Schedule

Christina is now selling her Red Rabbit Farm jams and jellies, chutneys and baked goods. Call 360-376-3208 to order.  We ship!

COOKING CLASSES

Kitchen Boot Camp:  Sold Out! Look for these again in 2012!

This three day hands on Workshop is designed to build confidence, give knowledge, and inspire culinary savvy for the kitchen neophyte.

Day one

We will boil water and cook pasta that you have made, blanch vegetables, and make a “mother” sauce, all for our lunch. After our leisurely alfresco meal. We will prepare a simple dessert and then move to the stoves to learn all about steaks. After prepping our steak for dinner we will make a lively but classic green salad, learn how to make a “pan sauce”, taste a galaxy of red wines and discover why and how to choose the perfect one to match our steak. We finish by enjoying the fruits of our labors.

Day two

We start in the hen house with the holy egg, the earths most perfect food. We make a dessert with eggs and then we begin with an omelet primer. We will all be masters of the perfect omelet by the time we sit down for a French bistro style lunch with classic accompaniments. After lunch we begin our shellfish primer. We learn the simple traditional preparations of oysters, clams, mussels and Dungeness crab and why they work so well and taste so good. We continue by tasting some of the great seafood white wines and choosing those that will go well with our dinner. And for Dinner? We will be cooking Salmon and Halibut , the great pacific northwest fish, the best in the World. You will know the secret of truly great seafood cookery, and will be able to serve fish easily, with confidence, anytime you want at the end of this glorious day.

Day three

We begin at the farmers market where we discover why and how the ingredients we use can inspire, and make or break the meal. We use the market to tell us what to cook. We shop for fun, for economy, for health and to give us the very best shot at cooking something truly great. We learn to cut from the pack and begin the process of developing our own culinary style. You choose what you wish to prepare for lunch and your chef instructors will show you just how to do it. After lunch we get serious about dinner party. The afternoon will be spent learning how to pull it all together and make a memorable meal for that favored one or ten or twenty. You will never find cooking for company a daunting task again. Fun in the kitchen makes for great meals and entertaining. With the methods, knowledge and skills you have learned you will be able cook for your friends and family with confidence and style. Please invite a guest to share the evening and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

10 am to 6pm
July 14, 15 and 16
$1850 per person limited to 10
Includes all materials, groceries, wines, shopping excursions, meals, etc.

Chefs Greg Atkinson
Christina Orchid

Farm and Forage Workshop

This is a participatory culinary workshop focused on the sustainable kitchen, seasonal cooking, kitchen gardens, and the untapped resources of our local environments. An insiders tour of the foodie highlights of the island. After this workshop you will be able to recognize and prepare seasonal produce, understand and work with your own neighborhood farmers and use sustainable techniques to run your own household. You will also have a an understanding of how food in the wild can make a contribution to our table and our lives.

Day one

We rendezvous at our home base at Red Rabbit in Westsound and after coffee, scones and introductions we are off on a tour of two island shellfish farms where we will sample some oysters and learn how they are cultivated. When tides are right we will check out the wild oysters in Westsound and perhaps gather a few for a part of our lunch. We stop at Coffelt’s Farm, an original island homestead, that has been farmed continually for over a hundred years. At the farm we get a tour, see the sheep, and make some purchases, which could include handspun wool, sheepskins, and all kinds of possibilities for lunch. We are off to Black Dog Farm for produce and if we’ re lucky, some fresh chevre. Back at the cookhouse we make a truly local lunch and learn to put together a meal from what we have found that morning, spontaneous cooking “off the cuff” At two we head out for wine tastings, visiting Winemaker Brent Charnleys Lopez Island vineyards tasting room, then off to the “geologist’s,” Michael Yeoman for a tasting of Thurston Wolfe wines, award wining wines from Prosser, Washington made by the husband and wife team of Wade and Becky Wolfe. We have free time to wander the shops and galleries of Eastsound before we sit down to our prix fixe dinner at Allium in Eastsound where chef Lisa Nakamura prepares a menu just for us. The New York Times noted chef Nakamura and her restaurant as a top must see for the culinary traveler.

Day two

We rendezvous at the Westsound café for a hearty breakfast, then we are off to work up an appetite for brunch with local forager, Dr, Ryan Drum. Dr Drum will teach us all there is to know about stalking the wild asparagus, what’s edible in the woodlands and the wetlands, and the tidelands. Then its back to the cookhouse at Red Rabbit where our chef instructors will demonstrate tasty and useful ways of incorporating wild foods into our menu and prepare a farmhouse style lunch served at our big table, where we will pass platters, ply microbrews and some local ciders. After lunch we go up the road to Maple Rock Farm where chef/ farmer, John Stewart gives us an authentic insight into the life and work of a sustainable organic farmer. We can get an idea about harvesting working with John’s crew and learn the how’s and why’s of what is ready to cut for market on Saturday. Or just laze under the trees and enjoy summer’s buzz. In any event we will be rewarded with a fabulous flatbread feast from John’s wood burning pizza oven where we can build our own with fresh ingredients from the farm. Accompanied by wines and dessert.

Day three

We meet early at Roses Café in Eastsound to fortify and ready ourselves for Market Day. The real key to eating great, is superior ingredients. We will already be on a first name basis with the top farmers so hopefully if we get there early we will be the ones to get those few precious baskets of frais des bois or the special piece of smoked beef. Plan on a lunch in town to check out some of the local places for lunch. Market vendors will be plying their wares; fresh hot tamales, homemade sausages, smoked salmon, Vietnamese style chicken, and always some surprises. We will gather the best of the market for our Saturday supper, getting inspired by the ingredients and using the knowledge of our chef instructors and engaging in the collaborative process, we will return to the cookhouse to plan and prepare a fabulous finale to our three day island farm to table marathon.

July 21-23
$1450 per person