The Woodstock Inn & Resort expands its three acre Kelly Way Gardens with the newly completed Red Barns culinary center. A fully integrated component of the resort’s dining and culinary programs, the Red Barns state of the art facilities were designed to enhance the guest experience with a variety of classes, events and dining experiences during the spring and summer.
“Since the first seedlings were planted in 2014, the Kelly Way Gardens has become a beloved destination at the resort for our guests,” said Gary S. Thulander, president and general manager of the Woodstock Inn & Resort. “The newest enhancement of the Red Barns, which perfectly blends rustic design with contemporary kitchen amenities, fully engages guests with our expert culinary and gardening teams to bring Vermont’s farm-to-table ethos to life.”
Master Gardener Benjamin Pauly and the culinary team led by Executive Chef Rhys Lewis work closely on the planning and cultivation of the resort’s Kelly Way Gardens for menus as well as guest enrichment. Certified organic by the Vermont Organic Farmers Association, the garden boasts more than 200 varieties of produce including more than 55 varieties of tomatoes, 75 berries and orchard plantings, 50 herbs and edible flowers, a mushroom glen, annual and perennial flowers, honey bees and hops.
As the vegetables, fruits and flowers flourish in warmer months, complimentary garden immersions for resort guests are offered several times a week. Saturday mornings from May 19 through the end of September the Summer Garden Series covers a variety of topics such as floral arranging, growing herbs and edible flowers, and various other gardening techniques. The 45 minute Kelly Way Gardens Five Senses Tour, Thursday afternoons June through September, provides insights on how to engage all the senses to fully appreciate the garden experience. On Tuesday afternoons July through September, Slow Tea in the Garden features teas brewed from the garden’s herbs and honey sourced from the gardener’s bees.
Master Gardener Benjamin Pauly and Executive Chef Rhys Lewis work in tandem during the weekly Garden Tour and Tasting Series. The collaboration begins with a detailed garden tour and is then followed by a culinary demonstration showcasing one garden crop three different ways. Class subjects include asparagus, mushrooms, and berries. The two hour experience takes place Saturdays at 10:00am; $45 per person. Sundays in July and August the Red Barns Dinner Series celebrates the Kelly Way Gardens’ seasonal harvest paired with the local artistry of Vermont’s cheese makers, farmers, bee keepers, and dairymen. The three course community style dinner is from 5:00pm to 8:00pm; $55 per person.
Housed in rustic barns, the 11,000 square foot kitchen studio is fully equipped for culinary demonstrations and dining events with a BlueStar six burner range cook top and Bosch double wall ovens. Elements of the kitchen studio and adjacent 900 square foot garden studio have been crafted from reclaimed products. Countertops throughout the spaces are repurposed from bowling alley lanes; the maple dining tables in the kitchen studio and white pine tables in the garden studio are made from trees ethically harvested at the nearby Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historic Park; the kitchen studio’s butternut backsplash was created from a tree harvested on the resort property. Salvaged light fixtures include chandeliers in the kitchen studio, wall and ceiling lights throughout, and outdoor lampposts in the garden. All design, electrical and landscaping work, and majority of carpentry, were completed by the Woodstock Inn & Resort.
More information about the Kelly Way Gardens at the Woodstock Inn & Resort can be found here: https://www.woodstockinn.com/resort/dining/red-barns-kelly-way-gardens
