I moved out to Vashon Island more than thirty years ago, with little plan except to find a place larger than my tiny studio apartment in downtown Seattle. Vashon at that time was a bit of a sleepy community, with few of my friends supporting me in this move. Over time they found the charm of this quiet island a ferry ride away from Seattle.
A farm was not the goal, and yet slowly I added a garden, and then a small orchard and then a few animals. When I had a cow and then many cows, I realized I was a farmer. Today Kurtwood Farms is thirteen acres, situated in the mid part of the island. The garden is much larger now, the orchard as well. Most of the land is in pasture for the Limousin beef cows that roam the verdant slope to the upper pastures.
My home is the Beall Log House, the oldest standing structure on the island. The garden is a rambling varieties of plants, reflecting my ever-changing interests. Szechuan peppercorn plants are left over from a proposed — but never written — book on Chinese food. Tea plants are from that same year. Large olive trees continue to grow, planted when I was sure I could make olive oil. Large beds of thornless blackberries were planted to provide fruit for my Seattle ice cream shop: Kurt Farm Shop. They remain even if the shop does not. More and more of the garden is given over to flowers: needed specimens for my desire to photograph blooms with my old, large format film cameras.
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The busiest part of the farm is the Cookhouse, a timber-framed kitchen and dining room. In the center of the room is the large butcher block island, with high stools, facing the kitchen. This is where we host classes on the weekends throughout the summer season.
Beyond the Cookhouse is the creamery, a sturdy concrete building where the milk from our Jersey cows was made into Dinah’s Cheese. Twice a day, every day for the past dozen plus years, the small herd of cows were milked and that milk was cooled and processed. Dinah’s Cheese was a bloomy-rind cheese, a fresh cheese with a snowy white rind and a rich, golden interior. After more than a dozen years, I ended production of Dinah’s Cheese. Those Jersey cows were sold and a new small herd of Limousin beef cows has begun.
And now that masonry building where the cheese was made has been transformed into a lovely airbnb to rent for the weekend.
The Creamery sits on the edge of the pastures and is a calm cottage to relax, slow down and enjoy the quiet of the farm.
Farther along is the large French timber-frame cow barn where the herd of Jersey dairy cows spent their evenings during the inclement weather. The formerly manure and straw filled room is now paved over and is the site of the summer BarnTalks. Other weekends the barn is home to parties and events, weddings and gatherings.
And up the north road from the barn is the cheese cave. A folly I built almost twenty years ago to age large cheeses, it rarely performed as expected and was quickly mothballed, its entrance quickly engulfed with blackberries. After many years of disuse, I finally hacked through the prickly barrier to the front door and muscled my way into the space. After much cleaning and refitting, it is now home to my portrait studio. Deep underground, with no windows or cell service, I shoot black and white portraits of all the characters I can find. The barrel vaulted ceiling resonates deeply with the sounds of the old film cameras as I click away. Those images live here on instagram and here.
Kurt Timmermeister
