Word Spy - garden-to-fork

adj. Describing or relating to food grown in a person's own garden. Also: garden to fork.

Example Citations:

Headteacher Mo Brown said: "What an amazing achievement by our green, mean eco-team. This rich garden-to-fork experience is the very essence of Curriculum for Excellence."
—"Grass-roots education at its best," Selkirk Advertiser, June 25, 2010

In his love letter to Root Down, Cheshes admits falling for the joint's cocktails, design and garden-to-fork food.
—Lori Midson, "Four Denver restaurants get major shout-outs from the New York Times," Denver Westward, August 27, 2010

Earliest Citation:

Last week I ate the first head of lettuce it was amazing, all that garden to fork crap is true.
—"Lettuce Give Thanks," The Big Fat Food Manifesto, August 8, 2009

Notes:

Here's an even earlier citation that uses a variation on the phrase:

Heronswood Café manager David Weill counts gardeners as part of his kitchen team. "It's a garden-fork-to-kitchen-fork approach," he says. Heronswood, after all, is primarily a garden. It's famous, in fact, for its heritage vegetables.
—Donna Coutts, "Garden to plate," Herald Sun, April 15, 2008

Also, here's a early cite that uses garden to fork non-adjectivally:

California first lady Maria Shriver has her shovel at the ready. She plans an 800-square-foot garden in downtown Sacramento that she'll use to teach where food comes from, its nutritional value and how it moves from garden to fork.
—"First garden a role model," Sacramento Bee, March 27, 2009

Categories:

Food and Drink
Plants and Gardening
Environment

Posted on January 19, 2011