No Warning Farm

Real Deal

I got a text from Andrea last night letting me and LB know that "Alderbrook wants 15 dozen eggs a week to make Skokomish Valley Farms Eggs Benedict for their weekend fresh sheet." She added a smiley face for emphasis. This is a big deal for us, not because 15 dozen eggs is all that much, but because the major tourist draw in the area is making a regular order after a couple of years of occasionally buying a few heads of lettuce. It's a challenge for resort chefs to buy from local farmers because we can't guarantee them the kind of large volume single product (say, 25 beef tenderloins) that they need for their banquet business and large corporate kitchens with their consistent menus don't typically respond to the spontaneous whimsy of the farm..."Hey, we have a ton of radishes this week, can you use them?" Still, I've always thought that Alderbrook's younger customers, the ones accustomed to big city restaurants with their daily changing seasonal menus, would be especially insistent on that farm to table experience when they are actually in a rural setting. I've always thought we'd eventually make the sale, not because we're cheap or large volume, but because we're authentic. 15 dozen eggs a week for now. Farm tours and wedding feasts to come.

One thought on “Real Deal

  1. Alex Newman

    Amye and I stayed at Alderbrook last year. We went on a foraging tour in the nearby woods with the chef to examine wild edibles that they try to incorporate into their menu. It was interesting though not real productive (in mid-March). Definitely seems like they have a commitment to local and wild – everything we ate there was excellent!

Leave a Reply to Alex Newman Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *