{"id":40108,"date":"2021-06-18T08:00:45","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T12:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=40108"},"modified":"2022-05-12T17:20:19","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T21:20:19","slug":"at-elderslie-farm-george-and-katharine-elder-honor-kansas-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/at-elderslie-farm-george-and-katharine-elder-honor-kansas-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Chef’s Dish: At Elderslie Farm, George and Katharine Elder Honor Kansas Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photographed by Gavin Peters<\/a><\/em><\/h5>\n

T<\/span>en miles north of downtown Wichita, Kansas, the small town of Kechi (pronounced \u201ckee-chi\u201d) is home to just shy of 2,000 residents, a nationally renowned art glass gallery, and since 2010, Elderslie Farm<\/a>. On their 100 acres, George and Katharine Elder make artisan goat\u2019s and cow\u2019s milk cheeses, along with operating a restaurant, a cafe, a seasonal blackberry-picking operation, and a sawmill. This diversity, and the Elders\u2019 thoughtful, sustainable approach to farming and food production, make Elderslie an anomaly in Kansas, where agriculture covers 90 percent of the land area. Most of this vast acreage is devoted to wheat, grain sorghum, and beef cattle; there are few dairy farms and even fewer small farmstead creameries like Elderslie.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe only way to explain the breadth of what we\u2019re doing is that it didn\u2019t come out of a business plan, it came out of a poetic affection,\u201d says George, who was born and raised on the farm. While his family\u2019s longtime livelihood had been a Wichita-based corrugated box business, his parents, Philip and Becky Elder, embraced the practical and philosophical aspects of agrarian life, which they imparted to their seven children. \u201cWe talked a lot about land stewardship around the dinner table,\u201d says George. \u201cThe conversation would move from discussions of Henry V to discussions of William Wordsworth\u2019s lyrical ballads to discussions of Wendell Berry\u2019s essays on the ecological dilemma of the Appalachian coal mines.\u201d Reading Wordsworth, Berry, and James Rebanks, a UK sheep farmer and author of The Shepherd\u2019s Life<\/em><\/a>\u2014as well as a job in high school installing wood trim\u2014contributed to George\u2019s deepening interest in the preservation of local culture, and the launch in 2009 of Elderslie Woodworks.<\/p>\n

\"\"Nearly all of the wood sawn and fabricated into bar tops and tables\u2014including those for the farm\u2019s Elderslie restaurant<\/a> and Bramble Cafe<\/a>\u2014is native to Kansas. The same sensibility, which respects geographic distinction and time-honored methods, drives the rest of the farm\u2019s operations. \u201cThe blackberries came about as a way to incorporate and enrichen the way we were serving and using the land, and the restaurant came about as an outgrowth of Katharine’s family’s investment in the culture of the table,\u201d says George.<\/p>\n

While he and Katharine knew each other growing up, their paths subsequently diverged. \u201cI was singing opera while George was shooting ducks,\u201d she says with a laugh. \u201cMy mom\u2019s sister lives in Milan, and I remember realizing that I wasn\u2019t Italian although we were raised with a very Italian-like elevation and celebration of the table.\u201d Frequent travel to Italy exposed her to ingredients that were then unavailable in the U.S., like arborio rice, and her mother would often return from travels to France with suitcases full of cheese. Following a harrowing bicycle accident that landed Katharine in the hospital, George went to see her, and their friendship was rekindled. They were married on the farm in 2011 and opened the Bramble Cafe the following year, in time for blackberry season. \u201cGeorge asked me if I would check in people to do you-pick and I had that moment of, \u2018Is this going to be the rest of my life?\u2019\u201d Katharine says. \u201cI told him, \u2018Sure, but I\u2019m making breakfast.\u2019\u201d The result, Bramble Cafe, serves casual morning fare such as blackberry-lavender muffins and a savory bread pudding made with local vegetables, eggs, and bacon. Elderslie restaurant, which Katharine also launched in 2012 in the farmhouse, now offers a cheese-focused appetizer menu as well as a four-course, prix fixe menu with optional wine pairings in a quietly elegant dining room and on a spacious patio.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an interesting intermix of George having been raised around a table talking policy and ideas\u2014the why behind everything\u2014and at our table we talked about food,\u201d says Katharine. \u201cI remember it being very disorienting at the dinner table when we were first married because I would cook expecting to talk about it and George would just eat and not say much; I would think, \u2018Is it OK?\u2019 We have since landed somewhere in the middle talking about, cheese, which was something very near and dear to my family growing up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\t