SingleThread scores bigger farm
Healdsburg’s three Michelin starred restaurant SingleThread is making a huge expansion: a new farm site that’s nearly 20 acres larger than its existing one, just a few miles away.
The restaurant has always had an agrarian tilt — for the past five years, coowner and head farmer Katina Connaughton has managed a 5acre farm about 7 miles from the restaurant. It supplies the restaurant with produce, honey, eggs and olive oil, which make their way into the chefs’ pristine finedining dishes as well as the meals SingleThread donates to victims of disasters like wildfires through Sonoma Family Meal. More produce goes to local hunger relief organizations through Farm to Pantry. The expansion means more space for those projects.
It also means that for the first time, diners will be able to see the produce that’s grown for the restaurant’s tasting menu. The smaller farm was too remote to make it work; starting next year, Connaughton expects to offer farm tours in hopes of helping diners connect with the
land and see how SingleThread grows food. Educational workshops that dive deep into sustainability, regenerative agriculture, food security and the food system at large are also planned.
“It has been an impossibly challenging year and I think with this opportunity that came up, we feel really fortunate to be able to focus our energy into the land,” Connaughton said.
Connaughton and her husband and SingleThread coowner, Kyle, have been searching for a “forever farm” for more than a year. Their original 5acre spot always had limitations since it was leased — for example, Connaughton didn’t plant more fruit trees there because they take so long to mature. Bill Price, a SingleThread investor and owner of Price Family Vineyards, found the new farm site on Dry Creek Road and helped the Connaughtons buy it.
While the ways SingleThread donates food might not change dramatically, the sheer size of 24 acres means the restaurant will be able to put more produce toward charitable causes. Already, the restaurant prepares 1,000 meals per week for Sonoma Family Meal based on ingredients grown on the 5acre farm.
“For us to grow more, produce more, that means we can feed more,” Connaughton said, adding some space on the farm likely will be allocated specifically for food security.
Given the pandemic and the slower winter season, Connaughton said she won’t hire more farmers yet. But the existing farm team started working the land on the new property — previously a garden and retail plot — two weeks ago. So far, they’ve planted coolweather crops, garlic and strawberries. Connaughton is looking forward to growing the orchard — persimmons and pomegranates are two immediate requests from the chef — and more flowers for the restaurant’s ambitious floral designs. The aviary likely will expand, and an artisan knife maker will join a beekeeper on the site.
“This is our forever farm so we’re really eager to get it going but also take the time to make sure we do it right,” she said. “Our philosophy is to grow slowly and gently with nature and never against it.”