Local Resources

Note: This is an older legacy list that will eventually be replaced by the Snail of Approval.

RESTAURANTS

Clyde’s
In the metro area, Clyde’s Restaurant Group has been the pioneer in the farm-to-restaurant movement, which has made their all-American fare all the better. Famous for their chili and their burgers, Clyde’s serves consistently fine meals with an American edge.

Corduroy
The brainchild of Chef Tom Power, this intimate setting is the backdrop for edgy American cooking.

Restaurant Eve
Executive Chef Cathal Armstrong has won numerous awards for his inventive cooking and the restaurant’s personable service.

Jaleo
Super chef Jose Andres helped to initiate America’s love for tapas, and his original Jaleo restaurant in Penn Quarter is where it all started. He now runs three Jaleos, plus other destinations. Always a bargain, always good food.

Tabard Inn
One of the first restaurants in DC to serve organic food (in the early days Tabard even had it’s own organic farm) Tabard Inn remains a favorite spot for those who want excellent food, at a fair price, in an unpretentious and cozy atmosphere. In the spring and summer the brick enclosed garden is a treat; and in the winter and fall a seat by the fire in the parlor is a great place to meet for drinks before any meal. Proprietor Jeremiah Cohen has good reason to be proud of his excellent wine list, and his sister’s memorable Route 11 Potato Chips can be purchased in the lobby.

Oyamel
Jose Andres brings traditional Mexican cooking to Penn Quarter; everybody loves the grasshopper tacos, but the entire menu inspires a love for South-of-the-Border cooking.

Marcel’s
Executive Chef Robert Wiedmaier is one of DC’s very talented young chef, whose cooking has traditional Belgian and European overtones.

Restaurant Nora
Executive Chef Nora Pouillon, whom many know as the “queen of organics,” helped to popularize the organics movement with this restaurant, the first certified organic restaurant in the United States.

Equinox
Executive Chef Todd Gray follows the seasons in his restaurant, which highlights upscale American fare.

Poste Moderne Brasserie
Executive Chef Robert Weland is a staunch advocate of fresh, wholesome American food in this trendy eatery.

Hook
This Georgetown seafood restaurant has as its chef the young, up-and-coming Bart Seaver, whose goal is to serve the best and freshest sustainable seafood from his menu. He works in conjunction with EarthEcho International.

Agraria
An elegant restaurant detailed in earth tones and overlooking the Potomac River, Agraria has as its executive chef Ricky Moore, who not only uses the best sent him by family farmers across the country. It’s modern American cooking, and it’s supported by the North Dakota Farmer’s Union.

The Oceanaire Seafood Room
Decorated to resemble a 1930′s ocean liner, this handsome restaurant is an active supporter of local and sustainable seafood, thanks to the dedication of executive chef Rob Klink, who has become a staunch advocate of protecting our marine life.

GROCERY STORES

Mom’s Organic Market
An organic grocery store with multiple locations in the DC area.

FARMERS’ MARKETS, FARMS, AND DIRECT MARKETING

Calvert County Agriculture
A complete listing of agricultural items for Calvert County, Maryland including farms, organizations, news, links, and material for kids.

City of Alexandria Farmers’ Markets
Official listing for farmers’ markets in the city of Alexandria, Virginia, including one of the oldest markets in the country, the Old Town Farmers’ Market.

Arlington Farmers’ Market
This market was founded through the Arlington office of the Virginia Cooperative Extension service and opened in 1979.

Ayrshire Farm
An organic farm specializing in rare and endangered breeds of livestock (Shire horses, Scotch Highland cattle, Milking Shorthorn dairy cattle, Gloucester Old Spot hogs, several breeds of free-range chickens, turkeys, ducks, pheasants, and wild turkeys) and heirloom fruits and vegetables.

Belle Meade Farm
This multi- faceted farm and school is also a sanctuary for wildlife; a Bed & Breakfast; a community center, that offers workshops and retreats.

Bethesda Central Farm Market
This Maryland market is open Sundays from 9 am – 1 pm.

Buy Fresh Buy Local Chesapeake Region
Learn more about local food in the Chesapeake region.

DC Greens – Glover Park and Burleith Farmer’s Market
A non-profit organization providing access to local produce and lost food knowledge, while serving as a conduit between regional farms, food and nutrition experts, and local schools.

Eat Wild
This website provides comprehensive, accurate information about the benefits of raising animals on pasture and a direct link to local farms that sell all-natural, grass-fed products.

Fresh and Local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
This biodynamic CSA is located in Harper’s Ferry, MD.

FRESHFARM Markets
This producers-only market has multiple locations in the DC area.

Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative
An organic farmers’ cooperative in Leola, Lancaster County that sells organic produce and grass-fed animal products through a wholesale pricelist, CSA program, 4 Season Harvest buying club and farmers markets in the DC area..

Local Harvest
Local Harvest maintains a directory of small farms, farmers’ markets and other local food sources throughout the nation as well as events happening in the DC area..

Maryland Organic Food and Farming Association (MOFFA)
MOFFA is a regional network of people, farms and suppliers of sustainable, organic and certified-organic products and food.

Mount Vernon Farm
Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains and run by the Miller family since 1827, this farm offers grass fed beef and lamb and pastured pork.

The National Farm to School Network
They connect schools with local farms with the objectives of serving healthy meals in school cafeterias, improving student nutrition, providing agriculture, health and nutrition education opportunities, while supporting local and regional farmers.

Polyface Farms
A family owned farm offering  Salad Bar Beef, Pigaerator Pork, Pastured Poultry (Eggs, Broilers, Turkeys), Forage-Based Rabbits, and Forestry Products.

Takoma Park Farmers’ Market
Organized in 1982, the Takoma Park Farmers’ Market was the Washington, DC metro area’s first Sunday market and an early pioneer in the producers-only movement.

Toigo Orchards
They use an Integrated Pest Management system which utilizes beneficial insects without the need for any residual sprays.  They offer their produce at many farmer’s markets in the DC area.

Touchstone Farm
They offer lamb, wool, and some poultry and fowl for pick up and home delivery to Northern Virginia and DC.

Tuscarora Organic Growers (TOG) Cooperative
An Organic family farm cooperative serving the DC area.

Virginia Grown Guide
This guide is a comprehensive listing of Virginia producers who market their products directly to consumers.

Waterpenny Farm
They produce pesticide-free vegetables and flowers for farmers markets, and offer a CSA subscription program and local on-farm pick up.

WINERIES

Virginia Wineries
A complete list of Wineries in Virginia

Maryland Wineries
A complete list of Wineries in Maryland

LAND PLANNING AND PRESERVATION

The Accokeek Foundation
The Accokeek Foundation stewards 200 acres of Piscataway Park, a national park located in Accokeek, MD, on the shore of the Potomac River directly across from Mount Vernon.  The park is open to the public year-round.

Montgomery Countryside Alliance
The mission of the Montgomery Countryside Alliance is to promote sound economic, land-use and transportation policies and programs that preserve the natural environment, open spaces, and rural lands in Montgomery County’s Agricultural Reserve for the benefit of all Washington Metropolitan area residents.

FOOD SECURITY, HUNGER, AND POVERTY

Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB)
CAFB is the largest, public nonprofit hunger and nutrition education resource in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

Community Food Security Coalition
The Community Food Security Coalition is dedicated to building strong, sustainable, local and regional food systems that ensure access to affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food for all people at all times.

The Congressional Hunger Center
The Congressional Hunger Center is a nonprofit anti-hunger training organization founded by former Rep. Tony Hall and located in Washington, DC.

Food First
The Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First shapes how people think by analyzing the root causes of global hunger, poverty, and ecological degradation and developing solutions in partnership with movements working for social change.

Food for Others
Food for Others is the largest distributor of free food directly to people in need in Northern Virginia.

Heifer International
Heifer’s mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the earth.

USDA Food and Nutrition Service: Seniors Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program
The purpose of the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program is to provide resources, in the form of fresh, nutritious, unprepared and locally grown fruits, vegetables, and herbs from farmers’ markets, roadside stands and community-supported agriculture programs, to low-income seniors.

USDA Food and Nutrition Service’s WIC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) FMNP is associated with the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). The FMNP, established by Congress in 1992, provides fresh, unprepared, locally grown fruits and vegetables to WIC participants, and aims to expand awareness, use and sales of fresh produce at farmers’ markets.

FOOD MEDIA

Civil Eats
Civil Eats promotes critical thought about sustainable agriculture and food systems as part of building economically and socially just communities.

D.C. Foodies
D.C. Foodies is a place where people can read about adventures in dining in the DC metro region.

The Food Blog Blog
A blog of blogs! Containing a mind-numbing list (close to 2000) blogs having to do with food.

The James Beard Foundation
The mission of the James Beard Foundations is to celebrate, preserve, and nurture America’s culinary heritage and diversity in order to elevate the appreciation of our culinary excellence.

HEALTH, NUTRITION, AND FOOD SAFETY

Oldways Food Issues Think Tank
Oldways carries out aggressive education programs to help consumers make wise choices about eating, drinking, lifestyle and the traditional pleasures of the table.

The Weston A. Price Foundation
The Weston A. Price Foundation is a nonprofit, founded in 1999 to disseminate the research of nutrition pioneer Dr. Weston Price, whose studies of isolated nonindustrialized peoples established the parameters of human health and determined the optimum characteristics of human diets.

What’s On My Food? (Pesticide Action Network)
What’s On My Food? is a searchable database designed to make the public problem of pesticide exposure visible and more understandable.

COMMUNITY GARDENS

City Blossoms
City Blossoms is an organization dedicated to working with schools, neighborhood groups, community centers and other organizations to create spaces for children to use their creativity and combined strength and skills to learn how to grow and maintain fantastic yet functioning gardens.

Common Good City Farm
Their mission is to grow food, educate, and help low-income DC community members meet their food needs.

Round Hill Community Garden
Located in Loudoun County, VA, this garden connects citizens with their neighbors where children can establish valuable connections to the natural world which supports us.

Washington Youth Garden at the National Arboretum
The Washington Youth Garden sows the seeds of interest in gardening, horticulture and environmental issues during the school year with carefully designed lessons and activities that are delivered in the classrooms of several schools in the Washington, DC area.

HERITAGE FOODS AND RARE BREED PRESERVATION

American Livestock Breeds Conservancy
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy is a pioneer organization in the U.S., working to conserve historic breeds and genetic diversity in livestock, including asses, cattle, goats, horses, sheep, pigs, rabbits, chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys.

Heritage Foods USA
Heritage Foods is dedicated to saving not only turkeys but also Native American foods, pigs, sheep, bison, cows, reef-net salmon, chickens and all breeds of food livestock.

Heritage Wheat Conservancy
The Heritage Wheat Conservancy works with farmers and gardeners to restore our heritage of wheat, by growing rare varieties, sharing at seed-exchanges and building a community seed supply.

Seed Savers Exchange
Seed Savers Exchange is a non-profit, member supported organization that saves and shares the heirloom seeds of our garden heritage, forming a living legacy that can be passed down through generations.

Southern Foodways Alliance
The Southern Foodways Alliance documents, studies, and celebrates the diverse food cultures of the changing American South.

SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

The Ecological Farming Association
The Ecological Farming Association nurtures healthy and just farms, food systems, communities and environment by bringing people together for education, alliance building and advocacy.

Food Routes Network (FRN)
FRN is a national nonprofit organization that provides communications tools, technical support, networking and information resources to organizations nationwide that are working to rebuild local, community-based food systems.

Future Harvest: A Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture (CASA)
Future Harvest-CASA is a network of farmers, agricultural professionals, landowners and consumers living and working in the Chesapeake region.

Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future
This interdisciplinary center promotes research and development while communicating information about the complex interrelationships among diet, food production, environment and human health.

Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (Southern SARE)
Since 1988, the SARE program has helped advance farming systems that are profitable, environmentally sound and good for communities through a nationwide research and education grants program.

Seafood Choices Alliance
Seafood Choices is mobilizing and connecting world leaders who support action for a sustainable supply of seafood and healthy oceans through responsible business, management, policy, and regulation.

Smart Seafood Choices
Check this list published by the Environmental Defense Fund before you buy seafood to see which fish are sustainable and healthy.

Sustainable Table
Sustainable Table celebrates the sustainable food movement, educates consumers on food-related issues and works to build community through food.

The True Cost of Food
A campaign to promote sustainable food choices from the Sierra Club National Sustainable Consumption Committee.

Virginia Association for Biological Farming
This nonprofit, educational organization is dedicated to the vision of a sustainable food and fiber system that will maintain healthy soil, clean water and thriving ecosystems, while providing quality products for consumers and economic security for farmers and rural communities.

EVNIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF)
CBF is the only independent 501(c)3 organization dedicated solely to restoring and protecting the Chesapeake Bay and its tributary rivers.

EarthEcho International
EarthEcho International’s mission is to empower youth to take action that restores and protects our water planet.