After four days of preparing, peeling, slicing, marinating, roasting and baking mostly locally grown food, Farm to Fork, a dinner showcase of locally grown food, finally took place Wednesday evening in Carson Dining Hall.
Carson Central Dining Chef Doug Lang said he, Sous Chef Dominic Sachet and Managing Chef Dan Irvin worked together to create a delicious menu for the Farm to Fork event. Lang said students are eating their food without being aware of where it comes from. The event was designed to show students how the University uses locally grown foods from orchards and farms from Lane County.
“The menu during the event consisted of locally grown farm food from Lane County,” Driscoll said. “All the food was sustainable.”  
What prompted the event was Project Tomato, which started three years ago to teach students about the local food system. This summer, students picked 900 pounds of tomatoes and processed the fruit into tomato sauce at Carson Dining. Driscoll said that 70 gallons of tomato sauce were processed, which was used as pizza sauce for approximately one week.  The tomato sauce was used for the pizzas that were served during the event as well.   
Anthropology professor Geraldine Moreno, who teaches two classes on local food, said this is the third time she and her students partook in the event. At Farm to Fork, several of her students assisted with the food sampling tables, vendors and a slideshow presentation for their project on sourcing local food on campus.
“The slideshow was a collaborative work; the students and I worked together and made changes. It’s a three-year evolution presentation,” Moreno said.
Moreno said the idea of Project Tomato was created by Director of Sustainability Steve Mital. She said students in a freshman seminar were very active on locally grown foods. Graduate student Sara Quinn approached Mital and pushed for the project to happen.
Moreno said that although Project Tomato is only a part of Farm to Fork, it really inspires students and allows them to realize why local foods are important.
“For me the goal is to highlight the importance of eating locally as much as possible,” Moreno said. “By eating fresh food we are building our local economy.”
She emphasizes that not everything has to be 100 percent local. However, eating connects us to agriculture. She quoted agriculture author Wendell Berry, who said, “Eating is an agriculture act.”
Moreno said that being aware of where our food comes from is important. She said Chef Lang is phenomenal and does a great job in creating recipes that are delicious.
Lang said deciding how to create the menu depends on the availability of local foods. He said during this time of year sourcing out the ingredients for the event becomes a bit of a challenge because the crop growing season is ending. He said keeping in mind the demographics of students is highly important too.
“The food has to look good, taste good and be of feasible labor,” Lang said.
Lang and his staff prepared seafood cakes made of Oregon bay shrimp, Dungeness crab, Dover sole; a root vegetable pastry like an empanada, a little pie dough stuffed with Winter Green Farm butternut squash and root vegetables; and 800 lamb and onion kabobs with rosemary wine glaze, with lamb was supplied by Anderson Ranches free-range lamb. Dessert consisted of roasted apples supplied by Detering Orchards apples, stuffed with homemade granola.
Lang said Farm to Fork is kind of like a harvest party that uses as much local food as possible.
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