GIBSONVILLE, N.C. — Fresh fruits and vegetables can take a very short, or very long, journey to your home or table.

Some farms and restaurants have moved toward a farm-to-fork model, in order to make the journey as short as possible.

The owners of Smith Farms in Gibsonville handle more than 100 acres at a time, filled with different varieties of crops. Craven Smith is a third generation farmer, who has seen more people get on board with the idea of “farm to table” in recent years.

“I think a lot of people with the pandemic have realized we need to buy our food as local and as fresh as possible,” Smith said. “And a lot of days we will pick things in the morning, and they would have that for lunch or dinner that night.”

Cindy Essa, the owner of Pastabilities in Greensboro, adopted the “farm-to-fork” idea more than 20 years ago and spends her Saturday mornings picking the freshest ingredients for her kitchen staff.

“We’ve always tried to support local,” Essa said. “And this is the best way to do it. We have the best ingredients for our customers. In the peak season in the summer, 75% of our vegetables come fresh.”

Once the vegetables are picked, she takes them back to the kitchen, where they could be on her customers’ plates in a few hours.

“Our lunch business and dinner business in the summer stays strong because they know we’re getting local,” Essa said. “We always put on the board which farm we’ve been able to buy from for that day’s specials.”

Essa says her customers have come to expect a certain level of freshness, which she is happy to provide. 

“Smith Farms is 18 miles from here (the farmer’s market), and it’s less than three to the restaurant,” Essa said. “So it’s 20, 21 miles that it’s going from the farm to their plates or to their homes. That’s pretty neat.”