Local chef partners with Hillside Farms
In last week’s Home Grown we saw how the Quechan Casino’s chef uses locally grown produce to create some of the freshest dishes in town. This week we meet the grower he has partnered with to make it happen.
Joseph Dominguez works closely with some local chefs to create the freshest farm to table dishes. From cucumbers to his famous cherry tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes and heirloom tomatoes to eggplants, peppers and colored carrots, he helps grow organic produce for people to enjoy here in Yuma.
“Hillside Farms, I started after college when I came back to Yuma,” Dominguez told 13 On Your Side. “I wanted to get into farming so we have a little bit of farm here and we started with one greenhouse full of heirloom tomatoes and sold them to the farmers market, every year we would build another greenhouse and eventually met up with the Casino and now we offer all of our stuff to them,” he said.
Executive chef at Quechan Resort and Casinos, Garrett McKeeman shares what the experience has been like.
“It’s been a wonderful experience working with Joseph and Hillside Farms. We collaborate on what he grows and what I need so that I can provide for my guest,” McKeeman said.
McKeeman puts in his produce order and hillside farms hand picks and brings it to him in less than two hours.
“Without them there is no extension to the local customers,” McKeeman said.
Hillside Farms also sells their produce at Yuma’s Farmer’s Market.
“People may go to the farmers market but they don’t know what to do with it and then they see what Chef Garrett does and it gives them ideas and then they want to come to the farmers market buy the produce and go home and try it themselves,” Dominguez said.
This partnership is beneficial for both the farm and the chef.
“I am able to help him and make him more successful and hopefully grow his business,” che McKeeman said.
“It’s interesting to see what they come up with, with these dishes because of that I have gotten into eating tomatoes because they really know how to bring out the flavors,”
Dominguez said.
All of the produce grown locally in the desert southwest is on a commercial basis so once it gets picked it is shipped off and then will be shipped back here to our local grocery stores and restaurants. Chef McKeeman and Dominguez are just one partnership in town that helps bring local consumers produce straight from the fields.
