Farm and Forage Workshop To Be Offered

by Bruce Orchid

Two lucky participants enjoy a glass of wine after foraging

This is a participatory culinary workshop focused on the sustainable kitchen, seasonal cooking, kitchen gardens, and the untapped resources of our local environments. An insiders tour of the foodie highlights of the island. After this workshop you will be able to recognize and prepare seasonal produce, understand and work with your own neighborhood farmers and use sustainable techniques to run your own household. You will also have a an understanding of how food in the wild can make a contribution to our table and our lives.

Day One

We rendezvous at our home base at Red Rabbit in Westsound and after coffee, scones and introductions we are off on a tour of two island shellfish farms where we will sample some oysters and learn how they are cultivated. When tides are right we will check out the wild oysters in West Sound and perhaps gather a few for a part of our lunch.  We stop at Coffelt’s  Farm, an original island homestead, that has been farmed continually for over a hundred years. At the farm we get a tour, see the sheep, and make some purchases, which could include handspun wool, sheepskins, and all kinds of possibilities for lunch. We are off to Black Dog Farm for produce and if we’ re lucky, some fresh chevre. Back at  the cookhouse we make a truly local lunch and learn to put together a meal from  what we have found that morning, spontaneous cooking “off the cuff”  At two we head out for wine tastings, visiting Winemaker Brent Charnleys Lopez Island vineyards tasting room, then off to the “geologist’s,” Michael Yeoman for a tasting of  Thurston Wolfe wines, award wining wines from Prosser, Washington made by the husband and wife team  of Wade and Becky Wolfe. We have free time to wander the shops and galleries of Eastsound before we sit down to our prix fixe dinner at Allium in Eastsound where  chef Lisa Nakamura prepares a menu just for us. The New York Times noted chef Nakamura and her restaurant as a top must see for the culinary traveler.

Day Two

We rendezvous at the West Sound Café for a hearty breakfast, then we are off to work up an appetite for brunch with local forager, Dr. Ryan Drum. Dr. Drum will teach us all there is to know about stalking the wild asparagus and what’s edible in the woodlands, the wetlands, and the tidelands. Then it’s back to the cookhouse at Red Rabbit where our chef instructors will demonstrate tasty and useful ways of incorporating wild foods into our menu and prepare a farmhouse style lunch served at our big table, where we will pass platters and ply microbrews and some  local ciders. After lunch we  go up the road to Maple Rock Farm where chef/farmer John Stewart gives us an authentic insight into the life and work of a sustainable organic farmer. We can get an idea about harvesting working with John’s crew and learn the  how’s and why’s  of what is ready to cut for market on Saturday—or just laze under the trees and enjoy summer’s buzz. In any event we will be rewarded with a fabulous flatbread feast from John’s wood burning pizza oven where we can build our own with fresh ingredients from the farm. Accompanied by wines and dessert.

Day Three

We meet early at Roses Café in Eastsound to fortify and ready ourselves for Market Day. The real key to eating great, is superior ingredients. We will already be on a first name basis with the top farmers so hopefully if we get there early we will be the ones to get those few precious baskets of frais des bois or the special piece of smoked beef. Plan on a lunch in town to check out some of the local places for lunch. Market vendors will be plying their wares: fresh hot tamales, homemade sausages, smoked salmon, Vietnamese style chicken, and always some surprises. We will gather the best of the market for our Saturday supper. Getting inspired by the ingredients and using the knowledge of our chef instructors and engaging in the collaborative process, we will return to the cookhouse to plan and prepare a fabulous finale to our three day island farm to table marathon.

July 21-23
$1,450 per person

Call 376-2608 or 3208 to register.