As reported in the L.A. Times, a new restaurant called Forage opened its doors with a fresh approach to the lack of cash in the community. The system works when locals bring in any of their home-grown produce in exchange for meals.
Central to the restaurant’s concept is its “foraging program,” through which Bacon and Kim, along with the help of a friend named Eugene Ahm, encourage diners to bring in fresh fruits and vegetables from their gardens. Then, Kim and Bacon will create a dish, pastry or drink around those ingredients.
“We ask people to come in and we’ll do a tasting in the kitchen, then we can figure out how to use it that day — maybe in an agua fresca — or maybe we give it to our pastry chef and it becomes a pie tomorrow,” says Bacon. “Or it’s super fresh and we throw it in a salad right there. Then we work out a little barter and trade system with the forager.”
Their first forager came in Tuesday. Her name was Sonya. “She brought 15 lemons, and for those she got some cookies and a slice of flatbread,” says Bacon, who added that the lemons were made into lemonade and are currently on the menu as Sonya’s Silver Lake Lemonade. In that way, anyone who brings something in gets a little shout-out on the menu.
