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A vegetable garden is great, but what about a cocktail garden? In Buckley, Washington, under the shadow of Mt. Rainier, sisters Venise Cunningham and Belinda Kelly believe they planted the world’s first farm exclusively dedicated to cocktail ingredients. At Simple Goodness Cocktail Farm, every fruit, flower, herb and vegetable they grow is transformed, by hand, into syrups, bitters, shrubs, ferments and garnishes. They call it garden-to-glass, and the only thing they don’t grow is the spirits or fizzy water you’ll mix them with!
We shot part of this episode of The Nosh at the Simple Goodness Soda Shop, their tasting room, cafe and store in Wilkeson, Washington, a teeny tiny, blink-and-you'll-miss-it town famous for its skate park, which looks like a cast iron frying pan with eggs and bacon sizzling inside!
But last spring, business in Wilkeson slowed to a halt after the Washington State Department of Transportation closed the nearby Carbon River/Fairfax Bridge due to major structural problems. The bridge closure blocks access to the northwest quadrant of Mt. Rainier National Park, and without the 200,000 tourists who passed through town on the way to the park every year, all local businesses are suffering. The earliest the bridge might be repaired is in six years.
So, the sisters put their heads together and recently announced a major pivot! They closed the tasting room and cafe and now their beautiful, historic building is available for rent as an event space. They still make their syrups, and ship them across the nation, and you can find all their recipes in their beautiful cookbook, Drink Your Garden.
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