The Herbfarm

How the Herbfarm Restaurant Helped Define Pacific Northwest Cuisine | Eater Seattle

"Originally a literal herb farm in Fall City, Washington run by Ron Zimmerman’s parents, it was transformed after Ron joined the family business in 1986 with his wife Carrie Van Dyck into a destination that combined cooking and craft classes, a world-class mail-order catalog, and meals designed to showcase fresh herbs so customers would buy plants. What began as luncheons to promote plant sales evolved into multi-course dinners that became impossible-to-get reservations and helped set the standard for cooking with local, seasonal ingredients; a few years in Ron installed Jerry Traunfeld as chef, who went on to win a James Beard Award. The operation was adventurous and influential—hosting a microbrewery festival long before craft beer was a trend, staging “100-mile dinners” that even involved making their own baking powder and salt to meet strict sourcing rules, and pioneering generous staff compensation like health insurance and 401(k)s. The original farm burned in 1996 and the restaurant later relocated to Woodinville; it is now run by longtime employee Chris Weber carrying on that legacy. Ron wrote and designed a charming cookbook-memoir, The Spirit of The Herbfarm, before his death in 2023; some recipes are famously fiddly (one calls for carefully stuffing zucchini blossoms with salmon), and sales help fund the Ron Zimmerman Scholarship to place local culinary interns at the restaurant. The Herbfarm also staged whimsical public events—the herbal weekends with ad-lib actors portraying characters like Miss Thyme, Sir Basil, and Aunt Rosemary were a highlight—and offered family-friendly farm activities (doves, pigs, llamas, picnics) that made the place feel magical to generations of visitors." - Harry Cheadle