Biting into local food

A student ladles leek and sweet potato soup into his bowl. (Danny Abriel Photo)

If you’re hankering for a granny smith apple, you’d be out of luck at one of Dalhousie’s residence dining halls.

On the other hand, you can take your pick from dozens of other local varieties: sunrise, gravenstein, macintosh, courtland, honey crisp and more.

“These apples are at their peek right now,” says Melissa Vaughan, with Noggins Corner Farm in Greenwich in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley. Owned and operated by the Bishop family, the mixed-farm operation includes 175 acres of orchards, 80 acres of fields growing vegetables, a dairy and a year-round farm market.

“If you’re in residence, the apple you’re biting into came from the Annapolis Valley and it wasn’t picked that long ago.”

Aramark Food Services feeds thousands of students at four residence dining halls and 14 food outlets each day. Since last September when an audit revealed 30 per cent of foods came from local producers, Aramark has introduced its farm-to-table program in a concerted effort to increase this percentage.

That means fresh ripe apples from the Annapolis Valley instead of hard green apples shipped from California, Washington, Chile or New Zealand. It means chicken from Eden Valley Farms in Kentville, pies and pastries from Sarsfield Foods in Kentville, potatoes and French fries from McCain Foods, eggs from Maritime Pride Eggs in Amherst, pork from Larsen Packers in Berwick, mushrooms from Essex Kent Mushrooms and fresh herbs from Farmer John’s Herbs in Canning, just to name a few of the local products sourced from more than 30 local suppliers.

The move supports Nova Scotia farmers and minimizes transportation needs, conserving energy and creating less pollution when foods travel fewer miles to reach the campus, says Derrick Hines, resident district manager for Aramark. But the best part is that the food tastes better and fresher: “You definitely can notice a taste difference,” he says.

But incorporating local, seasonal foods into menus has been a bit of a challenge. Dietitian Angela Banks-Emmerson has been working with Aramark chefs to develop new recipes showcasing local fruits, vegetables and proteins. At this time of the year, for example, that means recipes that include winter vegetables such as squash, turnips, sweet potatoes, parsnips and carrots such as mashed parsnips, leek and potato soup and baked sweet potatoes.

“It has meant experimentation and just getting back to the basics of what people used to eat when the cold weather approached,” she says.

Aramark recently highlighted its farm-to-table program by creating a display of locally grown fruits and vegetables. Farmers who supply Kings Produce in Canning with everything from cranberries to cucumbers and cauliflower stopped by the dining room in Howe Hall to talk with students and preside over a taste test of different apple varieties.

Aramark’s buy-local policy is just one of several sustainability initiatives. A few months ago, it got rid of trays in dining halls to conserve the water and electricity needed to wash them. It also serves fair-trade coffee from Just Us Coffee, promotes recycling and is switching its fleet of food-service trucks over to bio-diesel fuel.