In this episode, we decided to take a trip to Appalachia, a part of the state that we love visiting and highlighting.

And we visited Maggie Bowling with Old Homeplace Farm.

It was just such a beautiful, beautiful farm.

And you could see how thoughtful everything was, what she painted.

And it's all possible due in great part to partnerships with people like Kristin at The Wrigley Taproom.

A meal is not exciting to me unless it's like a new experience.

I'm Maggie Keith and I'm the farmer.

And I'm Lindsey McClave, and I'm the foodie.

And this is...

The Farmer & the Foodie.

Funding for this program is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions.

[music playing] We are at Old Homeplace Farm in Oneida, Kentucky, in Clay County.

We started farming on this property in 2014.

I had moved to Kentucky from Ohio.

I grew up on a vegetable farm.

I moved to Kentucky to work with Grow Appalachia at Pine Mountain Settlement School and met my husband, who was already farming with his parents about four miles up the road.

And they're the other half of Old Homeplace Farm, and they're raising livestock.

So we met each other, and we're like, let's raise livestock, but also let's add on vegetables, because that's my experience.

Yeah, so a generational vegetable farmer.

Yes.

How did that knowledge stay with you, and did you always know you wanted to get your hands dirty and have that be part of your life?

I think I did always know I wanted to farm, but I didn't know how that would really be possible.

You know, I really think it takes so much support, and I didn't know if I'd ever find a partner that would want to farm with me, or if there'd be space at my parents' farm and how I would really make a living farming.

But I knew I wanted to, and went to school for biology, and then jumped at the chance to work with the Grow Appalachia program to get my toe in the water of working in the agriculture field after college.

When we first started, decided we were going to raise vegetables.

There weren't really many farmer's markets in eastern Kentucky.

Now, I feel like there are a lot, and they're doing really well, but this was in 2014.

And the year previous, I kind of scooped some of them out and thought that doesn't seem like a very reliable sales method.

But I thought a CSA was too much pressure as a beginning farmer, so we thought we could sell things online and people could come pick it up like a CSA dropoff, but it would be all a la carte.

So we first started selling things, kind of making our own sales channel with an online store and trying to sell things online.

And that seems so normal now, but we were really weird in 2014.

[laughs] And if I tell other farmers that, they looked at me like, you have the wildest ideas.

What are you talking about?

Nobody's, why are you doing that?

And now I think lots of farmers have online stores, and now you can get grocery pickup from grocery stores.

But in 2014, it was very strange.

And so when did you start working with restaurants as well?

Because I know you're one of the go-to vegetable providers for Wrigley Taproom.

Around 2017, maybe.

They had been going for a few years, but they are about an hour and a 15-minute drive from us.

And I was like, it's a little bit far out there, and I don't know how much they would sell to make that drive worth it.

But I really love the Wrigley, and I love how much Kristin really supports local farmers, like really, truly, so many farmers.

She's so encouraging.

So I thought, we're going to try to sell the Wrigley and try to get a CSA customer based in Corbin.

And both of those have been working out fantastic.

Mostly thanks to Kristin on both fronts.

[laughs] So tell us a little bit about the challenges of farming in this space.

I mean, you are in this absolutely beautiful setting, but you very much feel like we're in a little bit of a bowl.

I mean, how does that impact how you grow, what you grow, the weather?

We're very lucky for Eastern Kentucky that we have a lot more flat space than a lot of people, but we're still pretty constrained.

So I'm just raising two acres of vegetable, and we do have more flat land that's pasture for our animals, but a lot of it is more flood-prone or it's not really great for consistent vegetable production.

This has flooded down here too, so that is a worry.

We are definitely in the flood plain, but we've been lucky it's only happened to us in the wintertime.

Our soil here is pretty acidic, and it makes it so that the crops really can't uptake as much nutrients.

So even if you're putting fertilizer down, if that pH is really low, the plants really just aren't going to grow.

And you could see when I accidentally skipped a bed that the spinach was this big, where I hadn't put any lime and it's still really acidic, and the spinach looked big and beautiful where it was a more neutral pH around like 0.7.

And I wondered when you were talking about the beds closer to the water, more sandy.

I mean, I think sandy soil, I've learned carrots like that.

I mean, is that -- would you position your beds in a certain way based on that?

I have, especially starting out, but I am trying to do crop rotation throughout my whole field.

So now that I've put lime down and put compost down, I have a little bit looser soil up here too, and my carrots right now are up closer to the house.

So you mentioned that your family, your husband's family, has been here farming for a couple of generations.

Tell us about the community and what it was like moving here and becoming part of the farming community.

It's been really wonderful to be part of this community and meet other farmers here.

I was able to meet people through Community Farm Alliance and Grow Appalachia, and just having Will's family here makes me feel very at home, and I really do love living here and farming here.

[music playing] Chef Kristin Smith has been all over the world, and now she's come back to Kentucky about 10 years ago and started an incredible restaurant based around supporting the local farmers in her community.

[music playing] We are smack dab in the middle of Main Street here in Corbin, Kentucky.

Often we say the home of Colonel Sanders, which is a fun fact because my grandfather was at his first bankruptcy.

Oh.

So long history here of fried chicken, which we sometimes have on the menu.

We're in a really old building, back dating around 1919.

We have a cool ghost sign over here.

And the home of, I think, actually the best food in Corbin.

I would agree.

Had dinner last night and it was phenomenal.

Thank you.

The smells coming from the kitchen are fantastic.

But tell us, how long has the Wrigley been open and how did it come to be?

We've been open 10 years now.

I was a farmer's market vendor, as my grandfather called paddling beef and pork from our family farm.

I'm a sixth generation farmer on Faulkner Bent Farm.

So I just started cooking at every farmer's market.

And before I knew it, people were more interested in my tacos and burgers than they were buying my beef.

But that ended up picking up too.

And then before I knew it, this opportunity presented itself to go brick and mortar, which I was scared to death of, because there's a lot of other things out of your control versus the farmer's market.

But farmer's markets are amazing incubators.

And I think that's what it ended up being for me.

And so we moved into here because I knew, I stepped in here for the first time and I looked around and saw these walls and these cool tin ceilings.

And the stained glass, yeah, the windows.

And I thought, okay, if I don't do something here, someone else will, and I'm going to regret it the rest of my life.

So I jumped full steam ahead and here we are.

I didn't know really much of what I was doing.

I did not go to culinary school, but I always say that I went to culinary school in my grandmother and mother's kitchen.

[laughs] You know, when you own a farm in a more isolated area, you cook a lot.

That's your entertainment.

That's your way of doing things.

So anyways, that's kind of an extension of that here.

Absolutely.

So growing up and working on the farm and having this wonderful home-cooked food, did you anticipate wanting to farm yourself or when did the idea or the notion of having your own restaurant come to mind?

I think it was the first time my mom went away for business and she was like, now you're going to have to take care of your daddy.

And I looked at the kitchen and I thought, I can make some eggs.

And I just really enjoyed the whole time she was away cooking.

And I thought, maybe I could be one of those chefs.

That was just like a pipe dream.

And then I went to college and all I could think about was working in a restaurant.

I don't know, it just kept on.

And I graduated college and my parents were like, okay, what are you going to do?

And I said, I think I'm going to go to culinary school.

And they were like... [laughs] Do you want to work 12 hours a day on your feet?

And I thought, no, that sounds terrible.

So I became a missionary in China for three years after that, but I kept on finding myself in kitchens the whole time.

And that's kind of how I learned the Chinese language actually.

But no, it was destined for me to get here.

I just went a very long, odd way.

Yeah.

And your roots as a farmer has definitely connected you to supporting local farmers around here, which the flavors are incredible because of the local yesss yed food you have.

It's the only way I know food.

Yes.

Yeah, I wouldn't be a restaurant owner and a professional chef in a different realm.

Yeah.

This is the only way I would do it.

And it's wonderful.

It's very gratifying.

And how has being a farmer influenced how you order from local farmers or how you work with local farmers?

I think we really helped each other out because as a farmer, you don't really know how to get in a restaurant necessarily.

If you don't know what you should be selling it at, just ask me.

Like almost 90% of the time, they're underselling their stuff.

Yes.

And so I'm still getting a cheaper deal, and they're getting more than they would have valued.

So we've been helping each other that way.

Yeah, learning together.

Yeah.

Yeah, learning together Yeah.

Well, what are some of the challenges in that though?

Because I think so many restaurants generally try to say they're farm to table, but few actually do walk the walk and talk the talk like you are.

And I think when you understand what it means to support your local farmers, it's not so easy as just ordering from the commercial vendors.

So tell us a little bit about like what that has meant in making your restaurant successful for 10 years.

Yeah, I mean, it is definitely a more masochist way to go because your menu has to be extremely flexible.

The good thing is, you know, I'm a little ADHD, so I like to shake it up all the time.

But you have to be prepared that sometimes dishes that worked in 2021 are not going to work in 2024 because Seminole pumpkins aren't available anymore because the climate's changed.

So, but then a new, you know, product shows up and you don't know anything about it, so you get to do a little R&D about it.

And, you know, so it is a little manic in that way, but it's also just really exciting.

And the farmers know that they have my full support.

If it doesn't work out, I understand how that works.

And Maggie from Old Homeplace Farm, she definitely feels your support and your flexibility and your understanding.

How does that relationship work?

Does she tell you what she has weekly or do you all work off of a season?

Yeah, around January, she's like, what are you thinking?

Most years, we have a farmer's appreciation dinner.

We know that they're ordering seeds.

And so we invite all of our farmers for a dinner and, you know, we just treat them.

And then we have a conversation of like, what's working, what's not working?

What are y'all seeing?

How can we be better partners?

So I feel like each year our communication's getting a little bit better.

Then we kind of have, you know, a plan.

Maggie and some of the other farmers will send an email and be like, all right, these dates, this is what's projected to be available.

And so then I start planning my menu.

Sometimes I ask for samples so I can like do a little test kitchen situation.

That's kind of fun.

Yeah.

That's really fun.

And when you're developing those menus, you mentioned that you lived in China for three years and I can see that influence through some of your dishes.

So tell me what that development process is like.

I mean, you grew up here in Appalachia and you said you have wonderful cooks in your family and then you have that international influence.

So how do those things meld together?

I'm just a really curious person.

I have wanderlust.

I always have.

I mean, Carmen Sandiego was like it when I was growing up.

So I kind of, you know, I feel like I'm like Chef Carmen Sandiego in a way of like, I just, a meal is not exciting to me unless it's like a new experience.

And so I think I want to like provide that here.

You know, it's, you don't -- not everybody has wanderlust.

Not everybody, you know, might have the budget to go to China, but they can experience it here maybe, you know.

And I also like to give people the opportunity to learn about a different culture that they might've never, ever been exposed to.

So yeah, it's really fun to be a catalyst of exposing folks to a new cuisine.

[music playing] I don't know about you, but I was so inspired by both Maggie at Old Homeplace and then Kristin at the Wrigley.

Yeah.

So with that in mind, we're going to have sort of a fall tavern-inspired menu today, starting with some chicken wings.

Kristin traveled and lived in China for a while.

And so I love the little touches of Chinese flavors and Asian influence in her menu.

So going from that, we're going to bake these wings till they're nice and crisp and we're going to finish them with a miso honey garlic sauce.

Then we're also going to make a wedge salad, which Maggie mentioned is one of her favorite items that comes on and off the menu at the Wrigley.

And she also mentioned Kristin makes a mean green goddess.

So I'm sure I can't make a green goddess to do justice to Kristin's, but I love the herby nature of a green goddess and it's sort of a lot of things can So we're going to make a green goddess dressing for our wedge salad.

And then the broccolini was particularly tempting to me.

So we're going to just treat that really lightly and saute it, but we're going to serve it over a bed of pureed feta.

Yeah.

Whipped feta.

It's really yummy, salty, kind of funky.

Then we're going to be making some croutons for our salad.

And one thing that I always like is my croutons when I store them at the bottom, they get all crumbly, bread crummy.

So I think we're going to just make bread crumbs from the croutons as a crunchy topping on the broccolini.

Yeah.

Using every bit.

I know.

Right.

So first things first, we need to get our wings in the oven.

So I love this way of making wings.

Oven baked.

They're not fried.

Don't worry about the mess.

But what you don't want to lose is that crispy nature.

So we are doing everything we can to preserve that by letting our wings sit uncovered just like this in the fridge overnight.

So these have been resting for almost 24 hours.

And all I did before was toss them in two teaspoons of kosher salt and two teaspoons of baking powder.

And then they're going to go in the oven on 450 for about 20 minutes.

We're going to flip them, cook them another 10, flip them again, and then they should be done within 40 minutes or so.

And then we're going to finish them with our sauce.

[music playing] Okay, time for croutons.

We have this beautiful focaccia loaf that was treated with some rosemary, olive oil.

I like to hand tear them because I think it just gives you some kind of jaggedy edges and allows for like crumbly and little crunchy, extra crunchy bits.

We are going to do just a quarter cup of olive oil.

And then we're going to add some grated garlic, red pepper flakes, some salt and pepper.

So we're just going to kind of whisk this together.

We're just going to pour all of this all over.

And then toss it?

Yep, and then just toss it super well.

Feel like they get all coated.

I think this looks just right.

You can already see how this bread is going to be so good for bread crumbs because it's got little crumbly bits that have fallen off that are going to be extra delicious.

All right, into the oven, and we'll start to make the sauces and dressings for our salad and our broccolini.

Perfect.

All right.

[music playing] Okay, time for a green goddess dressing.

I love this dressing because it has a wonderful creamy bite, but it's super flexible.

Dill, parsley, cilantro.

So all the tender herbs are going in here.

And I happen to have this beautiful bunch of celery.

I love Kentucky celery.

So some celery tops are going in.

And a trick that I've picked up on along the way is to use some capers to give this salty, briny bite.

Traditionally, green goddess dressing has anchovies in it.

I love anchovies too.

I don't always have them on hand, but I usually have a jar of capers in the fridge.

So it's extremely simple.

We're going to combine everything here in the blender, whisk it all up, and it'll be ready for our salad.

Great.

Off we go.

[music playing] [mixer whirring] Okay.

And now we're going to whip up feta for our broccolini.

Crumble the feta into the bowl of a food processor and add one-half cup cream, the juice from one-half of a lemon, a nice pinch of kosher salt, and several cracks of black pepper.

Blend until it's very, very smooth and broken down.

And then, with the blade running, slowly stream in one-third cup olive oil until the feta is whipped and creamy.

[music playing] Taste and adjust your seasonings to your preference.

Our croutons are ready.

You can hear how crunchy they are.

They look so good.

I'm going to have to have one.

Yeah, perfect.

Yum.

Oh, yum.

Mmm.

Traditionally, a wedge salad is iceberg lettuce, but we have so many other amazing, beautiful lettuces at the farm markets right now.

So this is a -- it makes me think, actually, what you'd use for a Caesar, huh?

Yeah, this is a romaine.

We are looking for a local lettuce to use.

What I'm going to love about this is it's going to cup and hold all of these ingredients.

So, traditional wedge, too, has, like, a blue cheese, a bacon, so we've got some of that to go with our herby green goddess.

And then, Maggie at her farm had these beautiful watermelon radishes, and I think they are just so -- first off, they're delicious.

And then they're also just -- I mean, look at that.

It's so beautiful.

That hot pink makes me so happy.

It's so, so pretty.

If you have a mandolin, this is the time to be extra careful, but I love to use a mandolin for this because you get those paper-thin shavings.

Yeah, and they're going to add that peppery bite, but, like, not be too overwhelming when they're thin like that.

Exactly.

And then you just really can't beat the color that you get.

And, yes, mandolins require extra safety precautions, so.

All right.

I think that's going to do it.

I also, just because we have this gorgeous celery, I feel like that's going to add a wonderful crunch and just a nice bite that is so -- I mean, listen to that.

Kind of perfect.

And that's one of the things.

I think a wedge, it is all just the different textures, the different types of flavors.

You've got funky blue cheese.

You've got salty bacon.

And then we've got our really delicious croutons that are going to add all the extra crunch and absorb that lovely herby green goddess.

We're about ready to garnish.

So, yeah, if you want to kind of arrange...

Which one should I pick?

That I don't know.

They're both perfect.

You can't go wrong.

I think that's extra beautiful.

I'm going to go with this one.

So, we're just going to do a little experiment by cutting down the middle and seeing if it kind of all stays together.

Oh, beautiful.

And the heart of this romaine is so pretty.

Oh, my gosh.

That's gorgeous.

Oh, perfect.

What a beautiful entree salad, too, to put on the middle of a table for people to cut and take little bits of.

So, we're just going to like... A little blue cheese will make it.

Sprinkle all of our goodness over top.

Yep.

I love that tavern feel.

Like, it was very traditional food, like a wedge with blue cheese and bacon, but then there were those extra touches.

That's pretty.

I could just dip these in that green goddess, too.

[laughs] We're going to finish with about half of our croutons.

Take a handful.

Handful, yeah.

I love how crunchy they are.

Yum.

We're just going to just go for it.

I know.

I think this is going to be a wonderful, crunchy, salty, flavorful bite to our broccolini, which is still going to be the star of this plate.

One of the things I like that you mentioned most about broccolini is you can eat the whole thing.

Yeah, the stem is just as tender and delicious.

It's fantastic.

And the greens, too, it's an extra little bonus.

Excellent.

So, we're just going to saute them in some beef tallow for a little bit of that flavor, and then in our cast iron, and just get a really nice crispness on them.

We're going to add a little bit of lemon, a little bit of red pepper flakes.

I usually like to add just a splash of water to ensure everything does kind of cook just right.

Looks perfect.

Yeah, we'll layer them on top of our feta puree for, like, a creamy, composed bite with the crunch on top.

I can't wait.

[music playing] Oh, my gosh, Maggie.

These look delicious.

They do.

Well done.

I love how they have sort of, like, a meatiness to them with the stalks, too.

I'm super excited.

Lovely little char.

So, if you want to go ahead and just spread a really nice bed of that feta, the feta we've got.

Oh, this looks delightful.

Just decadent.

Do it.

Yep.

And then we're going to layer these right on top, and then add our breadcrumb garnish.

Nice.

Can you see the hints of the crushed red pepper?

Perfect.

Nice.

There we go.

Sprinkles.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

[music playing] Excellent.

I'm ready for wings.

Let's get the sauce going and get our wings ready to eat.

So, I've got some miso paste here, and then I have some honey.

So, I love that juxtaposition.

Exactly.

And then we're going to make sure we don't miss out any heat by putting some of your red pepper flakes in, then some grated garlic.

So, I've got a half a stick of butter in my little sauce pot here.

We're going to add in the miso.

And I never realized, so you toss it after you've cooked it all.

Yes.

Yep, yep.

It's at the end when they're nice and warm.

All right.

We're going to grate our garlic in here.

[rattling] And then one nice pinch of salt, just to make sure everything is well-seasoned.

And we will take this over to the stove, let it melt down together and get a little bit thicker, and we can toss our wings.

[music playing] All right.

Our wings are done.

We're going to put them in this bowl.

We are going to hold on to this pan, though, so we can put them back in after the sauce is on, just for a last little crisp, way to do it.

All right.

Why don't you pour about three quarters of that sauce on top?

We're going to reserve a little bit for garnish at the end.

Beautiful.

That's good?

I think that's really good.

We'll do a little.

You got this.

[laughs] It's not the best bowl for that.

There you go.

Okay, because we really want them to be nice and coated.

All right.

Back onto the pan and into the oven for another 3-5 minutes.

[music playing] Our wings look so lovely and browned.

We're just going to platter them up.

A little drizzle of sauce.

And Kristin had a sesame seed garnish on her wings, so I wanted to borrow that lovely idea.

I like that touch.

I know.

Me, too.

Fine a little bit.

I'm going to do a little sprinkle.

Yeah, please do.

This is the fun part.

I know, right?

So many sprinkles.

The breadcrumbs.

So many sprinkles, yes.

I'm going to start with some of this.

Okay.

I'll just do a little pick up and dip.

Also.

Oh, my gosh.

Yum.

I love the feta with the broccoli.

I feel like the broccoli, especially the stems, because they're so kind of meaty, I feel like it really is a great counterpoint to that.

And then the crunchy breadcrumbs.

I mean, I could just eat those, like, out of a bag.

[music playing] And I don't want to forget.

We've got some.

[music playing] I'm going to try one of these watermelon rashes.

Me, too.

[music playing] The garlic in there is perfect.

It's just, like, herby, herby, but also very satisfying because of the creaminess.

All right.

Okay, shall we do it?

Last but not least, we've got to do some wings.

[music playing] Oh, wow.

They do have that crunch.

It's pretty delicious.

And I just think very umami, like, bomb, [laughs] from the sauce.

I'm loving that.

It's been so easy.

Mm-hmm.

A lot of these farmers probably planned about a hundred days ago to plant this, and this chicken took a while to grow, but.

Well, they work in community, and I so appreciate learning about how that works and so much respect to them for going the extra mile to support themselves and give us food.

This is just nourishing and delicious.

Farm-fresh food does taste better.

[laughs] [music playing] Funding for this program is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions.

[music playing]