The WIllows Inn: Setting the Scene

The highlight of our trip (other than the wedding) was a stay at the Willows Inn on Lummi Island, which has one of the most talked-about new restaurants in the country at the moment.

The inn itself doesn't look like much:


It has a wonderful view, particularly at sunset, but noplace to sit and enjoy it except for some restaurant-style seating on the porch:


A couple minutes walk down the road there is a small private beach, but you don't go to Washington State for the beaches, unless you like just sitting on a log:


But there is one thing to do: inspect the inn's farm.

Yes, it's one of those places that grows most of its own food. Walk about a half-mile up the hill from the inn and you can see what you're going to have for dinner. When we were there it was a lot of kale and spinach:


There were chickens on the farm (which I didn't take a picture of, but then they didn't serve), and beehives that yielded fresh honey:


It was oddly disappointing to see that their herbs mainly grew in pots, not directly in the soil, and that they relied on greenhouses for much of their stuff.


But then again, it has been an exceptionally cold, cloudy summer in the Pacific Northwest, so I guess they just did what they had to do.