Farming for Flavor: Seed to kitchen initiative creates more than a culinary connection

The Seed to Kitchen Initiative from the Department of Horticulture at UW–Madison brings together chefs, farmers and plant breeders to promote vegetable variety characteristics important to local food systems, such as flavor, fresh-market quality and agronomic performance on smaller-scale farms.

In this video, Madison-area chefs — including Jonny Hunter of Forequarter Restaurant and the Underground Food Collective, and Daniel Bonanno from A Pig in a Fur Coat — sample produce bred with their input, cook with it in their kitchens, and serve dishes they prepared from that produce to the growers themselves. They love the fact that on a daily basis, the partnership with the UW enhances what they serve their clientele.

There are many active vegetable breeding programs at UW–Madison, as well as a strong local foods movement supported by excellent farmers and chefs. Wisconsin is the #2 state in the country for the number of organic vegetable farms. There is increasing involvement of farmers, nonprofit associations and seed companies selecting for traits important to organic and direct market farmers.

Video produced by Justin Bomberg of UW–Madison University Communications