20 Feb 2014 |Rappahannock News
Stonyman’s James leads Backyard Farming program
At Les Dames
d’Escoffier’s “Celebrating Food! Ninth Salute to Women in Gastronomy” symposium
next month in College Park, Md., Susan James, owner of Washington’s Stonyman
Gourmet Farmer, will chair a program on Backyard Farming.
The international
organization for women of achievement in the culinary profession hosts the
biannual symposium March 8 at the University of Maryland, featuring more than
40 speakers in 16 sessions where participants can learn about cooking, food,
food writing and food sources, including celebrated local chefs and other food
professionals. Local celebrity chef Carla Hall, a “Top Chef” finalist and
co-host of “The Chew” on ABC-TV, will be the keynote speaker.
James’ Backyard
Farming program brings together experts and practitioners of beekeeping,
intensive cultivation techniques that produce high yields on small plots for
horticulture and home food supply, and backyard coop egg production. “The Facts
of Backyard Farming Life” is meant to show how backyard farming offers an
exciting range of innovation-driven agriculture at the leading edge of the DIY
and local food movements. It provides valuable life lessons, puts superb food
on the table, and can be an incubator for establishing agriculture-related
livelihoods.
A farmer, trained
cheese maker and owner of a local farm-based gourmet food business with
locations ranging from the Blue Ridge to greater Washington, D.C., James is
particularly interested in the impact that backyard farming can have on food
sourcing and trends in local food consumption. She observes that more than ever
before consumers are seeing that they have an increasing variety of choices for
supplying food for the family meal.
“It’s terrific to see the interest
in backyard farming from Les Dames d’Escoffier. Backyard growers have become a
pillar in the local food movement and are likely to continue growing rapidly.
Rather than creating competition, backyard farming and the DIY ag movement only
stimulate urban and suburban dwellers’ interest in visiting rural areas like
Rappahannock County,” she said.