Starter Kit. Idea 121 of 500. Cluster 6
Organic farm-to-table restaurants using genuinely local produce
The mechanism, from the book
Dilmah says it earns over 3 times the national average price for tea, because it does its own blending, branding and packing. The proof has been sitting inside the industry all along.
The first step
List 10 farmers within an hour of you who grow without chemicals and would sell to you weekly, with what each grows month by month. Cook a set dinner using only their produce, name each farm on the menu, and sell 12 seats through a guesthouse nearby. If the seats sell above the price of an ordinary tourist meal and the farmers want to supply again, you have both ends.
- Who pays first
- A visitor who wants to eat what the island actually grows, and will pay more when the farm's name is on the menu.
- What leaves today
- When the visitor's meal money does not reach the farm, the island's produce stays anonymous and its farmers keep earning commodity prices.
Ask first
- the area Medical Officer of Health. Ask what hygiene standard and checks a restaurant kitchen must pass.
- Department of Agriculture. Ask which local farmers grow produce to a steady quality.
Check before you spend
That the restaurant is licensed by the council, that farm suppliers are reliable all year, and that every local claim on the menu is true.
Find out these three numbers
- What will diners pay for a genuinely local menu?
- Which farms can supply steadily through the seasons?
- What does a meal cost to produce?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.