Meet the farmers driving Chef Michael Smith's new food concept
Jeff and Carey Wood are selling their organic farm to work at The Inn at Bay Fortune
Like many farmers, Jeff and Carey Wood are getting the final seedlings into the ground and weeding around the small shoots popping up over 14 acres of organic farmland.
But this season, they're doing it as part of Chef Michael Smith's team at the Inn at Bay Fortune.
"We just thought it was an amazing opportunity to see what was going to come of it," Carey Wood said of the initial meeting with the celebrity chef shortly after he and wife Chastity purchased the iconic inn.
The Wood family figured the chef wanted to be a client of their business Olde MacKenzie Farm in Rose Valley.
But Smith wanted more.
'A tough decision'
"I think Jeff and Carey are the single best organic market farmers on this Island, and that's why we wanted them here," said Smith.
He wanted the family to work the organic farm that produces all the vegetables and herbs used to feed guests of his open-fire restaurant, FireWorks.
Last year, the Woods kept their family farm and one of them spent each day at the Inn. Then an old ankle injury flared up, slowing down Carey, so she and Jeff decided it was time to make a decision about the future.
"Knowing we put a lot of elbow grease and sweat and a bit of blood into it over the last six years, to just end it kinda like that it was definitely a tough decision."
No-risk farming
The decision to give up their own land might be the envy of many young farmers.
"We can take the risk out and have that creative and experimentation to it too," Jeff Wood said.
"And we can grow really for flavour and search out those varieties and experiment with it and really get the flavour out of it rather than the yield."
The Woods pick what's fresh and ready each day and deliver it the kitchen. Then, it's up to the chefs to get them ready for that evening.
"We had a lot more leeway in experimenting and working with the chefs and in much more direct contact with them as well," said Jeff of the new job.
"I have a lot of fun with it because some things the new cooks have seen, tasted or dealt with before. So we have a lot of fun taking in these products and being like, 'What can you do with it,'" added Carey.
Chefs become apprentice farmers
The Woods also have help from one of the chefs every day, who Smith assigns to work in the fields or herb garden.
"Yes, we are growing vegetables, but we're also teaching the farm, and that is just as important to me," Smith said.
"This will influence these young cooks for the rest of their careers, they will remember and it will make them better cooks for life."
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