Garden Spot Village To Celebrate Local Bounty

Every ingredient on July 30 menu is raised or grown locally

NEW HOLLAND, Pa. — July 6, 2009 — On July 30, when Garden Spot Village residents sit down to enjoy their noon meal, every ingredient in every dish served in the Terrace Dining Room, Garden Café and The Creamery will have been raised or grown locally—much of it within five miles of the retirement community, located at 433 S. Kinzer Ave.

“At Garden Spot Village, we’re doing as much as we can to be ‘green’. One of the issues with sustainability is the distance that food has to travel,” says Emily Enright, general manager of dining services. “We are in the middle of this bountiful area of fresh, beautiful foods that farmers are working hard to cultivate. Local Family Farm Foods Day celebrates that.”

Much of the food served on Local Family Farm Foods Day will come from New Holland. The produce—salad greens, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, corn, melon and green beans—will come from Sommerset Farm and 3 Seasons Farm. Milk, butter and ice cream will come from Lapp Valley Farm, which is also sending employees to help scoop the ice cream. The dining services staff will make turkey vegetable soup with fresh turkeys from Weaver Turkey Farm. They’ll get pretzel rolls for sandwiches from Dutch Country Soft Pretzels. They’ll use local beets to make red beet eggs with eggs from Westfield Egg Farm.

One of the entrées will be apple cider pork loin, made with cider from Kauffman’s Fruit Farm and Market of Bird-in-Hand and pork from locally raised hogs from Stoltzfus Meats of Intercourse. Roasted tomato halves will feature basil from the retirement community’s formal herb garden and cheese from September Farms in Honey Brook.  The menu will also include brown buttered noodles, using noodles made in Lancaster County.

Being green in the Garden Spot
Local Family Farm Foods Day is part of the retirement community’s overall commitment to sustainability. Across the Garden Spot Village campus, initiatives are underway to reduce energy consumption, decrease unnecessary chemical use and treat the earth with a sense of stewardship. In dining services, going green has also meant using different materials for disposable plates, cups and packaging.

“We’re using biodegradable products and have reduced packaging,” says Enright. Some of the take-out containers are made with a biodegradable sugar cane base. They use unwaxed paper for coffee cups. “It’s a little more expensive, but it’s the right thing to do. We have completely eliminated Styrofoam from dining services.”

As much as possible, Garden Spot Village works with local farmers and other vendors. They buy produce from Amish farms all summer long. “I’m most proud of that,” Enright says. “We are able to support good people and have the best product for our residents.”

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