High quality ingredients are the foundation of good food. And they’re super important to us as citizens of what we hope is an improving food ecosystem. Yet so much of the talk about where food comes from is full of terminology sleight of hand that misleads instead of educating.
Call us antisocial but we’re not playing that game of linguistic twister. Source talk should be straightforward, unambiguous and include as many specific examples as possible.
For us that means grassfed grain-finished beef, antibiotic free meats, cage-free poultry, vegetarian diets, as naturally raised and close to us as possible. As well as the highest quality produce we can reliably source, including increasing use of local and organic sources as we can find them affordably.
We’re also believers in emerging industry standards, like the REAL Certification we’re proud to have earned, that help consumers sort through all the fuzz and find providers who align with their values.
We’re constantly tweaking our source mix but here’s a representative list so you can see how our approach translates to real-life and judge for yourself.
The Current List for DC-MD-VA area:
- Eberly Poultry – PA
- Roseda Farms – MD
- Allen Farms – DE
- Creekstone Farms – KS
- Langenfelder Farms – MD
- Elysian Fields Farm – PA
- Coastal Sunbelt Produce – MD
- Turkey Knob Farm – VA
- Scott Farms – NC
- Fells Point Wholesale Meats – MD
The Current List for LA area:
- We're putting the list together now, as you read this!
And yes, you read correctly, grassfed grain-finished. We’re big believers in being super clear above all else and don’t want to contribute to the food label fuzz that’s out there. 100% grassfed, like many of the farmers we’ve visited who raise it, is awesome.
But right now really high quality, humanely raised grain-finished beef from sources we name is the best fit for the quality, cost, availability equation we manage for our customers. If/when that changes, we’ll call it out. For example we can’t yet get our locally focused heads around sourcing grassfed from Australia or Uruguay. But if we do, we’ll share why and go forward. ‘Til then, we only know the unvarnished way.
Any questions, email us. We love this stuff and are happy to chat on it.