Why Farm-to-Table?

Mar 11

At Texas Corners Brewing Company (TCBC), we believe craft beer deserves craft food! We also believe in making food from scratch. Not only that, but we take it a step further by cooking with food ingredients that are grown, made, or produced locally. To us, anything local would be something grown or crafted within a few hours drive of our location in Kalamazoo, Michigan. We want to cover what does farm-to-table mean and why we believe it is so important.

Farm-to-table means knowing where your food comes from. The best scenario is getting the product delivered directly from the farm. Knowing the farmer or producer is part of the farm-to-table experience. It personalizes the transaction and deepens the connection we have to the land that sustains us. Sometimes demand, volume, or product specifications make it difficult to source locally. However, where possible, we strive to purchase and support local. We boil down the three major reasons why we do as much farm-to-table fare as realistically possible.

Supporting Local

As a family with a third generation farm (Schultz Fruitridge Farms), we believe in supporting local. By helping farmers, ranchers, and producers in our community and close to home, we are best helping to support the local families, people, employees, and economy. Keeping dollars close to home helps build up the businesses and families in our community and state.

Quality

The closer you get to the source of any food item, the better the quality. This means produce is picked at the peak of ripeness. It is not uncommon for us to serve produce like asparagus or sweet corn for dinner that was picked that morning. Buying local means product is as fresh as possible, and not harvested prematurely before being shipped halfway across the country, which brings us to our next point.

Sustainability

“Food miles” are the distance our food travels from the point of origin to the point of consumption. By buying local, we reduce the fuel needed to get the food to market, cutting greenhouse gas emissions. By supporting local farms and producers, it’s better for the environment by cutting down on transportation costs and burning of fossil fuels.

Here is a list of the main local suppliers we currently use or have used in the past, their location, and what we typically source.

Schultz Fruitridge Farms (Mattawan) – Asparagus, strawberries, cherries, blueberries, peaches, sweet corn, apples, fresh cider, pumpkins, fall squash
KVCC ValleyHUB (Kalamazoo) – Herbs and vegetables
Crisp Country Acres (Holland) – Vegetables and potatoes
Moo-ville Creamery (Middleville) – Cream and buttermilk
Michigan Bread Company (Taylor) – Buns and breads
Brix Soda Company (Grand Rapids) – Bottled sodas
Clear Spring Produce Auction (LaGrange, IN) - Vegetables and tomatoes

Other suppliers that we use intermittingly for features include: