For several years we have been thinking about making our farm available to small groups of students and professionals from the culinary arts as an educational retreat where they can connect with a source of farm raised foods. Students will benefit by having hands-on experience with food on the farm, how it tastes at the source, fresh and warm from the sun. The farm will benefit by supplying future cooks with a desire to support locally grown products in the kitchen.

As the food purchased from the grocer becomes more packaged and processed the collective taste memory and sensory connection to the Earth is being lost. Learning how food grows and what it tastes like fresh, in a simple natural state, will help establish an intimate relationship between the produce and the person. There is nothing like pulling a carrot out of the soil and eating it right in the garden, or picking a sun ripened peach off the tree and taking a bite, the juice running down your arm and dripping off your chin. The seasonal availability of local produce will be better understood when the culinary student recognizes the connection. Here on our farm the trees, plants, livestock and seasons can all be viewed, as we work and learn together.

We will have group organized activities to keep us focused. Since this is a working dairy and cheese facility, our days will be organized around our milking and cheese production.

Students will stay on the farm in a family style environment. Meals will be created by the students, focusing on what is ready to harvest in the gardens, from other local farms, or found in the home pantry. 

Number of Students: 10 to 1

Length of stay: 7  days

From Chefs Collaborative on Farmers markets