From farm to fork, the average American meal travels 1,500 miles before it’s consumed. For customers at the Excelsior Inn Ristorante, that number is just under 15.

Although only about 5 percent of the food consumed in Lane County is grown locally, businesses like Marché Restaurant and the Kiva Grocery Store go to great lengths to guarantee that all of their produce is sourced in the area. Buying locally is an increasingly common sustainable practice in Eugene, but no one does it quite like Maurizio Paparo and the Excelsior.

Paparo, the inn’s owner and head chef, took eating locally to the next level five years ago by joining Hideaway Bakery as the only restaurants in the area with their very own dedicated farms. He started the Excelsior Farm in October of 2008 to supply produce for his restaurant, which serves authentic Italian food, in response to the economic downturn. Today, the farm provides 100 percent of the restaurant’s produce for most of the year, whereas Hideaway Bakery’s South Eugene farm only supplies the bakery with fruits and vegetables during growing season and has a less-involved relationship with its restaurant.

“We needed to be more in control of what we serve,” Paparo said of the shift from buying local ingredients to growing his own.

The farm itself sits on a five-acre lot. It produces 45 different crops and a total of 120 varieties. Jeremy Mueller, the farm’s manager, is responsible for the entire farm during the majority of the year. He has to give enough attention to his 100 crop rows, 60 laying hens and two greenhouses to keep production on schedule, which frequently demands 70-hour weeks.

Each bite, which culminates in a few seconds of enjoyment for an Excelsior customer, is the product of months of planning and work for Mueller. First he makes the soil mix, which is composed of six different ingredients in specific proportions. Then he plants the seeds, puts them into seed trays and places them on a heated table in the propagation house. When the seedlings have matured, he moves them to larger pots, tills and prepares beds, prunes the plants, builds trelaces and finally harvests, packs, washes and delivers the crops.

“It’s a small farm, but it’s really intensely worked,” Mueller said.

Mueller delivers produce to the inn twice a week but drives both ways with a full truck. Having the farm and restaurant under the same ownership allows Paparo and Mueller to utilize an efficient compost system in which Mueller takes the restaurant’s scraps back to the farm to feed his chickens and fertilize his crops.

“It’s a nice full circle,” he said. “I’m not one to be on an ecological high horse about it, but we’re saving fossil fuels and plastics and using sustainable methods.”

But the ecological advantages aren’t necessarily to credit for the business’s success.

“You’re getting better food here,” he said. “We are delivering a higher quality product.”

And the staff agrees.

“We provide local ingredients and have nice sized portions … (The food) looks great. It feels hearty. It’s filling and you feel good eating it,” said Arielle Bertolone, an Excelsior Inn employee who frequents the establishment.

One reason Mueller deems his produce a higher quality is the incredibly short turnaround time from the farm to the restaurant. Mueller harvests and washes the produce, loads it in his truck, drives 15 miles down Highway 58 and leaves his crops in the kitchen.

“Often what you’re eating there has been harvested in the last 24 hours,” he said. “You can’t beat that quality, even if it’s organic … it blows everything else out there out of the water.

“Traditional chefs will always say that you should get really high quality ingredients and let them inspire you in your cooking. If it’s a nicer restaurant and people are paying a little more, you want to make sure they’re actually getting more.”

University of Oregon student and food enthusiast Paul Metzler agrees.

“I think one of the biggest limits on a chef’s creativity is not being in control of the type of quality of products that are available to them, especially when they are trying to source locally,” he said. “I think being a small farm and having a supplier that is involved in what is grown allows for a lot more culinary, as well as agricultural, experimenting, risk taking and creativity.”

“Some of the stuff here, like that red hard-neck garlic, you can’t buy it,” Mueller said, pointing to a row of seedlings.

In fact, Mueller’s garlic, which he claims has twice the flavor as the organic store-bought alternative, was voted the best garlic in Eugene last year. “A lot of the things I grow simply can’t be mass-produced,” he said.

Metzler supported Mueller’s claim, noting, “I once bought a pepper from the farm that was longer and wrinklier than any I’ve ever seen before.”

Though Mueller believes only about half of the Excelsior’s customers truly understand where their food is coming from, it’s the incomparable freshness and taste that keep them coming back.

While Paparo started the farm to supply his restaurant, Mueller’s efficiency allows him to take advantage of other outlets, including farmer’s markets and harvest baskets, which are purchased by families or individuals who receive a fresh box of seasonal produce each week throughout the season. Despite these other income sources, the Excelsior Farm’s primary outlet is, and always has been, the restaurant.

Having one person govern both properties allows the two to work in a symbiosis that is difficult to replicate. Paparo can efficiently coordinate deliveries, facilitate his composting system and determine what should be grown in a way that other businesses cannot.

Harper Keeler, president of the Willamette Farm and Food Coalition and director of the UO’s urban farm, is aware of the advantage’s Excelsior’s methods present.

“If it’s all in-house, not only can you control everything, but you can say it’s all ours, and it’s totally unique,” he said. “Local is really good, but home produced — you can expect some kind of premium for it because it’s that much cooler. You’re definitely going to have a freshness advantage — you’re talking a matter of hours instead of a matter of days,” Keeler added.

Keeler applauded the Excelsior’s efforts, but noted that nothing should be taken away from restaurants like Marché and local farmers with similar accomplishments.

While other restaurants in the area source their produce locally, and others incorporate local farms into their compost and recycling programs, Paparo’s one-of-a-kind system allows collaboration and, many would argue, incomparable taste.

“Having a restaurant source its own food just makes sense,” Mueller said, whose produce’s trip is 100 times shorter than the national average. “We’re beatin’ (it) pretty good,” he said.