Idaho Preferred Culinary Harvest Tour

On September 8, a bus load of chefs from multiple restaurants traveled to the Magic Valley for the annual Idaho Preferred Culinary Harvest Tour. The idea is for them to visit food and agriculture producers to learn a little about how the food they buy for their restaurants is produced.

Verbatim:

“September is not just the peak of harvest, it is Idaho preferred month and it's Idaho preferred month because it is the peak of harvest. So, it's the best time to get out there and get the fresh foods that are available, said Erica White, Idaho Preferred Program Manager.

 You might know Idaho Preferred by its distinctive blue and gold logo you see on many Idaho products. It’s a program managed by the Idaho State Department of Agriculture that promotes Idaho food and ag items to help consumers identify and support local businesses.

On September 8^th, they took a bus load of chefs and culinarians from multiple restaurants to the Magic Valley in southern Idaho to visit producers in the Buhl and Filer area for their annual Culinary Harvest Tour.

“We have visited 5 different producers throughout the day, and we have about 30 chefs, culinary professionals with us and we are getting to know our farmer. So, we're getting out into agriculture. We're exploring the diversity and the bounty that we have throughout the state,” said White.

At G+ Ranches they were able to get a close up look at some cattle, did their best to avoid cowpies…

“oh, dude… - laughs” “You want to see the cows, you gotta go into their territory. – laughs-”

…and visited with the ranchers and Agribeef.

At 1,000 Springs Mill they saw what organic milling and products look like, as well as regenerative grain practices.

During their visit to Riverence Trout Farm they were served trout tacos, and had a close up look at how the trout are raised.

At Cloverleaf Creamery they saw how the owners focused on traditional methods and meeting consumer demand for local products.

During their stop at Kelley’s Canyon Orchard they got a cup full of delicious local products and saw how they’ve been growing tree-ripened fruit for four generations. 

“The whole idea was to kind of learn more about our local like producers and farmers and see, you know, see a bit more of what actually goes into some of the food that we buy,” said Annalies Knapp, Sous Chef at The Funky Taco.

“I feel like I learned a lot today and I noticed, like, a common theme.   They're all using, they're talking about technological advancements in their agriculture to make everyone's life easier and to make it more efficient. And that was actually pretty surprising because, you know, I never, I don't think about that too often, honestly. And it seems like it'll make a big difference in how they operate and honestly probably the quality and cost of our food as well,” said Knapp. “I feel like I learned a lot today.”

“It's really the perfect time to bring our culinary professionals out and give them some firsthand experience about where food can come from in their regional community.

You know we have these things, these products that are grown and raised, crafted just in our back yards,” said White.

‘You know the chefs need to go out and they need to, you know, ask for what they want, but also like, see what's up for grabs and kind of base our food around that because if that's what is local and that's what's growing, that's what we need to try to work in rather than like thinking about something exotic that's like hard to access,” said Knapp.

“And I will just say whoever organized this trip for us today did a really good job too at making sure all the boxes were checked and hitting a lot of different stuff in one day like it's been a long day, but it's been really, really good, you know,” said Knapp.