NCR CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE RESOURCES
Restaurant and local food advocate join forces to create an online farmer’s market
Published April 8, 2020
Restaurants around the world struggling from the impact of physical distancing are forcing owners to get as creative as possible to keep running. One thing they can try to do is team up.
As Syracuse.com reports, residents of Syracuse, New York now have access to a tasty, health-conscious online farmers market that’s the result of a restaurant teaming up with another local foodie.
When business began to suffer, Rick Strub, chef and partner of Eden, a restaurant that uses locally grown ingredients for dishes cooked over wood hearths, said his plan was to sell take-and-make meal kits. But that didn’t work out.
Enter Mark Pawliw, of Farm to Fork 101, a Syracuse local food advocate who had been looking to start an online farmers market. Together he and Strub have created an array of rotating local, fresh food items that they assemble into grocery boxes for pickup or delivery.
Working with farmers and producers across central New York, some choices for lucky patrons include spring dub parsnips, rutabaga, 8 oz. New York strip steaks, organic chicken, Italian sausage, goat and burrata cheese.
Strub is hoping that the online farmers market will be successful enough to hire back some of his staff.
“They’re chomping at the bit to get back cooking again,” Strub said.