Farm to Table – Memphis Flyer

Jamie Harmon

Obruni Dance Band & the Mama Africa Dancers

In Ghana, music and community go hand in hand. This is true wherever people gather to

listen to bands, of course, but the communal experience is especially crucial to the music of Africa, where all the players in an ensemble add small pieces to a groove, the sum being greater than its parts.

Which makes it especially apropos that the Obruni Dance Band, Memphis’ own specialists in the highlife music of Ghana, will be leading a celebration of community tomorrow afternoon, in the open air, with glorious fall weather in the forecast. And, dear to this old farmer’s heart, the community Obruni will be celebrating is based on breaking bread and beets. Not just beets, but tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, watermelon, greens and beans.
Jamie Harmon

(l-r), Gerald Stephens, Logan Hanna, Adam Holton, Jawaun Crawford, and Victor Sawyer in the Obruni Dance Band

Memphis is famous for its beats, but now its beets are stepping up as well, thanks to the efforts of the Community Table Garden. Started in 2014 in an effort to improve the quality of food available to Memphis’ most vulnerable neighbors, the Community Table Garden promotes people’s right to safe, healthy, clean food.

The garden is located on an empty lot on Madison Avenue owned by Huey’s. Beginning with eight raised beds and three rain barrels, they now have 15 raised beds, two in-ground plots, a greenhouse, and will be installing an irrigation system and a few fruit trees and berry bushes this fall and spring. Managed by Sarah Taylor, they operate solely on community support and volunteer work, with sponsorships from the Memphis Empty Bowls Project and Grace St. Luke’s Church. The gardens supply produce to the pantry at Grace St. Luke’s every week during the growing season.

Community Table Garden on Madison Avenue

Tomorrow’s celebration will raise funds for and awareness of the ongoing project. Chef Brown Burch will be joined by Spencer Coplan from Wok’n Memphis and Zach Nicholson from Lucky Cat Ramen in preparing an exquisite feast, along with more food from FINO’s, City Block Salumeria, and Payne’s BBQ.

The Produce Tribe, Whitton Farms, Tubby Creek Farms, and Rosecreek Farms are all supplying produce as well, and, last but not least, Mempops will supply its unique sweet delectables. Wiseacre Brewing Company, a favorite venue of the Obruni crew, is hosting, serving both beer and Long Road Cider.

Community Table Fall Garden Party, Wiseacre Brewing Co., Sunday, November 17, 1:00-4:00 pm. Get tickets here.

Last weekend on Facebook, I posted a link to a story about the poet Mary Oliver and her longtime companion, Molly Malone Cook. I liked it — and wanted to share it — because of its insights into the joy, pain, and ultimate mystery of living with someone for 40 years, until death takes one person away.

Within minutes of posting it, I saw that my 91-year-old mother in New Mexico had “liked” it. What a world we live in, I thought, where, without speaking, communication with a loved one happens so easily and instantly. It made me happy to think my mother was reading the same story I’d just read, and perhaps remembering her own long life’s journey.

It’s something of a miracle, isn’t it, that we’re all connected — family, acquaintances, old friends and new — sharing what we’re reading, what we’re doing, what we’re seeing through our omnipresent camera phones? It’s as though we’re all talking across a backyard fence, even though we’re miles apart. Distance has become local, at some level, and I’m grateful for that.

That same afternoon, I read a story from a Tampa newspaper that was linked on a friend’s page. It was about how the “farm-to-table” trend was being abused by many restaurants in Florida. On their chalkboards and menus, the eateries claimed their food was “locally sourced” and listed various nearby purveyors of seafood, produce, and meat as their suppliers. A reporter followed up with phone calls to the local purveyors and learned that many restaurants were just making up their connections, or that those connections had long ago lapsed.

Localizing human communication is one thing. Localizing the products we consume is quite another. In the case of those Florida restaurants, the concept of “local” over “distant” was recognized as being valuable, but it was being corrupted, and their customers were, quite literally, paying for it.

Why is locally sourced food perceived as valuable? It’s not just a hipster thing. Food that’s produced locally is fresher, certainly, but it goes beyond that. The money spent on local food — or any locally produced consumer goods — tends to stay in the community. And that’s a big deal.

The value of “local” applies to more than food and restaurants. When we patronize locally owned or managed retail shops, bars, bookstores, liquor stores, music clubs, coffee shops, hotels, (ahem) newspapers, farmers markets, and other businesses, the money stays here, for the most part.

Sure, most of us succumb now and then to the temptation to use Amazon or other online enterprises for consumer goods, but it’s important to remember that those purchases don’t help the local economy much, except for the company flying those big orange and blue airplanes. Unlike most cities, at least the Memphis economy gets a piece of the online action via FedEx’s presence here.

The American Independent Business Alliance recently did a study that determined that 48 percent of every dollar spent in locally owned businesses stays in the community, versus 14 percent for chain outlets such as WalMart. The numbers are clear, and the lesson is obvious: Whenever possible, spend your disposable income where it does the most good for your friends, neighbors, and fellow Memphians — and ultimately, for you.