By Grace Gorenflo, For the Valley Record
On a drizzly weekday morning, up on a hill above the Snoqualmie Valley, the sounds of sizzling food and Van Morrison pour out of the Carnation Farms kitchen. Chef Kristen Schumacher and her team are cooking up chicken pot pie, truffle potato chips and peanut bark, all from scratch. It’s time for Thursday Night Dinner Club.
Schumacher, who’s been a part of the Valley’s culinary world for 20 years, started as Carnation Farms’ director of culinary education and operations last fall. In December, she launched Thursday Night Dinner Club, a concept she brought over from her former spot in downtown Snoqualmie, Heirloom Cookshop.
Each Thursday, Schumacher hits the kitchen early with her three-woman team: Sous Chef Kristin Baerg, Pastry Chef Isabel Myers and Olivia Longstaff, the farm’s education and engagement coordinator. They make meals sourced largely from Carnation Farms itself, as well as from other local spots. Patrons who purchased tickets online ahead of time can pick up their meal for two at the farmstand’s Airstream food truck from 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Food for pickup was born out of a pandemic need, Schumacher said, but continued as a way to make farm-fresh food accessible. And, so far, it’s been successful, with many repeat customers.
“The proof is in the pudding,” Baerg said. “You can take local, seasonal food and make it into something that’s approachable, delicious and nutritious.”
Dinner Club portions serve two “generously” for about $70, whether you choose the carnivore or vegetarian option. There’s typically an entree, a side or two and sometimes a little something sweet, all wrapped up in packaging that’s either compostable or reusable. Each meal comes with specific reheating instructions.
“It might need a little reheating, but for the most part … it’s going to be baked today and warm when they get it, so it’s as fresh as it possibly can be,” Schumacher said. “We’re dedicated to Dinner Club on Thursdays.”
That dedication starts months in advance with planning the menus based on what’s coming out of the ground at Carnation Farms and what the team is excited about, Schumacher said. With a goal of limiting food waste, she said they also try to reuse ingredients across meals.
Most of the components to a Dinner Club meal are made in house, whether that be the same day or months in advance — then preserved until needed. The chicken pot pie, for example, was made with a stock from the farm’s own chickens, slaughtered in September and frozen.
Keeping things farm-made is important to Schumacher, but she also loves to “highlight other people’s products when they’re masters of the craft,” like KariKari chili crisp, made in Seattle. And if a crop isn’t available at Carnation Farms, she sources it from Puget Sound Food Hub Cooperative to keep things local. If something isn’t available locally, “I try to make the next best decision I can,” Schumacher said, adding that she does a lot of research.
From classic American comfort food to international cuisine, Schumacher leans into creativity in her recipes and ingredients.
“Sometimes they’re very sort of esoteric, and we’ve gotten feedback that some of these things, people don’t know what they are yet, so they’re fearful of ordering,” she said. “I want to educate people about what is possible.”
Education is important to Carnation Farms, whose mission states it is a “community-based hub” that “educates and empowers the work of culinary, food and farming professionals.” In addition to Dinner Club, the farm hosts dinners with local organizations, invites culinary students to farm retreats and holds a series of cooking classes, among other things.
Schumacher is toying with the idea of having food pop-ups at the farmstand and, someday, would love to have a sit-down food service on the farm. For now, she wants more people to come pick up their Thursday night dinner and see what Carnation Farms has to offer. If you’re lucky, you might even see the resident herd of elk grazing in the fields.
“We would love to get more people aware of it, more people ordering, so they know what it’s all about,” she said. “Once they see this farm, it’s pretty magnificent.”
Chicken stock made by Sous Chef Kristin Baerg simmers in a tilt skillet in the Carnation Farms kitchen on March 28, 2024. The stock was made with the farm’s own chickens. Photos by Grace Gorenflo/For the Valley Record
Chef Kristen Schumacher and Olivia Longstaff, education and engagement coordinator, bag and weigh portions of truffle potato chips in the Carnation Farms kitchen on March 28. Photos by Grace Gorenflo/For the Valley Record
