Green Door Gourmet wants to change how Nashville eats

• Green Door Gourmet is a 350-acre organic farm in West Nashville.
• The farm grows more than 80 fruits and vegetables, 80 flower varieties and 25 herbs.
• Educational programming for children is a main focus for owner Sylvia Ganier.

A 350-acre property situated along the Cumberland River in West Nashville that was once used to raise cattle and pigs has become an epicenter for organic produce, local artisan products, education and events.

Green Door Gourmet owner Sylvia Ganier’s mission: to make fresh, healthy foods more accessible to Nashvillians and to help lead the local food movement with a major focus on educating children.

This year, hundreds of children ate Green Door Gourmet’s organic strawberries thanks to a partnership with Metro Nashville Public Schools. The farm delivered berries to five elementary schools, and Ganier wants to develop an in-school program to advance her mission.

“We want to go and talk to the kids and say, ‘Hey, we’re your farmer and this is where your strawberries came from,’ ” Ganier said.

Hands-on education about local foods is at the heart of Green Door Gourmet’s growing business.

The farm, one of the largest certified organic farms in Tennessee, has been in Ganier’s family for decades, starting when her husband’s family bought it in the 1940s.

Metro schools serve Green Door Gourmet produce

Ganier converted it to a produce farm after she and her husband purchased the property. Green Door Gourmet grows 80 kinds of fruits and vegetables, 80 flower varieties and about 25 specialty herbs. The farm employs 22 people, including full-time chef Richard Jones.

A 6,000-square-foot white oak barn on the property hosts weddings, charity events, farm-to-table dinners and corporate events.

On tap next year for Green Door Gourmet is a pick-your-own-strawberries operation from a field with 100,000 plants.

“I’m about what you can eat immediately, so I was more into the produce,” said Ganier, who grew up on a dairy farm in North Carolina. She later worked in the Nashville restaurant industry and ran the now-closed Cibo on Church Street.

Four years ago, Green Door Gourmet opened its 2,000-square-foot country store on the farm. It sources from more than 100 local farmers and artisans, making it easier for those producers to sell to consumers without having to be present at a farmers market.

“There was such a push on farmers to participate in farmers markets, and while they’re great and certainly have their place, we can’t go to 28 different markets, especially all on the same day. Why do we want to turn farmers into marketers?” Ganier said.

The farm store at Green Door Gourmet sells produce, meat, eggs, dairy, honey, soaps and much more. Ganier said it draws customers from across Middle Tennessee.

Another way Ganier is bringing fresh food to consumers is through Green Door Gourmet’s Local Farm Box, a flexible version of a Community Supported Agriculture program that allows customers to opt in weekly for $25 and pack their own box at the farm on weekends. A corporate CSA program allows people to preorder a farm box for the season through their company.

“That’s kind of how our model started; how do we not waste food, and how do we make it convenient for customers?” Ganier said.

Produce from the farm also lands on plates at Nashville restaurants, including Miel, Burger Up, Josephine and Prima.

Aside from Mother Nature, Ganier said one of the top hurdles she faces as a farmer is consumer knowledge. For instance Green Door Gourmet’s organic tomatoes don’t look like the unblemished, shiny tomatoes found in some grocery stores.

That’s why educational programming — especially for children — is critical to Ganier’s work.

“I think, for us, our main mission is to make sure we are giving Nashville access to clean, healthy, delicious food and the knowledge on how to prepare it. That’s always the umbrella of what drives us. To make sure the kids know where their food is coming from and to be able to get better food to Nashvillians so they have choices,” Ganier said.

Reach Lizzy Alfs at 615-726-5948 and on Twitter @lizzyalfs.