There is a half acre garden next to the tavern surrounded by vineyards and orchard. It is cared for by hand like a home garden. It is planted to both annual vegetables, perennial berries and small fruit trees. Equal attention is paid to plants for food as for biodiversity, fertility and medicine. We only use open pollinated seeds, usually heirloom cultivars with a specific culinary use. It is also common for us to use parts of the plant not usually intended for food. The garden is not organized as a grid, but in more organic shapes connected by winding paths of wood mulch. It is more wild than an ordinary garden. All of our efforts are intended to produce intensity and diversity of flavor. This is quite different from the approach in a typical market garden where efficiency, yield and profitability affect many choices. Crops, herbs and flowers are planted very densely and several plants occupy different heights and positions in the same growing space. This occasions beautiful vignettes where the plants interact in surprising ways; often presaging the way they will appear on the plate. We make wide use of mulch to mimic nature and avoid tilling the ground. The only additions are compost made from garden and kitchen scraps plus manure from our animals. This way of wild growing creates intense flavors and allows us to cook with a restrained hand.

The rest of the thirty-acre property acts as a wild extension of the garden. Wherever possible we plant fruits, berries and herbs. We seed edible plants across the entire acreage encouraging plants like Kale, Daikon, Fennel and Cardoon to grow wild so that we can harvest them in months of the year when the garden isn’t producing as prolifically.

The garden provides a kaleidoscopic lens on the passage of the seasons. Its minute, micro-seasonal changes indicate where we are in the year, cue appetite, and let us see and taste the mood and evolving state of health of the land.