A wholesome country kitchen

Published 8:00 pm Wednesday, August 9, 2006

Bainbridge ex-pat Hollis Fay shares her secrets at the Farm Kitchen near Poulsbo.

In one evening, Farm Kitchen can turn a novice cook into a salmon-filleting, herb-snipping, salsa-making connoisseur.

The magic doesn’t stop there.

Located on Port Gamble Road near Poulsbo, the actual working farm and commercial kitchen seduces visitors with its bucolic setting, gorgeous gardens and welcoming owners, Hollis Fay and Anne Thatcher. Their ready smiles and warm demeanor immediately make guests feel at home.

The heart of the 18-acre property is the 1,600-square-foot barn, where brightly colored flowers spill from pots and hanging baskets on the porch.

Spacious rooms within speak to the business at hand: the preparation and enjoyment of locally produced and grown food. Farm Kitchen offers classes and hosts weddings, parties, reunions and corporate retreats. French doors open to a comfortable patio and garden views.

“Hollis and I are both workaholics. This is a wonderful, relaxing place. We feel like we can be at peace and help other people relax and enjoy themselves,” said Thatcher, who handles long-range planning and marketing for the farm and works with a philanthropy on Bainbridge for which she does education and library development in Vietnam.

The property boasts gardens filled with flowers, vegetables, herbs and perennials.

“People can really see where food comes from,” said Fay, who owned Bainbridge Bakers in Winslow Green for 11 years. “People who come here are foodies who want to know more. A number of people have been here before. Some are novices.”

Fay’s original idea was to have a commercial kitchen as an adjunct to Bainbridge Bakers, an idea that was ahead of its time. One day she “had an epiphany and had to sell it.”

She bought the farm in 1995. She and Thatcher, neighbors in Seattle, came up with a business plan and moved to the country.

“I started doing classes and birthday parties. People kept coming to us and asking for bigger parties,” Fay said.

The barn was refurbished in 2000 and the business thrived, with the women keeping their connection to their community and local food.

“People love to come out and harvest vegetables from the farm. It’s an especially important part of the experience for them,” Thatcher said.

Classes extend the experience by explaining, for example, the different types of herbs and vegetables and how to use them in home cooking. Farm Kitchen offers a range of specialty classes, from baking to a recent two-week session on French cookery with guest chef Susan Loomis, author of the cookbook “On Rue Tatin.”

The gingerbread house baking Fay made famous on Bainbridge continues on the farm, where she teaches sold-out classes each winter.

Many of Farm Kitchen’s students for these and other classes hail from the island. The classes are held in the light-filled barn, which has a large multi-space kitchen and ample room for table and chair set-ups. By day, the commercial space primarily is used by caterers. At night, it is filled with students who hang on the cooking instructors’ every word.

The spotless kitchen is outfitted with multiple sets of utensils and other culinary accoutrements that any chef would be proud to handle. Cooking secrets unfold in a convivial setting that puts the male and female students at ease and keeps them on task.

How the class is arranged depends on the night’s subject. Although Fay is the chief baker, she assists in other classes, such as a recent basic seafood session, where she worked alongside staff chef Barbara Jeantrout and Petra Velie, who works in the seafood department of Poulsbo’s Central Market.

As the class sips wine and enjoys salad and Dungeness toast rounds with wasabi mayonnaise, Velie offers introductions, discusses how to buy fresh seafood and engages in a two-way question-and-answer session.

The students sit on painted wood chairs around cloth-covered tables adorned with fresh flowers. Before them are information packets on which they scribble notes.

Jeantrout moves to the worktable, where the class gathers to watch Velie fillet a salmon. Afterward, a rookie gets a chance to wield the filet knife while her classmates break into small groups and head to one of four workstations.

The groups rotate areas, cooking under the watchful eye of their instructors. They keep pace nicely and spirits remain high.

Afterward, they enjoy their courses and discuss the experience.

“Students really like the hands-on demonstrations,” Jeantrout said. “We get a really good mix of people. They make friends here and sign up for other classes together.”

Jeantrout, who joined Farm Kitchen 18 months ago, and Fay handle the special breakfasts held on the first Saturday of every month. They work on it all week long, since the breakfasts consistently draw 200 dinners.

Jeantrout also cooks for small group dinners and meetings. Although she likes things well-planned and organized and Hollis likes to wing it, they work well together.

Weddings are held year round, overlooking the perennial garden, in the orchard or indoors. Couples choose a caterer from a preferred list or they bring their own.

Anna Jo Savage is the daily on-site manager. Her sunny outlook eases the stress of brides and grooms and she deftly handles weddings with 25 or 200 guests.

“We really promote Kitsap vendors,” Savage said. “This is a destination spot.”

A stroll around the grounds reveals why. Ten small perennials and a small garden

complement the vegetable plots leased by two organic farmers: Brian McWhorter of Butler Green Farms and Christine Tressel of Leapfrog Farms.

“The cherry and apple trees have been hugely abundant. And the three types of cherries are amazingly prolific,” Thatcher said. “We have to fight with the birds for them.”

Thatcher and Fay developed all of the gardens and the landscape plan. The perennial garden actually was the compost pile, Thatcher said, “so it’s growing beautifully.”

The farm’s bounty includes organic table grapes, raspberries and rhubarbs. The fully furnished three-bedroom guest house, original to the property, provides a sanctuary for overnight guests. Completing the pastoral scene are Fay’s handsome draft horses, Miles and Ceres, who were born on the farm.

Thatcher, Fay and Savage live close by. A master gardener, Thatcher built gardens at her home, but lacks the time to tend them.

“My gardens get very little attention,” she said. “(But) it’s good to have a little bit of space.”

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Cucina country

Farm Kitchen’s Saturday breakfasts are held from 8 a.m. to noon the first Saturday of the month. For class information see www.farmkitchen.com or call (360) 297-6615.