Queens Tribune

Sage General Store, which focuses on local food products, creates fantastic dishes from its humble storefront.

Leslie Nilsson realized something had to be done. Unprecedented summer rains had destroyed the tomato crops and made traditional summer fruits like berries ripen much later. The zucchini crops rotted, and with growing schedules pushed back, the problems looked like they would persist into the fall.

The final straw came when Nilsson, a restaurateur, called her produce buyer only to hear the woman weeping because she selling so little produce she couldn’t support her family. Nilsson then chose to refashion her Long Island City restaurant and use only locally grown produce.

“It’s a personal philosophy,” Nilsson said, who in addition to owning the 2-year-old Sage General Store restaurant is the CEO of Sage Events, a special event and wedding planning company. “If I can throw my business to someone who’s a small business owner like myself, I would ultimately do it.”

It’s also good business for Nilsson. A quarter of patrons seek out restaurants with menus that focus on “green” food ingredients, according to the Zagat Survey of 2010 New York City Restaurants. Two-thirds find it important that their food is locally grown, organic or sustainable – and 56 percent of customers are willing to pay more for it.

Though the definition of what exactly constitutes as local is vague, “locavores,” as they are known, consume produce from non-corporate farms that use sustainable farming practices. Local has different meanings, too, from a 100-mile radius to entire bioregional area.

Keeping food local means more nutritious food that retains the natural flavors, according to Paulette Satur, owner of Satur Farms, one of Sage General Store’s suppliers. Since she and her husband started farming 12 years ago, they’ve become spoiled on fresh produce. Most of their food is picked directly from their fields mere hours before it ends up in their frying pans and dinner table. The produce has less time to deteriorate because plants start to break down as soon as they are harvested.

“The minute something’s cut, it’s bleeding nutrients,” Satur said. “People can taste the difference in day-old bread. Same with vegetables – people can tell the difference.”

Nilsson storefront nook is as busy as ever, with lunch lines easily 20 people long stretching past the sidewalk into Jackson Avenue. Among those waiting was art critic Lily Wei, who frequents the place at least once a month. On this occasion, she brought two friends who had never eaten there.

“Their product is good, and their food is really good,” Wei said between sips of fair-trade coffee. “It’s the only place around here that has passable fresh food.”

A wooden shelf of pastries, cupcakes and other deliciously sinful delights near the doorway invites patrons to ruin their appetites on dessert. Every step in the cooking process is in the open: Customers can see the baskets of produce from which the chefs whip up meals.

Although Nilsson’s restaurant always featured some organic or local produce, she was able to fully support the movement by changing her daily menu to a weekly one. Some traditional favorites were stricken from the menu, but she added new specials such as skillet-fried free-range chicken that uses local poultry and produce that had weathered the summer’s storms. She did meet resistance from a few people who missed seeing the regular dishes, like the daily tuna fish sandwiches, but she was able to appease them by trying to put the items on the next week’s menu.

Arvin Raidman, a real estate broker who eats at the Sage General Store at least once a week, approved of the good cause, but misses the daily macaroni and cheese. However, he did see one upside.

“I could live without it,” he said as he laughed and pointed to his stomach. He then ordered the new daily special, Maryland crab cakes with jalapeno-corn grits.

Another person who is glad that Nilsson made the change is grower Edward Harbes IV, who works on Harbes Family Farms in Mattituck, N.Y. His farm supplies Sage General Store with crops like pumpkins, squash and sweet corn.

“I think it’s really terrific when a community can come together and support each other, especially in difficult economic times,” Harbes said. “If we can continue to help one another, it’s going to have a positive effect in the future.”

His farm was hit especially hard this past summer. Although the cold weather is setting in, the aftereffects are far from over. The heavy rain made the soil condition too wet to use farm equipment for fear of degrading the soil tilth, or mixture of nutrients in the soil. Now, he and growers like him are an entire season behind.

By now, Harbes should be harvesting his pumpkins and squash. But a walk in his fields shows that almost all 50 acres of the vegetables were still green. He planned to extend his season into November, something he has never done – to give his crops more time to mature. This, in turn, will push back his winter crop of essential cover crops like oats and winter rye, which put nutrients back in the soil. That then delays his spring growing season.

With fewer winter crops to choose from, Nilsson said that it will be challenging to stick with her local produce menu but she’s counting on farms with greenhouses so she can make salads. There are also root crops, like beets and braising greens, and she’s considering canning some local produce.

“If you throw your money where you can best help people, it’s great,” Nilsson said. “Even though, in the end in this case, ultimately everyone is benefiting.”

Sage General Store is located at 24-20 Jackson Ave. To learn more call (718) 361-0707 or go to sagegeneralstore.com.