An Ode to the Chefs

September came and went in a caffeine heartbeat, and with October comes a slower pace in the garden. It also marks the beginning of my eighth month as the coordinator of the Local Food Project and gives me a healthy chunk of weeks to reflect upon. Growing food in the Virginia summer has its ups and downs. Well, I can really only think of one down: the unbreakable heat of July, August, and early September.

The ups come in bushels, however, and one up that immediately comes to mind is working with the amazing culinary staff at Airlie. The LFP is an unusual garden in that all of our produce is grown for and sold exclusively to the Airlie Center kitchen. It's certainly an advantageous position to be in as a food grower: we can get away with a spot or two on our peppers or a worm bite or three on our tomatoes. The chefs pickle, mash, slice, and carve away the blemishes that come with growing produce organically.

More impressive than their magician's touch with spots and blights, though, is their sheer excitement to be using fresh ingredients from our garden. When we harvest 80 pounds of summer squash, they'll find a way to incorporate it into the menu. When we bring in 50 pounds of garlic, they'll take it all and use it in breads, sauces, or pastas. They're always willing to work within the ebb and flow of the growing season because, for them, the freshest ingredients make the best meals. Airlie guests would agree, I think.

A few weeks ago, I ran into one of our chefs while delivering zucchini to the kitchen. "I loved that basil you brought us last week," he said excitedly. "It was so fragrant, I just wanted to take a nap in it!" Guests will be happy to learn that he didn't actually make bedding out of the basil, but that's the level of excitement I witness every week when I deal with the culinary staff. And their enthusiasm is contagious. When we're on our hands and knees in the garden, weeding a lettuce bed perhaps, it's exciting to think of the care and appreciation our produce receives all the way from the soil to the tables in the guest dining room. It has definitely made my first seven months here at the LFP more worthwhile. So to Jeff, Jeremy, Barry, and the rest of the kitchen staff: a giant THANK YOU from the LFP.