This past spring I was interning for Lauren Slayton at Breadloaf Bakery (a baked goods stand at the Middlebury Farmer’s market. Kids in Middlebury–go and eat everything she makes, especially the carrot cake cupcakes.) While working with Lauren, I learned about marketing local products and more importantly, about acquiring local ingredients. Lauren attempts to source her ingredients, such as flours, eggs, milk, honey, beans, butter, and veggies, from local farms when possible. I had always considered “organic” labels more important than “local” ones because of health reasons. But it turns out, a lot of local farms are organic anyway and just don’t pay for the certifications. So I began to think more about “local” as a wedge. Lauren is able to source her butter and milk from Monument, where she can avoid the mark-ups at stores. Furthermore, in exchange for her work on Orb Weaver farm, she gets eggs, veggies, and cheese! She also has her own chickens, makes her own vanilla extract, and buys in bulk. She can get grains from Gleason’s and the co-op will often give her wholesale prices on organic coconut and other add-ins. Thus, Lauren is using locality as a wedge between farmers and grocery stores/middlemen. In doing so, Lauren assists farmers by marketing their products at her stand and also benefits from better prices. While this wedge is effective in a place like Middlebury, Vermont, in other areas I think distance would become a problem. The drive between Gleasons, Monument, and the Co-op aren’t too far and thus is only moderately unsustainable. However, in a place where the distance is much larger, people would have to drive very far to effectively use locality as a wedge that separates the farmers and value added products from grocery stores and middlemen. Furthermore, Lauren’s limited menu and specialty products allow for her to use mostly local ingredients. Other establishments could struggle with sourcing all of their needs locally–but maybe that’s just a sacrifice they have to make.
