Spike Gjerde

Woodberry Kitchen

Baltimore restaurateur Spike Gjerde wants to keep local growers and producers top of mind in conversations about the food he serves at his four city restaurants.

The “Iowa-born, Baltimore-bred” chef, who owns Woodberry Kitchen, Artifact Coffee and Parts & Labor in Baltimore, works with about 60 mostly Maryland growers and producers to stock his restaurants. Through a “Days of Taste” program, Gjerde — who won the James Beard award for “Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic” in 2015 — introduces his food to Baltimore schoolchildren and helps them understand the environmental impact food choices can make.

“I’m interested in getting this food into as many bellies as we can,” he said.

He is also working with the director of sustainability at the National Aquarium, helping to develop ways to educate the aquarium’s 1.3 million annual visitors about issues surrounding seafood.

Gjerde developed his interest in sustainability issues in the 1990s, he said.

“I was in a walk-in freezer, looking at a mango and realized I had no connection to it whatsoever, and that there are local growers all around us growing these amazing peaches,” he said.

He is always looking to open future restaurants, adding that he does a lot of canning and preserving and is looking for space to expand that endeavor, too.

“If you buy a can of tomatoes at the supermarket, you’re putting more money into that can than you are into the tomato, and we’re doing our part to reverse that trend,” he said.