×

Farm-to-Table: Embracing our past could spark tourism

This morning in Charleston, lawmakers will be attending a Farm-to-Table Legislative Breakfast, at which they will be served food produced by area farmers while learning about the importance of the work being done in our conservation districts. They will be served 16 dozen eggs from City Chicks Farm in Cross Lanes; a whole hog’s worth of ham, bacon and sausage from V and J Farms in Putnam County; potatoes from Rusty and Shannon Keller’s greenhouse in Wayne County; apples and cider from Orr’s Farm Market in Berkeley County; and apple butter from the Jefferson FFA in Shenandoah Junction, Jefferson County.

Is your mouth watering yet?

There was a time in this state when most meals were, if not farm to table, then at least farm to market to table. If your family has lived here for a few generations, you likely remember being served meals that would put the likes of Bobby Flay and Wolfgang Puck to shame. No one would have dreamed of applying terms such as single-source, organic, small batch, free range or non-GMO to those meals, but they were. In fact, for many, the small garden in the back yard, combined with a little hunting and some negotiations with the farmer up the hill, provided the bulk of what a family needed. Anything left over was canned and put in the cellar, along with the potatoes, for later use.

Today, parts of West Virginia are labeled food deserts. So much of what sustained us has been lost, and it is a shame.

That kind of food tradition could be a huge draw for the visitors our Tourism Department hopes to attract to the state. Folks from urban areas — those whose families were never blessed with a meal from the garden — will pay big money to sit down to an “authentic” farm-to-table Appalachian meal.

Take a look at the prices for tickets at farm-to-table events in our region. People will pay to eat what is coming out of the increasingly fewer farms and small agricultural operations in our state, some sustained by the resources available in our conservation districts.

It is another idea for which West Virginians will have to swallow their pride, show some initiative, dig back into our true heritage and be willing to show it off a little. Embracing our farm-to-table past could not only help feed some of the families struggling in food deserts where diabetes, heart disease and obesity are so high; but add another attraction to the long list already touted by our Tourism Department.

Perhaps the men and women attending this morning’s breakfast are already on this track, but it should remain fresh in their minds. If you grow it, raise it, can it, cook it and serve it, they will come.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today