- Christy McKenzie: Food is so central to who we are.
Food can be something that, like, creates celebration
where there isn't celebration before.
When you feed people, it's satisfying
on so many levels.
Here at Winterfell Acres,
which is a farm that we started working with
when we just had opened the restaurant
and the Beth's farm was new at that point
and our business was new at that point
and for me, that, that connection of kind of, like,
our businesses kind of growing side by side
over the last five years is a real metaphor
for what I think about,
what we wanted this business to be for in community.
We built the business to, you know,
create and celebrate local food
and to intentionally purchase
as much as we could from as close as we could.
I have a big family and lots of cousins running around,
and so we, when we got together for family meals it was,
it was not just a small family dinner,
it was a production to put on
because you're feeding so many people.
One of my first food memories was working
with my mom in the kitchen to get ready
for one of these bigger events
and she wasn't feeling well
so she went to bed and I just have this memory
of, like, running to her room to like ask her for,
like, how do I finish you know, the stuffing?
How do I make the gravy?
How do-- like, does this mashed potato taste right?
And her just encouraging me, like, you know how to do this.
We've done this a million times.
And that reinforcement of like,
you know how to feed your people.
Those early experiences of cooking with my mom
in the kitchen, cooking with my grandma,
really helped me kind of create a basic identity
that was tied to, like, food is love. [laughs]
And I babysat for a family
who really loved to cook at a whole different level
and I learned more about what it meant
to, like, really curate a meal
and how you were gonna create entertainment
around that experience
and all of the different ways that we can
get together around food
to create a richness of life.
I got a sense of,
"Wow, food can be something really special!"
I was lucky to travel to Italy
when I was in college and got to see,
like, what culture looks like around food,
and began to really understand that, like,
while the foods are different,
that commonality of coming together around food is,
like transcends the boundaries of, of state or nation.
And in that space in Italy, I really learned
that slowing down for food is something to celebrate,
and it can be very simple food.
It doesn't have to be extravagant.
It doesn't have to be, you know,
cooked for three days, and carefully plated,
but it can be, like, simple olive oil
from the fields and it can be the, you know,
the basic farm stand cheese and a nice glass of wine
and that can be a feast.
It kind of created a foundation for me
of thinking about food and the connection
to where food comes from.
And then, how we bring people together around it
that forms the basis for, you know,
why we started the business.
[gentle music]
How we find space to create that connection
for community to local food, really celebrate
the season and allow people access to it in a way
that helps them root in and feel connected,
even in a busy life.
[gentle music]
We really started this business
to create space for local food economy
and to create space for local food culture
and we've learned a lot in the last few years
about what it means to create
a rich and diverse space where we work,
and, you know, it's continued work every day
and it, it's really exciting to see,
the energy that it brings into the business
and also, you know, it ripples into the community.
I hope when people come to Pasture and Plenty,
they feel like it's an extension of home,
that when they show up
that they're gonna be taken care of as a neighbor,
that they'll be taken care of as a friend.
Our getting to connect into the rhythm of the seasons
in a way that makes their life more delicious.
[laughs]
And we hope that when people show up at the shop
that they, that they feel,
like, wrapped in that, you know, gratitude,
that they feel, like, wrapped in radical welcome,
to be able to, okay, I'm going to get weepy here.
I feel like, I hope people come and feel like
they're taken care of and that they
feel more connected in that moment.
Food creates a place where we can all get together
and find a common ground
and find an intimacy that wouldn't be there
if we didn't have a shared plate between us.
It creates an environment for creativity
and for problem solving and for, you know,
inspiration to kind of show up
because food creates space for commonality.