Farm to Table: How a Local Farm Supplies Morgantown Restaurants
By Jeffrey McCullough, Keeandrae Johnson and Aaron Host
Waking up at five in the morning to pull weeds, milk cows and perform heavy labor isn’t everyone’s idea of an utopian existence, but for Sunshine Vortigern it’s paradise.
Sunshine and her husband Steve first started Round Right Farm in 2006, hoping to bring fresh organic food to the families of West Virginia.
“We’ve worked really hard these past 13 years to put together something we’re really proud of,” she said. “And we’re happy we get to serve Preston and Monongalia counties.”
Sunshine cites several advantages to local farming, from fresher ingredients to a lower carbon footprint. While food shipped from mega farms to chains like Kroger’s and Walmart travel distances of 1,000 miles or more, Round Right Farm delivers primarily in Preston and neighboring counties.
Every item produced by Round Right Farm is organic, with the company abstaining from chemical pesticides, growth hormones and even fossil-fuel based fertilizers. In addition they grow several items with a West Virginian flair.
“Our beets and carrots are really good because we use a special type of soil,” Sunshine said. “It’s called climber soil and it’s only available around this area of the state; it influences the taste of produce grown in it.”
It’s these little touches that have helped make Round Right Farms a success. While many more small farms across America have struggled in recent years, a result of competition from factory farms, tariffs from the Trump administration and other reasons, Sunshine said that small organic farms like Round Right have flourished.
“It takes a lot of credentials to be classified as an organic farm,” she said. “Customers know the product they get from us is the quality they expect and deserve.”
While Round Right Farms services a relatively small area, comprising entirely of North Central West Virginia, Sunshine assures that their organic practices, which include using no pesticides or fossil fuel based harvesting, add to the quality of their yield.
“Producing higher quality food for a smaller group of people is how we’ve made our living so far,” she said. “And it’s working out great for us.”
Crops are harvested from spring until Autumn, with a variety of different crops. On any given July morning you might find Right Round employee Travis Smith picking from rows of yellow corn.
In the autumn, you might find him in one of the farm’s tarp covered greenhouses picking radishes.
“It’s good honest work,” Smith said, the smell of fresh produce permeating the air. “It’s making a living from the land.”
Right Round sells groceries directly to local families, who can order them in delivery packages from the farm’s website. Packages include a wide variety of produce, from Japanese pumpkins to acorn winter squash.
“A large bulk of our work is raising food for around 300 families,” Sunshine said. “They pay us upfront at the beginning of the year, with us raising and delivering crops throughout the year.”
In addition to shipping groceries to families, Round Right Farms sends out fresh ingredients to several Morgantown farm-to-table restaurants, among them local favorite Terra Cafe.
“We love working with Terra Cafe,” she said. “They are just super supportive of us, and their chef, she does amazing work with our food.”
Terra Cafe Head Chef Lauren Hartman is a big proponent of buying ingredients locally; skillful preparation of locally sourced produce is something of the cafe’s calling card.
“I find a lot of produce that we get from local farms last just as long or longer than stuff traveling from California or Mexico,” she said. “And the quality is higher.”
Terra Cafe certainly keeps local farms busy, with the kitchen open and cooking fresh every day. It takes multiple deliveries just to keep up with demand.
“We’re a seven day a week operation and we’re always just super busy,” she said. “We’re able to just sell tons of this product; we get three giant deliveries from local farms every week.”
Terra’s dishes are often complex affairs, requiring a wide and varied selection of produce.
“Cooking our food isn’t often as simple as throwing ingredients in a pan,” Hartman said. “I mean sometimes there’s 17 ingredients in one dressing.”
West Virginia University student and Terra Cafe frequenter Osama Behbehani said that the cafe is one of his favorite places in Morgantown.
“The freshness really contributes to the quality of the food, it’s something you can really tell,” Behbehani said. “It doesn’t taste like it came out of a can.”
A budding screenwriter, Behbehani has visited many coffee shops across Morgantown and America. Still, it’s Terra Cafe that keeps drawing him back in.
“It’s a nice, quiet place to come work,” Behbehani said. “It’s got good food, good coffee; it really adds something to Morgantown.”
Something Hartman and Sunshine have in common, besides food preparation, is passion for their community and feeding its many hungry residents.
“It’s been a good 13 years,” Sunshine said. “And I’m looking forward to 13 more.”
