Farm-To-Fork with Omega Farm
This article is part of a series that I wrote documenting Bon Appétit Management Company's Farm-To-Fork program.Omega Farm – Bon Appétit Farm Brief
In the late summer of 2003, Peter Kaseburg of the Omega Farm found himself in a precarious position. He had just completed the arduous, three-year process of organically certifying his Ridgefield, Washington pear farm and was trying to sell his crop at the Saturday Portland Farmer’s Market. Unfortunately, sales were slower than expected and he began to wonder if his decision to go organic had been a flawed one. “For a time there, I thought I might have to pull out some of my trees and try farming something else,” he explains.
As a supplier of pears for a local cannery, Peter was required to grow the perfect-looking pears, free of blemishes and uniform in size. This methodology required the use of a wide array of man-made fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, and placed little emphasis on the flavor of the pears. Cannery prices hadn’t risen significantly since he began growing pears in 1977. By 1999, Peter was paying more for chemicals than he was receiving for selling his crop. Thus, he refocused his efforts, committing himself to growing perfect-tasting pears organically, without the use of any man made agricultural materials. He would abandon his relationship with the cannery, and the guarantee that it would buy his entire crop, choosing, instead, to sell his crop himself.
After a few weeks of selling at the Farmer’s Market, Peter met Sam Currie, a district manager for Bon Appétit, who was impressed with the excellent flavor and texture of Kaseburg’s pears. “Sam put me in contact with some of the local Bon Appétit executive chefs and I began delivering to five of their accounts later that week.” The addition of the Bon Appétit accounts eliminated the risk of Peter’s potential oversupply problem in short order. However, it also introduced some significant logistical challenges. Since the accounts were spread across a relatively wide geographical area, the time required to drive to all of the accounts to make deliveries was nearly prohibitive. Despite the fact that these new accounts were essential to his business’ success, Peter was in the position of having to turn them down because he lacked the time to make all of the deliveries himself.
Fortunately, Richard Calbow, a general manager for Bon Appétit arrived at a solution to Peter’s distribution dilemma; Peter could deliver his pears to one account and Richard would distribute them to the other accounts. “These farmers have so many other things to do, so I try to help where I can,” Richard explains. “The last thing Peter has time to do is drive boxes of pears all over Portland. I visit these accounts on a daily basis anyway, so I figured I could save him a lot of time, money, and gas.” To Peter, the collaborative spirit between Bon Appétit and its farmers represents the quintessence of the Farm to Fork program.
Peter has been moved by how serious Bon Appétit chefs take their sourcing and how much they respect farmers. “They are really good people,” he explains “even when the kitchen is absolutely crazy, the chefs always take time to talk to me.” His relationship with Bon Appétit has been a symbiotic one. Peter leverages his deep knowledge of pears to provide Bon Appétit chefs with the ideal pears for their gastronomic creations. “It is a truly unique situation,” he explains. “The chefs can tell me how they want to use my pears and I work to bring each delivery to the exact degree of ripeness to fit their needs.” Thus, Peter is delivering perfectly-ripened pears to his chefs allowing them to deliver the perfect meal to their customers.
For Peter Kaseburg and Omega Farm, working with Bon Appétit through the Farm To Fork Program has been both an economically essential exchange and a growth experience that has allowed him to excel at his craft. The relationship has been marked both by Bon Appétit’s respect for small farmers and their efforts to facilitate doing business with them. “They are my best and biggest customer and they now make up about one third of my business,” he states. “I can’t think of another company that would help distribute their suppliers products; their level of commitment to sourcing products directly from farmers is unbelievable. Working with Bon Appétit has solved a lot of problems for me.” His alignment with Bon Appétit has helped Peter develop business in other arenas as well. “I am unabashedly proud to be a part of Bon Appétit’s family of farmers,” he says. “When I meet with a potential customer and make the claim that my pears are indeed first class and warrant their serious consideration, my position is greatly legitimized by that fact that I grow pears for Bon Appétit. I like to brag about that.”
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posted by Brian J. Kenny @ 10:09 PM
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