Ash Grove restaurant now using only locally produced beef—from Aurora

Change made after owner develops allergy to store-bought beef
 

The Farmhouse on Boone Café has a new supplier for the ground beef they use in their hamburgers and other meals. From now on, the restaurant will get all of their ground beef from Vaught Farms in Aurora.
Lesley Day, owner of the Farmhouse on Boone, said the reason for the switch was an allergy she had to the preservatives found in store-bought beef. When it was cooking, the fumes it gave off would cause her to have migraines. It was a problem she had first discovered five years ago, but thought she had gotten past it.
“I thought it had (gone) away,” she said. “I had not had any problems in years, but it came back in February.”
Day said the ground beef the store gets from Vaught Farms will have a superior level of quality to what the store was formerly using.
“The beef is fresh, home grown,” she said. “It doesn’t have all the added preservatives that store-bought does.” Day added that the switch will have a minimal impact on the menu.
Bryant Vaught, owner of Vaught Farms, said he is “excited” to be the exclusive provider of ground beef for the Farmhouse on Boone.
“I’ve known the Day family for years and they’ve bought a significant amount of beef from me in the past,” he said. “They’ve been great customers and it was a privilege to be able to meet their needs at their new venture at Ash Grove.”
Vaught also said the restaurant’s decision to purchase ground beef from a local producer shows their dedication to the concept of buying locally.
“I think it says a lot about how they care about the community,” he said. “Every small-town local restaurant preaches ‘shop local,’ only trying to draw customers to their business, but the restaurants don’t buy anything local themselves. They just buy wherever they get the cheapest price even if it’s just a nickel cheaper from the big suppliers. The Farmhouse is different, focusing on freshness and quality and practicing what they preach by shopping local. I think their customers can see that.”
Ground beef is not the only switch the restaurant is making. Day also announced that the Farmhouse on Boone would no longer use bagged salad mix in their salads; they will hand-chop fresh vegetables for their salads instead.
“Here’s to farm fresh beef and fresh salads … and to hopefully fewer migraines for me,” Day said in her announcement.