If you haven’t been swept up by the locavore and love-your-farmer movement yet, this is your week.

Close to 70 restaurants and food service venues are participating in Connecticut’s annual Farm-to-Chef program, through Sept. 24, teaming up with farmers to serve up dishes to showcase all of the foods, beverages and ingredients produced by Connecticut farmers.

“This is our opportunity to celebrate all of the hard work, day in and day out, that our farmers do, and to partner with chefs across the state so everyone can enjoy,” says Agricultural Commissioner Steven Reviczky.

Locally, Lillian’s Café in Niantic and Lyme-Old Lyme High School are participating in the program. A full listing of participants is at http://ctfarmtochef.com.

“We use Connecticut ingredients all the time,” says Steve Turner, owner and executive chef at Lillian’s Café, which posts its local farmers and purveyors on its menu and Facebook page. “We get sprouts and baby lettuces from Aiki Farms in Ledyard and oysters from Mystic year-round. We’ll be super-local with T.J. Londregan’s oysters out of Niantic Bay in a few weeks, once the oysters are market size.”

The American bistro café, which opened earlier this year, takes Connecticut-grown seriously with its beers, too, serving only draft beer from breweries in the state. Turner credits Teri Smith of Smith’s Acres, his go-to source for many vegetables, including heirloom tomatoes and kabocha squash, on last week’s menu, for getting him into the Farm-to-Chef program.

Gary Holland, dining services director for Region 18 schools, is partnering with fruit and vegetable farms to feature daily side dishes at Lyme-Old Lyme High School this week. Students can try tomato pie (see recipe on page D1), ratatouille and corn pudding made with vegetables grown by Botticello Farms in Manchester, and peach cobbler and caprese salad made with produce from Bishop’s Orchards in Guilford. The ultra-local treat for students is maple kettle corn from Bureau’s Sugar house in Old Lyme.

“It’s mostly to build awareness,” says Holland, whose Connecticut farmer connections come through his side business, Holland Farms, the seasonal farm stand that he’s run for 13 years.

Connecticut agriculture is a bright spot in the state’s economy, according to Reviczky.

“We’re experiencing an upward spiral; there are more younger farmers and people new to agriculture, more of the primary business operators are women,” he says, noting the state’s 22 percent increase in farms, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest survey, is the largest in New England.

“Consumers are driving the expansion. They want to know their farmer, where their food comes from and how it is grown and processed,” says Reviczky.

TOMATO PIE

Serves 6.

1 9-inch pie shell

½ cup diced yellow or red onion*

3 cups fresh tomatoes roughly chopped and squeezed to remove excess juice

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ cup sliced fresh basil leaves; roll and chiffonade for thin slices

2 cups grated cheese; make it a combination of sharp cheddar and Monterey Jack, or Gruyere or mozzarella

½ cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon, or more to taste, of your favorite hot sauce

Freshly ground black pepper 

Pre-bake the crust in 350-degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes (a little longer if it's frozen) until lightly browned.

Lightly salt and drain the chopped tomatoes and set them in a colander to drain. Then squeeze as much moisture as you can out of the chopped tomatoes, using either paper towels, a clean dish towel, or a potato ricer.

Layer the onions, tomatoes and basil over the bottom of the pre-baked pie shell. Start with the chopped onions, spread the tomatoes over the onions and sprinkle on the sliced basil.

Mix together the grated cheese, mayonnaise, hot sauce and ground pepper in a separate bowl. The mixture should be the consistency of a gooey snowball. Spread it over the onions, tomatoes and basil.

Bake until browned and bubbly, 25 to 45 minutes.

*For added flavor, double the onions and caramelize them in olive oil and butter while prepping the other ingredients.

— Recipe courtesy Simply Recipes