Chefs, nonprofits and farmers
are among our readers’ choices
Our heroes, from left: Jose Nunez, Tu Universal Organics/Everyone’s Harvest; GMO-Free SC’s Tarah Locke and Mary Graydon-Fontana; MEarth students;
Montrio’s Tony Baker; Pinnacle Organics’ Phil Foster and Serendipity Farms’ Jamie Collins.
Photos courtesy of winners and Edible Monterey Bay.
BY RENEE BRINCKS
The votes are in, and Edible Monterey Bay congratulates the winners of our inaugural Local Heroes Awards, which were selected by readers through an online poll on our website!
“It means a tremendous amount to be honored in this way,” says Monterey Chef Tony Baker, who snapped up Best Chef/Restaurant, Best Food Artisan and Best Food Retailer awards for his work with Montrio Bistro and Baker’s Bacon. “It makes you feel that your work is worth it and that people are paying attention.” During 15 years at Montrio, Baker has been serving fresh, made-from-scratch dishes crafted with seasonal, organic produce, responsibly raised meats and sustainable seafood. Baker’s Bacon, which he launched last August to create an alternative to overly processed mass-market brands, follows similar principles. Thick cuts of meat are hand-seasoned with salt, sugar and spices, dry cured and slowly smoked over apple wood. “Real food is my goal. It’s bringing us back to what food should be, which is minimally processed and, ideally, regional and local,” he says. “If you start with great ingredients, you don’t have to do a lot to them.”
The Local Heroes Awards are something that Edible magazines all across the U.S. and Canada have been conducting for several years, as a way to recognize local food producers and purveyors for their exceptional contributions to their communities.
While Baker swept three categories, three organizations split Best Nonprofit honors: GMO-Free Santa Cruz, MEarth at Hilton Bialek Habitat and Everyone’s Harvest.
GMO-Free Santa Cruz, led by Tarah Locke and Mary Graydon- Fontana, is garnering local support for a proposed California ballot initiative to require the labeling of genetically modified foods (GMOs). Currently, no such labeling is required, so there is no way for consumers to know if foods contain GMO ingredients unless sellers disclose it voluntarily. Since July, 120 volunteers have been trained to collect signatures.
“It’s like the whole movement toward eating locally and organically,” says Locke. “We’re pushing toward that kind of awareness.” Encouraging awareness is also a goal of co-awardee MEarth, the environmental education nonprofit situated on the campus of Carmel Middle School. There, a small staff offers creative science and sustainability programs primarily aimed at students. In addition to an organic garden and native plant nursery, there’s a new green building with a living roof, solar panels, a rainwater catchment system and kitchen facilities that bring lessons to life.
“Our mission is to inspire students of all ages to understand, appreciate and protect the natural environment,” says MEarth Executive Director Andrea Lewis. “To have the work that we do validated through an award of this type is exceptionally gratifying.”
The Best Nonprofit recognition motivates Iris Peppard of Everyone’s Harvest to continue creating robust community outreach programs. Since launching the Marina Certified Farmers’ Market 10 years ago, her group has added others in Pacific Grove and Salinas. In 2010, Everyone’s Harvest introduced free farmers’ market cooking workshops as part of its Edible Education for Healthy Youth program. Chefs teach participants tasty new ways to enjoy produce sold right on site. (For more, see “Market Mania,” p. 20.)
“A lot of our farmers come from this area,” Peppard says. “We support them, and they support us
About the author
At Edible Monterey Bay, our mission is to celebrate the local food culture of Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey Counties, season by season. We believe in sustainability, and we believe everyone has a right to healthful, clean and affordable food. We think knowing where our food comes from is powerful, and we hope our magazine, website and newsletters inspire readers to get to know and support our local growers, fishers, chefs, vintners and food artisans.
