Yard To Table

The Chef Who Cooks Farm & Yard to Table: Genee Habansky

• Trevor Crafts and Ellen Scherer Crafts • Season 1 • Episode 8

Share episode

Ellen and Trevor welcome Chef Genee Habansky, owner of Herbaceous Catering, in this week’s episode of Yard to Table . Chef Genee has - in her own words - “been feeding her loved ones for a long time” and she channels that care into her menus that are infused with a plant based, healing, culinary philosophy.  

A huge supporter of Connecticut farms Chef Genee talks in this episode about where she procures the fruits, veggies and proteins she uses and the relationships she has developed with the farmers. And we are sharing some of those farms here (to name just a few!):

·      Sport Hill Farm 

·      Ox Hollow Farm 

·      Beaver Brook Farm 

·      Shaggy Coos Farm 

·      Riverbank Farm 

·      Woodland Farm 

Follow Chef Genee on her on Instagram at @herbaceouscatering.
 
And in this episode Trevor continues to wage his campaign for chickens at Stonebrook. Will Ellen give in? Listen to find out!

 And to see what's happening with Ellen and Trevor at Stonebrook House follow @stonebrookhouse on Instagram today!

Questions? Ideas? Things you need to say? Message us!

Trevor:

Well, hello, Ellen.

Ellen :

Well, hello, Trevor.

Trevor:

Here we are. Here back again at das table, the table.

Ellen :

Don't do an accent

Trevor:

already I can't do an accent?

Ellen :

No, you were very close. I was very close.

Trevor:

I was super close. It felt right, though. It felt so good, did it? Yeah, I was gonna jump right in. Okay? And why not? Well, I have some I think it's sort of well documented. Why not? But that's fine.

Ellen :

Well, welcome everybody back to another episode of yard to table. I'm Ellen Scherer Crafts.

Trevor:

I'm Trevor Crafts, and this is our little podcast, a little place to talk about all fun things that are food and growing and cultivating a very delicious life.

Ellen :

Absolutely and been doing a lot of cooking lately. We have been, we've done a ton of cooking lately, yes, which, I mean, we do a lot of cooking, period, anyway, yes, generally, we do a lot of cooking, but there's been a lot of pressure, a lot of dishes also, yeah, that's the, that's the, that's the flip side, cooking is the dishes. It's endless. Our child is on deck, by the way,

Trevor:

I think partially she would dig it. I don't know why I hate it personally, but I think she might get into it.

Ellen :

Yeah, I think it's time. I think it's time. But, you know, in all the cooking, you know, made these yummy zucchini muffins. They are delicious. And it was literally the last of the harvest from this year, you know? And we're shredding a bunch, freezing a bunch, and I made these muffins, and I'm cracking up because, you know, we have a guest today.

Trevor:

I love guests. I love guests too. They're so much fun.

Ellen :

You know what it is? Well, pause on the zucchini for a minute. The fun part about having guests is we get to celebrate these incredible people that we've met that are doing amazing things in their yards.

Trevor:

It is the proof of what we say about this amazing community of growers and farmers and makers and people that do like we do, that they are right here around us, and they're right here around everybody, you know? I mean, yes, our specific area is just full of amazing humans that are doing these things. But I think that's the that's the cool part is I know everybody in every growing region has amazing people right in their backyards,

Ellen :

which is why we want to inspire all of you listening to find those people.

Trevor:

Find them. Listeners. Just find it, because they find five of them, because they're literally around. They live everywhere.

Ellen :

But again, in the going back to the zucchini of it all, now we're back to zucchini. We are. We're off it. Now we're on it. You know, I like to prepare a little, little treats for our guests. I know you do. I can't always delicious. Anyone over, no, without putting out a little something?

Trevor:

No, we have to have, there's, there's got to be something.

Ellen :

It's just as I just, you know, I love it. But, you know, again, we have a chef today, and so I'm feeling a little nervous about these muffins. I know she will be kind and gracious and lovely. The muffins are pretty excellent. I'll have to say, and your jam? Oh, yeah, my peach jam from our trees here, here, here at the stone Brook. Yeah. They and the peach jam, I know is good. It is I have no zero. I generally don't have nervousness about that stuff anyway. But no, you on the confidence scale. You have no no, yeah, no. Low points.

Trevor:

100% fine with 100% risk and and good on confidence, yeah,

Ellen :

one of the many reasons I love you. But yes, so I'm serving these, these homemade zucchini muffins today to this amazing chef. Should we? Should we introduce?

Trevor:

I think we should. I think we should get into it. Our guest has been sitting here for some time listening to us, and now let's, let's stop talking about us.

Ellen :

Well, in her own words, yes, she has been feeding her loved ones for a long time. It's a good start. Immediately makes my heart go I love that. Now, while attending the national gourmet Institute, she began developing a plant based healing culinary philosophy. I mean, can't get better than that. All good. She interned under John vast at the dressing room in Westport, Connecticut, where local ingredients were procured daily. And this began her great affinity for seasonal and local cuisine. Now our fantastic guests also gained valuable experience at other restaurants like pagano seafood, heirloom walrus and carpenter and centro, and develop skills in both the front and back of the house, which is very important, kind of like us. Yes, those skill sets, you need to know how both of those things work to be successful. And she lists as her culinary inspirations Alice Waters, Dan Barber Thomas Keller and local chef Karen Gosselin. Love it. Yes. Love it. Now. Her own company was established with these questions. In mind, and I love this. Are these ingredients sourced responsibly? Are we promoting sustainability by supporting local farms using reusable packaging and composting with low food waste? I hope so. Are the menus we create cutting edge, bursting with spectacular flavor combinations? They should be well to answer these questions, these burning questions, and more probably and more, we're so excited to welcome to the podcast. Yard to table today.Genee Habansky from herbaceous catering,

Genee:

hi guys. I'm so excited to be here with you. Guys.

Trevor:

Thrilled to have you here.

Ellen :

We are so excited. Yeah, I just reading those questions again, just made me excited,

Genee:

and I can't wait to eat your zucchini muffin. Be kind Oh my gosh. They're gonna be so good. We're so excited when people cook for us. You have no idea. I imagine that's true. You're doing it the other way all the time, all the time. Okay, that makes me feel better. Yeah, please don't be nervous. We're so excited about so

Trevor:

the next time you guys have Janae over, just cook for her all listeners that are currently listening to the podcast. Yes, I love that. Yes, she likes to eat, and we'd so do we, and she likes to make and she's doing

Ellen :

all these amazing things. This is why all of us need to give back.

Trevor:

That is actually how we met. It's right. We met at a dinner in a yard. We seem to, this seems to be a reoccurring theme for us, that we meet in yards. Maybe

Ellen :

we did so tell where we

Trevor:

did a we did there was a dinner that you made at Wakeman town farm, yeah, which is in Westport. And I think we went with Liz, Liz Rubin, we sure did, yeah, she was, she invited us. It was the first time that we had gone out. And we had this absolutely fantastic dinner that was prepared and all plant based, as I recall.

Genee:

Yeah, we did have some proteins in there, but you had a choice if you want it, that's

Trevor:

right, yeah. And we so we went with plant based, because it's so much fun.

Genee:

Yeah, it is so much fun, right?

Ellen :

Well, I mean, when you do it, right? Yeah, exactly,

Genee:

exactly,

Ellen :

yeah. And I think for our listeners, if you wanted to catch up on Liz Rueven you can go to episode two of yard to table, where we talk with her. But Liz said to me, you need to go to this dinner. You need to meet Janae, and you need to try her food. That's 100% true. Yeah,

Genee:

I love her,

Trevor:

and we loved every second of it, yeah,

Genee:

from what? From that meal, the two things I remember are, oh, the pear and fennel cocktail, which I loved. I loved, love, love, and the sweet potato gnocchi with the kale pesto. Yeah, and it was kale stem pesto, so we made the pesto from the stems that generally get thrown away.

Trevor:

Yeah, that's fantastic.

Ellen :

I'm sorry. I'm just having a moment going back, in my Brain

Trevor:

and we've talked about this before, but I think that's the fun thing. Essentially, anything can be a pesto.

Genee:

anything, anything. I mean, close, well, close to anything, yeah. Well, like lots of greens, any green can be turned into a pesto. I mean, your radish tops, you can make a radish top pesto. We make scallion pesto. That's like the big thing we make all season long, anything, kale, anything, yeah,

Trevor:

we did ramps. Of course, they're delicious.

Ellen :

So good those, I love those. We need to plant some ramps. We'd somehow they're not on our property. How is that possible?

Trevor:

Yeah, we've 11 acres of nonsense and no ramps. Yeah,

Genee:

yeah, yeah. Get out of here. Get out of here.

Ellen :

That's okay. That's all right. We'll even it out. You know, you began your career. We listed you worked at some wonderful restaurants, you know, and obviously that influenced you. What were those influences? What did you take away from those experiences? Well,

Genee:

the dressing room, of course, was the farm to table. You know, I've worked in restaurants since I was 18, so I've never seen farmers delivering food. So that was, like, huge to me. Wow. You know, restaurants teach you a lot. Restaurants are hard work, like those people who work the line work 12 to 15 hours a day, sometimes no breaks included. So it taught me a lot about me's and passing and making sure I have everything prepared to cook the food to order. You know. It taught me a lot about just the way to prepare food. You know, my culinary education was plant based. So when I was at Walters and carpenter like, they would make bacon from scratch, which was so huge to me, Wow, whenever I served it, I'd be like, a piece for you, piece for me.

Trevor:

I think my ratio would be much different with bacon. If that were the case, it would be like, here's one, like the old Bugs Bunny. You know, it's like, one for you and one for me, two for you and one, yeah, three for me. I think that's a good counting system when it comes

Genee:

to bacon. Yeah? So, well, I want to go

Ellen :

back for a second. I find that so interesting that you until you worked at that rest. That was the first time you saw farmers deliver exactly. Pretty incredible,

Genee:

yeah, yeah. Well, and like, it's kind of, you know, it's a little disappointing when you realize how many restaurants say they're farm to table and they're not, you know, maybe they did at one point get one ingredient from a farm or, you know, came in when tomatoes were in season, because that's like, the farm big farm season. But yeah, I'd never seen it. It's always been like City line, or bald, or these big distributors delivering the foods, and then to see actual farmers show up and, like, even their kids would be coming in carrying bags of corn and stuff like that. Yeah, it was so cool. It was so cool. And I not worked in one restaurant that was that authentic to the soil, I like to say, since the dressing room. So that was a really incredible experience for me, yeah,

Ellen :

and obviously very, you know, life altering. Oh, completely,

Genee:

completely. I mean, at my school, they taught you the importance of knowing where your ingredients came from. And, like, true health starts with getting ingredients from farm and not getting GMO ingredients, and not ingredients shipped from Mexico or California, and having stuff that's grown here in Connecticut and New York at the time, so or

Trevor:

your yard, or your

Genee:

yard. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Trevor:

I mean, it is always so it's still surprising to us how much flavor changes when it comes from something that is so close to you.

Genee:

Oh my gosh. Well, I'm actually jealous that you guys have peach trees. Like, what was it like grabbing like, a peach off the tree and eating it right there?

Trevor:

Incredible. I don't let anybody eat peaches off the tree because I gathered them all for peach jam. Oh, yeah. So it's really a try and

Ellen :

yet, we had friends over with their children,

Genee:

and they ate at the peaches on the tree. But

Ellen :

I will say, you know, we talk about, you know, you and I were mentioning this too. It's like food is connection, right? This is something that we very much believe in. And, you know, we talk a little bit in our intro about how, you know, we had this lemon tree when we lived in LA and how exciting it was to just share the lemons. And I think here with our with our fruit trees, we have peach, we have Apple, we have pear, and that was such a fun moment, like when we had our friends come over with their kids, and the kids each got a basket and they picked the peaches. Oh, awesome. It was just, you know, there's again, it's like it the taste is incredible. Oh my god. Understanding what organic really looks like is a huge piece, and then seeing how it grows, and then sharing and having that experience was just Yeah, beyond loved.

Genee:

That is awesome. And peaches were incredible this year. I mean, just so good. Did you guys not have peaches the year before?

Ellen :

Oh no, we actually did not have peaches this year,

Trevor:

we had a weird inverse. So we're expanding our orchard. oddly, We have these couple of great peach trees that are incredibly productive. We're like, DEF CON four on peaches. That's Thats the whole point. Gotta put it in the jars so that you can share it with people.

Ellen :

So working in the restaurants we I've worked in restaurants, we know that is, it's a lot. Where was the point? What was that? What was that turning point for you when you said, I want to start my own business? Yeah,

Genee:

I mean, I really was so grateful for the experiences I had in restaurants. Well, also being a woman in the kitchen is very difficult, especially in such a male, driven world. I was so grateful to have positive male figures in each restaurant I worked in that really had my back. And the last restaurant I worked at was very heavy foods and barbecue, which was delicious, of course, but I really wanted to cook my own foods, and I really, really, really wanted to go back to the foundation and source from farms like that was so important to me. And I always say that the farmers are the foundation of our business. And it's true. I really, really, really wanted to be 100% farm to table, or as much as I possibly could farm to table. And that was the big thing that made me want to go plus I was like, working 70 plus hours a week, and it was the like, month I was getting married, and I was like, Mama is tired,

Ellen :

and I'm sure you still work 70 hours,

Genee:

yeah? Like, start your own business. They say, you know, like, choose your own schedule all the time, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's, you know, I'm doing what I love, and I'm cooking my food, and I'm cooking with the most amazing ingredients, all grown by my friends, which is so much fun. Yeah, let's talk

Ellen :

about that. Yeah, because, you know, you obviously made this decision to start this business because you wanted to showcase and use local ingredients. Did you was this? How did that? How did that come about? Were these farms that you had already had been going to personally? How did that tell us about. That synthesis of these ideals and action, yeah?

Genee:

Well, I was always shopping at the Westport Farmers Market, which I will stand by, has the best farms in the state at so I was always shopping there. There was one farm in Easton that I was like, stalking the farmer almost. And I was like, showing up, being like, hey, sporthill Farm in Easton, yeah. And I was like, definitely stalking her, Patty, yeah. I was obsessed. I was like, I love Patty pop, yeah. So I was just like, showing up there more and more and more. And actually, Patty was the one that got me into the Westport market, or, like, introduced me to like, Lori, who runs it. Because she was like, Who are you? What are you? What are you doing, buying so much stuff. And I'm like, Oh, I'm starting my own business, and I want to source from you, and like all this

Trevor:

friend of the podcast, yes, an absolute force. I

Ellen :

love that, because it's again, what we find time and time again within this community is people reaching out to say, Hey, what are you doing? Yeah, exactly. So tell us more. Tell us more with

Genee:

the farms that we source from, you know, I realized I started talking to them more than I was talking to anyone else in my life besides my husband, which is helpful, yeah, so I started developing relationships with all of them. And, yeah, I mean, back to the core of it. It came down to me loving these people so much and admiring them what they do. I mean, they never get a day off. They have to deal with peach fungus, and that wipes out their whole crop. And that's it. It's done for them. And they have to figure out a way to pivot, which is incredible and stressful. It's amazing, it's amazing, it's amazing. But, yeah, the more I started to get to know everybody, the more I felt like I cannot believe how much love is going into what we do, because my friends are growing my food, my friends are raising our, you know, proteins, they do the best, and they work so hard for us, which is incredible. And then, yeah, we get to put that on a plate and honor what they do. So yeah, we're just so lucky that we have incredible Connecticut farms, incredible, absolutely,

Trevor:

yeah. And I think one of the things that is more surprising to me in this severe than so many others, certainly some of our other worlds, that Ellen and I have been in the past, is that there is such a willingness to help. There is such a willingness to go out and learn and share that knowledge, and there's no selfishness. It's just such a refreshing way to live your life that you know sharing is the is the number one thing that you can do, and that's that's such a cool message.

Ellen :

Yeah, seriously, and you mentioned sporthill Farm, yes, obsessed, and we like to love and hopefully Patty will come on the podcast. Oh, that'd be amazing. Yeah, I know you're very vegetable forward and a lot of what you do, but your menus run a very large range. Do you have favorites that you use? Or what is your criteria that you use? I don't not to name names then, but like, do you have criteria that you use to say, Yes, this is definitely a farm that herbaceous catering or a procure that we feel very comfortable, yeah, using to make our food.

Genee:

There is a lot of drama in the farm world, which you would never realize, but there is, I know, I know I'm all about the tea. Farmer tea, yeah, right, that's what I call that's literally what I call it as farmer tea, yeah, but there are a lot of farmers that will bring things to markets that they don't sell, that they don't grow. And so

Ellen :

I heard, we've heard a term for this jobing, ah jobing,

Genee:

yeah, and it's messed up. It really is. And it's unfair to the people who are true to the soil, you know, like, one farm had strawberries in May, and that's impossible around here, you know. And I just can't believe they got away with it, and they were selling these, these strawberries, and was ridiculous. And then it's not fair to the other farmers who actually grow strawberries, who have, like, delicious berries that are coming out in June, you know? So they have to be true to what they grow. So first criteria for Genee, that's true, yeah. I mean, you know, like getting to know the farmers and getting to see their farms is also important to us, although it's not the end all be all. If I can't make it up to your farm, we I'm very grateful for the Westport farmers market, because the market director, she does really make sure that these farms are very true, yeah, you know, minimally spraying if they do or they're organic. And, you know, there's some amazing farms there. I would love to give a shout out to the farms we do source from a lot of farms. I have the whole three bears philosophy on short ribs from the farms. So we get animal protein, primarily from octave farm in Roxbury. They're short they have Black Angus cows, and we get their short ribs. We only use their short ribs for. Are for, like soups. You know, we make amazing meatball soup that has short rib in it. Beaver Brook Farm. We also source animal protein from them, as well as dairy their short ribs are from Jersey cows. So they are very thin. So we also will use it only for Ragus, but if we need to, so like a short rib entree. We use shaggy two's farm in Easton, yes, yeah, because they have the black and white cows, which I can't remember the name of them now, but their short ribs are just right, perfect for, like, the entrees. Yeah, you know. So those are some great farms, and they're all local, and they are all are at a lot of farmers markets. And then vegetables, we get vegetables from all over so many farms. I mean, sport Hill Farm is one of them. The two farms at the farmers market, river bank farm, for Hill Farm are always blowing up their phones. We have one in our neighborhood that we go to once a week. I'll be going there after here today, it's Laurel Glen farm. They're amazing. They're amazing are all of our fruit comes from Woodland farm. Oh, yeah, which we love we love. And that's a family farm that's been around for generations. I have asked the parents if they would adopt a middle, aged, married couple, so I think we're going to be part of that family soon. Fingers crossed, yeah, fingers crossed. If

Ellen :

you're listening, no, that's an amazing list. And yeah, so many more. We'll drop some links into the show notes too, so people know where to find these places. And I love what you said about like, being able to go and see the farm. You can't always do that, no, no when you go, but when you can, it's awesome. It's so amazing to see how people are growing to see the farmer in their fields and to really talk to them and see how the operation works is is an incredible experience.

Trevor:

And I think also because you know, you're seeing them, not just at one moment, right? You're you have a relationship, you're building this long term relationship with these farmers and these growers. So you're gonna see them through the seasons. You know, you're gonna find out what's coming in May, what's coming in June. As somebody who is creating menus and creating delicious, amazing, I can vouch, delicious amazing dishes, you've got to work with them on that seasonality too, right. Yeah. So how do you, how do you build those kinds of menus and those kinds of dishes with them, working with that seasonality?

Genee:

Yeah. Well, that's a great question. So, you know, getting to know them and working with weather and all different types of things, you know, you now, I have an idea of what is coming when, because I've been doing it for so long. In the beginning, I needed a little bit more help and guidance, and not offering blackberries in June, you know, and stuff like that. But the weather really plays like a big part into it now. So I know there was some terrible, terrible rains that we had this summer, and that like, knocked out a lot of the fruit or the year before, when we I was discussing peaches, all the stone fruit got wiped out at Woodland farm. Most of the storm stone fruit, I should say, got wiped out because of a mild winter and late frost, and that just like ruined it. So I had to change up all these menus. And of course, I work with Grooms and brides, where we plan the menu a year in advance, and I do have to let them know that things will change. Yeah, yeah, that certain things will change.

Trevor:

And generally. The interesting thing about that is that weddings are usually very low stress, so I'm sure they're everyone is so chill.

Genee:

What wedding are you guys talking real,

Trevor:

real people that are not up for last minute,

Genee:

yeah, but you know, everyone's been really wonderful, like we do probably five large weddings a year, and we love doing them, and the people who book us understand, you know, and because our ingredients are more expensive than others, and there is a seasonality. I mean, if we have a wedding and 2025 that wants strip steak, I have to start talking to the farmer now about making sure that we can get enough strips take to feed 200 guests, you know, so, yeah, our brides and grooms, they all really want farm to table food. And if you want farm to table food, that, yeah, yeah, I'm just thinking

Trevor:

about, you know, just some real crazy people, Oh,

Genee:

yeah. Well, and I've had some amazing clients. I've had some crazy clients too,

Ellen :

Trevor and I have been in, obviously, in the production space and live event space as well. It's always fun. You and I were talking a little bit about preserving and how we keep things so that we can use them later. And I know you that's a huge part of your business. So you want to tell us a little bit about that and how you implement it into your into your food and into your work.

Genee:

Yeah, so we actually hire extra staff to come in during growing season to help us preserve

Trevor:

that's where this is the problem. Yeah, I haven't brought extra

Genee:

people. I mean, it's, it's so much work

Trevor:

so many jars

Unknown:

of peach jam, and I can only make so many jar. Of sauce. We do this so we learn too. Yeah, bring people in, so we

Genee:

bring pink bowl in, and we start preserving right in the beginning, like in our freezers right now, we have pestos dated all the way from the beginning of growing season. We have ramps that we just pureed and just keep there. So in the winter, we can bring out, like, a ramp lasagna, and people will be like, Oh my God, you know, like the freshness, because it's

Ellen :

great, because you're like, oh my gosh, I'm not expecting this,

Genee:

right? Yeah, I mean, we shell 10s and hundreds of pounds of peas, so we were able to serve peas for most of the year. We, you know, of course, make sauces and jam it. We do a tomato garlic, comfy that we jam a lot of the farms, though, sporthill Farm included, sells an amazing pureed tomato so that I stopped doing because I can get it from her, and it's

Ellen :

amazing. Love her tomato sauce. Oh, it's so good, so good. You're also a huge fan of the hickories and their salsa. Yeah, I don't even, why would I even make salsa when that yeah, probably

Trevor:

the greatest salsa I've ever had.

Genee:

Periods really

Ellen :

red. I'm a fan of the red. The green is delicious too. It's just personal preference. All good.

Genee:

Oh, wow. So that's good to know too. Yeah. And then we do lots of jams. I'll make simple syrup, like, out of ginger. I've been making a bunch of ginger, honey, simple syrup. We do lots of booze. We do, like, different vanities and vodkas and all that kinds of stuff. You know? We make tomatillo salsa that we have. Yeah, we make all different kinds of things and

Trevor:

preserve it. So what's the get a little bit further into it? So, like, what's the operation? Like, how many freezers Do you have? How far does this go?

Genee:

Oh, my God, I have so many freezers. You're talking about

Trevor:

all this amazing stuff. But yeah, that requires space and scale and Yes. And you know, as you're growing business, and you need all of this stuff.

Genee:

Yeah, we have five standing freezers, you know, and each one I try to designate for each thing. So we have one that's green, so it's all the peas, the pestos, and we have so many pestos, and we're still making pestos too, because now we're like in the kale pesto season, you know. And then we have another freezer that is meats, you know, because we buy a lot of meat, yeah, and yeah. And we have all different freezer. We have one freezer where we keep things that are sweet in. We have one freezer that's more savory. And then we have, like, walls and walls of canned goods, right? So we make a lot of canned goods as well. So, awesome, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's awesome. It's awesome. And I like to, like, look at it. I know it's like, weird, but I like to go down there. Like jewels, treasure chest ready, diminishing too. Like, it's sad when you start taking that stuff out. But then once next growing season starts, yeah, we're back at it. We're

Trevor:

mostly, it's all pressure, cane water bath, yeah, we do

Genee:

the water water bath canning, yeah, yeah, so, and that's cool and fun. You learn lessons doing that too. Yeah, fill it up too high. It explodes like that's the worst. Yeah, that is the worst. But,

Ellen :

or is it too low that it's not going to be okay? Yeah? Jars of green beans that we want to use, they're fine, yeah? Where's the botulism? I

Genee:

need a little tester, yeah? But,

Ellen :

I mean, for people listening, you know, we're talking about, obviously, for your scale, it's very large, yeah, you know. But you know, if you're growing at home, you know, you can just take a couple chives that you've grown out of your, you know, out of your garden or a pot that you have on your kitchen window. So we talk about this a lot. Growing doesn't need to be large scale. It can be small. And you know, we talk about we've talked about this before, but you we call these things flavor bombs, where you just some of the fresh herbs you've grown. You just chop them up, throw them in an ice cube tray with some olive oil, and you have something that you can continue to use through the winter that has that spirit of summer or spring time, you know, which is lovely, you know, in that.

Trevor:

And even one, I mean, even one small, if you have the space, even one small, little deep freezer, you know, they're really not that. They're not that much,

Genee:

no, no, not expensive, totally. And

Trevor:

then you've got all of that to pull from, you know, and to get because not everybody has a staff, you know what I mean,

Ellen :

speaking of your business. So for people, or where you have a weekly stall at the Westport farmers market, yes, you also participate in some other farmers markets in the area, I know, Ridgefield, yeah,

Genee:

just rich field, yeah, Westport and Richfield this year. Saturdays are so difficult for us because we have events. So this was the first year that we did a Saturday market. Rightfully so the Westport markets always on a Thursday. And we obviously have mentioned, I've mentioned it already, but I love that market so much. We joined that. Market in 2019 right before the pandemic. Wow. Lori, the market director, went out of her way during the pandemic to start a special safe shopping place for people to shop. And that saved our business, because before we were not doing any prepared food. So that saved our business. So I'm so grateful for that hub that we have in that family that we have at the Westport

Ellen :

market. So for those of you listening, we're talking about Lori Cochran Dougal, who is the director of the Westport farmers market, and we did an episode with her, and so you can listen to that and hear all about the amazing work that she's doing on yard to table as well. Yeah, she's an icon.

Trevor:

So you talk about Saturday. Saturday is a hard day because you have events. Hit us with an event, disaster story. Oh my God, because we love them, because we've lived them, we need to hear at least one good no names, no names, to protect the innocent. But something fell apart because it happens. Oh

Genee:

my gosh. It happens. It happens. And you really have to think on your feet as the best part. Never let the client know. You know, come out on the other side, you're like, yeah, it is horrific. I mean, it is,

Ellen :

it is horrific. But then you come out and you're and this is the, I think this is the, this is the addiction, yeah, it is. But tell us all about it. Well, more tea.

Genee:

Oh my gosh, yeah. Well, I mean, I've had different things where I've gone to clients houses and they're like, Oh, I forgot to tell you, our ovens don't work. And I'm like, oh, okay, yeah, I had a wedding that we did. I know it's terrible. I'm like, how could you not tell me that? You know,

Ellen :

is there a grill? Yeah?

Genee:

And I'm like, oh my god, what am I gonna do? And we're not sterno and chafing dishes cater. So I was like, Oh my God, for the first time my life, I was like, I wish I had a sterno and a chafing dish, please. I did a wedding, and the baker of the wedding cake put one of the cake in the refrigerator, and I had told the client that we needed refrigerator space. You know, it was like a hot day. We were serving fish, you know, like we needed with scallops. We needed refrigerator space. She was like, Okay, I'll figure out a place to do with it. So in the meantime, I'm like, I gotta start getting stuff in this refrigerator. So I'm like, putting stuff around. I'm moving the cake. The cake is in three separate pieces. I'm moving the cake around. I shut the door, I open the door and like, half of the cake is stuck on the door. Oh, my God. Oh my god.

Ellen :

It's painful. Yeah, it was painful. What did you do?

Genee:

Well, luckily, the baker had some frosting she left out, and I, like, found, like, a knife in a drawer, and I'm like, trying to, like, fix this cake. It was so stressful. I don't think she noticed. If she did, she didn't think it was my fault. And then I'm like, cleaning the door the refrigerator too, because I don't want them, like, taking the fish out. And I'm like, okay, nothing's going in the refrigerator until she moves this I've also gone to an event space that was a new event space that said they would have refrigeration and did not. Oh, and I was like, okay, you know? And again, it was like, all this food that cannot be out at room temperature. So luckily, there was, like, a gas station by we bought all these, like, I hate saying this, as somebody who cares about the environment, Styrofoam coolers, like filling it up with ice and, like, trying to keep the food on there, right? Yeah, you got to make it work and you cannot stop. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Those

Trevor:

are good ones. Really, really good ones. Like,

Ellen :

if someone's hiring herbaceous catering, yeah, for an event, what is that? What is what is the expectation? What's the process like? What is it going to be like, and what are they going to get

Genee:

when we start, we send them a slew of menu ideas, and it's like a large list of ideas for them to pick and choose what they're looking for, and it's dependent on the event, if it's buffet or plated or cocktail hour. And we're very hands on with our clients. We like to develop a relationship with them. We really want to make sure the menu is absolutely perfect for them, and everything's in season, of course. And yeah, we work from there, you know? We we do site visits, we check make sure everything works. I call everything bad that happens. I call it a lesson, like, you just learn from it and gone. Yeah, you guys know, yeah. But

Ellen :

also, your presentation is so beautiful. Thank you for saying

Trevor:

this is where having an audio podcast is a bad thing, because being able to see this is it's such a feast for the eyes. Thank you. It's not an I will go even one step further. Ellen, yes. Trevor, it's not even just so beautiful plated. It's often beautiful in a container, in a

Ellen :

it's always beautiful, or on a slab of wood,

Genee:

gorgeous. Yeah, thank you for saying that that was like my big trepidations against doing prepared food is because I really just wanted to do beautiful plates of food. I was an art major before I went to culinary school, so totally. Sense? Yeah. So, like, I really, like, looked at food as art, and really just wanted to create these beautiful plates. But again, you know, we package salads and stuff in mason jars, and I have a lot of fun making these beautiful, layered salads. Totally gorgeous. Look as beautiful as it is delicious.

Ellen :

I love that connection. It makes total sense to me that you have this art background now, like that is, hello. We take a lot of pictures of our garden. We take a lot of pictures of the property. That's one of the joys, also that we love. I just often taking a picture of a basket. I'm just looking at it like it's a still life. What you're creating, I mean, and I'm the color and the composition. It's just it speaks to my artistic soul. We know that people can expect good things from you when they hire you as a caterer, because I think you've been nominated for a pretty big award. Would you like to talk

Genee:

about that? So we have been recognized by the Connecticut Restaurant Association as a nominee for caterer of the year, which we are so humbled and still in shock about, and we're so thankful for, I don't know, just to be recognized. It's like, so crazy to us. Typically, you know, we aren't recognized. My husband loves to say, we fly under the radar because our business is word of mouth and, yeah, we're just so honored. We're so honored. Congratulations. Yeah, and they're saying it's crazy, called the crazies. Yeah, because, yeah, everyone in the restaurant business is crazy.

Ellen :

Huge congratulations. That's an incredible honor. That's an incredible honor. And we're so excited for you. And I know the awards come up when in December

Genee:

9, December 9, yeah? So we'll see what happens. But like, we, like, literally feel like we've won already. Like, just being nominated and recognized nominated is pretty great. Yeah, you guys know

Trevor:

is really cool, but not gonna slouch on that. But also,

Ellen :

we have connections, because you work with a spouse. Do you know anything about that? Trevor, who me,

Trevor:

yeah, working with a spouse? No, I don't, I don't recommend it, because, no, that's not true. That's not true. Yeah. What is it like working with your husband? Well,

Genee:

it's, it's amazing. You know, my husband is my biggest fan, so it's so awesome to have somebody with you that has your back so much all the time. Yeah, yeah. And I'm his too, yeah. And, of course, it's difficult. You know, it's a lot of face time together. In fact, yes, when he goes away, I'm always

Trevor:

like, see, maybe I shouldn't be here. That's happening. I can see across the you can't see it, but I can see

Genee:

we're just going to get together and talk about our husband. But,

Trevor:

yeah, but yeah, what is he? So how does it divide? How do you because Ellen and I obviously divide parts, and we have our different strengths in different areas. So how does that work with, with with your husband?

Genee:

Yeah, so he is a sous chef, and I'm like the Executive Chef, so not to say that, I tell him what to do, but yeah, he I've taught him a lot, and he is a great learner. He execute things 100% and he like, his dishes are beautiful. He generally makes a lot of our entrees. Well, I'll make, like, the cocktail hour food and the salads for the farmers market. He makes all of our entrees. Who's making all the fresh pasta and the cheese for the lasagnas and stuff like that, and the chicken pot pies and the chicken pot pie everything, making the cheese? Yeah, we make our own ricotta for our lasagna.

Trevor:

Come on, out of fantastic. Yeah,

Genee:

we're a scratch kitchen, so we're not, I mean, as much as we possibly can be. So we're not buying anything boxed. You know, our pastry for the pot pies we make ourselves, you know, like the pasta, the cheese, like I just said, in fact, we went into the kitchen at like, 5am and we made a huge batch of ricotta. We, like, literally, ate warm ricotta. Oh,

Trevor:

it sounds like a very good, good thing that sounds delicious. Yes, it's gonna maybe sound a little weird when I say this, but there's a real courage to doing that, because it is, and I think that's so fun, because there's, it's so hard to do so many different things. Well, yeah, it's a challenge. You really have to push it and work at a commitment. It's a real commitment. And there's only so many hours in the day, I know, but this is

Ellen :

going back to those 70 hours plus, which is working well. Are going back to your own business. That's incredible. And talking about your business, we mentioned, obviously the catering piece. We mentioned the selling at farmers markets, but we met you at a dinner series at Wakeman town farms. So you have these wonderful local farms that really have have incredible events that feature our chefs, local chefs like you've really taken to the next level, because you're doing a foraging. Dinner series. It's

Genee:

been so much fun. Tell us about that. So much fun. Well, I met Amy, and she runs Connecticut foraging club. She's a master forager. She's so into foraging, so into it, and she's amazing. And we've partnered up, and we've been doing a dinner series. So far, we've done three. We're definitely doing more of a five course forage to table meal. So Amy takes everybody out on an hour, hour and a half foraging walk, and you identify all different wild edibles, invasive edibles, mushrooms, all good stuff. And then you come back to the kitchen, and we prepare the five course meal. You have a choice of animal protein, if you want. We're vegetarian. We comes with a forage mocktail cocktail, and it has been so much fun.

Trevor:

We got to do that. I know I feel not yet partaken. There

Ellen :

is a sadness, because the dates have been in conflict with other things. And I just need to know when this is happening actually.

Trevor:

Remember, I did see one of the plates from one of these fabled meals, and I

Ellen :

saw all the plates I'm on your Instagram all the time. It

Trevor:

was absolutely gorgeous. And I need to, I feel like I really need to know more on the foraging side. Because I just a quick aside, was incredibly excited a couple of weeks ago, I was with one of our good friends, also local farmer Tom Kubik, who's taught us so much. He's a multi generational farm guy. We were wandering around a little bit in the back on some of our acreage, and I was so excited, because I found a huge patch of chanterelle mushrooms. Oh yeah,

Genee:

this was a great year for them too, except

Trevor:

they were not Chantelle mushrooms. Oh no, they were pumpkin colored, poisonous ones, poisonous, yeah. He said, those are not because I'm not a mushroom guy, and he is so he knows all the identification. He was helping me cut down a tree, and I said, Come on, look at this. Look at this. And he said, Yeah, you don't want to

Genee:

No, no, they're very poisonous, dang it. I was

Trevor:

all excited that finally I had this amazing and they were gorgeous, by the way, they were 100% beautiful, but that would have not Thank goodness he was with you. Thank and I wouldn't have really gone. I mean, that's the thing. It's like you have a foraging dinner and you need an amazing foraging expert.

Ellen :

So what is your advice, Genee?

Trevor:

Because otherwise you're gonna

Genee:

come to my dinner, do not eat that mushroom. Because there's so many different look alikes that are poisonous. It's crazy. And even though I've gone out with Amy a bunch of times on my own, and I feel very confident about foraging a lot of things, I still with mushrooms. I'm still nervous if something in nature isn't eating that mushroom we should not be eating that

Trevor:

was a big identifier. Isn't nibbled on, happily sitting at the base of that oak tree. Yeah, we're

Ellen :

not gonna touch that one. Yeah? And I know there's a thing with sport count with mushrooms, like you're supposed to Yeah. You know, that's starting to

Genee:

get into too much. Cool thing about the forging dinner is, like, as a chef, it's been so inspiring because it's new flavors, new vegetation, that I've never had before, and it's been so much fun. So I know I had

Trevor:

a question, go ahead. So is it kind of like, is the dinner kind of like, chopped the TV show? Because it's like, Are you just getting does Amy? Do you and Amy collaborate ahead of time? Yeah. Look, we're probably going to get these things. Yeah, we might find these things. Or is it just like, here, Janae, that was you, which would also be awesome

Genee:

work together like a month before. So she'll take me out. We'll go foraging, and she'll go forage things. And she lives right down the street from our kitchen too, which is where. So she'll forage things, and she'll bring them to me to try with a lot of the times I'm recipe testing, and I'll make all these dishes. None of that will go on the menu. It'll be something completely different. It's a lot of recipe testing, a lot, a lot. But yeah, so she collects everything for me ahead of time, so I'm not making it like on the spot, because that would be crazy. So

Ellen :

when everyone's going out on the hike, yeah, you is it just identify.

Genee:

It's more identifying. I mean, it's all depending where she's hiking, too, because a lot of the places are like the land trusts. You can't take anything from the land trust, so it's just identifying and talking about it, you know. And then other places, if you're able to forage and keep it, she lets people keep the stuff. But that's cool, yeah,

Trevor:

At a certain point then that's like a, like a, like a blowfish dinner, you know, like you might, you might accidentally. Oh, and here's the deaths head mushroom that made it into the thing. This is, yeah, sorry

Ellen :

There was a story in the news. There was about a woman who fed a dinner party some question, my gosh, she

Trevor:

said she do it on purpose. This is a different. Podcast, it is getting

Ellen :

We have to do this very exciting. So what's going on in your yard? I mean, you're cooking, are you are you growing?

Genee:

Yes. So we, we do have eight raised beds. We also have an herb garden outside of our kitchen. Naturally, we have eight raised beds, which I built myself. They look nothing like yours. They're falling apart building stuff. Yeah, that's what I learned from that, because they're all like busting open. But yeah, so I love gardening. I love growing food. I mean, of course, we get such amazing food from our farmers, so it's not like we really need to grow things. We're very busy in the summertime now. So when I'm ambitious in May, and I'm like, getting everything ready, I don't even get back up there until July, and I'm like, oh my god, what ate the garden the forest has taken over. So this year and last year, I should say we decided to grow all perennials. So we grow perennial vegetables. We have chives, Sun chokes, rhubarb, asparagus. I do keep a couple beds open because I love growing radishes. They're easy to grow, and I need in the early spring that radish with butter and sea salt like I need it. I can't get by a year without having that early in the spring. And then we grow garlic, because that's also very easy. Yes,

Ellen :

yeah, yes. We did an episode on garlic. It is so satisfying. It really is grow. It really is so satisfying. When you pull

Genee:

it, you're like, Oh my God. And

Ellen :

then you have it again. I mean, it's incredible. Yeah, yeah, chickens. Oh, you guys want to get chickens, don't you? No, no, no, no. Trevor wants chickens. Tell us about chickens. Okay,

Genee:

well, one, I have a confession. My name is Janae habenski, and I am a crazy chicken lady. Oh, it has happened. The first step is

Trevor:

about identifying it, letting it happen. It

Genee:

has happened. I love my girls so much. They give me so much joy. They are fun to watch. Trevor's looking at me, oh yeah, there's, like, a big hierarchy so, you know, like, yeah, they are fun to watch. There is drama. Who needs Real Housewives? We got real chickens of Fairfield County. Yeah, it is so much fun. Take care of you know, it's work for sure. You know, chickens depend on the sun. They're up with the sun, down with the sun. So, you know, unless you have an automatic door, you gotta be up at 5am when the sun's rising to take the chickens out. I've gotten used to it. I didn't realize it was such a early morning commitment, but it is, it is. And then, you know, like, you have to predator proof. Like, the predators come I, when I pulled up here, I saw a huge Hawk in the tree.

Trevor:

Got a night vision goggles, yeah, I got those for you. Yeah, we've got a lot of coyotes. Oh yeah, got a lot of everything. Yeah,

Genee:

I don't want to know what's out there. The first week I got the chickens, I think I spent, like, I didn't sleep at all that week, because I put up all these motion sensor lights, and they would go off. And I was like, what was that, you know, like, literally staring out the window. Might have been a fox, might have been a skunk. Yeah, it might have been the one wreck. Oh, yeah, I know we also have these, like, lights that blink overnight, and we live by Sikorsky airport. They probably think it's like a landing strip, because it's like, I put so many lights out. You're protecting your girls, yeah? But I mean, I've had the chickens almost four years. I've never lost one to a predator. That's excellent, yeah, yeah. And I love them. And having the fresh eggs, like, oh, it's amazing.

Trevor:

I'm just saying is that thus far, all of the many varied guests that we've had, no, not one. Ellen has said, Never get a chicken. Yeah, they've all said, I'm just putting it out there. I'm not saying anything one way or the other. All I'm saying is that everybody seems to be rather chicken positive, yeah,

Genee:

yeah. Well, and they're amazing composers. They're amazing composters,

Ellen :

I'm just taking lots of notes,

Trevor:

Are you?

Ellen :

Yeah?

Trevor:

It's funny, because I'm, you know, listeners. You can't see what I can see. Ellen is just waving her, hands

Genee:

it's true,

Trevor:

and she's not actually taking any notes at all.

Ellen :

Its Mental notes. I have great memory

Trevor:

Something mental going on, right?

Ellen :

My mental acuity is on point

Trevor:

Im not sure its notes.

Ellen :

There's, well, you're...you'd be right. ,

Trevor:

but we do enjoy so many of our friends and our and our guests and our neighbors also have chickens. So I think I

Ellen :

do love fresh eggs. You know? I think I posted a picture of fresh eggs that we got from our our friend, Christina, and you were like, we call that egg porn. Oh, yeah,

Genee:

the different colors. Yeah,

Trevor:

that's what you really want. That's what I really want. At least, I want the rainbow. Yeah, same here eggs. I want all this amazing color

Ellen :

and the nutrition is

Trevor:

so egg. We got eggs from ox hollow, yeah, that long ago, and there was, like, a very pink egg amongst the eggs that we got, which were, you know. Sort of standard brownies, yeah, it was like an Easter egg in my one of

Genee:

my girls lays pink eggs, and I love it. I love it, yeah, yeah, yeah. We have, I really want to add a green layer, but we have a dark brown layer, blue egg layers and light brown layers. So is that the official language? Layers, layers, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like the farms, they usually have more prolific layers that, like, lay like, lots of eggs a year, like Rhode Island reds or the white Leghorns, they lay 300 plus eggs a year, like the fancier breeds lay less and less. Yeah, right. So they are special, prettier and they are special. Yeah, it is total egg porn, and that is why I want a green egg layer so badly.

Trevor:

It's funny, though, because I think the it's always surprising to us, on the rare occasion where we do have to get even just some store bought organic eggs, we're very specific about what we buy, the difference in color and flavor is really kind of shocking, yeah, you know? And I mean, that's obviously a theme that we always have here, the closer it is to you, the stronger and the more powerful and more wonderful those flavors are going to be.

Ellen :

So this has been so fun. I have a couple more questions we want to ask you. But so what is, you know, we talk about, we I cooked you some muffins today. But when you are, you're just your home and you're eating, like, what are the things you like to

Genee:

cook for you? Wow, so we don't cook a lot at home. Wonder. I know we do not cook a lot at home, and I'm that. I know this rains true to a lot of chefs, but we cook so many hours a week, so when we get home, we're either eating prepared food by one of our friends, or eat something super simple. We eat a lot of eggs. Last night when we got home, Jesse made us omelets with black beans, and they were delicious. Or we eat, like, leftovers, you know? We Yeah, yeah. Like, if you came to our house, like our kitchen is like a small box, like, people are like, You're a chef, and that's the stove you have. And I'm like, yeah, it hasn't been on in weeks. Yeah, it's just so hard to want to cook on our day off, but I

Trevor:

will pretend, yeah, that you have a moment, oh yeah, yeah, where you're like, it's a holiday, and I'm not, I don't have 11 events, and I'm don't have to prep 30 other things. What are you? What's, a what's a go to that is always like, I love it, and it always or your

Genee:

favorite one to cook for your customers, yeah? Okay, well, something, if I do have time at home. My best friend is Korean, and she has introduced me to this black bean noodle dish. And it is unreal. You can get, like, the black bean paste at a Asian market, which there's a great one up in Milford, and it's just rice noodles, lots of veggies, and this black bean yummy, savoriness. It's so good. So that'll be like, some comfort food I'll make for myself, you know. And then we also do, like a lot of, you know, pasta pastini or pastina with butter and stock is so amazing. That's also pretty fast comfort food. It's

Trevor:

so good pasta and butter and broth, yeah, in three hours Exactly,

Genee:

yeah, nap time, yeah, yeah. And it's hard to decide what my favorite thing to cook for customers. It's kind of like if I had to decide on who my favorite child was, because I love every dish we create, I love that's

Ellen :

why we only had one, yeah,

Genee:

I know I do have a favorite kid, yeah. And I can imagine

Ellen :

it changes again, from season to season, totally, totally, just

Genee:

like, you know, the spring I was saying with the radishes with butter, like, I must eat that every spring, you know, and then, like, saute them in butter. No, no, you just take it, barely, wash it. I literally, like, dip it in butter and eat it, and then sprinkle a little sea salt. Yeah, it's so good. Listen, when you guys pull those radishes out there. Yeah, do it. I'm gonna do it. Get some, like, really good butter. I mean, arathusa does a butter with salt already in it, and that's really good. You won't have to add any more salt, but it's so delicious. It's so delicious.

Ellen :

I am so hungry right now, I know. What are those muffins? I can't even say how you may hear on this mic the rumbling of my stomach. That's so true.

Trevor:

Genee, you have given us so much of your amazing time. Thank you for having We so appreciate you coming and talking about, mostly just the fact that we should get chickens. Thank you for that. That

Ellen :

was kind wasn't the story, but part of it, that's

Trevor:

what I got a lot of it from anywhere we really, we loved having you here with us at the table. And thank

Genee:

you guys. Thank you guys. So much. Thank you. I really had so much fun.

Ellen :

Thank you so much.

Trevor:

Herbaceous Genee,

Ellen :

she is Herbie fabulousness,

Trevor:

that was such a great time. It really was so much fun to have around.

Ellen :

It's so fun to. Talk to these amazing people in our community that are so passionate about foods and local farms and radishes, radishes butter and creating delicious food, chickens.

Trevor:

We're not talking about chickens. Well, okay, that's fair,

Ellen :

and we know everyone is going to want to try Chef janays food. So it is amazing. You can find her, obviously, at her website, which is herbaceous catering.com, and follow her on Instagram at herbaceous catering, and we'll also put that information in the show notes.

Trevor:

Don't forget, you can get her incredible food every Thursday at the Westport farmers market, our favorite, 10 to two, and the summer market is on Imperial Avenue, and the winter market is at Gilbert east in Westport. Both winners, total winners.

Ellen :

And I did not agree to chickens,

Trevor:

but maybe ya did.

Ellen :

Thanks for being with us and having a seat at our table.

Trevor:

Yard to table is a production of Macrocosm Entertainment. Don't forget to rate us and subscribe anywhere you listen to podcasts and for tips and more information, follow us on Instagram@stonebrookhouse.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Ellen Scherer Crafts

Host
Head Shot

Trevor Crafts

Host
Head Shot

Chef Genee Habansky

Guest