Dierbergs Leans Locavore

Yesterday evening, at the Mackenzie Pointe Dierbergs (7233 Watson Road, 314.752.7771), I couldn't help puzzling over a sign on the entrance: "Dierbergs Local Route." An inquiry to the supermarket chain this morning yielded an enthusiastic email from Todd Vasel in its marketing department: "The Local Route signs―and Missouri Grown/Illinois Grown license plates―are used to identify homegrown produce grown on Missouri and Illinois family farms. (All of the lobbies were set as of this morning―you might have been a bit early at Mackenzie last night. Really neat, like a farmers market within the store.)" The program involves a longtime partnership between Dierbergs and area farmers from such locales as Bridgeton, Campbell, and Perryville, Mo., as well as Collinsville and Columbia, Ill. "There is not another supermarket program like it in the area," Vasel told me, "and we think it's one of the strongest 'locally grown' efforts in the country." The literal cornucopia available under the program includeseverything from peaches to peppers, cukes to corn, eggplant to herb plants (with watermelon on the way). Vasel added, "It's all picked fresh from the stalk, vine, or tree and delivered to Dierbergs stores within 24 hours―and in many cases, sooner than that." So―shopping, anyone? -- Bryan A. Hollerbach