He has to have a cool variety to keep us interested. He has really good scrapple that we use on our brunch menu. It’s like nothing I’ve ever tasted before. I’ve gotten beef tallow from him. The proteins he offers, like the bacon, are just better. It’s either I can’t get what he’s selling anywhere else or it’s just better. You can get apple cider from Silvert. But his is from the apple orchard right by his farm. It’s fresher, better, and cheaper.

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Post-script:

I spoke with Taproom co-owner Michael Strauss for further insight. 

Michael Strauss: Our ultimate goal with the bar is to know where all our produce is coming from and to make it 100% seasonal. Getting stuff from Green Mead Farm is awesome. In addition to produce and herbs, we’ve gotten smoked turkey which is fucking amazing. We’re going to try–which they just put on their order list–their smoked pastrami.

What are some things that he’s brought in recently [after my initial interview]?

He brought in some strawberries that are fantastic. They need nothing—you just pop them in your mouth. We did a fruit salad with that. It was part of Philly Beer Week. We used the rest for our curry chicken salad.

Since Ian can only come once a week, we also signed up with FarmArt Produce. We just signed up with them. We haven’t gotten anything from them yet. They can deliver 6 days a week. They work with purveyors locally and as far away as New York and a little bit further south. We’ll be rolling out a new menu in the next 30 days [I spoke with Michael Strauss on 6/15] and I’m going to try to make sure as much as possible that it’s 100% seasonal and local. I think it’s important to support your local community.

Right now, if I’m getting lettuce from Ian, it has to last until the following Tuesday when we place our next order. It’s hard to gauge how your sales are gonna be. The bacon and other proteins we get, that all lasts perfectly. Some of the herbs we get, we just use them in specials over the weekend, so we don’t have to worry about carrying them all the way through to the following Thursday.

So with Farmart, you’ll have backup it sounds like.

We use lettuce, tomato, onion for our burgers. With everyday stuff like that, I can get that shipped in from Farmart on a more regular basis, rather than sitting on it for a week and it could happen that you don’t order enough or you order too much. So, I’m not going to stop ordering from Green Meadow.