Bringing the farm to the table, one minivan trip at a time
Photography by Patrick Tregenza
Like many other Carmel moms, Colleen Logan starts most of her weekday mornings by escorting her child to school.
But then she breaks from the typical script. She points her minivan away from the sea and heads to one of our local organic farms, like Mariquita Farm, in Watsonville, to select produce from the morning’s harvest and bring it back to deliver to local chefs.
It’s low-profile and largely behind-the-scenes work, but it’s important enough to the farms and restaurants her 2-year-old business serves that Savor the Local was voted Best Food Purveyor in Edible Monterey Bay magazine’s 2015 Local Hero Awards.
Why is it so important? The surprising truth is that even in the middle of one of the most productive farming areas in the country, it’s not easy for chefs to get diverse daily shipments of just-picked, seasonal organic produce. Few local organic farms—especially small ones—have the resources to make frequent deliveries to restaurants. So the restaurants must either limit their orders to the few farms that do, use a big food service company offering less-fresh options or travel to farmers’ markets when they can (not a convenient option for chefs in Big Sur and other areas where there are none) and make do between markets.
“I realized I wanted to address this whole disconnect our society has to food,” Logan says of her decision to start her business. “Straight up, our connection to the earth is through our stomachs. I decided this had reached a critical point, and I couldn’t look the other way and do something else with my life when there was this crying need to help local farmers have a better living, and get fresh food from the local farm to the community.”
Logan’s life began in Indiana, but her story of devotion to the land began after college. Armed with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in political economics, she went to visit her brother in New Mexico and fell in love. Her passion for the landscape, the lifestyle and the locals inspired her to move to the “Land of Enchantment” and dedicate herself to making it a better place.
Her focus was water conservation. Logan’s work led her to an environmental consulting position for a national firm, a job she took with her when moving to Carmel in 2008. A year later, she and most of her colleagues were laid off.
Logan, who had subscribed to a community supported agriculture program that regularly delivered a box of fresh produce and other local products, had never farmed but had always had an interest in it. Part of her interest came from a respect for the inherent risk of putting a seed in the ground, and part of it came from her work in natural resources. With Savor the Local, she’s found a profound need that she can fulfill.
“Savor the Local is an absolute game changer,” says Big Sur Bakery chef Jacob Burrell.
“We grow our own stuff in a small plot, but there is no way our garden can keep up with the volume. The reason I came out to California [from Pittsburgh], to be honest, is the produce. And Colleen’s the go between. She gives us a list of what’s available, we pick and choose what we want and she brings it, freshly picked. I don’t have time to stand in line at a farmers’ market, and she does it for us, a mom in a minivan.”
Logan has considered bringing in staff to expand her reach, but she holds the reins tightly on quality control and enjoys introducing the unexpected fruit or vegetable, so her chefs can experiment with their menus. When Logan suggests something to Affina’s chef de cuisine James Anderson, he jumps on it, she says. She is treasured by Basil Seasonal Dining’s Soerke Peters, and Aubergine pastry chef Ron Mendoza will make ice cream out of just about anything she delivers.
“Colleen’s into the chef, she’s into the farmer, she’s into the cause, she’s into spreading good food around the community,” says Burrell.
“She goes out of her way to deliver to us, making it easier for us to connect to the farmers. I think she believes in what we put on the table; I trust her to pick out whatever she thinks will work for us. It’s a nice, reciprocal relationship.”
Savor the Local
Carmel
831.708.8315
savorthelocal.com
About the author
A fifth-generation Northern Californian, Lisa Crawford Watson has enjoyed a diverse career in business, education and writing. She lives with her family on the Monterey Peninsula, where her grandmother once lived and wrote. An adjunct writing instructor for CSU Monterey Bay and Monterey Peninsula College, Lisa is also a free-lance writer, who specializes in the genres of art & architecture, health & lifestyle, food & wine. She has published various books and thousands of feature articles and columns in local and national newspapers and magazines.
