Cooking with Hemp at Harvest Cafe
LabCanna’s Harvest Cafe brings hemp to great tasting and creative southern cuisine
Hemp grows quite well in Tennessee, both agriculturally and commercially. Just ask LabCanna. In January of 2016, this local company received the very first license from the Tennessee Department of Agriculture to process hemp. Now, there are well over a thousand would-be growers and processors applying for licenses. Talk about seeing green.
But LabCanna has the inside track and is staying a step ahead by introducing Harvest, their own hemp-inspired holistic café. Think community centric coffee house and restaurant with hemp creatively woven into much of the menu along with a small store to offer LabCanna’s growing selection of hemp and CBD products. The location is Fairview, a nearby town growing just as fast as the hemp industry itself. With its chic décor, yet cozy and child-friendly atmosphere, owners Joshua Camp and Ian Leadon have succeeded in their mission: offer an inviting place close to both Nashville and to their hemp farm where patrons may enjoy the magic of hemp-infusion — hemp leaves, hemp hearts, hemp milk, hempeh, etc. — throughout a wide selection of smoothies, lattes, sandwiches, and creative southern cuisine.
Chef Danny Davis is in charge of Harvest’s bustling kitchen, serving up not only generous portions of Southern classics like deviled eggs and pulled pork with sides such as coleslaw and fried green tomatoes, but creative fare such as Banana Hemp Sushi — banana spread with hemp heart butter rolled in toasted hemp hearts and coconut flakes — or his Hail Mary Raspberry, a sandwich with jalapeño bbq hempeh, hemp heart slaw, and BBQ sauce. While Harvest opened its doors in May of 2019 as a holistic café with a selection that offers healthy options for any dietary need — especially for those looking to consume cannabinoids — the restaurant is not a health café per se. After all, a bowl of fried okra is still a bowl of fried okra: salty, fatty, delicious. Still, Harvest incorporates local, organic, and hydroponic greens and the myriad of health benefits of hemp, a true superfood, to create its southern-themed dishes that are both tasty and healthy. It’s a win-win. “Because we know hemp is so important and beneficial to our diets,” says Erin Crawford, Harvest’s GM, “the goal was for the restaurant to serve healthy foods without feeling like a ‘health’ restaurant.” Check out Harvest for yourself. It’s locatedat 1880 Fairview Blvd and the hours are from 7:00 to 7:00 each day. Tell them Edible Nashville sent you!
Chef Danny Davis serves this homey tart at Harvest Restaurant. He uses both hemp hearts (available at Whole Foods) and CBD tincture, available online and at CBD stores. He serves it with toasted date and oatmeal ice cream and basil and bacon whipped cream at the restaurant -both recipes you can find atediblenashville.com.
CBD vs THC
The recent legalization of hemp and the public confusion around it challenges Harvest’s employees daily, who must often educate their guests about the health benefits of their products and menu items. “I like to remind people of the distinction between marijuana and hemp—both strands from the cannabis plant—by explaining the similarities and differences,” says Crawford. “They’re similar in that they belong to the same family, much like yourself and a first cousin might be, but unique in genetic makeup.” Marijuana has a high percentage of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol; the component that produces a “high”) and a low percentage of CBD, while Hemp grows opposite with much more CBD and very little THC. CBD has been shown to have anti-inflammatory, anti-anxiety, and anti-depressant qualities, best for relaxing and reducing stress.
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