Dear Editor and Author,

I am a vegetable grower in Great Barrington and a member of the Board of Directors of Berkshire Grown. In large part, I am able to make a living doing what I love because of the many chef/owners in the area who are dedicated to preparing food sourced locally.  I read your article, “Where to Eat in Great Barrington” with great interest but was taken aback sharply by your choice of one particular establishment highlighted.   Chefs are extremely busy professionals who make more work for themselves by buying local—they make the extra phone call, answer the extra email, and deal regularly with the vagaries of small-scale farms and farmers who may run late, run out of product, get washed away by the rain,, get a flat tire on the way into town, or arrive at the kitchen door with ten bunches of kale instead of twelve.

Why all this hassle, when with one phone call to a distributor, a chef could have consistent product delivered in a timely manner, and possibly at lower cost?  Because a product grown down the road and harvested on the morning of delivery tastes better, because having your greens delivered by Ted for the last 20 years instead of the Sysco delivery-man-of-the-day means a little more, because as small business owners we support one another, and the more successful small businesses we have, the more interesting a place Great Barrington is to live and visit, and because the more farmers who stay in business, the more open land we all have around us.

Keith Weller and his family should be commended for bringing their lively, colorful Gypsy Joynt to Main Street two years ago.  Judging from the crowds, it appears that Great Barrington needed a Gypsy Joynt.   Affordability is a key element of the Gypsy Joynt’s appeal (see Berkshire Eagle 7/17/12), and--though his marketing materials imply otherwise--Weller has concluded that local sourcing doesn’t jive with keeping price points low and he’d rather not purchase local produce for his kitchen—he applauds local farmers for the work they do but says “they’re in business just like I’m in business, and I can’t support them by raising my prices.”  

The good news is that one does not have to look far to find examples all around town of restaurant chef/owners who prioritize buying local--to begin to list them would be folly--but the Gypsy Joynt does not happen to be one of them.  As another season of intense production winds down, I am grateful as always to the creative chefs who put their money where their mouths are.   These chefs, along with the produce managers of Guidos and the Berkshire Co-op and the growers, farmers, and CSA members at all the farms in the Berkshires, have spent years doing things the hard way, creating the vibrant, dynamic, authentic local food scene from which we all reap the benefits today.  I am so disappointed that you mistook the Gypsy Joynt’s contribution to the cause and meanwhile missed an opportunity to give credit where it is hard-won and deserved.

Sincerely,

Laura Meister

Farmer/Owner, Farm Girl Farm

Member, Board of Trustees, Berkshire Grown