About the Baker
Evelyn has always been a baker--
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Even as a very young girl, she helped her grandmother and sisters make cinnamon rolls each holiday for as long as she can remember. When anything of any importance was going on, there was always baking involved—it’s what preparing for the holidays was all about.
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It isn’t surprising that she ended up pursuing a degree in restaurant management, and even less surprising that she married an executive chef who she met at the beginning of her restaurant career. Together, Evelyn and Rich have been partners in life, business, and food ever since.
They’ve owned a few restaurants, where Evelyn ran both the front of the house and the pastry department. They operated a private catering business while raising their family. They have continued to work in management in various restaurants.
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But this past year, a year like no other, Evelyn needed to do something that filled her with joy. And just like that, The Peony Farm was born.
From the whole Peony Farm family, we hope you enjoy eating and seeing our creations as much as we like making them!
About The Peony Farm
“The Peony Farm” is a name that comes from Evelyn’s father-in-law, a man she never met. It may seem strange to borrow his business name, but it is the making of a great story.
Evelyn’s father-in-law was a renaissance man, a man of many talents and hobbies, a man who never did anything half way.
By day he was a successful VP of Union Carbide; but in his spare time, he was a fisherman, photographer, painter, potter, chef, gardener, and farmer. His hobbies notoriously took on a life of their own. He had his own boat, cameras and darkroom (his wonderful wife apparently put her foot down on the full size kiln), and eventually he rented a plot of farm land and started a peony farm.
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After visiting Japan he had acquired a deep affection for the beautiful blooms, and like most of his ventures, the peony farm was a success. He started small and continued to add to his stock, and started producing beautiful, enormous blooms each year. His sons and daughter helped cut the flowers, work at the farm, and hustle to sell the flowers they produced. He eventually purchased a four acre plot on the north fork of Long Island to move his farm out onto his own land.
I imagine his plan was to live out his years of early retirement toiling in his passion he loved so much. Unfortunately he was unable to see his plan all the way through. He lost his battle with cancer just months before Evelyn met her husband, in his prime, at the young age of 52.
The peony farm was tended by Evelyn’s husband, Rich, and his siblings the next year, and they were able to move many of the plants out of the rented plot and to their family’s backyard. I remember the first year of standing in that yard in awe of the beauty and fragrance all around me. Now grown up, Rich and his siblings have moved many of those plants to their own homes, intended to keep and hand down through the family.
To be overwhelmed with the sentiment of these flowers and this man is so easy. He worked hard every day to provide for his family, but somehow he always found a way to include his passions and interest in his everyday life.
One Christmas, Evelyn’s sister-in-law bought aprons that were embroidered with “The Peony Farm” for all the ladies in the family. It was a nice remembrance of her husband’s dad and the flowers that everyone has grown obsessed with.
Evelyn has put that apron on a thousand times over on any day she sets out to bake.
