Columbia Mash-up event is ‘like speed dating for farmers and chefs’

Call it “speed dating for farmers and chefs.”

The Midlands Food Alliance will host on Oct. 9 the Farmer/Chef Mash-up at Senate’s End, bringing together local farmers and chefs, distributors and wholesale-level food buyers to meet and hopefully create new business relationships beneficial to both sides of the farm to fork movement.

Ahead of the event, I spoke to a number of farmers and chefs who plan on attending the Mash-up but have already formed working partnerships within their communities. The farmers, chefs and a local distributor were happy to share their stories and offer advice for others.

In retail, ‘there’s no reason to starve selling food’

John Brunty, owner, CRAVE Artisan Specialty Market

Brunty started out marketing Mother Shucker’s Original Cocktail Sauce before opening CRAVE. The market specializes in South Carolina foods and small-batch products. He said he has to like the vendor, the product and the story behind the product before he considers putting something on the shelves.

Having worked both sides of the operation, Brunty is quick to say the No. 1 thing that anyone – farmer or specialty food producer – needs to know is your margins: how much something costs to create and how much you’ll have to sell it for in order to make a profit.

“If someone really likes your grandmother’s jam recipe, you better be able to produce it,” he said. “You’ll have to be able to get it into several stores. And the distribution side is something a lot of folks don’t think about. Everything costs – especially in the food industry. Space (on the shelves) is tight and every square inch needs to generate revenue to make it worthwhile.”

His advice to people starting out in specialty foods: Know your costs – to the penny – and how much the market is willing to pay for your product. There’s a huge difference between margin and mark-up. “There’s no reason to starve selling food.” And take the time to engage the person across the counter.

For farmers, ‘be easy to contact’

Ola Helsing, USC graduate, French Culinary Institute in New York City. Worked at Sandy’s Hot Dogs in college and later Terra. Today, runs cafe at CRAVE.

Helsing likes the close connection with farmers here.

“You find out about farmers through others – by word of mouth,” Helsing said. “What I love about the local farmers is typically, when you order something, it’s from the farmer – you’ve talked to the farmer and a lot of times they will bring it to you. They’re picking it and seeing it used and telling you about other farmers.”

She has been at CRAVE for only a few months. When asked how the seasonality of produce affects CRAVE’s cafe, Helsing noted, “I started at the perfect time, at the beginning of the growing season. So it’s going to be interesting to incorporate that (on the menu).

“When the fall and winter come, we will be doing soups, so there will be some wiggle room to base soups on something that’s growing in the wintertime. It will be exciting.”

She said the sandwich shop is different from a larger restaurant in that she needs to keep the final cost of her food lower. But “it’s important that no matter what you do, you do it with care.”

She incorporates local food on a smaller scale – “taking ingredients that are affordable for us and incorporating them in our sandwiches or salads and our tomato pies.”

Her advice to farmers: “Be easy to contact and open to the fact that I might need something in less than 24 hours. And that there are small places like CRAVE, who are not fine dining, who would love to support farmers if they had ingredients that could be incorporated into our menu.”

Chefs should ‘promote the farmer’

Brandon Velie, chef and co-owner of Juniper in Ridge Spring and former S.C. Chef Ambassador.

Because he changes the menu of his Juniper restaurant on a weekly basis, Velie waits until first of the week to plan his weekend dinner menus. He asks farmers what they have available and decides what dishes to create from that list of ingredients.

For him, he said, “that method works best – versus me saying ‘I need this and I need you to deliver it on this day and this much or I can’t work with you.’

“Creatively, it’s a lot more fun.”

Veile deals with a range of farmers — from the large Titan Farms, with 5,000-plus acres of peaches and a 1,000-acre vegetable farm; to the 30-acre husband-and-wife run Happy Earth Farm producing antibiotic-free chickens; and the half-acre vegetable garden managed by Cranford Burke at Warbler Creek Farm.

“There have been times when we’ve found out about a food or wine festival or get invited to one, and I’ll be like (to the Fennells at Happy Earth Farm) I’ll take everything you have. I’ve been known to come out and empty their freezer,” said Velie. “That can mean 40 or 50 whole chickens at once.”

His advice to farmers and chefs: Flexibility is key in the chef and farmer relationship. Find a way to promote the farmer on the menu or through social media.

Invite chefs out to the farm

Steve and Karen Fennell run Happy Earth Farm in Aiken, 30 acres of pasture where the Fennells raise antibiotic-free, organic chickens, turkey and beef. The husband-and-wife team — the farm’s only employees — also grow a limited amount of vegetables on three-quarters of an acre.

The Fennells met Brandon Velie at the Aiken County Farmers Market. Velie purchased a chicken from the Fennells and cooked it at the market with other market-sourced ingredients.

“I sampled what he made,” said Steve Fennell, “and it was delicious. We started right then (selling chickens to Juniper), and over the years, began selling produce.”

Karen Fennell jumps in to say that Velie has come out to the farm – and has sent some of his kitchen staff out to spend the day – butchering and processing poultry for the restaurant.

At the moment, the Fennells sell chickens directly from the farm and at local farmers markets. Juniper is the only restaurant that they supply.

There’s no expectation of a set number of birds Velie will need each week. “When he’s cooking for a special event, he lets us know in advance, ‘hey do you have 30 chickens?’ and we’ll put them aside,” said Karen Fennell. “It’s very fluid, there’s no rigid expectation. It’s a phone call or a text ... because his menu changes hourly.”

Steve Fennell noted, “We raise our chickens in batches. We’re not doing thousands of chickens, only 100-150 at a time. Chickens take time to grow out (before harvesting).”

Their advice to farmers: Check out the restaurant and sample the food, and invite the chef (and staff) out to the farm.

‘Charge what you have to to make money’

Wes Fulmer is executive chef at Motor Supply Company Bistro.

Fulmer works with more than 20 farmers to source local ingredients for the Motor Supply menu. That menu changes daily, according to what Fulmer has on hand.

Although he hates the phrase, Fulmer is no stranger to the farm-to-table movement – he started out his culinary career in the kitchen with Chef John Besh in New Orleans, where Besh had farmers raising pigs especially for his restaurants and dealt with more than 100 farmers, shrimpers and producers.

When Fulmer returned to South Carolina, he worked at Kiawah Island, where the corporate environment made it difficult to incorporate local produce. In Columbia, Fulmer walked into a restaurant that already had a reputation for sourcing food locally – and has built upon that reputation.

He regularly goes to farmers markets and tries to make more contacts with local farmers, but it can be difficult at times.

“The distributors – Sysco, Senn Brothers and Southern Foods – know what the chefs want and the problem is that farmers sometimes are so small to consistently supply a restaurant,” he said.

He also gives the farmer the benefit of the doubt when doing business. “Farming is hard business,” said Fulmer. “There’s money and expenses from birth to slaughter.

“The one thing I’d tell another chef is to share your passion for your food with the farmers.

“Farmers are extremely proud. Use the ingredients any way you can and promote the farm (farmers and suppliers are listed in the dishes on the menu at Motor Supply). Take a photo of your dishes and send them to the farmer or post it on your own (social media accounts).”

His advice to farmers: Fulmer said, have honest discussions with the people using your product, expect to get feedback and expect to give it.

And advice to farmers and chefs: “Charge what you have to to make money.”

COLUMBIA: THE FARMER

Keith Willoughby operates Will-Moore Farms.

Keith Willoughby and Will-Moore Farms chickens and eggs are a staple at area farmers markets, where he also sells his pork, lamb and goat meat, and whole milk and cheeses from Happy Cow Dairy.

Willoughby started out in 2004, selling eggs and chickens to restaurants in Camden and then at Motor Supply Company Bistro in Columbia.

“There were no formal agreements,” he said. He would make cold calls, have referrals or make contacts with chefs at farmers markets. Once contact was made, Willoughby would bring samples of his products and a price list to the restaurants, and he and the chef would work out a delivery schedule.

Collecting pasture-raised eggs is a labor-intensive operation on a farm – eggs need to be collected at least twice a day and then cleaned, packaged and stored before heading to market. At the height of his egg business, Willoughby was selling to 16 restaurants throughout the Midlands.

Then a series of events forced him to cut back on sales to restaurants: he lost his help on the farm; in order to help out, his wife would have had to leave her job that provided the family with health insurance. He could have shifted some of the work to his children, but they were too young at the time.

Willoughby looked at the list of customers who purchased eggs only, rather than a combination of products, and that’s where he made his delivery cuts.

“We’re not a one-product farm,” he said, “We want you to buy as much from us as possible.” But at the same time, Willoughby has to make sure that the cost of the products he sells make a return on the cost of labor and delivery. “You have to know to the penny – labor, taxes, feed and replacement costs.”

His advice to chefs: Understand that there are a lot of unknowns that need to be factored into farming. Weather – if it’s too hot or too wet – can affect not only crops but egg production. “Because of the extreme heat (last week), egg production is half of what it is normally,” he said.

His advice to farmers: Understand that there are slow months in the restaurant business. Typically, January, June and July are slow months for dining establishments and farmers may need to adjust.

His advice to farmers and chefs: Be flexible and develop a trusting relationship

This story was originally published August 29, 2017 at 1:44 PM.