About Maryland Table
Maryland Table was founded in 2010 by Todd Smith and Kyle Stewart, two partners in a BloombergBusinessweek award-winning branding and social innovation firm called The Longitude. It was launched to address growing problems with our food system. Initially started as a way to connect Maryland residents with sustainably and humanely produced food, our mission has grown to support sustainable farm advocacy. What started out as one of three social projects is now our full-time work.
With a physical location in Downtown Annapolis’ Market House and an online ordering service, our little company now serves more varieties of locally, sustainably, and humanely produced farm-to-table food than any other store in the area. We look to challenge the notion that an out-of-state tomato from 200 miles away is “local” and to provide foods that promote health and enable ethical eating for Marylanders.
Todd Smith can't remember if it was aisle 13 or 14 but it really doesn't matter -- at age 12, he traveled with his parents to a big warehouse discount store and bought a 100 pack of hotdogs for around 20 bucks. Having been on all of the family farms Maryland Table now deals with, Todd shudders at the abounding health and moral problems that come with paying 20 cents for a piece of any animal. After graduating from the University of Delaware with a degree in History and starting a career on Madison Avenue, in 2006 Todd moved on to a career in social entrepreneurship (starting businesses that positively impact societal problems). It was then that he co-founded a top Wall Street Journal-ranked mutual fund that donates half of its profits to address societal problems. His wife's first pregnancy marked the beginning of food awareness for Todd. Upon hearing the news, he ran out to buy organic produce for his growing family. Years of further research showed him that organic was only one aspect of honest food – words like "humane", "sustainable" – and with produce now coming from as far as China and tainted meat and eggs coming from Iowa and Arkansas to Maryland (and 27 other states) – that "local" matters too. He resides in Annapolis with his backbone/wife Amy and heart/children Naomi and Judah.
Kyle Stewart is a complicated man, and by complicated, we simply mean that he was looking for a long time for his place in the world. Moving from a career in the sciences to theology to philosophy to media to social entrepreneurship, Kyle traipsed up and down the East Coast - faithful wife Corey in tow - for the last decade trying to find the one thing (or things) he was meant to do with his time on earth. A passion for helping people live with the dignity they were created for, a critical mind honed at St. John's College, and the realization that food - yes, food! - is at the center of everything we do as human beings led to founding Maryland Table with his-brother-from-another-mother J.Todd Smith. As Socrates said, "... good men eat and drink that they may live," and that's what gets Kyle up for those early-morning produce runs to the Eastern Shore: a vision for helping people and our world truly live well. That's a vision he's reminded of every time he hands someone their Maryland Table order or sits down to eat with his wonderful wife and three children, Athanasius, Phoenix and T.B.A.
OUR PARTNER FARMS
Davon Crest II (Trappe, Maryland)
What: Sustainably grown produce
Why: Davon Crest II is a family operation that uses a formidable blend of long-held farming traditions and also more modern techniques. They grow outside during warmer seasons, and the operation moves indoors to a series of over 10 massive greenhouses during Maryland chills.
Ivy Neck Farm (Harwood/Edgewater, Maryland)
What: Grass-fed ground beef, roasts, and steaks
Why: Ivy Neck farm does things the right way. Their cows roam acres of farmland grazing on grass. The same family has been running Ivy Neck since the 1680s - over nine generations.
Magnolia Bread Company (Sudlersville, Maryland)
What: Breads in the American Hearth and Artisan traditions
Why: Using high quality ingredients and 25% wheat grown on their Maryland farm, James Reynolds and his daughters craft and bake handmade artisan breads the honest way.
Nice Farms Creamery (Federalsburg, Maryland)
What: Whole milk and yogurt
Why: Their dairy products are as close-to-raw as Maryland law allows. Nice Farms pasteurizes their milk "low (heat) and slow (longer duration)" as opposed to typical milk which is pasteurized quickly at high heats. Nice Farms also does not homogenize their milk instead leaving much of the nutrient and cream content intact.
SB Bison (Federalsburg, Maryland)
What: As the name might lead on, bison
Why: Like our other farms, SB Bison has robust humane standards. Their bison roam fields and graze at their Eastern Shore farm.
Simmer Rock (Sparks, Maryland)
What: Sustainably-grown produce
Why: Simmer Rock is one of our favorite farm partners. Started by a group of three young Baltimore-based idealists who ran head first into produce farming, the group has started to carve out a name for growing incredible and often hard to find produce.
Legacy Manor (Sparks, Maryland)
What: Beef and Pork
Why: Started by Katherine Ecker, Legacy Manor is an amazing 400 acre farm where animals roam open pastures and are feed on seeds, grasses, and fermented silage.
