There’s this ritual going on here that you should know about. It’s remindful of a line in a song by Snow Patrol, called Chasing Cars: “Show me a garden that’s bursting into life….”
Mary von Krusenstiern consults on a regular basis with Blaine Wetzel. The results raise the bar yet another notch for dining at The Willows Inn on Lummi Island: That garden, bursting into life.
You know about Blaine – recently one of the five nominees for James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year. We’re blessed, you’re blessed, with his touches of genius inspired by all that grows and that comes out of the water around him.
Mary’s new. Together they’re a formidable team of culinary artistry. He envisions. They talk. She then grows the vision precisely, thus and so, this long, that ripe.
Mary came to us recently with a long and full dossier of experience in bringing food from the earth. It’s impressively specialized. She’ll tell you this, related to your dining experience with us – it’s not about what she grows, it’s about how she grows it.
Professional terms couch her work as culinary gardener, or bio-intensive farmer. Labels don’t really capture the depth of what’s going on, though. “What we do that is unique,” Mary says, “is that Blaine has a vision for what he wants in a particular dish and menu, he tells me in very specific terms, and we grow it for that one dish and menu.”
A long list of what Mary has planted, and now harvests and hauls plentifully to our chef staffs at both The Willows Inn and the Beach Store Café, would read routinely. The sumptuous cabbages, kale and kohlrabi, the carrots, the turnips, the herbs. “The question to ask,” Mary says, “is why is this bok choy exactly this size, and harvested exactly now? Plus, we’re growing a ton of food in a small space.”
She wrote in an essay about the Loganita Farm where she crafts: “Our methods foster healthy soils, conserve space, and require low energy input while maximizing yields.
“Maintaining the overall health of the Loganita farming ecosystem is gentle on the environment and is the secret to growing top quality produce.”
That’s it. That’s the ritual. Now you know. We custom-grow, for you, one leaf, one sprout, one sprig at a time. The power of it appears on the plate that awaits you. Sign up for it today. Then let us know what you think.
Now and going forward, we’re going to introduce you to what others think:
In a new format, we’re introducing you to some of the wonderful bloggers and magazine writers who have blessed us with their descriptions, photos, and sensory experiences after joining us for dinner and days at The Willows Inn on Lummi Island.
For starters: Mijune Pak from Vancouver, B.C., a prolific blogger at FollowMeFoodie.com, visited and then wrote five blogs about her stay and meals.