by Amy Rose - Written exclusively for www.MicroEcoFarming.com

Are you among one of these:

• Seeking progressive chef schools?
• Seeking ways to make your chef business green and trendy?
• A local or artisan food-minded micro eco-farmer looking for more success?
• (Or all three)?

When chefs, chef schools and micro eco-farms join forces, they become part of a growing success trend in the culinary arts.

The trend is the burgeoning farm-to-chef movement, which means several things to chefs and eco-farmers:

For one, some aspiring micro farmers (or upgrading current farmers) are attending chef schools or starting cooking and chef schools on the farm, which is tremendously increasing micro farm profit as part of the food vacation agritourism trend.

Some chef-farmers are connecting to the trend without formal training from chef schools and are instead learning new information from their cooperative extension service (see below).

And the farmer-chef relationship is workable and lucrative for chefs, chef schools, and current small or micro eco-farmers not planning to attend chef schools, because the chefs pay direct retail, and micro eco-farms are the most flexible farms available forthe chefs. As described in the story of the rare pepper micro farmer in the book Micro Eco-Farming, the micro eco-farm is able to custom grow varieties and adapt to trends and requests quickly, while at the same time holding onto stable profit-earning crops. And they satisfy customers seeking green stewardship of their purchases.

Aspiring chefs seeking farm-to-chef or green chef schools:

The Farm-to-Chef trend is sweeping the culinary arts from New York to the West Coast. Upscale and future chefs are cooking far differently than they did only a decade ago, and there are specific buzz words to seek when looking into chef schools which are on top of this trend.

The future high demand chef will blend world cuisine with local culinary traditions, and will be connecting with local micro eco-farmers for many of their ingredients. In some cases, micro eco-farmers may choose to custom-grow crops exclusively as per the choices of the chef. In other cases, chefs or chef schools will be starting micro eco-farms of their own and hiring farmers. In other cases, the chefs themselves are becoming farmers also, in their backyards, on the grounds of their culinary destination, or as with the new trend of chefs with rural property starting on-farm chef schools.

Aspiring chefs seeking chef schools need to seek culinary intitutions and workshops that promise in their curriculum to actually visit local small organic and sustainable farms and teach how to spot the best ingredients on the vine. (Article written exclusively for www.MicroEcoFarming.com)

Find chef schools that offer cooking classes and culinary courses on cooking with fresh, local ingredients. And even better, look for chef schools that teach you how to work directly with the farmers, as this will help your chef business amazingly. Adam, the farmer of Nettles Farm in Washington State, goes over seed catalogs regularly with the chefs he provides for. They look closely at newly discovered heirlooms, rare edible flowers, recently offered herbs, and find outstanding eco-ingredients to impress the restaurant customers and also let them know the ingredients are grown in a manner that sustains the environment and are provided locally, both of which impress the high end restaurant customer.

Agritourism is on the rise, and chefs, chef schools and micro eco-farms can mutually benefit with culinary travel and cooking vacation agritourism ventures. The New Agritourism dedicates space to blending micro eco-farms with chefs, chef schools and education.

For chefs, chef schools and micro eco-farmers alike:

Contact your local cooperative extension agent and find out if they have a Farm to Chef program. These workshops help chefs learn how farmers think, and help farmers learn how chefs think. They may connect chefs with micro farming partners who can mutually create lucrative tourist chef experiences or on-farm chef schools as described below.

For chef schools, current chefs and micro eco-farmers:

Agritourism (farms hosting guests for income) is the fastest growing segment of the tourist industry. It comes in many forms, and the "chef - chef school-farm" combination makes very attractive destinations for culinary travel and cooking vacations.

For aspiring or upgrading micro eco-farmers inclined towards producing for the culinary arts:

You can work with chefs, chef schools or even fulfill old desires to be a chef in the following ways:

• Connect with regional chefs and provide on-farm tours to chefs, working directly with them to grow what they specifically ask for. As one example, one chef had a vision of yellow and red combined on his plate, and eventually specifically requested red and yellow pear cherry tomatoes.
• Connect with the actual chef schools themselves to become one of the school's field trip providers and a location for them to teach on-site workshops.
• Offer casual on-farm culinary workshops for restaurant chefs, personal chefs and hobby chefs.
• Attend chef schools or chef workshops yourself (on-farm chef schools or regular institutions), then start more formal chef schools and workshops on your own farm. A farm in Washington State has done just that. (See Chefs on the Farm for their story). Another Oregon chef started a micro eco-farm and now teaches culinary arts on his own six acres. The book, The New Agritourism: Hosting Community and Tourists on Your Farm dedicates areas to the topics of blending chefs, education and micro eco-farms, and describes how the chef/farmer can even offer CEUs (Continuing Education Units) to professional chefs or students of chef schools seeking the continued classes they need to keep up with their required qualifications.