Middletown farmer growing vegetables to order

We’re all familiar with how order-taking goes on both sides of the restaurant table. In Newport, chefs and restaurateurs are giving the orders and local farmers are taking them. It is the next step in the “farm-to-table” process that has become an integral part of many successful restaurant operations.
Farmer Jim Garman is growing vegetables to order for local restaurants on his small farm in Middletown. “We got into this thinking we’ve got to be different,” he said. “We’re small. There are a lot of small farms in Rhode Island. We have to grow varieties that are different.” So Garman takes requests.
He and his wife consult with local chefs and restaurateurs who would like to feature specialty varieties of produce. The goal of Garman Farm is as the farmer put it to “just not mass produce the same stuff.” He brought a tote bag to our interview. He reached in and pulled out four young seedlings to show exactly what his farm is all about.
There was an Italian heirloom tomato, a sprig of rosemary, and a baby cauliflower plant. This variety known as “Veronica,” is conical in shape which lends itself to more creative uses on the plate. Garman grows this for Malt Broadway restaurant in Newport. I asked him how the farmer-chef relationship got started. Did the chefs come to him or did he go to the chefs?
Garman said it was a little of both and caused a bit of angst on his part: “I had never sold anything in my career!” – he had been a professor of historic preservation at Salve Regina University – “and I was amazed by the demand. We can’t keep up with the demand for fresh local food [by the chefs]!”
Garman is interested in experimentation. Next from the tote bag was a young kale plant. This leafy green is the “flavor of the month” for chefs across the food spectrum. At Garman’s farm, three types are grown. The one he was showing is ‘Lacinato,’ an Italian heirloom also known as ‘Nero di Tosca,’ ‘Tuscan Black’ or ‘Dinosaur.’ It yields a more tender and delicate texture and taste than the more common supermarket kale. The farmer grows this for A-Market, an organic market with locations in Newport and in New Hampshire. The couple lease their Middletown acreage from the Aquidneck Land Trust through an organization called Sustainable Aquidneck. Garman’s lifelong dream was to be a farmer, but his father saw things differently and the young, would-be agriculturist had to put his dream on hold. After a midlife epiphany about what he calls the “distressing” state of the food supply available to his family, he put himself on track and started planting.
The latest thing that we are likely to start seeing on our plate when we dine out was next out of the farmer’s bag. “This is known as South African Ice Plant,” he revealed. The small spade-shaped leaves had a slight nettled feel. “We grow this for Thames Street Kitchen,” said Garman, who told how the Newport restaurant owner-chef had asked him to grow this leafy green for him because it was on the cutting edge, according to restaurant blogs and chefs in New York.
The leaves have a bright, citrus taste making an appealing contrast of flavors in a salad with radicchio or peppery arugula.
Garman grows tomatoes, rosemary and other vegetables on his 2.5 acres of leased land for a select group of chefs from the Newport area. He is proud of his accomplishments and that of his fellow micro-farmers. “That is what is on the cutting edge [of agriculture] right now,” he said. “We are one of a number of small farms growing a diversity of things.” The Garmans specialize in heirloom crops and specialty items that chefs and restaurateurs request.
Some chefs have brought the farmer specific plants to grow – which Garman will do but with no guarantee that success will be achieved. “I tell the chef that we will give it a shot, that is all we can do,” he declared. The Garmans sell to the public on a “farm share” or Community Supported Agriculture or CSA basis, where individuals “invest” in a share of the farm’s yield.
At our local restaurants, we have chefs who cook to order, some who will select cuts of meats or vegetables to order, and some who will create your dessert to order. Now, those chefs – and in turn, we who dine out often – can have side dishes and garnishes grown to order for us. •


Bruce Newbury’s Dining Out food and wine talk radio show is heard Saturdays and Sundays on WPRV-AM 790, weekdays on WADK-AM 1540 and on line and mobile app on iHeartRadio. He can be reached by email at bruce@brucenewbury.com.

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