This from Paul Franson of Napa Life (who got scooped by the inimitable Grace Ann Walden, most recently of Top Chef Masters’ spoiler fame). I feel your pain, Paul, after do-gooding on the Eloise sitch and seeing the headlines elsewhere.
Aside from the jabs, it’s a great piece of news…
A
group of local chefs has come to an agreement to care for the kitchen
garden at Copia and use their produce. It’s spearheaded by chef Ken
Frank from La Toque.“The agreement is done, we’re getting our proof of insurance together and should have the keys in a few days.” The
“Downtown Napa Chef’s Garden Co-op” will take over care of the organic
kitchen gardens until a new long term use for the property is
determined.
Copia
maintained a huge seed library and they have been granted access to
that as well. “We are working on a plan to share the surplus seeds with
the master gardener community as there are simply more than we would
ever need,” he says.The members of the group are Angele, Hog Island Oyster Company,
Pearl, Zuzu, Pizza Azzurro and La Toque.
Ken
says, “We won’t be starting for another week or two but the deal is
done. It is basically a hand shake, and we’ll take care of the gardens
and put them to good use, they keep the water on and provide security,
but the lawyers still had to write everything down.”Ken
also reports that the group is also looking for an “angel” to help
finance moving the Copia greenhouse to its new potential home at Connolly Ranch to be part of their sustainable program and “edible schoolyard.”This is great news for Napa, the chefs and patrons.Grace Ann Walden of Oakland released the first details in her newsletter (gaw@sbcglobal.net); I had been sitting on the information for months with a promise that I could release it first.The same thing happened with the taqueria in the Oxbow Market last week.It seems that every time I agree to hold something at a friend’s request, I get scooped. I think I’ve learned my lesson.
