(From left) John Bryant of Old Tavern Farm, chef Donnie Glass and Zach West of Old Tavern Farm
Chef Donnie Glass squints at a picture on his cell phone. In the photo, a tangle of pea shoots sits atop a bed of rich soil, the bright, cheerful green a striking contrast to the dark brown dirt. There among the leaves is the telltale detail that will shape Glass’ menus for the coming weeks — small white and purple flowers, a sign that the peas themselves are just two weeks away from harvest.
“Asparagus are the first to come, but, for me, peas are the star of the show in the spring,” says Glass, co-owner of the French-inspired Church Hill restaurant Grisette and the Fan wine bar Jardin. “They’re here, and then they’re gone.”
The text message came from Glass’ inside source and produce connect, Zach West, a former cook who worked under Glass and for James Beard Award-winning chef Mashama Bailey at The Grey in Savannah, Georgia, before joining Old Tavern Farm in 2022 as its full-time farm manager. Combining his knowledge of professional kitchens with experience tending the field, West serves as a liaison between chefs and farmers, including Old Tavern Farm owner John Bryant. Each day, West sends daily harvest lists to Glass and other chefs in the area to let them know what’s available and what’s to come, an essential part of menu planning for restaurants that are committed to using local produce.
Over the past eight years, Bryant has cultivated not just high-quality produce for markets and retail stores, but also a reputation for being a chef’s farmer — a grower who plans for the specific needs of a particularly demanding clientele. From his 400-acre property in Quinton (just 15 miles door to door from Grisette), Bryant grows dozens of crops: lettuce and asparagus in the spring, tomatoes and melons in the summer, and potatoes and brassicas throughout the fall. He’s methodical and meticulous about crop rotation, using cover crops such as clover and vetch to replenish the soil between harvests, and relying on a system of plastic mulch and underground irrigation to maintain consistent moisture and nutrient levels in the soil.
If a backyard garden is a game of checkers, Old Tavern Farm is 3D chess. Bryant knows each move he plans to make months, if not years, in advance, thanks to a well-kept spreadsheet that details every row of his farm down to the day each seed should be sown. But, he admits, all the planning in the world is no match for Mother Nature, and it’s important to work with chefs who understand that.
“We work with folks who are open and willing to adapt their menus, which is hard to do,” Bryant says. “Anytime you deal with a customer, it’s their expectations you’re trying to meet. If your menu is truly seasonal, you’re going to have to tell people, ‘No, you can’t get that.’”
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The spring dinner at Old Tavern Farm had over 100 guests.
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Spinach orecchiette with peas, broccolini and Parmesan from the Old Tavern Farm dinner held in the spring
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Guests at the Old Tavern Farm dinner this spring
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Dishes from the spring farm dinner
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Bryant says that the sheer size of his 30-acre farming operation affords him the space to plant certain crops specifically for restaurants. “When we talk to a restaurant and they say, ‘We want the red torpedo tropea onions,’ we’re like, ‘All right, how many do you think you’re going to want?’ and we plant them because we have enough space to do that.”
Born to a farming family, Bryant learned the ropes from his grandfather and great uncle before trying his hand at row farming early in his career. When that didn’t pan out, he transitioned to a very different profession, swapping his overalls for a suit and tie and joining the banking world, but the fields never stopped calling his name. In 2015, he came back to them.
Nowadays, Bryant leans on the skills he developed in his professional career to create a farm that runs like a business, which is extremely helpful for chefs like Glass, who require interactions that are efficient and simple. “John’s approach to the business of farming is smooth,” Glass explains. “He keeps everyone informed. The way you order is easy, the way you pay is easy. You get this updated spreadsheet of what’s available and what’s coming.”
Bryant remembers the first time Glass acknowledged Old Tavern Farm publicly a couple years ago: “I literally cried when I was reading his Instagram post,” Bryant confides. “He was talking about the communication, saying he’d never had communications with a farm like what he has here.” He adds that, although it’s hard to give someone bad news — if there’s not enough of a certain crop to fill a restaurant's order, for example — doing so allows chefs to react and come up with another solution.
“We never ask him to grow things with the expectations of it being a smashing success from the beginning,” Glass notes. Instead, they start with an initial conversation in January — around the time Bryant purchases his seeds for the year ahead — about what and how much to grow, and then remain in contact throughout the year to see how those plans are unfolding. For Glass, it’s essential to be able to choose specific varieties of each fruit and vegetable for taste, texture and appearance.
The Old Tavern Farm stand is open every day except Tuesdays and Sundays.
Old Tavern Farm grows pointed or “sweetheart” cabbage with Grisette in mind. Bryant says they started growing the hefty 1 1/2-pound cabbage that is celebrated for its sweet and nutty flavors for their CSA subscribers — it’s more manageable for the home cook — but it also appealed to chefs who value the humble cabbage for its outstanding flavor and prominent appearance on the plate. Old Tavern planted a total of 3,600 heads in three stages this spring, and they plan to double that in the fall.
When working with such a special product, Glass, a French chef at heart, says he doesn’t need to add much. Instead, he confits the cabbage until it’s practically falling apart like tender meat. “The long and slow confit process brings out all the sugary sweetness in the cabbage, much like slowly caramelizing an onion,” Glass says. He finishes the dish with a tart gastrique for balance, breadcrumbs for texture and a big pinch of herbs for freshness. It’s a dish Grisette presented at one of its seasonal farm dinners at Old Tavern, where a barn full of guests relished the cabbage prepared over live fire, just a few feet away from where it was grown.
“Cooking at the farm has become an experience that transcends simply eating an al fresco dinner for everyone involved,” Glass says. “It's an emotionally stirring affair each time. Our guests get an opportunity to see the dirt, feel the weather and chat with the farmers. By the end of the effort, our team is wiped, but also immensely proud to share the depth of our partnership with Old Tavern and our commitment to sourcing the food that we cook at the restaurant every day.”
