Five or six years ago, Executive Chef Daniel Chong-Jiménez was talking about a new way of looking at the food we eat . He had witnessed this new trend in his native California and predicted it would come to Connecticut, the “land of steady habits.” Some people were skeptical.
But arrive it did, starting three or four years ago, and it is growing each year. The movement, “farm-to-table,” means that people who enjoy good food and want to eat in a healthy way are looking to local farms and local food producers, rather than shopping exclusively at a supermarket. Local food is “green” and it is fresh, because it doesn’t require the consumption of gasoline or waste time by being hauled cross-country by truck.
Have you heard the term “locavore?” It’s means “someone who eats local foods.” There is a growing number of “locavores” in Eastern Connecticut. Look at the Farmers’ Markets that have sprung up in so many towns – more than a dozen in New London County. In Waterford, which began as a farming community but is now heavily suburbanized, land next to a firehouse is now used to grow produce for sale to the pubic.
We’ve just completed the 2010 Farm–To-Chef Harvest Celebration Week, in which we featured cream from The Farmer’s Cow of Lebanon, veal and cheese from Cato Corner Farm of Colchester, Connecticut-grown tomatoes, lobster from Seawall Seafoods, Stonington, salad greens and vegetables from GeoRoots Solar Farms in Canton, apple cider from Holmberg Orchards in Gales Ferry, and currant juice from Maple Lane Farms in Preston.
We serve wines from all over the world, but we are especially proud to offer wines from Priam Vineyards of Colchester, Sharpe Hill Vineyards of Pomfret, Stonington Vineyards of Stonington and Jonathan Edwards Winery, North Stonington.
Many of these ingredients are already an integral part of our daily menu. Kensington’s restaurant is open for dinner every night. Join your neighbors and be a locavore at Kensington’s, at 607 West Thames Street (Route 32) in Norwich. Call 860.425.3630 for reservations.
