George Carpenter creates connections between local farms and restaurants to put local food on the table

Until the infamous E. Coli spinach scare in September, a lot of Americans never gave a thought to where their food came from or what kinds of techniques were used in its processing. Produce appeared in grocery stores magically waxed, washed and ready-to-eat. But George Carpenter, founder of a company called Farm2Chef, growing technique and location are all he considers.

Since 2004, Carpenter has been supplying almost 50 Seacoast restaurants with locally grown produce, meats and cheeses from anywhere between five and 25 farms located in Maine and New Hampshire, with the farthest one being just an hour north of the border in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. 

“Something that’s on your plate tonight may have been still in the ground this morning,” Carpenter says. “It may not even realize it’s had its roots knocked off and that it’s sitting in a frying pan.”

Carpenter picks up most of the produce himself and delivers it the same day to chefs who then prepare it for their customers.

“That’s the way it should be,” says Duncan Boyd, chef at Victory Restaurant in Portsmouth. Boyd orders produce and goat cheese from Carpenter, and hits up local farmer’s markets and uses a few other distributors to fill in the gaps. Other local restaurants that use Farm2Chef include Portsmouth’s Dolphin Striker, South Berwick’s Pepperland Café, Kennebunkport’s Cape Arundel Inn, and 98 Provence in Ogunquit. 

“Four years ago, restaurateurs were saying that buying local produce was cost prohibitive and they didn’t think the clientele would notice,” Carpenter says. “That attitude has really changed. When crop yields are high, prices are low, and the quality of locally grown food can’t be matched by something grown in California and trucked to New England.”

During the E. Coli outbreak, when spinach wasn’t available, Carpenter introduced his clients to other types of nutritious greens like Brussels sprouts tops, broccoli raab and chard. “I got rounds of applause bringing locally grown spinach and Brussels sprouts into restaurants over Columbus Day weekend,” he says.

Carpenter not only helps chefs get the best and freshest ingredients, he helps local farmers get their products onto the market. Valerie Davies, owner of Heart Song Farmstead Goat Cheeses, was the first farmer George represented. She no longer had to dedicate two days a week to deliveries, and her business doubled in only a few months after the two began working together. “Because he sells many products that go well with goat cheese, more doors open for both of us than would be open were he only representing one product,” she says,

Davies says she checked into regular distributors when she started her business and found that they all required that she sell her cheese to them at a large discount. “I couldn’t afford to do it that way,” she says. “Many of my competitors who went that route are no longer in business, even though they produced a very fine, high-end product. Most distributors or wholesalers want to buy in huge quantities, much larger than the average small scale farmer can do alone.”

Davies considers Carpenter more of a “chef’s buyer” than a wholesaler or a distributor. “He ‘speaks chef,’” she says. “At any give time, he has three or four recipes ready in his head for chefs to prepare, using whatever products he has to offer.”

This time of year, Carpenter is focusing on getting everything ready for next year’s growing season. He orders seeds in January and receives them in February, March and April. Carpenter doesn’t own a farm, but occasionally rents land when he needs to. He isn’t a stickler for organic produce, but he does make sure that everything he deals with is grown without pesticides and by farmers who keep sustainability and animal-friendliness close to heart.

Aside from reaping the benefits of quality and peace of mind, restaurants that use local produce keep more money in the local economy. “It is very important to support local agriculture, or there will be no local agriculture,” Davies says. “It keeps money from our communities in our communities.”

Carpenter works closely with his restaurant clients, and they can specially request items to be grown. Evan Mallett, chef at Lindbergh’s Crossing in Portsmouth, asked Carpenter to produce a leafy green vegetable called callaloo, also known as amaranth. Since callaloo is native to the Caribbean, Carpenter wasn’t successful at producing the plant this past September, but plans to try again midsummer, when heat and sunlight are at their peak. 

Other restaurateurs have inquired about exotic game, like ostrich. Carpenter doesn’t know where to find ostrich, but he did find a sustainable elk ranch called Velvet Pastures based in Lee, which now provides fresh meat to his clientele.

Carpenter has also been asked to grow a type of tomato called Paul Robeson, which is a dark-colored tomato with a smoky taste that’s named in honor of the civil rights activist and singer. Carpenter works cooperatively with growers, who will sometimes try new plants at no cost simply to experiment.

“Some heirloom tomatoes haven’t been grown in 130 years because they’re extremely prone to insects and disease. We always try, though,” Carpenter says. “Like my favorite philosopher Foghorn Leghorn says, ‘Sometimes it’s chicken, sometimes it’s feathers.’”

2006 was a bad growing season because the spring was cool and wet for a long period of time. Blights and fungus abounded, something that Carpenter had to try to make up for all summer. 2005, on the other hand, started out wet, but the summer season was dry and irrigation had to be used more than usual. The adjustments go hand in hand with growing anything in New England.

Carpenter spends 35-40 hours a week doing the legwork for Farm2Chef. His energy and passion about providing local ingredients are part of what Duncan Boyd likes about working with him. “I don’t have a lot of time to go around to farms, and farmers don’t have time to come and sell things to me,” Boyd says. “I wish there were more people doing what George does.” 

For more information on Farm2Chef, go to www.farm2chef.com.

For more information about eating local while dining out on the Seacoast, visit www.seacoasteatlocal.org.

For a guide to local food at restaurants around the state, visit nhfarmtorestaurant.com.