11/03/08 Farmer-chef collaborative

There's an event coming up in eastern Idaho next week that's proved successful in north Idaho and the Treasure Valley. The Idaho State Department of Agriculture will be hosting a Farmer-Chef Collaborative. POLZIN "We allow the farmers to set up kind of a small display and then the chefs rotate around the circle for a brief one on one discussion with the local farmers. They talk about local foods, what products are available, the seasonality of their products. Just basically a great event to get more local foods in the restaurants." Kim Polzin with Idaho Preferred says the November 13th session will be held at the Idaho Innovation Center in Idaho Falls. They use the speed dating format. POLZIN "We tell the farmers to bring seed catalogs and a list of when their products are usually available how they plan to deliver and also menu items. A lot of the chefs haven't worked with yak meat or different cuts of lamb or beef and so the farmers obviously pretty well knows his product so he can almost education the chef on that too." Two similar collaborative events have been held this year in North Idaho with a third in the Treasure Valley. It's been so successful that Polzin says they plan to do in the future. You can still register by calling Polzin at Idaho Preferred in Boise, 332-8532. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott