Charles Adame-Winningham

Farmer and Food Preserver

I started Field & Larder because I wanted to grow fruit and vegetables that appeal to people with a passion for cooking and eating seasonal food.  I am a farmer and I love to have my hands in the dirt, but I started out in the kitchen working for chefs and I never saw myself living life on a farm until recently. 

My passion for farming took hold while working in the kitchen at Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, CA as I watched all of the seasonal produce arrive in the kitchen.  I remember seeing tiny strawberries, purple artichokes, and delicious kumquats and thinking that the farmers had the best job in the world.  Before I started Field and Larder, I also worked for 3 years at 2 Michelin star restaurant Atera managing a community garden plot and hydroponic grow room that supplied the restaurant with baby greens, exotic herbs and edible flowers. 

When I moved up to the Hudson Valley, I didn't find many of the exotic crops we had been growing in the city and so I decided to grow them myself.   I wanted to grow the fancy vegetables I had learned about in restaurants for people who just loved to cook and learn about new vegetables.  That's why our farm focuses on a CSA and selling at Beacon Farmers Market, rather than working with restaurants. 

Today my passion is to try to find ways for our produce to go beyond the farmers market and make it into food pantries and other food access organizations in the Hudson Valley.  Working with the Alamo Food pantry in Orange County and Fareground's mobile food pantries in Dutchess County, I am consistently inspired by the joy of giving our produce to someone who really needs it and appreciates it.