美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Speed Dating' For Farmers And Chefs: ISO A Perfect Local-Food Match

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: 

There was a gathering¹ here in Washington, D.C. last week that had nothing to do with the inauguration² or with politics. It was an occasion for matchmaking, although not a romantic kind. Here, farmers got set up with chefs in an effort to put more local food on restaurant tables. NPR's Dan Charles was there.

DAN CHARLES, BYLINE³: Here's the scene - a sleek⁴ and stylish⁵ restaurant and brewery⁶ called Bluejacket built inside an old factory. The dining room is framed by tall steel fermentation tanks, and sitting in a booth on one side looking expectant and a little tense are Ashley Heaney and Mark Heaney from Green Acres Family Farm in Gapland, Md. They have a cooler full of eggs with them from their pasture-raised chickens because this is their chance to introduce those eggs to big city chefs who want food from local farms.

ASHLEY HEANEY: When I heard about it, I basically filled out the application right away, and I was very excited about it.

CHARLES: Now that you're here, how are you feeling?

A. HEANEY: A little nervous (laughter).

MARK HEANEY: Kind of out of our element, you know? We're farmers, we're not used to being in large groups of people, kind of used to being out and working by yourself.

A. HEANEY: But I think it's going to be fun.

CHARLES: The matchmaker here is Pamela Hess, founder⁷ of the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture. She calls this annual event speed dating for farmers and chefs, and she's already lined up some of the dates.

PAMELA HESS: We connected folks based on where they're located, what they grow, what they want to buy.

CHARLES: A lot of farmers and chefs want these relationship, she says, but they don't happen naturally. Farmers and chefs generally live in different places, they work on different schedules. And according to the executive chef at Bluejacket, Marcelle Afram, they're often very different people.

MARCELLE AFRAM: We have stereotypes⁸ in the industry that the farmer is shy and the chef is ferocious⁹ so, you know, some mitigation with a couple of beers might help.

CHARLES: Is there some truth to that?

AFRAM: Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally, absolutely (laughter).

CHARLES: I meet one farmer, though, who doesn't seem shy at all.

CLEO BRAVER: I'm Cleo Braver from Cottingham Farm. Cleo Braver. You're brave, I'm braver.

CHARLES: Braver grows vegetables and hogs¹⁰. They aren't just any old hogs.

BRAVER: I happen to have the pinnacle¹¹ of certified¹² organic pasture-raised, organic vegetable-fed, GMO-free sprout-fed, transitional organic grain-fed, you know, heritage hogs available this week and next week.

CHARLES: I've approached this event with a pretty lighthearted attitude. It must be showing in my questions because they don't sit well with one chef, Spike¹³ Gjerde from Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore.

SPIKE GJERDE: I think it's anything but lighthearted. What this is about is confronting some of the most serious aspects of our food system, and what we're trying to solve here I think are some of the ways that our food system is failing us.

CHARLES: Gjerde introduces me to a farmer standing¹⁴ nearby who grows old-style grain and mills it into flower. It's spectacular food, Gjerde says, but you have to understand the effort that went into it.

GJERDE: And then to get that on a table somewhere and get somebody to understand what that whole thing costs is a huge challenge.

CHARLES: The room is crowded now, and loud. The farmers have green name tags, chefs have red ones. There are way more farmers than chefs though, nobody's quite sure why. Even with that hiccup¹⁵, by the end of the evening most of the farmers and chefs I talked to were going home happy. They'd made some promising¹⁶ contacts, they said. One farmer had sold a whole lamb right on the spot. And the Heaneys, the farmers who'd gone in a little nervous, were smiling - three chefs were interested in their eggs. Dan Charles, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF YPPAH SONG, "SOME HAVE SAID")

1 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

2 inauguration   

n.开幕、就职典礼

参考例句：

• The inauguration of a President of the United States takes place on January 20.美国总统的就职典礼于一月二十日举行。
• Three celebrated tenors sang at the president's inauguration.3位著名的男高音歌手在总统就职仪式上演唱。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 sleek   

adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢

参考例句：

• Women preferred sleek,shiny hair with little decoration.女士们更喜欢略加修饰的光滑闪亮型秀发。
• The horse's coat was sleek and glossy.这匹马全身润泽有光。

5 stylish   

adj.流行的，时髦的；漂亮的，气派的

参考例句：

• He's a stylish dresser.他是个穿着很有格调的人。
• What stylish women are wearing in Paris will be worn by women all over the world.巴黎女性时装往往会引导世界时装潮流。

6 brewery   

n.啤酒厂

参考例句：

• The brewery had 25 heavy horses delivering beer in London.啤酒厂有25匹高头大马在伦敦城中运送啤酒。
• When business was good,the brewery employed 20 people.在生意好的时候，这家酿造厂曾经雇佣过20人。

7 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

8 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 ferocious   

adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的

参考例句：

• The ferocious winds seemed about to tear the ship to pieces.狂风仿佛要把船撕成碎片似的。
• The ferocious panther is chasing a rabbit.那只凶猛的豹子正追赶一只兔子。

10 hogs   

n.（尤指喂肥供食用的）猪( hog的名词复数 )；（供食用的）阉公猪；彻底地做某事；自私的或贪婪的人

参考例句：

• 'sounds like -- like hogs grunting. “像——像是猪发出的声音。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• I hate the way he hogs down his food. 我讨厌他那副狼吞虎咽的吃相。 来自辞典例句

11 pinnacle   

n.尖塔，尖顶，山峰；(喻)顶峰

参考例句：

• Now he is at the very pinnacle of his career.现在他正值事业中的顶峰时期。
• It represents the pinnacle of intellectual capability.它代表了智能的顶峰。

12 certified   

a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的

参考例句：

• Doctors certified him as insane. 医生证明他精神失常。
• The planes were certified airworthy. 飞机被证明适于航行。

13 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

14 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

15 hiccup   

n.打嗝

参考例句：

• When you have to hiccup,drink a glass of cold water.当你不得不打嗝时，喝一杯冷水就好了。
• How long did he hiccup?他打嗝打了多久？

16 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。