By ANDY ANDREWS
Contributing Writer
HARRISBURG, Pa. — This year’s Pennsylvania Farm Show is all about building “relationships.”
Guests of the Pennsylvania Farm Show’s new PA Preferred Reception, hosted the night before the Farm Show’s official public opening, sampled entrees from a host of locally grown and processed food items.
Most importantly, visitors learned what PA Preferred is all about.
“People feel real good when they buy directly from farmers close to home,” said Steve Bogash, regional horticulture educator and marketing specialist with southeast Penn State Extension, who attended the event with his family.
Locovores
“Locovores” — consumers who literally “eat locally” –are making up a greater percent of the consuming public, said the educator.
The simple fact, Bogash said, “is the quality of the product being grown locally and other aspects makes people feel good about purchasing.”
The Pennsylvania Farm Show is “all about relationships,” said Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding.
Traditionally, a sit-down banquet is conducted the night before the opening of the show. This year, instead of the banquet with its focus on the accomplishments of the Pennsylvania Department of Ag, the PA Preferred reception focused on the producers and their products.
Food stations
Five food stations located in the food court of Main Expo Hall featured PA Preferred-label products, including beef, chicken, lamb, pork and trout. A separate station featured PA Preferred wines.
The first station, chicken, included coconut-braised Bell and Evans chicken with fried plantain chips and salsa prepared by Iron Chef James Batterson and presented by poultry processor Scott Sechler of Lebanon County.
The second station, lamb, featured seared Jamison Lamb over potato pave made from a trio of Pennsylvania potatoes, all prepared by Iron Chef Michael Geary and presented by growers and processors John and Sukey Jamison, Westmoreland County.
The third, beef, included herb-roasted Certified Angus Beef tenderloin with caramelized onions and mushrooms drizzled with a God’s Country Creamery bleu cheese and smoked bacon sauce atop a baguette.
The station also featured Teriyaki Certified Angus Beef tenderloin served on a cilantro sweet potato cake prepared by Chef Kasey Kirk and presented by Jeff Nogan, Lackawanna County beef producer.
The fourth station featured roasted loin of Hatfield pork with chicken apricot mousse prepared by Iron Chef Mark Pawlowski and presented by Chris Hoffman, Juniata County.
The fifth station featured Amish corn fritters with smoked Limestone Springs trout and green apple “caviar” prepared by Iron Chef David Stoltzfus and presented by Brent Blauch, Lebanon County.
Jamison Farms
John Jamison, along with wife Sukey, operate Jamison Farms in Latrobe, Pa. The prepared lamb tasted by PA Preferred Reception guests was a saddle of lamb — the loin area — with garnish on top, including spinach, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes.
The lamb is raised at the rotationally grazed farm and processed at the USDA federal plant in Latrobe, said Jamison.
Jamison supplies the grass-fed, processed lamb to local retail customers, including Giant Eagle and others. He has built relationships with a core of food stores, chefs and others who “want to know where their food comes from,” said Jamison.
Mixed Dorset breed
Altogether, Jamison raises a mixed Dorset breed on 212 acres with 150 acres devoted to a rotational grazing system using bluegrass and white clover.
Jamison used to manage two-acre paddocks but has since simply kept a larger rotationally grazed area. About 400 head of lambs are onsite. The Jamison family has been raising lamb since 1985.
About PA Preferred. According to Frank Jurbala, director of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Market Development, the PA Preferred Program was introduced at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in 2004.
The program was modeled after the 20-year-old Jersey Fresh Program in New Jersey.
Qualifications
To qualify for a PA Preferred license, raw products must be 100 percent harvested in a raw/live state from a Pennsylvania location or grown at a Pennsylvania site for at least 75 percent of the product’s production cycle.
Processed products must meet state and federal food safety and sanitary requirements and the company must be headquartered in Pennsylvania. The products must be final processed and packaged in a Pennsylvania facility.
The program also licenses retailers, restaurants, food service operations, distributors, processors, nurseries and more.
More information
To learn more about PA Preferred, visit www.papreferred.com or call 717-787-5086.
