Our View: Annual dinner celebrates community, fresh cuisine

Published 9:34 am Tuesday, August 1, 2017

The Farm to Table movement has quickly become one of the more popular culinary trends today.

The phrase “farm to table” refers to locally-sourced food, and often goes by other catchy names like Farm to Fork. Whatever you call it, the truth is the movement really isn’t new. For decades people have lauded the benefits of eating fresh, locally-grown foods.

Thankfully, the movement is gaining more buzz in recent years, though.

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That buzz has extended to Clark County and was celebrated in a big way at Saturday’s Farm to Table dinner.

About 200 people crowded Depot Street for the second annual dinner to raise funds for the ultimate “farm to table” movement — the Winchester-Clark County Farmers’ Market.

Local farmers’ markets have been the backbone of the movement to provide fresh, locally-grown produce, meats and other goods to communities.

Fresh from Clark County, the menu included porchetta, pork belly with sweet pepper peach chutney, zucchini corn potato cakes, fresh vegetables from local farms and rosemary dinner rolls baked by Molly Stotts of My Father’s Garden.

And those dinner plates were served by the hands of the guests’ neighbors, as more than 20 volunteers, including Future Farmers of America students, staffed the event.

This movement has various benefits. It takes us back to our roots, to a time before we relied on heavily-processed and packaged foods.

It promotes high-quality foods over convenient foods, has environmental benefits and supports local farm families, leading to economic growth in our own community.

The delicious, refreshing cuisine is just the figurative icing on the locally-produced cake.

It is even more impressive this event, which doubled in attendance from the first year, was organized entirely by community volunteers who simply wanted to support the local farmers market while enjoying time with their neighbors.

Judging by Saturday night’s event, mission accomplished.

We look forward to many more years of celebrating locally-produced eats through this community event.