Are you a “locovore?” Discover the joy of eating local

Photo: Ryan Poe at one of The Hungry Locovore’s many distribution sites. Photo provided by Ryan Poe.

’Tis the season when thoughts turn to food, and this year many of the foods you choose could be locally grown, harvested, butchered, pickled, baked, stewed, cooked, and prepared by Washtenaw farmers and small business owners. They’re just a computer click away on the Hungry Locovore website.

“A locovore is a person who eats locally grown and produced foods,” explains Ryan Poe, who launched Hungry Locovore in September 2023, aiming to benefit local farmers, small businesses, and consumers, as well as the environment. “Our mission is to support sustainable food systems by connecting customers to the most local, fresh, and wholesome foods that we can find. And, along the way, we protect our environment by recycling our boxes and reducing the use of fossil fuels needed to ship foods here long distances.”

Each week, Poe offers theme-oriented boxes of seasonal produce and prepared foods, ranging from Asian Fusion to Holiday Harvest, all grown and/or prepared locally. At last count, his network numbers 140 growers and food preparers.

At a time when grocery prices have soared, the farmers who grow, milk, and butcher our foods only reap about seventeen cents for every dollar Americans spend on food items. The Hungry Locovore aims to change that equation—for consumers and farmers.  “I want to help local farmers succeed, while offering the best organic foods to my community.”

His heart is definitely in farming, Poe says on a Saturday morning while distributing hefty food packages at Dozer Coffee on Jackson Plaza. “My grandmother was a professional chef, I grew up on a farm, and I continue to work on farms, so I know food. I walk the fields and visit the kitchens of everyone I represent, and I know what I’m looking for. If I see rows of strawberries without a weed, for instance, I know some kind of chemical has been put into the soil.

“Organic and regenerative agriculture are my operative words.”

Dozens of Community-Supported Agriculture (CSAs) programs sprouted and flourished during the pandemic, when grocery shelves were empty, but according to Poe, their average survival rate is two years “because there’s only so much kale or so many carrots the average family can use in a week.” He has changed the traditional CSA business model by offering week-by-week flexibility—shoppers only commit to a week at a time, not a season or year.

Each week, his menu represents as many as fifteen different local farmers and businesses. Along with a customer’s receipt comes an informative newsletter that describes the week’s farms, kitchens, and chefs. For example:

Seeley Farm provides us with a beautiful bunch of RAINBOW CARROTS…planted in the Seeley fields back in late July. Now, the time has come to harvest them. This week, we pulled over 2,000 pounds of these carrots out of the ground, and I washed and bagged them into 50-pound bags yesterday. It was a good workout and a major effort using the tumbling washer, but the end result is an eye-catching array of red, orange, purple, and yellow carrots. Add this rainbow of color to your salads, slice and steam them to retain as much nutrition as possible or bake yourself and your loved ones a rainbow carrot cake.

“We offer as much diversity as possible,” he says. “I have more than 220 weeks of menus ready to go, and I have relationships with fifty farms and eighty businesses—but I’m constantly looking for others, people with dreams and great talents but not the means to open a brick-and-mortar store.”

Boxes range from $65 to $85. “I strongly believe in paying a fair-trade price to our farmers and chefs,” he emphasizes. “Being a farmer myself, I understand all too well the hard work, dedication, exposure to the elements, and pure grit needed to grow and prepare food. I happily pay farmers their full wholesale cost for produce and prepared foods, and I strive to become ever more carbon neutral.” Ninety percent of his boxes are returned, and the Hungry Locovore encourages compostable packaging for the prepared foods. Poe is also working on a recycling project.

“The benefits are far-reaching,” he emphasizes. “By supporting local farmers and food-related businesses, our agricultural community is strengthened, our diets are improved, and our cost to the environment is reduced.”

Pickup locations: Dixboro’s Moonwinks Café (5151 Plymouth Road, Fridays 4:00-6:00 p.m.), Dozer Coffee (112 Jackson Plaza, Saturdays, 8:00-11:00 a.m.), Vestergaard Farms (4408 S. Wagner Rd., Saturdays 10 am.-5:00 pm.), Unity Vibration (93 Ecorse Rd, Ypsilanti, Fridays, 5:00-7:00 p.m.), and Ginger Deli (203 E. Liberty, Fridays, 4 to 6 p.m. and Saturdays, noon to 8 p.m.) Poe is also negotiating for a Dexter location.

 For more information, see www.thehungrylocavore.com.