To the uninitiated, the Farmer's Kitchen in Hollywood may seem like just a welcome spot to buy breakfast or lunch, or a bottle of vinegar or a bag of fresh potato chips in a neighborhood with plenty of new housing construction and not enough cafes.
But this little spot, near the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street at the edge of the sprawling Sunday farmers market, means to help change the world, if just a little. Opened May 17 by the nonprofit organization that runs the market, the Farmer's Kitchen is intended to be one solution to the problems of poverty and unemployment, as well as an effort to connect small farms and urban life.
The Farmer's Kitchen will use growers' produce and foster businesses for them to market it, offer classes in nutrition and cooking and provide training to low-income people to work in the food industry, says Pompea Smith, chief executive of Sustainable Economic Enterprises of Los Angeles, known as SEE-LA.
SEE-LA also runs the Hollywood Farmers' Market, as well as five markets in low-income neighborhoods. And just as shoppers can't always predict what they'll find at the markets, the cafe too will operate from what the farmers harvest that week.
In summer, there might be gazpacho and jars of marinara sauce for sale. Farmer Alex Weiser has been experimenting in the kitchen making potato chips, a popular item in the markets of Madrid.
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Greens and eggs
On the cafe's first day, chef Gill Boyd served $8 breakfast plates that included eggs, grilled polenta, fruit compote and sauteed greens to a small but steady stream of customers.
With chairs bought late the previous day, the shelves not quite full of farm products and the cash register not yet installed, the atmosphere was as casual as it gets. When a customer spilled orange juice, Smith's computer expert was the one who cleaned up.
Smith, wearing a purple Hollywood Farmers' Market T-shirt, greeted many guests to explain the cafe's aims.
The Farmer's Kitchen, she said, will give the 18-year-old Hollywood market an everyday presence -- one more way that SEE-LA, a nonprofit community development corporation, is capitalizing on the popularity of farmers markets to get fresh, healthful food into underserved communities while supporting farmers.
At closing time for the market, farmers can bring unsold produce to the kitchen, located in the Sunset and Vine development, to make less perishable products, such as sauces or jams. And if a restaurant chef needs, say, a few gallons of lime juice, the kitchen might be able to provide that too.
