Luxury Inn Blackberry Farm gets back to its roots

Photo by Shawn Poynter, Knoxville Magazine

Most of the vegetables on the table at Blackberry Farm come from the heirloom vegetable gardens.

Photo by Shawn Poynter

Most of the vegetables on the table at Blackberry Farm come from the heirloom vegetable gardens.

Blackberry Farm, one of America's most celebrated intimate luxury hotels, offers outdoor activities, spa luxury, and world-class cuisine on 4200 acres in West Miller's Cove in Walland. It also offers an authentic farm -"a living, breathing reflection of the destination's continued passion for the land and seasons"--through The Farmstead, which sits on acreage across the road from The Main House.

In an idyllic setting, complete with rolling hills, llamas, sheep, and gardens, guests can go hiking, biking, and horseback riding or enjoy fly fishing and sporting clays. The Farmhouse Spa offers the ultimate in pampering, including the Vichy Shower, which offers luxurious water treatments that are detoxifying, hydrating, and intensely relaxing. Both private and group yoga sessions are available. Reading and simply doing nothing are favorite activities as well.

Blackberry Farm's cuisine has been described as Foothills Cuisine: "wandering the line between refined and rugged, borrowing from both haute cuisine and the foods indigenous to Blackberry's Smoky Mountain heritage." A collection of artisans - the chef, the master gardener, the baker, the cheese maker, the forger, the butcher, the jam lady, the chocolatier, the restaurant manager, the sommelier - combine to create culinary magic at Blackberry Farm, a working farm where guests are encouraged to become part of the place by participating in farm activities.

The orchards hold black walnut, persimmon, cherry, apple and crabapple trees as well as muscadine grape vines, blueberry bushes and raspberry and blackberry brambles. A hazelnut orchard was planted so that the roots could be used for the cultivation of black truffles.

Sheep, chickens, and pigs are used not just for what they produce, but for their role in the farm's ecosystem. Ramps, morels, mushrooms, and wild berries are gathered from the woods. Most of the vegetables on the table at Blackberry Farm come from the heirloom vegetable gardens. A cutting garden and the meadows provide flowers and foliage for decorative arrangements.

Proprietor Sam Beall says "the farm component has always been a part of who we are." Master Gardener John Coykendall "used to come up once a week and tend a quarter acre. Now we have six acres. We have always had sheep, but we didn't do anything with them."

The evolution to a working farm was inspired by two years Beall spent in California, a stint that was "educational and enlightening." While he loves East Tennessee and calls the Smoky Mountains "the most beautiful and special place on earth," his time in California led to increased appreciation for what he calls "real food, food that hasn't been overly transported and processed, local, seasonal food. You know where it came from, how it was produced." Beall's time in California plus the purchase of adjacent property - where The Farmstead is - resulted in the "opportunity to take Blackberry Farm to the level that it is today."

The Farmstead, located on a meadow across the road from The Main House, includes The Barn (a 19th century barn carefully relocated from Pennsylvania), a farmhouse converted to a luxurious guesthouse, and The Larder. Meals are served at The Barn, which is also the site of culinary programs, demonstrations, and tastings.

Next to The Barn is The Larder, an old white-washed barn that houses a spotless, commercial food production enterprise which allows Blackberry Farm to "cultivate relationships with local farmers. The artisans in The Butcher Shop, The Preservation Kitchen, and The Creamery preserve farm goods at their "peak abundance and freshness." Beall notes that our ancestors ate fresh produce in season and "put up" the rest for winter. The Larder allows chefs and guests to return to this tradition.

The Butcher Shop is located on the bottom floor of The Larder. Whole animals are purchased from local farmers. What is not used as a featured fresh cut is transformed into a cured, dried or otherwise preserved meat product such as bacon, salami or country ham.

The Preservation Kitchen, with gorgeous views through large windows, is the new domain of Maggie Davidson, previously Blackberry's pastry chef, who relishes her recent move. She says she's "still dealing with sugar and fruit," but she was "ready for something else." The combination of artistry and technical skills needed for food preservation appeals to Davidson, who weaves, knits, and plays piano-all artistic but technical endeavors. She describes Blackberry Farm as an "incredible" place to work. "They encourage you to rely on what you know and to develop as a chef."

Davidson mostly makes jams and jellies, preserving fruit as it comes into season. Her kitchen is currently a strawberry lovers' dream from the heavenly scent of sugared berries waiting to be turned into jam to the jewel tones of the finished product in jars. She started with blackberry jam, and when she "finally got it to go," it was "a wonderful moment." She loves it when a recipe "clicks." Mastering marmalade was one of her biggest challenges. She becomes almost giddy when recalling the limited edition "Spring Thyme," a lemon marmalade flavored with thyme.

Davidson describes herself as "deeply into pickles" at the moment. Jars of bread and butter pickles, a colorful chow chow which changes as the garden's bounty changes, and green tomatoes pickled with three kinds of spicy peppers line a stainless steel prep table. One set of ruby red jars holds a wondrous combination of thinly-sliced pickled beets and strawberries, inspired by a salad served at Blackberry. When peach season arrives, she anticipates preparing peach barbecue sauce and perhaps pairing golden beets with peaches. She enjoys "thinking about things in different ways" and "thinking about ways to combine sweet and savory."

At the other end of The Larder, Adam Spannous, music major turned chef turned cheese maker, has recently assumed command of The Creamery, where ewe's milk is transformed into deliciously aged cheeses, which change with the seasons.

The first to be produced is a small white mold-ripened camembert-like cheese called Violet. Warmer weather brings Trefoil, a slightly firmer, darker-colored, delicately flavored cheese with a pungent rind. Summer's end brings Singing Brook, a firm richly-flavored cheese which continues to improve with age.

Spannous, who says he's still learning his craft, says his goal is "to develop some really solid recipes that are consistently good throughout the seasons, to adjust to differences in the milk that occur because of the weather and changes in the sheep's lives." He says his current craft is not much different from being a chef. He's "still concerned with quality." He thinks "a really good cheese can stand alone so you can appreciate the flavors." A simple water cracker is a good accompaniment. His personal favorite is "a good Appenzeller."

Spannous, who served an internship at a Connecticut cow dairy and likens sheep to "really big dogs," speaks knowledgeably of the differences, noting that "sheep don't give as much milk as cows, but the yield on cheese is doubled because of the increase in protein, minerals, and calcium."

Being a cheese maker requires being a chemist and knowing how bacteria interact. In his "laboratory," filled with vats, brine tanks, and racks of aging cheeses, Spannous is experimenting with one cheese incorporating herbs and another cheese with a black rind consisting of vegetable ash, olive oil, and salt. He has also created a creamy, refreshing yogurt. He admits to being very particular. "If it's not ready, it's not released."

The two years spent in California not only helped shape Sam Beall's vision of The Farmstead; it's also when he "got bitten by the wine bug." While in California to attend culinary school, work at a hotel, and work at a restaurant, he began visiting small wine producers. It turned out to be a "crash course of knowledge not available in books."

At that time, Blackberry didn't have a wine program; Beall returned to Tennessee determined to develop one "in tune with the culinary program." He began with "a focus on California wines," but the wine cellar today is "as highly regarded for its emphasis on wines from the Rhone Valley, Austria, Burgundy, and Spain." His goal is "to offer discriminating guests the most unique experience they can find." He seeks the producers who focus on the highest levels of quality, which generally means smaller levels of production. "This fits our bill," he says. It "requires quite an effort to get [these wines] here. They are not found anywhere else."

Beall likes "to expose guests to varietals they're not familiar with. There are thousands of grape varieties in the world that are just as incredible as the more familiar ones." Creating that special experience is his goal. Beall says, "Creating memories is what we are all about."

Some products from The Preservation Kitchen and The Creamery at Blackberry Farm are offered at the Maryville Farmers Market on Church Avenue in downtown Maryville, Saturdays 9-12. You can also buy them online at blackberryfarm.com

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