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A Day in the Life...A Gourmet Chef, His Garden

& Future Plans

by Sharyl Calhoun

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Swiss City Monthly Magazine March 2010 15

I n December of 2008, Ericand Heather Emerson arrivedin Berne with three-year-old

Evan. They brought with them adream—and the skills to make itcome true.

Eric grew up in Portland, Oregon,where he eventually completedculinary school.

“I had been a custom picture-framer in Portland,Oregon for 15 years. My rst lovewas ne arts and painting—that’swhat I originally planned to do,”Eric says. “But I was in a rut and

couldn’t gure out what my nextstep in life would be.

“Culinary school just popped intomy head one day. I called for aninterview, and the next week I wasthere. I haven’t looked back.

“For my culinary internship, Iworked at a restaurant in Bend,Oregon, which featured country

French and Italian food, all madefrom scratch. We had a wood- redeck oven for making pizza, aswell as a wood- re rotisserie andgrill.”

Eric continued working at therestaurant for four years, workinghis way up to “sous chef—whichis basically the chef’s right hand.”

Heather had grown up near Plain eld, Indiana. Her familymoved to a 40-acre farm, whereshe spent her teen years. After high school, she earned a degreein ancient history and classicsfrom Ball State University. Thenshe moved to Colorado for almostten years. It was on an extendedvisit to Washington, however,

that she rst became interested inorganic farming.

“I went to a friend’s wedding inWashington,” Heather recalls.“She had a beautiful 150-acrefarm—there were absolutely

beautiful gardens, with owers

and vegetables. I was able to helpmaintain the gardens while I wasthere, and I really enjoyed it. Thatwas my rst introduction to such alarge variety of plants.”

It was in Bend, Oregon, thatHeather began working in arestaurant, where she met— and eventually married—EricEmerson.

As a sous chef, Eric took over a catering contract at the localconference center, where he

began working sixteen-hour days,

for weeks at a time. However, theeconomic structure of the city wascrumbling and he feared there was“an oversaturation of restaurants”in Bend.

“We knew about Berne, becauseHeather’s step-mom, Connie

Malberg, maintained a familyhistory in this community(Connie’s father had been aminister at the First MennoniteChurch). This local economy was

better, along with the opportunity

for us to have a farm, and wewanted to raise our son here. Amonth after we moved to Berne,the restaurant in Bend—and itssister restaurant, closed down.”

Upon moving to Indiana, theEmersons stayed with Heather’s

parents, just outside of Bryant onnearly 50 acres of land. Eric and

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16 March 2010 Swiss City Monthly Magazine

Heather asked permission to starta no-spray garden for themselves.That was the beginning of Morning Glory Farm.

“It was our very rst garden, andit just kind of exploded,” saysHeather. “We put out everythingwe could on that half-acre of land—squash, tomato plants,cucumbers, cabbage, collardgreens, mustard greens, brusselsprouts, cauli ower, broccoli…we tried a little bit of everything,

because we weren’t sure whatwould thrive here.

“Where we came from, thegrowing season is very, veryshort. The last frost is in July and

the rst one is usually in August.”

“We had edible and non-edibleowers (our sun owers grew to

12 feet tall). We had 20 cucumber plants, and at the peak of theseason, we were getting at least20 cucumbers a day—we could

barely keep up. We quickly

realized that we needed a marketfor selling the excess produce,”continues Eric.

“We heard that Kim Kelsey wasinterested in starting a farmer’smarket in the First MennoniteChurch parking lot. We calledher in June—at that point, sheliked the idea of having organic

products to buy, but told us wemight be the only vendors. Wethought, the corner of 218 and27--who could ask for a better location?

“The rst week, there were ve

vendors. By October, there were20-22 vendors participating. Wesold some produce at Bluffton,

at the Portland Farmer’s Market,and the Decatur Farmer’s Market.Berne always seemed to have the

best outcome.”

The couple laughs as they gesturetoward a variety of squash onthe kitchen counter waiting to

be cooked. Eric recounts the

purchase of a 10-gallon crock andlling it with cabbage at the end

of the year.

“We’ve just nished canning 14quarts of sauerkraut.”

The Emersons have a rosemary plant to snip, as needed, for cooking. They have a good supplyof popcorn and dried herbs thatthey have been using throughoutthe winter—thyme, oregano,

peppermint, dill.

“We can reap the bene ts of thegarden all the way through the

winter,” says Heather. “I was stillharvesting salad greens in earlyDecember!”

In March, they built a smallgreenhouse, then added an arbor with morning glories growing uparound it all summer.

“Little did we know that themorning glory is a proli c weed

here!” laughs Eric. “But they’revery pretty, and they were our inspiration for naming the farm.The garden did grow pretty wild,

but there’s an element of beauty toit, as well.”

The family worked together. Ericmade the plans for the garden.Heather started everything fromseed inside the greenhouse, and

then transplanted them outside.Even little Evan helped, by planting the Purple Fingerling andYukon Gold potatoes.

“We loaded up his dump truck,dug the holes, and he put the

potatoes down in the holes.”Eric did most of the weeding,alone. “With a two-year old,

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18 March 2010 Swiss City Monthly Magazine

farmer’s market, however. Ericalso wants to set up a food booth,using this as an educational tool for

people concerning chemical-freeand organic gardening.

“People don’t really think aboutthe fact that all those chemicalsyou spray for killing fungus or insects don’t just wash off anddisappear when it rains. Muchof it gets absorbed into the foodand into the ground. One way or another, it is going to end up inyour body.

“Chemicals de nitely affect the

overall taste of the food, too.With my training as a chef, I canusually tell, just by appearance,

avor and texture, which produceis organic.”

What else does the future hold for this entrepreneurial chef?

“I’ve always wanted to ownmy own business. One of my

assignments in culinary schoolwas to develop a restaurant’s

business plan. The rst planI designed was for a Frenchrestaurant with classy food…very lucrative. As time went on,I realized that it would only work in certain places—and that typeof restaurant wasn’t really my

passion.”

“When we moved here, I startedlooking around for a positionas chef. The only place I foundwithin 50 miles of here (whichwas the caliber of food we wereinterested in) was not hiring— they had a solid crew who had

been there for years.

“So I looked around some moreand realized that Berne and theChamber of Commerce havegreat plans for Berne, utilizingthe Berne-Swiss connection withthe clock tower. But one of theelements that’s missing is their ability to recommend a reallysolid, upper-end, local restaurant,where people are going to want toeat.

“For me, Morning Glory Farmhas been the rst step in gettinghigher-end, organic, chemical-free

produce. The next step will be tostart a small-scale restaurant to

use those produce items—withupper-end Swiss food for tourism,and not too highly priced, so thatlocal people can afford to go outonce or twice to eat.

“After that, we would liketo provide education to thecommunity through the farm,the restaurant, and the farmer’smarket, on organic and

chemical-free food. Once the farmis in a more permanent location,

people will be able to take tours.We want to help them realizethere are methods of cooking thatthey have probably never thoughtabout before.”

Eric has no speci c timeline for opening the restaurant. He wantsto connect with people who would

be interested in partnering withhim in the business.

“We’re going to take it slow andmake sure we do it right.”

Besides spending time with hisfamily, woodcarving is a specialinterest of Eric’s—apparentin several intricately detailed

walking sticks. Once a year, hehikes through the woods to nda piece of wood that inspireshim. He allows the woodto dry an entire year beforecarving it into a walking stick.

He hand-carves them withIrish and Celtic folklorethemes, adding hand-braidedrope and other unique details.He says “each one takes hoursand hours,” and becomes atreasured part of his collection.He also enjoys painting andother art-related pastimes.

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