We live in the middle of farms, ranches, orchards and vineyards as that s pretty much the reason our Valley exists. So for us around here, it can be fairly easy to accomplish.
I m not sure this is really a trend anymore, is it?

 You may have been ahead of us out there. I don’t think that it has peaked yet, out here, but my guess is that your places, in the middle of farm country had more actual local food on the tables. 

Around here, lip service to “Farm to Table” is in style. The term can mean a lot of things, but in fact, around here, most places that brag about being, buy one or two things from a few farmers. I’m not judging………running a restaurant is hard enough without the supply chain problems of being farm to table.

It’s not about “style”. In season, The down scale, Roadfood serving Maine Diner is more authentic than a lot of higher cost options. They have (or had?) a garden out back, and the farm fresh stuff that they serve is really good. I posted about 10 years ago, about a California place with a name I’ve forgotten. They too, had a garden out back, and were very upscale. ( I think that they were owned by folks associated with the famous “French Laundry”. 

My internet died as I did this post……..I’ll finish it now. http://www.reuniontap.com www.reuniontap.com is a local, non Roadfood place that recently opened. We like it. They list on the menu local farms that they buy from, but especially in the winter, I’ll bet that they can’t source much local stuff. Our local “The Fix” burger restaurant has “local grass fed beef” for $1 extra. I buy it to support local agriculture. “Dead Horse Hill” a local, upscale, very popular (folks come in from Boston to eat there), place says that they use local stuff in season. http://www.deadhorsehill.com www.deadhorsehill.com 

There must have been a story about Calville Blanc d’Hiver apples in a cooking magazine last fall, because I got a couple of calls from  places looking to source some. Calville Blanc, the classic French cooking apple, grown since the 15th century, is so far as I know, not in serious production. Most cooking apples are “seconds” of popular apples.I could be wrong, but I don’t think that many chiefs can afford to pay $2 a pound for cooking apples, no matter how good they are, and that is what Blancs would have to cost, as they would not be “seconds” but grown especially to cook with.  I have ordered scion wood from the Fedco co-op in Maine to graft over a branch on one of my mature trees, so I will have a few Blancs for myself and friends. I will not be growing a whole tree, because by the time I have them, nobody will want them.