From the Farmhouse Table: July 2026

Sustenance

Providing sustenance to writers is what our chefs and farm team do best, not just with food, but with intention, care, and life energy.

Chef & Farm Team member Allyss Taylor has been with Hedgebrook for two years and is key in providing this necessary sustenance. Here is a peek at who she is and what she brings.

Hedgebrook: What has been your favorite project to work on at Hedgebrook? Why?

Allyss: I think my favorite project has been putting up or preserving the harvests from the garden and orchard here on the land. We are fortunate to grow so much food here at Hedgebrook, and we work together to bring in fruit and vegetables and turn them into a variety of things, including jams, pickles, canned tomato sauce, and our own juice blend. We freeze, ferment, can, and dry ingredients for use throughout the year. For me, this is important work for a couple of reasons. First, of course, is economy. Our farm team puts a lot of effort into growing gorgeous organic produce, so it’s important that we preserve as much of that for use in the kitchen as we can manage. The second is that I believe that every time we can feed the writers from the land, we’re helping increase their connection to the land and enhance their experience here at Hedgebrook. When the writers are here in residence, that connection to the land helps ground and center them so that they may make the most of their time. I believe sharing food from the land also helps foster connection to each other as well, and helps to build our Hedgebrook community in a really visceral way. Each jar of jam, once opened, is evocative of this place.  

This year I’ve been collecting and drying herbs for a tea blend that we’re keeping in a big jar in the farmhouse kitchen. This includes both foraged and farmed ingredients and is formulated to help support women’s health. It offers a very direct connection to Hedgebrook, and I love that we have that available.

Hedgebrook: What is the most memorable interaction you’ve had with a writer on the land?

Allyss: Recently, we were lucky enough to host a group of current and retired Washington State Supreme Court judges. This was a really dynamic group of absolutely brilliant women who were a real delight to chat with. There’s something magical about chats around the farmhouse table that allow women to skip the small talk and get right into a deeper connection and more interesting conversation. This group was particularly good at that, and as we chatted over dinner one evening, I was surprised and delighted by how real they were. I was stunned to hear these incredibly intelligent and articulate women, who are at the top of their field, chatting about things like the challenges associated with being a woman in a male-dominated profession, work-life balance, being “good enough” at their jobs, and being a working parent. These are, of course, very highly capable and accomplished women who are handling these challenges with aplomb, yet their conversations held echoes of the same themes that rattle around in the heads of most of the women I know from time to time. It was so incredibly validating, and also a bit horrifying, to see that even the most professionally successful among us are not immune to the toxic messages that our culture feeds women and girls. 

Hedgebrook: What part of your work feels most meaningful right now?

Allyss: I have the good fortune to “wear a lot of hats” at Hedgebrook, and get to help support our programs by helping on the land with gardening, landscaping, forestry, and housekeeping, as well as cooking for the writers a few days a week. All of these things help support what we do, but I definitely find cooking for the writers to be the most gratifying aspect of my work. The chefs are often the Hedgebrook team members who spend the most time interfacing directly with the writers, and so we are poised to get a good first-hand look at the individual impact of the residency experience. I hear over and over again how life-changing the residency can be. Just a few weeks ago, a writer told me that she had warned her husband that she would be returning home a different person than she was when she arrived. A few months ago, a woman of Palestinian and Lebanese descent told me that staying at Hedgebrook was the safest she’d felt for the last two years. What a gift for her. We shelter women from the onslaught of craziness that the world can bring uniquely to women and women of color, and there’s so, so much value in that. You can see it on their faces.  

Hedgebrook: Who is your favorite author/What is your favorite book?

Allyss: Of course it’s nearly impossible to choose a favorite author or book. Recently, however, I’ve been revisiting passages from M.F.K. Fisher’s 1943 memoir, The Gastronomical Me. I’ve read much of her writing, and she’s influenced so much about how I think about food and connection. She writes "one of the pleasantest of all emotions is to know that I, I with my brain and my hands, have nourished my beloved few, that I have concocted a stew or a story, a rarity or a plain dish, to sustain them truly against the hungers of the world.” This quote stuck with me long before I encountered Hedgebrook, and perfectly encapsulates how rewarding the work we do can be. 

Hedgebrook: What’s a fun fact about you that may surprise people?

Allyss: I’m a martial artist! I’ve been studying Uechi Ryu karate for the last few years and am preparing to test for my black belt in December. I got into it because my daughter also studies karate, and her Sensei offered a free month of classes to parents. I’ve been hooked ever since. 

Our team members contain multitudes, and we are grateful for Allyss and her valuable contributions.