At a Tasmanian restaurant, diners can barter home veggies for meals

July 22, 2024 10:04 PM

At a Tasmanian restaurant, diners can barter home veggies for restaurant meals in regenerative tourism model. An armful of salad greens in exchange for a restaurant dinner is what's on offer for local backyard growers at a northern Tasmanian hub where ultra seasonal is the fare.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (7 comments total)

Clever!
posted by aramaic at 10:12 PM on July 22

We joke that the proof that someone doesn't get along with their neighbours, is when you see them buying lemons.
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 3:32 AM on July 23 [2 favorites]

I know next to nothing about Tasmania, but this totally tracks with how I would imagine it.
posted by Smedly, Butlerian jihadi at 4:23 AM on July 23

This happened in Miami last year - a local baker bartered mangoes for bread, six mangoes for a loaf of bread of the customer's choice. (Mango trees are common in Miami and wildly productive, sort of the South Florida equivalent of garden zucchini.)
posted by Daily Alice at 4:46 AM on July 23 [3 favorites]

"We barter. We make no demands." It's not clear whether they offer the option of cash payment for the goods, but if they don't, then they are making a very specific demand: That people accept only a meal in exchange for their produce, rather than cash that they could use to pay rent, buy clothes, or exchange for literally any other good or service that they might prefer. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but the benefits of this model do have a real cost.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 6:36 AM on July 23 [1 favorite]

That’s not really how barter works. The restaurant says “we’ll trade our meals for produce (in lieu of money)” and the customer can offer produce and they can wrangle over how much. You might as well ask why the restaurant isn’t offering electricity or tires or books.

It’s also possible that offering money to locals for their produce would inject government interest into the equation, which could be bad or good. I assume that most of the locals are commercial growers rather than people with small gardens, but the article doesn’t say. If they are, getting paid cash might have impact on their other distribution contracts.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:59 AM on July 23

Seems like that might be the kind of business model you’d want to keep on the down-low, lest the tax-man finds out.
posted by rh at 11:42 AM on July 23