Food for Thought
For the past five years, Georgia Southern University’s Friends of Zach S. Henderson Library, a council dedicated to supporting and strengthening the Library’s services and collections, in partnership with the Statesboro Main Street Farmers’ Market, has held a benefit combining local food and literature in an effort to highlight the region’s natural resources while supporting an educational one.
The Farm To Table Dinner began in 2010 just as the farm to table food movement was gathering steam and becoming a culinary trend, and not long after the Farmers’ Market opened in downtown Statesboro. The phrase farm to table is a buzzword referring to food made with locally sourced ingredients.
While other University outreach centers have held longstanding food-related fundraisers, such as the Garden of the Coastal Plain’s “Wine, Moonlight and Magnolias” and Georgia Southern Museum’s “Feed the Mosasaur,” the Library needed a unique angle that would be both educational and entertaining. “At the time, a number of our members of Friends Council were fans of the market,” said Bede Mitchell, dean of the Zach S. Henderson Library. “We knew this would be a cool thing to hang our hat on.”
Since 2010, a few notable guests have included Savannah culinary historian Damon Lee Fowler, award-winning author and speaker Ken Burger of Charleston, South Carolina, and most recently, environmentalist and author Janisse Ray hailing from Baxley, Georgia. At the 2014 event, Ray spoke about the need to re-localize our food, with a focus on the importance of supporting local farmers and food producers, educating the public on where food comes from and knowing your farmers. “The average calorie on our plate has to travel 1,500 miles to get to us,” she said. “If you’re eating from a local farm, you know the distance that food traveled. When you have a relationship with your farmer, you’re more in touch with what that person’s putting on the fields. That food is going to be fresher and more nutritious.”
Each year, the event begins with music and signature cocktails, and is followed by a five-course gourmet meal featuring local, seasonal produce from the farms of southeast Georgia. Kevin Case, executive chef of Eagle Dining Services has catered the event for three years and simply put, explains farm to table as cutting out the middle man. “The food you’re being served is sourced at area farms,” he said. “It didn’t go through a distributor to get to you. We went directly to the farmers and constructed a menu from the crops.”
Case and his culinary team of eight produced 450 plates during the June event for 86 guests. He says he wants attendees to take away from the dining experience two things – inspiration in the kitchen and an appreciation for local food and farmers.
“I hope folks can see all the local produce we have in Statesboro and surrounding areas and that we’ve encouraged them to visit the Farmers’ Market and get new ideas,” he said. “I hope they’ve been inspired and that we’ve helped them discover what they can make with Relinda Walker’s carrots, potatoes or squash, or Stacy Freeman’s grits and flour. This event is also about giving the farmers recognition and getting their names out there. For some it’s their livelihood. If we don’t support that, our food supply, we’ll lose out on supporting the farmers and our local community.” – Rebekah Faulk
The Farm To Table Dinner menu for the June 19 event featured the following dishes:
1st Course
Chilled Cantaloupe Soup with Wild Georgia Shrimp, yogurt, balsamic and mint
2nd Course
Goat Cheese Panna Cotta with Peaches, Arugula, olive oil and black pepper
3rd Course
Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Baby Summer Vegetables and Basil Gremolata
4th Course
Seared New York strip with Bleu Cheese Grits, Roasted Baby Rainbow Carrots and Bordelaise Sauce
5th Course
Lemon Pound Cake with Fresh Blueberries and Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream
To learn more about the Farm to Table Movement directly from renowned chefs, visit http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/farm-to-table-food-movement