The farm has approximately an acre of cultivated land — which may not sound like a lot, McVey says, but everything at Blue Goose is hand tended by a small crew. “It’s very minimal intervention. There’s no tractor or any gas-powered tools used on the farm. Everything is done on a human scale,” he says. The farm crew is just a handful of peo- ple, though McVey says the team may grow slightly depend- ing on demand. Blue Goose has also expanded its footprint slightly in recent months, with a new farm shop in Crystal Beach that opened in June, giving further access to the farm’s produce beyond its pop-up farmers’ markets (Blue Goose Farm itself is closed to the public). Working on a smaller patch of land, McVey says interplanting and relay cropping help maximize the farm’s output while keeping the soil healthy. The crew also nurtures the soil by applying compost and avoiding tilling. Such efforts appear to have made a difference in the quality of the produce grown at Blue Goose Farm — which appears on the menus at some of Toronto’s finest restaurants,
THE APPLE FARM PHILO, CALIFORNIA
BELOW: OFTEN, SUPPORTING PRODUCE IS PICTURE PERFECT AND CAN BE FEATURED AS A DISH BY ITSELF.
including Matheson’s Prime Seafood Palace. Even ingredients like spring onions, often a supporting act in a dish, have turned out so beautifully they can shine on their own. A recent batch, for example, turned out to be “unbelievably flavorful, so juicy, sweet and nuanced,” McVey says, adding that they’re “completely different” to typical scallions. “We just sliced them up and cooked them slowly in butter and had them over a piece of fish and it’s like a standalone ingredient,” he says. “Whereas if I was to get a scallion from the supplier, it’s just something to add body and a bit of color to a dish.” Although the farm has gotten more attention in recent years thanks to Matheson’s fame, Blue Goose remains a humble operation that’s all about growing high-quality food. For McVey, the farm’s future remains focused on “a love for food and cooking” — and community. He hopes the farm can stay true to its origins as it grows and continue to “inspire others to cook, and treat themselves well and treat the soil well, treat the planet well.” After all, he says, “it’s all full circle.”
photographs by Lucille Lawrence
ANY RESTAURANTS RELY on organic farms for their produce. But in a way, The Apple Farm, an organic farm in California’s Anderson Valley, was grown out of a restaurant.
Karen Bates, the daughter of Don and Sally Schmitt — the original owners of the prestigious Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry — had come across the farm with her husband Tim and her brother on a trip to the region in the mid-1980s, and encouraged her parents to visit the property. “We were the ones who had the urge to move on from Napa Valley,” Karen tells The Rooted Journal, adding that they had seen “the direction that Napa Valley was going” and “wanted to remove ourselves from that.” When the Schmitts visited the farm with a realtor, they were taken by the beauty of the land and called Karen and Tim to ask if they’d like to become apple farmers. They said yes, and moved to Philo to become the new proprietors of The Apple Farm, while Don and Sally continued running The French Laundry.
TOP: COTTAGES ARE AVAILABLE TO RENT AS PART OF THE FARM’S STAY & COOK EXPERIENCES. BOTTOM: THE KITCHEN AT THE APPLE FARM.
Visit @BLUEGOOSEFARM on Instagram.
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ISSUE 01
FROM FARM TO CHEF’S TABLE
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