Planning To Be Surprised
A Peek Into Our Farm Kitchen
Operating a busy market and kitchen within the rhythms of a working farm presents distinct challenges and delicious opportunities. The cyclical and seasonal changes we see in our farm’s fields are quantified in numbers: our kitchen can receive from as little as 100 to as much as 1000 pounds of produce and pasture-raised meat from our butchers each week, depending on the time of year and the slaughter schedule. The hospitality team shifts seasonally as well—swelling from a core group of 18 in the winter months to as many as 55 during the height of the summer season.
To showcase the farm’s output for guests year-round, our kitchen and hospitality team have mastered the art of improvisation and collaboration, working in tandem with the other farm teams to make the most of bounty and scarcity in equal measure. With early spring produce popping up in the garden and the busy summer season just around the corner, we asked Director of Hospitality George Stinson and his team to share a behind-the-scenes look at how they plan for seasonal changes, what keeps them inspired, and how they perceive their role within the farm’s larger ecosystem.
“We always first prioritize what we have coming from the farm, and then consider other local produce that we’re excited about.”
The kitchen partners closely with the farm’s gardeners and butchers to coordinate each week’s food deliveries. While the kitchen team does their best to plan the menu about a week in advance, the privilege of sourcing directly from the farm requires a willingness to make daily adjustments for shortages and serendipity. “I've had some nice impromptu moments,” says Pastry Chef Ellie Irving. “Like, Hey, did the carrots come in yet? Or are there cherries on the trees out there? Can I get two pounds?”
The inspiration for a sautéed romaine dish came from a surplus of lettuce heads out of the garden
“The menu is really based on availability,” Sous-chef Buell Alvord says. “We always first prioritize what we have coming from the farm, and then consider other local produce that we're excited about.” The team considers variety to ensure the menu has options for every diner, including those who are gluten-free or vegetarian. They also think about things like balance of ingredients and the weather forecast. Executive Chef Kevin Sprouse says, “We’ve had a chilled gazpacho on a hot summer night, and the next day there's a temperature change and we go into a salad or a warm tomato dish.” And the garden’s abundance can sometimes shade into overabundance—some of our signature dishes were conceived to make creative use of surpluses like pan-roasted shishitos and sautéed romaine lettuce heads.
Seasonal productivity also requires thinking beyond the next day or the next week, planning ahead for the winter menu even as the summer harvest is in full swing. To showcase the farm’s bounty year round, the kitchen preserves as much as it can. “We can extend a season and use ingredients we want later on,” Production Sous-chef Nigel Waitkus explains. “When we jar late summer tomatoes, we can use them in the middle of winter for meat sauce or pastas.” The team agrees tomatoes are their favorite summer ingredient to store. But, Ellie adds, “getting to pull peaches out of the freezer right now is great. And having greens to braise when there are no greens coming in. It keeps things bright in the winter.” “One of our core values is to always honor the life of the farm,” George says, “and I think there's no better way to do that than preservation.”
Director of Hospitality George Stinson
Executive Chef Kevin Sprouse checking on a tomato crop with Garden Manager Brian Morgan
Though the food grown on the farm ends up in the kitchen and Market, and ultimately on guests’ plates, the journey from soil to table isn’t solely one directional. As an integral part of the overall ecosystem, the kitchen is connected to the farm in all directions, transforming the harvest into food and food waste into the next harvest. “We have a three bin compost system,” Ellie explains. “We have pig compost, on-farm compost, and industrial compost. We prioritize feeding the pigs. If we can't give it to the pigs, then it goes into the on-farm bin. And if it's not something we want to process on the farm, then it goes into the industrial bin.”
The kitchen and front of house teams all do their best to ensure everything gets in the right bins and handed off to the livestock team, who manage the compost program. Like making use of surplus lettuce heads or canning tomatoes for the winter, composting takes some effort, but it is an integral part of how we think about resource management.
Finding Inspiration
The farm can’t grow everything the kitchen and Market needs— "If we grew enough onions to supply ourselves, we would be just an onion farm,” Buell laughs. Staples like potatoes, corn, wheat, and rice and specialty items like mushrooms need to be brought in, which gives the team a chance to support neighboring farms they love. Last Resort Farm potatoes stand out for Buell, Boundbrook Farm’s rice is a favorite for Chef as well as Nitty Gritty Grain Co. based here in Charlotte. “And Patalin Sugarworks’ maple syrup makes a great maple pie,” says Ellie. The team also love to use the fruit and vinegar they source from Shelburne Orchards and recently spent time with the owner of Blue House Mushroom learning how she grows her mushrooms.
Pastry Chef Ellie Irving making jam with farm-grown fruit
The team gets inspiration from these neighbors, as well as from chefs and restaurants they admire. “The pastry department does a lot of research, a lot of reading. I've checked every cookbook out of the library,” Ellie says. “We put our own spin on things,” shares Nigel. “We pull from our years of experience and knowledge between team members.”
The limitations of working within the farm’s ecosystem can be the team’s biggest source of inspiration. George agrees: “Our creativity is exercised in a different way than in traditional kitchens, because we are presented with scarcity or bounty—instead of this constant flow of inventory, no matter what time of year it is. And we have the added responsibility of honoring the life of the farm and the teams that work so hard to raise the animals and the teams that work so hard to grow our produce. So it's an incredible privilege to have that kind of creativity.”
What ingredients and dishes are the team most excited about right now? “Pig head,” says butcher Mike Kirk immediately. “And the smoked chickens. But my favorite thing is preserved meats, whether the rillettes or the infused lards or the potted meat that I'm experimenting with right now.” Nigel loves using koji as a base for fermentation and garums to make sauce.
“I like the lacto-ferments,” Line Cook Grady Jakobsberg says, “because I know the basics of what they're going to taste like, but each vegetable is different and can be used in different ways.” Buell loves the work of deboning and rolling up a chicken to make a roulade. And Chef’s a fan of the farm’s pasture-raised beef carpaccio. Ellie is still inspired by last year’s pavlova, “It ended up being super adaptable— bright and light and springy, with flowers and honey and strawberries.”
The team became enthusiastic talking about the spring ingredients due to start arriving in the next few weeks. They’re looking forward to ramps, early sugar snap and snow peas, and asparagus from the garden, as well as winter-finished beef, Royal Grey and Cornish Cross chickens, and a first harvest of the farm’s new Mangalitsa-cross pigs.
George sums up what the team hopes to share with visitors: “All the hard work that's done by the other teams is handed off to us. We have the responsibility to showcase it in the best possible way, and in an environment that's inspiring and lovely to be in, so people understand and will be inspired by what we do.”
Visit the farm to meet the team. We have a set number of reservations available Wednesday through Saturday nights for a prix fixe meal in the Great Room at the farm. The Market is open Wednesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. with lunch service from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Join us for dinner Wednesday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
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