APPETITE: BACK 40 KITCHEN
Back 40 Kitchen
Kings of the Farm Put on A Royal Feast Written by Cindy Clarke “Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bands.” Thomas Jefferson wrote those words in 1785 presumably extolling the virtues of farming in the state of Virginia, a land of plantations aplenty back in the day when agriculture was a great measure of a man’s worth. Busy as he was running a newly united America, he took real pleasure in gardening, often joining two of his gardeners to toil in the soil in late afternoon until the sun went down, declaring agriculture as “the most tranquil, healthy and independent occupation.” When he retired from the presidency and pressing affairs of the state, he said he found himself infinitely happier in his new mode of life, adding “I have often thought that if heaven had given me choice of my position and calling, it should have been on a rich spot of earth, well watered, and near a good market for the productions of the garden.” The farm it seems has been calling a good number of men and women, high achievers all, back down to earth to find their fame and fortune in a growth industry that is all the rage today. And it’s not just a passing phase for these newly minted farmers. It’s a way of life that sustains their hopes for the future of their children and the world around us.
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CONTEMPORARY CULTURE//MAGAZINE
Venü Magazine went to Old Greenwich, Connecticut, recently to celebrate the opening of the Back 40 Mercantile – co-owned by Old Greenwich residents Bill and Lesley King and Lesley’s brother Jeff Bischoff and his wife Katrina who is the store manager – a general store of sorts that harkens back to the mid to late 19th century when these stores were the gathering places for townspeople and farmers. The General Store was typically stocked with items of all kinds, from food to fabrics and goods handmade and homemade, much like you’ll find at Back 40 Mercantile. In the old days, you’d find folks visiting and catching up on the latest news inside, playing checkers atop pickle barrels, full to bursting with farm-raised, familyrecipe tastes, and making those person-to-person connections that somehow have eluded us in technology-focused 2014. You’ll also find a lot of that inside Back 40 Mercantile too. That lack of interpersonal connection, to one another and to the Earth, that is so prevalent today is what motivated Bill and Lesley King, both financial executives and the parents of four children, to put their money where their mouths were, literally, and buy some 80 acres of land in Litchfield County and repurpose it back to its original landscape as a working farm. “We wanted our children to get in touch with what really matters in life while they were still young enough to enjoy it,” said Bill who fondly remembers his own childhood on his family’s
land in Haddam, Connecticut, where family and community were all important. He cited the good old-fashioned fun he had, raising goats, learning about gardening, planting and harvesting vegetables that he had a hand in. He and Lesley hoped to instill all those memories, along with the sense of pride and accomplishment that comes with a hands-on, priceless and practical skill like farming, in their own growing family. It’s been six years since they first put their hearts into their hoes and the result is a feast of organically harvested seasonal vegetables, herbs, flowers, fresh-from-the-hen eggs and herbal teas that are making their way to palates and plates from Washington Depot to Greenwich. To learn all he could about sustainable farming, Bill looked to the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. The farm was accepted as an apprentice farm under Stone Barns Private Lands Project, part of their Growing Famers Initiative, in 2011. And Bill had the good fortune to learn the lay of the land under the tutelage of Farm Director Jack Algiere (see our feature story on Stone Barns in this issue). As Bill’s garden grew, so too did his need for more help. It came through two Stone Barns’ apprentices Michael Krug and Nichole Norby, now Farm Manager for the Back 40 Farm, who have helped turn Lesley and Bill’s dreams of greener pastures into reality.