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If you are serving apple pie and you want to write the menu so that the customer understands that the apples in the pie are from THE VERY CITY that the restaurant is in, how can I rewrite this phrase:

Home-made apple pie, with DOMESTIC apples grown right here in San Diego.

I feel like the word 'domestic' refers to meat, but is there a good word for a menu that refers to local produce?

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2 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

Domestic refers not so much to meat as the animals it came from. It can sometimes be used to mean "local", but only as opposed to "imported from abroad", not as in "locally-grown".

I think locally-grown is your best bet on a menu.

Homemade apple pie with locally-grown apples from right here in San Diego.

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Good point re: Domestic, and another good option. – Dusty Feb 22 '11 at 16:51
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Domestic, when used to describe produce, means "grown in this country", as opposed to imported. With regard to animals, the term domesticated is used to describe food animals that are not wild game, and domestic refers to pets. – bye Feb 22 '11 at 16:58
Except that “adverbLY adjective” combinations do not take hyphens, since there is never any possible misreading of applying the adverb to the noun following. – tchrist Nov 23 '12 at 13:15
up vote 8 down vote

The only word I can think of that really fits there is local.

With that being said, given that you say "grown right here in San Diego", I'm not sure you need an adjective there.

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+1 for "grown right here in San Diego" being sufficient on its own. – Marthaª Feb 22 '11 at 16:54
I agree; grown right here is sufficient. "Local apples grown right here in San Diego" could be used to refer to apples native to San Diego, in contrast with a variety of apples that was native to a different place, and then cultivated also in San Diego. – kiamlaluno Feb 22 '11 at 17:21
@ Dusty: Thank you Dusty. I thought the very same thing but I was in too much of a hurry to reword it for the question. But I agree with you that adding the name of the place would remove the need for the adjective. Thanks for the hint. – Joshua Robison Feb 22 '11 at 18:10

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