The year was 1985. Jeff Miller, 23 years old, Pittsburgh city kid, CIA-trained chef, veteran of Jeremiah Tower's Stars in San Francisco, straps on a backpack filled with seeds (seeds!), climbs on his Honda Hurricane 600 and heads from the Bay Area to Washington State. He's never farmed, but he finds land to rent near Monroe. Backbreaking work, 90 hours a week, but by 1997, he's done well enough to buy a farm of his own, which he names Willie Green's Organic Farm, Willie being his middle name.
He starts selling organic produce to farmers markets in Seattle, to a network of 100 CSAs, to produce wholesalers like Charlie's and Rosella's, to Whole Foods. When he bought the property, it was nothing but grass. Today, he's growing 60 to 70 different vegetables, pays a big staff (30 field hands to work the 60-some acres, half a dozen people to work eight markets, plus admin, marketing, social media updates).
Now the next step. The Fields at Willie Greens, turning about 10 newly manicured acres into an event venue for weddings and the like. The flip side of farm-to-table, if you will, bringing people from the city out to learn about organic farming, people who've never been on a farm. You can get here on freeways and divided ribbons of asphalt, or you can take the back roads, over Novelty Hill and along the Snohomish River, past stately barns and horses grazing in fields of clover, Mt. Pilchuck to the north, Rainier to the south. Ironically, the scenic route is faster.
It's a great location for a summer wedding (chapel-style seating area, main tent, greenhouse, fire pit, parking), or a grand harvest gathering. Summer Saturdays go for $2,500, pretty much the standard price for a ten-hour, countryside rental. To start, Miller has given exclusive rights to one of his best clients, Herban Feast, the SoDo caterer, but he foresees adding a few additional companies. Miller also looks forward to acting as sous-chef for "guest chef" nights (he's done that for Lisa Dupar Catering), when a smallish group of urbanites might come out for supper under the Raj tent (custom made in India). Eventually, even overnight accommodations, in yurts. Eventually, the possibility that his son, now 14, could take over.
Until then, Miller is content. Surveying the grounds (landscaped to his own design), he takes a breath. "It's a dream finally come to fruition."
Leave a comment