The Numbers Behind a Local Food Economy
“Local Food Creating a Buzz” has been our tagline since we first started conceptualizing our locally sourced Maine restaurant back in 2011 or 2012. By 2013, Rolling Fatties, our Maine food truck, was rolling, and since our humble beginning, our mission–locally sourced food in the form of a big FAT burrito–hasn’t changed, but it has grown to include locally sourced Maine craft beer and Maine craft spirits.
As we close in on our 10th birthday, by staying small, simple, and sniki, we’ve established long and lasting relationships with our Maine food and beverage producers. Relationships matter and numbers matter and with age comes a little confidence. We want to share our financial impact on Maine’s local food economy with you. We don’t share enough about how much Maine has always meant to our business, but lately, as shortages are longer lasting, prices are slowly climbing, people are coming and going, and as we embark on this 10th year in business, we want to reiterate our seriousness of purpose. Thanks to clean water, fresh air, robust soil, and the hardworking humans responsible for all this production, we believe Maine food and beverages taste better, are worth more, and make us look good. In 2023, we want to do even more local sourcing, specifically with greens, year round. Are you growing greens year round or do you know a farmer who does? Let’s chat!
So here is our spending on local provisions for 2022…
Mainely Provisions, here in Kingfield: $37,564.89. This is where we get all the stuff we can’t source locally but a fair bit of local food too. Here we get Backyard Farms tomatoes (Madison, Maine), Blue Mango veggie burgers, Papou’s Kitchen falafel, Cabot dairy products (a part of Agrimark, a cooperative of small family farms throughout Maine and New England), King Arthur flours, Mi Nina tortilla chips (organic from Massachusetts) local produce in the summer, and all of our packaging. These guys deliver (yay!), have a huge staff of local people, do their fair share of nice things for the community, and, as a store they’ve been around for at least 43 years.
Maine beer and wine-$16,746.75. We’ve been exclusively serving Maine beer and wine for 10 years now and this is never going to change or us. We order direct and through distributors. The keg line up is always rotating (and our lines are always clean!) and our can list morphs from season to season based on our developing tastes, availability, and what sells. Does anyone remember their first can of Substance (in a white lime green and orange label)?
Maine distilleries-$9557.00 While we don’t keep such a hard Maine line with spirits, we are still pretty hard core with keeping it local. We are wicked pumped to offer Wiggly Bridge agave spirit as a Maine alternative to the well Hornitos we serve, and the rest of our well spirits are from Maine including Brightwater rum from Three of Strong, 22 vodka, Back River gin, and Splitrock and Wiggly Bridge bourbon. This number represents our dollars spent on Maine booze.
Megquiers Dry beans-$1100.00 Sherwood Megquier keeps filling our orders though he must be at least 80. Not only does he answer the phone and receive our orders, he also delivers himself, all the way from Corinth, Maine, no matter the weather.
Maine Grains-$2448.00 Weird to say but fun to eat, groats, an oat grain with the husk removed is our Maine version of rice and it is a staple ingredient, along with the black beans, in nearly every fatty. We are also psyched that, moving forward, we’ll be using Maine Grains flour in our tortillas.
Crooked Face Creamery-$864.00 Ricotta is not only a major ingredient in the wing sauce for the illusive wings, but a well-loved add on to the fatty for those in the know.
The Emery Farm-$4400.00 We get the majority of our veg, year round, from The Emery Farm in Wayne, Maine. Trent grows the biggest sweetest carrots we’ve ever had along with softball beets, kale, jals, onions, and lettuce mix for our bowls (yes, we pack bowls!) in the summer.
Cold Spring Ranch-$11,720.00 You guys favor the 100% grass fed, heart healthy, and incredibly fresh beef we buy from right down the road in New Portland. We serve the shaved steak and burger.
Common Wealth Poultry-$5438.00 CWP is a poultry processing business in Gardner, Maine. They work with poultry producers in Maine and New England to produce the delicate and tender chicken thighs we serve.
Luce’s Meats-$4114.00–Arnold carves up the beef for Cold Spring Ranch and the pastured pork we serve at fatties. We travel to Embden every three weeks or so to grab the thick cut nitrate free bacon, pork butts, and random freedom fatty ingredients. Arnold makes the hottest hot Italian and chorizo sausage in Maine (as far as we know).
Yost Farms-$900.00 Tyler Yost of Yost Farms in Blaine produces cold pressed sunflower oil and this is the fat we use when we make our tortillas. We are especially thankful for this fat–we used to render the lard we used in our recipe and with this Maine sourced oil, we were able to eliminate this additional thing to do as well as offer a truly vegetarian tortilla. We use it by the pallet.
North Atlantic Naturals-$5009.00 These guys deliver the Maine Root and Green Bee sodas, the Maine Tourmaline water, and the Maine made Slab pizzas we sell on line.
True Mountain Maple-$510.00 We thought this line item would be higher only because it is our primary sugar here in the restaurant as well as one of the main ingredients in our #snikibar mix. We serve it in every margarita you drink!
Carrabassett Coffee-$200.00 You guys don’t drink a lot of coffee here, but we do offer it and recommend it. We use the organic medium Gayo and serve it bean to brew. Lately we’ve been serving wicked espresso martinis and manhattans if that piques your interest…
Root Wild-$782.00 From Portland, Maine, this canned kombucha hits the spot, is superb with vodka or tequila, and is a sparkly alternative to alcoholic beverages.
Other things to note:
Local Maine Musicians-$2500.00 In the summer, and hopefully again some day during the winter, we host live musicians from Maine on Friday nights from 5-8.
Signworks-$480.00 Our go to spot for the custom fatty stickers we love seeing out in the wild!
320 Ink-$1700.00 These guys do all of our swag and while this year was a doozie due to supply chain issues, we appreciate their help with getting orders through.
We know you have a lot of choices when it comes to eating out. We care about the food we serve you, where it comes from, and who grows and produces it. We want you to care too! And we want you to feel good about eating here by knowing we are serving you healthy and TRULY locally sourced food. You are literally eating and drinking Maine when you choose to dine here with us. Thank you!
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