OLD Whidbey Life Magazine

Tag: Orchard Kitchen

  • Rock Bottom Line || Visiting and Eating – How We Spend Our Summers on Whidbey

    Rock Bottom Line || Visiting and Eating – How We Spend Our Summers on Whidbey

    BY HARRY ANDERSON
    August 9, 2017

    Mid-summer is the best time to live on Whidbey Island — but often also the busiest. My spouse and I have now completed the first two of four visits by out-of-state friends fleeing hot weather and seeking cool experiences on our Rock. I do love catching up and sharing time with these dear friends and being their tour guide, even if it sometimes cuts short my afternoon nap and patio reading time.

    Of course, our half dozen friends make up less than a tiny fraction of the huge number of visitors expected on Whidbey this summer. By one estimate, we may see as many as a million folks from April through October — including the growing number of day-trippers from nearby “America” looking for a brief escape from rush-rush life and gridlock.

    Gathered with friends for brunch at the Compass Rose in Coupeville (Photo by Harry Anderson)

    Tourism isn’t the biggest industry on Whidbey, but it’s what drives our growing reputation as a beautiful, peaceful, rural, amazing, wonderful (insert your own superlative here) place. According to recent economic data, only about 15 percent of jobs on the Rock are related to hospitality and leisure businesses. (The military and civilian governments are by far the largest employers.)

    But the two-percent hotel/motel tax we charge our guests will generate about $250,000 for Island County this year, and my calculator tells me that will be drawn from about $12.5 million paid by overnight visitors. Not too shabby. And the county is budgeting a nifty 13 percent increase in the sales tax it expects to receive this year to $16.7 million. That, my calculator says, will be drawn from taxable sales of almost $188 million. Since a goodly share of those sales is made to visitors, that’s also not too shabby.

    The Pavlova at the Compass Rose (Photo by Harry Anderson)

    What’s remarkable about those numbers is that they are generated by generally very small, private businesses in the state’s second smallest county (San Juan is the smallest). They show that we have a diverse and growing economy. And they also show that there’s a lot for visitors to do and buy while they’re here.

    Through the years, we have taken our visitors on the jet boat tour under Deception Pass Bridge, on whale-watching tours in Admiralty Inlet, to the Kite Festival and the Shakespeare Festival, to the Whidbey Island Fair, the MusselFest, Penn Cove Water Festival, Oak Harbor Music Festival, Coupeville Arts and Craft Festival, and gone-but-not-forgotten Choochokam.

    With friends from Texas at the Orchard Kitchen (Photo by Harry Anderson)

    We’ve also gone on memorable hikes and beach walks. And we have eaten unforgettable meals. Ah, yes. The foodie experience! That’s what we concentrated on with our friends Lynn and Knick from Dallas last month. Incredible food. We began on a beautiful July evening at Orchard Kitchen, the wonderful “field-to-fork” dining experience run by Vincent and Tyla Nattress in Bayview. We got tickets for one of their infrequent “farm field” dinners, where we joined 40 or 50 other folks from on and off the Rock at one long table surrounded on all sides by fields of growing corn, tomatoes, lettuce, and squash.

    Before dinner, we enjoyed a guided tour of the three-acre organic farm that produced many of the vegetables we later ate. We watched as a whole hog roasted on an open grill, soon to be carved for our dinner. Then we sat down to four courses, beginning with a salad topped with edible flowers and capped by a dessert of freshly harvested Northwest berries of almost every variety.

    The roast pig at the Orchard Kitchen (Photo by Harry Anderson)

    The next day, we took our guests and four other friends to an equally special treat—a champagne brunch at the Compass Rose, the beautiful Victorian bed-and-breakfast inn run by Marshall and Jan Bronson in Coupeville. We bid on and won this matchless meal at a fundraising auction for the Island County Historical Museum. (In my years on Whidbey, I have learned a wonderful secret. The most treasured and unique things to do on this island are often the things you can bid on at fundraiser auctions—and there are lot of fundraisers on Whidbey.)

    Marshall and Jan are classic Rock “second acters” —folks who landed on Whidbey at midlife to begin a new chapter. Marshall is a retired Navy captain and foreign service attaché, and he and Jan have lived all over the world. They moved to Coupeville more than two decades ago, bringing with them Jan’s collection of Victoriana. The Compass Rose is chock-a-block full of antique stuff with fascinating stories behind all of it. Hold something up, and Jan and Marshall will tell you what it is and where it’s from. Before brunch, we needed some time—and a couple glasses of champagne—just to absorb the Compass Rose surroundings.

    The salad at the Orchard Kitchen (Photo by Harry Anderson)

    Then came the salad (locally grown, of course), the eggs Benedict (from chickens nearby and on home-baked muffins) and finally, the pièce de résistance: Jan’s stunning Pavlova meringue dessert topped with local berries. We all needed a nap after that meal.

    Orchard Kitchen and Compass Rose were our show-stopping foodie experiences last month. But, never ones to turn down a meal, we also savored the famous Mel’s Scramble breakfast at Knead and Feed, the Island’s best fish and chips with a glass of Parrot Red ale at Toby’s, and a couple of barbecues with Three Sisters beef at our home. All of us gained a little weight in those five days, but it was worth every new ounce we now squeeze into our jeans.

    Now it’s back to fat-free yogurt and veggies from my garden until the next set of friends arrives. Summer may be busy on the Rock, but it really is the best time to eat, drink, and be merry!

    Once upon a time, Harry Anderson made an honest living as a reporter, editor, and columnist at the Los Angeles Times. He now lives in central Whidbey where he spends his time gardening and ruminating on things that interest him.

    Read the other stories published this week

    __________________

    Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.

    WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.

  • A Community Barn Raising for Willowood Farm

    A Community Barn Raising for Willowood Farm

    BY LIS DAVID
    Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
    March 22, 2017

    You reap what you sow. Fourth generation farmer Georgie Smith has put her heart and soul into Willowood Farm for more than two decades, growing food for Whidbey Island and Seattle. Smith is a woman of true grit and contagious perseverance who has received a great deal of support since the farm’s iconic barn burned to the ground on March 6. She has spent decades planting the seeds of the support she is now reaping.

    Before: The Smith barn on Willowood Farm (Photo courtesy of Georgie Smith)

    Willowood Farm has been in the Smith family since the late 1800s. In the early 1970s, with the loss of two family members in one year and a double inheritance tax bill, the Smith farm was in jeopardy of being developed. Through the work of the family, neighboring farms, and concerned citizens, a novel idea took shape to save the Smith farm and the surrounding central Whidbey agricultural community from the pressures of development. In 1978, the Smith farm, long considered the “heart of Ebey’s Prairie” and the surrounding 17,000 acres were made the Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve by the National Park Service. This created a new sort of park that was focused on preserving a working, agricultural community with a visual, cultural continuity to the past. Georgie Smith, who was just seven at the time, would grow up to re-establish her family’s farming practice on their remaining 20 acres of land, smack in the middle of the scenic Ebey’s Prairie, establishing a thriving, sustainably grown vegetable farm called “Willowood.” This was the original name bestowed on the first farmstead established there by Eason Ebey (Isaac Ebey’s son) in the mid-1800s and before the Smith family arrived.

    The historic Smith barn, which was built around 1880, was a community landmark that held a great deal of history and family memories. The fire destroyed it and endangered the livelihood of the family. “The barn was the hub, the nexus, of all farming operations,” says Smith. It housed most of the farm’s equipment, including all their 2017 seeds, several thousand pounds of dry beans, all seven of their laboriously acquired and maintained tractors, and countless other supplies. Smith wasn’t sure in the first few days after the fire if she’d ever farm again.

    During: The Smith barn caught fire on March 6. (Photo by David Stern – WhidbeyCustomPhotography.com)

    However, in true and determined Smith form, the farmers were back in the fields just three days after the fire. Still figuring out the farm’s future, she and her farm crew of three realized that they had vegetables in the fields that needed to be harvested. When she learned that people wanted to help, Smith put a call to the community and dozens of volunteers came out. Kettles Edge Farm and Rosehip Farm and Garden lent equipment and farm crews while Sherman Farm lent space to pack and store produce. With this help, the farm has harvested hundreds of pounds of produce since the fire.

    After: Burned beets (Photo by David Stern – WhidbeyCustomPhotography.com)

    The week after the Smith barn burned, chefs had Willowood produce back in their coolers and on menus. Chef Vincent Nattress of Orchard Kitchen felt the loss from the fire and immediately reached out to fellow restaurant owners on Whidbey Island. “I think I feel like most chefs; seeing that barn burn caused a visceral reaction. This is the livelihood and home of a person who feeds us all,” Nattress says, adding, “If you know her at all, you know she personally embodies a critical hub for this island’s food. She’s like the mother of all farmers here.”

    Volunteers harvest following the fire. (Photo by David Stern – WhidbeyCustomPhotography.com)

    Nattress hosted a meeting at Orchard Kitchen that was attended by many of the island’s local chefs and business owners to plan a number of upcoming fundraisers to benefit the Smith Family. Various charity efforts have already taken place in Seattle and on Whidbey Island. Chefs are planning dinners and reaching out to guests for donations or are contributing proceeds from the sales of menu items that are dedicated to the farm.

    Local chefs and restaurant owners gather to plan Willowood Farm fundraisers (Photo by Tyla Nattress)

    Local coffee shops donated drink vouchers to volunteers at the farm, a Girl Scout troop donated cookie sale proceeds, people signed up for a Meal Train to provide food for the Smith family, and the list of community support goes on and on.

    Farm Raising logo created and donated by Rodric Gagnon

    Within days after the fire, people donated more than $50,000 to help rebuild the barn through a GoFundMe campaign started by friend Kristen Stavros. On GoFundMe, Stavros wrote, “This beautiful, historic beast dominated the landscape of Ebey’s Prairie and was also host to many a local fundraiser. As much as this barn means to the island, it is the family that actively works the land around it that means even more.”

    Stravos says she started the campaign because she wanted Smith to get up the next morning and be able to get through this, adding “One accident like this should not put a fourth-generation farm out of business.” Another $13,000 has been donated via a “Smith Family Farm” benefit account set up at the local Coupeville People’s Bank.

    Georgie Smith (Photo courtesy of Georgie Smith)

    The Smiths have been a vital part of shaping Ebey’s Landing National Historic Reserve, and since Georgie Smith started farming the family land, she has continued to build community through Willowood. Fellow farmer Wilbur Purdue says he believes the community wants to be involved because, “She has such an amazing operation in such a special place and always is willing to provide her facility and expertise. I think people know the real deal when they see it, and they admire that in a person.” Smith is already thinking of ways to give back, saying, “I can tell you we are determined to do something great to honor all this support and to pay it forward to our amazing, giving community.”

    To donate, volunteer, or find and fundraising event for Willowood Farm, please visit this page. To see more of David Stern’s beautiful photos of Willowood’s first harvest by volunteers, view his photo essay Growing Forward.

    Writer Lis David and photographer David Stern donated their time to write and illustrate this article to help raise funds for Willowood Farm.  

    Lis David is writing, eating, and drinking her way from one end of Whidbey Island to the other. She developed her passion for writing about food and beverage by working in restaurants and on farms in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Spain, and Ireland. 

    David Stern is a Coupeville-based photographer and co-owner of Whidbey Custom Photography with his wife Madisun Elizabeth. David was mentored by his grandfather, a world-famous landscape photographer based in New England. David hopes to work as a photojournalist one day, traveling the world and telling stories.

    __________________

    Have a great story idea? Let us know at info@whidbeylifemagazine.org.

    WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, email info@whidbeylifemagazine.org.