3 minute read
The Focus is Quality, Not Quantity
The Focus is Quality, Not Quantity
By Linda Roberts
The one-acre garden behind Jodi and Kurt Baier’s Boyce home in Clarke County is the inspiration for their small, yet highly successful Provender Garden Kitchen catering business.
Visiting the compact space with its tidy rows of plants of all types explains how Provender’s goal of featuring organically grown vegetables on a year-around basis is at the heart of their mission to promote locally sourced sustainability.
“The garden dictates our menu offerings,” said Kurt, who noted that he and Jodi maintain a culinary garden that shifts and moves with the seasons. In turn, it determines what produce will be used to form the basis of their next catering assignment. Flowers from the garden, arranged by Jodi, are often an attractive accompaniment to the specialty meals they serve.
The recent drought has not put the Baiers into a panic because they installed a drip irrigation system some time ago to keep the garden flourishing. The garden also utilizes a “no dig approach,” Kurt said, adding that he and Jodi try to disturb the soil as little as possible.
Pointing toward their tomato vines, which were trained to grow up a tall fence-type trellis, Kurt said with a smile, “there’s nothing that beats harvesting a tomato from your garden and eating it that same day.”
The Baiers have staged dinners at their circa 1851 Boyce home, which overlooks the garden, but primarily Kurt is a private chef at a client’s home upon a request for catering. He said that once on location, his offerings have been served from interesting places such as gardens, barns, and in upscale stables at private estates.
“I’ll show up an hour and a half before in order to keep everything as fresh as possible,” he said.
In addition to their own garden, the Baiers outsource local meats from area farms such as Kinloch, Gum Tree, Chapple Hill and Whiffletree for their generally three-course, plus an appetizer, offerings. Most of their assignments are planned for 10 to 20 persons to keep the focus on quality and are for clients in the Middleburg area, although Provender has catered in Washington, D.C.
Both Jodi and Kurt are from the Harrisonburg area. She was a music major at James Madison University and Kurt attended George Mason until the restaurant business lured him into that industry. Later their skills behind a camera lens created another line of work for the couple when they pooled their talents and both became wedding photographers.
Leaving the restaurant business entirely became too difficult for Kurt and in 2022 they opened a small, outdoor restaurant in a garden setting behind the Nature Composed shop in Middleburg.
When Covid hit and circumstances at the restaurant changed, the timing seemed perfect to launch their at-home catering business. Word of mouth and an artistically designed website launched the Baiers’ catering business and it is flourishing, as is their one-acre garden.
“We are looking forward to our next evolution,” Kurt said.
For more information, visit provendergardenkitchen.com
