The Mooring philosophy and the significance of where our food comes from...

The culinary philosophy at The Mooring is to focus on the quality of food that is being served at the restaurant. To ensure the freshest food possible, they strive to obtain local and organic ingredients. They support local farmers with special produce arriving almost daily. The Mooring Restaurant, along with the other restaurants in The Newport Harbor Corporation, belongs to a movement and local food system called Farm Fresh Rhode Island. The goals of this project are to keep Rhode Island farmland at its freshest and most bountiful by supporting local farmers as well as increase the access to fresher produce.
Every year, The Castle Hill Inn and Resort holds an event to support the Farm Fresh Rhode Island movement. It is an afternoon spent to acknowledge local farmers, fisherman, and bakeries by teaming up with chefs from the Newport area. With over two dozen farms being represented, it is a great way to support these farmers by an evening of delicious and local food. This year, I worked with Chef Brian and we supported five different farmers at our stand. We made crostinis with baguettes from Bristol, RI and spread a pea green pesto from Westport, RI onto them along with Reynolds Barn goat cheese from South Kingstown. We then topped each crostini with Aquidneck farms beef brisket from Portsmouth, RI and tomato compote with tomatoes from Lydon Family Farms in Tiverton, RI. I got a chance to walk around to other booths, like Narragansett creamery, Aquidneck Island Honey, Olga’s Breads (based in Providence), and other local farms. It was such a great experience to see all of these farms displaying their products.
We buy local mixed greens to cut into our salad greens along with micro greens and pea shoots from Farming Turtles, located in the Narragansett Bay. We are currently receiving daily orders of heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil from Lydon Family Tomatoes located in Tiverton, RI, as well as freshly cultivated blueberries. We often use these local and organic items for specials and being able to say that it is local makes the guest appreciate where their food is coming from. The majority of our produce arrives daily from Belmont Market, located in Wakefield, RI. Belmont gathers their produce from local farms such as Poblano Farm in South Kingstown and uses the same philosophy as the Mooring by buying local and organic produce. At Castle Hill, they have an organic garden that is currently sprouting potatoes, chard, onions, zucchini, and numerous herbs such as mint, Thai basil, sage, chives, parsley, and thyme. We also feature cheeses from Narragansett and Providence on our menu, using them for the cheese plates and crumbling the Salty Sea Feta into our salads. We use cheeses like Atwells Gold and Queso Fresco for specials as well.
Seafood is the specialty of Newport because of its bountiful access to water. Our philosophy on seafood and shellfish is the same as our produce; buying local whenever possible. We use “speed to market” and “top of the catch” seafood, and when possible, day boat fishermen. A majority of our shellfish comes from Newport Lobster, Co, located in Middletown, the next town over from Newport and our oysters and clams arrive daily from farms around Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Matunuck is our largest purveyor. Having fresh and local shellfish makes the customer at ease when knowing they are eating food that originated from that area.