My Cooking Journey…

hello, My name is Carly Farmer and I really started cooking for people the Spring of 2023. I had recently sold my second Pilates studio a few months prior and I knew that I needed to find a healthy channel of energy for myself while I was in transition with my career. I woke up one morning after I had cooked a feast and just thought, ‘what am I doing with my life.’ I needed to figure something out and I also needed to buy myself some time.

In human design, I’m an emotional manifestor generator. I think that means my manifestations come from a deep well of emotions. Everything I do has to come from my heart. If my heart isn’t in something, I have no energy for it or my life. And when my heart is in something, I feel alive and like I can move mountains. Anyway, I’ve been in my body for long enough now to know that when I wake up and realize I’ve hit the bottom, that this is when something magical is brewing and waiting in the wings for me to tap into. I did what I always do and leaned in to the one thing that was inspiring and felt like light to me at that time. That was setting a stage in my kitchen and channeling all my thoughts, dreams and hopes into food. It not only was healing for me to create beauty, but it was healing for me to eat what I was cooking. I thought maybe I could share some of my recipes~ like my soups that are so medicinal. I thought maybe I could come up with a menu of medicinal foods and I could deliver them to people’s doors. I just started thinking and emailed a friend and asked him if this was a stupid idea. I was surprised that he thought it was a good idea. I went for it. I didn’t really think much about it, I just did it. I remember sending the email and thinking, people are going to think I’m so weird, but whatever:) I was shocked at how many orders I got that first week!!! I had absolutely no structure to this, so the first couple weeks, I would be up until midnight cooking.

Anyways, it became a thing and every week I would come up with a new menu and people kept ordering. It was a lot of work and really educational too. I completely surrendered myself to the cooking gods and got obsessed. I would read cookbooks and put recipes on my menus that I wanted to try. I would lean into my tastebuds and create the menus accordingly. I do hold a holistic health coach certificate through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, so my foundation is definitely rooted in food being healing and medicinal, but I also believe that the healthiest people aren’t the ones who obsess about being healthy or control their eating. To be hungry is to be healthy. To be healthy is to be soft and relaxed and to enjoy all life’s pleasures.

The journey continued and I cooked every week for a year. It really centered me and I truly believe that the cooking opened many doors for me. I love the concept of The Buddhist’s Path to Enlightenment being to chop wood & carry water. In a sense, that’s what the cooking was for me. I began booking & curating the music and wine at a local music venue and wine bar and eventually birthed my third Pilates Studio, Embody. I took a little break from the cooking when I opened my studio, but now it’s been a few months in and I’m leaning into it again, because it’s inspiring and creative. It’s fun to cook for parties at beautiful homes in the vineyards and it honestly feels like putting on shows. It’s so much fun to come up with a menu and theme and then show up, set the stage, pour the drinks, set the table, absorb the energy of the people and then serve them a beautiful meal. I have dreams of opening a restaurant one day. A Paris salon meets elixir bar and lounge. A place for artists & aristrocrats to come & hang. Balmy air, exotic wines & elixirs, Roasted Beets & pickled veggies being served, limoncello and affogatos on the dessert menu. Music, a beautiful shop with silk clothes & glassware. Interesting conversation, medicinal food. Everything and anything to elevate & awaken the senses. I could go on and on ~ I usually keep my visions to myself ~ not to keep them for myself, but because they make me feel vulnerable. I’ve slowly started to share this vision with people I love and feel safe with. I believe it will happen one day, because I see and feel it so clearly. I’m trusting God & know that all the right characters & stages are aligning. I have an idea for a name, but I will keep that to myself at this time. :)

In the meantime, I’m still cooking and staying inspired. I’ve created more structure around it, but I’m still being really fluid with it and just staying open to all opportunities and expressions of the cooking. I still continue to write weekly menus when I’m in the mood and I have a private cooking job coming up ~ it’s going to be a Mexican Fiesta! I’ll serve them grapefruit & traditional margaritas and we’ll do a taco bar. they’ll finish with a twix bar over a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Thank you for being part of my journey. People are everything to me and I love that I get to express and share my passions with not only people I love, but also strangers who I don’t even know yet. I learn so much about myself & life by interacting with people from all walks of life and I heal by experiencing other people and hearing their stories - of triumph, tragedy, love, heartbreak, success & failure.