Calling all 'locavores'! Concord a growing hub for local food
Debra's Natural Gourmet food store is a West Concord institution.
A couple of months ago, a new restaurant opened in historic West Concord.
A farm-to-table concept with a menu designed around seasonal, locally available ingredients, Woods Hill Table is already a busy dinnertime locale that’s making a name for itself well past the confines of Concord, says owner Kristin Canty.
“I find them coming from far and wide,” said Canty, a Concord native and longtime proponent of unprocessed food. She’s the director and producer of the documentary “Farmageddon,” which tells the stories of small, local farmers who say they were forced out of business due to government policies.
Canty said customers appreciate the restaurant’s willingness to accommodate dietary restrictions, such as gluten-free diets, plus its commitment to making homemade meals every day.
But Concord, and its bucolic neighbors, to some degree, may also be generating a new identity as a haven for “locavores,” the pop-culture term for people who prefer food that’s locally grown and produced.
Town Manager Christopher Whelan said he’s been pleased to see historic Concord draw new interest from entrepreneurs like Canty. Woods Hill Table is one of a handful of local eateries that have opened in the last several months, Whelan said. Those businesses are attracted by the ample availability of fresh produce offered by Concord’s many small farming businesses, he said. Canty’s restaurant, for example, uses produce from farms in and around Concord to supplement what they’re able to produce on the 260-acre farm Canty owns in Bath, N.H.
Corporate success breeds local success?
There are also a number of small companies that are in the business of producing food, often organic, for retail sale, Whelan said. He chalks it up to the fact that many successful business people live in affluent Concord, which in 2012 had an estimated median annual household income of just under $130,000 and offers professionals the best of both worlds with its country setting that’s easily accessible to Boston.
“We have a lot of entrepreneurs in town that maybe were successful in a corporate situation but now want to start a business of their own,” Whelan said.
That was the case for Kate Weiler, co-founder of DRINKmaple, a company that makes and sells maple water from the sap of maple trees. DRINKmaple markets the beverage as a pure form of hydration that’s high in manganese and low in sugar.
Weiler had a successful career with EMC Corp. selling hardware and software, but she decided to change gears because she wasn’t passionate about her work. With a strong interest in fitness and wellness, she went back to school to study nutrition and became a certified holistic health coach.
Natural attributes a draw
Weiler said she and business partner Jeff Rose discovered maple water while training for an Iron Man competition in Canada. The two were instantly hooked, and, using their own money, started DRINKmaple last year. While the product is bottled at a facility in New York, Weiler said Concord was an ideal location because, for starters, she lives there and doesn’t need a car to get to work. At lunchtime, there are plenty of trails available for exercise, which is important to her and Rose.
“We just think it’s a beautiful area and we’ve been riding our bikes in Concord … on the Minuteman path and swimming in Walden Pond,” Weiler said.
With its plentiful outdoor amenities, and vibrant local food scene, Concord also aligns with the DRINKmaple brand, according to Weiler. She said it’s “really, really exciting to be surrounded by like-minded people.”
Beyond 'tofu and twigs'
That includes other food businesses, such as Debra’s Natural Gourmet, a longtime natural grocery next door to DRINKmaple’s headquarters in West Concord.
Debra’s is a local mainstay that sells many of the products made by small local food companies, including the DRINKmaple beverage; Number Nine Chips and Salsa products produced by Paino Organics, another Concord company; and Pure7 Chocolate products, made in neighboring Carlisle.
Adam Stark, whose mother, Debra, founded the business 25 years ago, back when natural food “was all tofu and twigs,” agreed with Whelan, the town manager, on the point that the history and culture of Concord is creating a breeding ground for the local food industry.
“These are people who were drawn to Concord as a community and then said, ‘Let’s start a business,’ ” said Stark, who owns a minority stake in the business and plans to take over when his mother retires.
He added that he would prefer to — in fact, he really wants to — “resent the competition,” especially from businesses that compete with Debra’s for lunchtime customers.
“And yet these people do such a good job,” Stark said.
'A good time to be in business'
For John Paino, a natural foods industry veteran and owner of Paino Organics in Concord, the more competition, the merrier. Paino, whose company makes the popular Number 9 Chips and Salsa products sold in the natural foods section at many small grocery stores, said he likes to get feedback on new products, such as the Swoffle, the company’s new waffle cookie inspired by the Dutch Stroopwafel, from others in the local food industry.
Paino said conditions are ripe for the industry to continue to grow, here and elsewhere.
“There’s a real resurgence of local and farm-to-table (consumption), not just here but in this country,” Paino said.
He added that natural foods are becoming more mainstream, and that means the opportunity for natural food companies to sell products at regular grocery stores as well as specialty stores.
“It’s a really good time to be in business,” Paino said.
Meanwhile, Whelan said town officials are considering revising the permitting process so that food companies, and companies of all types, might find the process of opening in Concord a little easier.
As Stark puts it, “If you want to be here, you’ve got to jump through some hoops.” It’s a fact he attributes to the town’s historical nature. “So much of the (town’s approach) is really about preservation,” he said.
Streamlining permits on the table?
Whelan said that while preserving Concord’s character is important, Town Hall also wants to be as agreeable as possible when it comes to permitting projects. Recently, the town issued a request-for-proposals for a plan to help streamline the permitting process.
“We are trying to make it more transparent and a little bit easier for folks,” Whelan said.
While the permitting process was arduous for Canty, of Woods Hill Table, it’s been tempered by the enthusiasm town officials have shown for her business since it opened.
And it was well worth the work to be part of the Concord food scene. Canty loves the fact that she can get her ingredients from other local businesses, and she foresees the formation of some kind of industry association in the future.
“I feel like we’re having a food revolution,” Canty said.
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