Ohio farmers find new customers at restaurants

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — A growing number of restaurants and grocery stores are turning to local farmers for their lettuce, green beans and jalapeno peppers.

Restaurant owners say buying local saves them money and gives them fresher food.

The Northwest Ohio Fresh Network is matching farmers and restaurants to put more locally grown products into restaurants and food stores. The group has grown from about 60 farms and restaurants three years ago to 120 participants this year.

Mancy’s Restaurant Group, which owns four Toledo-area restaurants, buys heirloom tomatoes and green beans.

“If you go with big-box companies, you don’t really know where it came from and how many different parties it moved through before it got to you,” said Nick Mancy, who runs Shorty’s Bar-B-Que in Toledo.

He buys all of his green beans from GreenLine Foods in Bowling Green and Grodi Farms across the state line in Erie, Mich.