Facebook? Texting? I say see what works for your chefs and farmer friends and take the winter to set it in motion.- Jesse.

THE FARMER AND CHEF SERIES: THE VALUE OF RESTAURANT SALES.

In a recent post I openly pondered, "What is the value of selling to chefs?" And though I did attempt the question, I still felt I couldn't do the answer justice on my own. So for a little perspective, I called urban farmer Curtis Stone to get his thoughts.Curtis is an interesting dude. Rapidly becoming known for his small-scale, high-efficiency Canadian urban farm, Green City Acres––which famously grosses over $75,000 a year on 1/3rd of an acre––Curtis is sort of a legend in the small farming community. To put his farm's income in perspective, we figure one full acre for us right now grosses around $25,000 per year––it could be as high as $50,000 by next year if we seriously throw down (and we're gonna try). That said, we grow a vast majority of our own food, so that figure may need some adjusting, but you get the idea––$75,000 on a third of that is pretty impressive. (Don't worry, Curtis wrote a book, and no, I can't wait for it to come out either.)So I gave Curtis a call and rather amusingly our whole first conversation lasted only 5 minutes 46 seconds before his phone died. But, if Curtis is as efficient on his farm as he is on the phone, I am not surprised in any way he makes the money he does. I barely needed a follow-up phone call to get what I was after––the man wastes no time.When I reached Curtis he was still packing for the farmer's market, and used that as an example of what makes selling to restaurants so attractive. "Like right now," Curtis explains, "I'm bagging [affectionate expletive] arugula, and it takes me four times as long, because it takes me the same amount of time to pack a quarter pound bag [for market] that it does to pack a two pound bag for a restaurant." And, one could safely assume, it also takes four times less work, and less hours, to sell it to a restaurant than to a market.Restaurants, distributors and wholesalers make up around 81% of his farm sales now (up from 20% when he first started farming). Even with a discount of 25%, he insists––and is the type of dude who would know––it's still highly profitable. "You're getting a slightly lower price point," he admits, "but you're selling at a higher volume. And you're moving more product with less packaging time. So it's a better use of labor to sell in large volume... We move high volumes of high value crops to high value customers."If you're a farmer, dependent upon market sales even to a small extent, what Curtis does is attractive. For Curtis, a single restaurant order can be anywhere between $200 and $1000. "And what it takes to pack that order," he adds, "is negligible compared to what it takes to pack for market." In other words––nay, in his own words––he is saving time while selling more.So what makes restaurant sales worth it is not just having an outlet for food you might not normally sell, or having someone to buy in bulk, it's also about efficiency, and about profit from that efficiency. Now, if I may editorialize, 81% restaurant sales is not our style. We enjoy the diversity of markets, and especially our CSA relationship. But hearing Curtis' take on the value of restaurant sales definitely lends a good perspective to the idea––it shows that restaurants don't just buy produce in bulk, but they save time in bulk, too.For more from Curtis Stone follow the Permaculture Voices Podcast where host Diego Footer checks in with Curtis every week. Cutis' book The Urban Farmer comes out around the New Year, and is on preorder now. And for those really interested in an in depth examination of his practices, check out his online course.- Jesse.

THE FARMER AND CHEF SERIES: EIGHT LESSONS FROM ROCKY GLADE FARM.

If a farmer is truly trying to work restaurants into their sales, I found Rocky Glade's advice to be thoroughly insightful. So insightful, in fact, I couldn't fit everything I wanted into the last post. So I thought it necessitated one more short piece––a collection of eight interesting tips, ideas and stories farmers should consider when hoping to work more with chefs.

One - Don't call chefs. And definitely don't call chefs at night––while they're cooking––unless you absolutely have to. "I will not call you [in the evening]," says Julie, "unless it's something I have to have an answer on. But if I'm trying to beat cold, or beat rain, I am gonna call you because I can't wait." Email is generally preferred, but each chef may have his or her own preference. And as the chef gets to know you, and how farms function, they will understand the necessity behind the occasional phone call.

Two - Invite the chef to visit your farm. Help he or she to understand where you're coming from: "Our hoop house is just like [restaurant] tables," says Jim, "Our profit is how much you sell that table, but also how fast you turn it. You can't put a six month crop in a hoop house because you can't give up those three lettuce crops, or the four radish crops."

Julie adds, "And they get that because they don't want someone sitting at a table for three hours not ordering anything."

Three - Send samples, take pictures, physically show them what you've got. "If they can see it and touch it," that helps sell it.

Four - Pay attention to what they want, and don't send them things they can't use. "Early on, what we didn't send built the relationship as much as what we did."

Five - Indeed, build your relationship. A lot of farmers may view restaurants as an opportunity to dump ten bushels of kale every week. But it's not that easy: "We work that relationship just as hard as the CSA," says Julie. You have to communicate with them regularly, listen to them, anticipate and care about their business as much as your own.

Six - Eat there: Rocky Glade tells us they have only eaten at Rolf a few times, and "...actually seeing your food come out on a plate," Says Julie, "You go 'Okay, that's why. That's why you want this small. Or that's why you don't want it bunched...'. If I go and eat, and watch my food come out, it helps me do a better job in the field." -Julie

Seven - Have your chef be specific about what they need. Jim tells us, "A lot of chefs will tell you, 'I'll take all you can grow'. Rolf and Daughters is really good about telling you what the goal is and why."

Eight - Share the risk. This is something Rocky Glade is still working on and Julie tells us, "The only way I've found to share the risk is by doing a bunch of research, finding out how much something might cost, I tell him what I would have to charge and he decides if it's worth it." In the case of a very expensive seed, they say, "if [the chef] helped with the seed cost, [he] could buy it later at a discounted price." This sort of "risk sharing", since chef's are not as fond of the CSA model, might be the best way to safely experiment with new crops and new ideas without risking too much of your own space, money and time.

Big thanks again to Rocky Glade for all their insight–-what a great family and model farm. Don't forget to keep up with the Vaughns through their website, and visit them at the Franklin Farmer's Market.

- Jesse.