For more than a decade, Winslow’s Home was synonymous for many St. Louisans with the beloved ‘modern general store’ in University City, a concept that would often “conjure up a smile, a soothing remembrance of a simpler time.” Then, shortly before the pandemic, owner Ann Lipton sold the space to restaurateurs Michael and Tara Gallina, who changed the name to Winslow’s Table.
Today, Lipton still maintains a connection to the U. City restaurant by supplying ingredients to Winslow’s Table and the Gallinas’ other restaurants, including the acclaimed Vicia and recently opened Taqueria Morita. As the owner of Winslow’s Farm for the past 17 years, Lipton emphasizes an ecological approach on a plot of land in the rolling hills in Augusta.
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Although not a farmer herself, Lipton has been knee-deep in the earth for the better part of two decades. It’s clear by the way that she navigates the grounds, stopping to smell a stalk of lavender or eat a young asparagus frond. She feels the beating heart of the land as if it were her own and is genuinely invested in its potential as a vehicle for change. All around her, the farm is full of life: the wobbly trot of a gaggle of ducklings, the happy grunts of piglets playing in mud, a herd of water buffalo munching on hay, chickens grazing on harvested fields.
“In July and August, we’re basically growing the same crops Italy grows,” Lipton says, casually sliding Europe into the conversation while showing me around Winslow’s Farm in Augusta, a spot that bears no resemblance to a rolling hillside in Tuscany. But when she describes how Italy’s hot and humid summers mirror those in St. Louis—and that the tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini she grows are abundant in gardens and menus in Italy—everything starts to make sense.
The farm practices regenerative agriculture, with no chemical intervention and an emphasis on being a steward of the environment. The approach centers around returning nutrients to the field, something Lipton says she patterned after Stone Barns in New York. (Coincidentally, the Gallinas previously worked at Blue Hill at Stone Barns.) The environmental benefits include capturing carbon from the air, storing it in the soil, and improving wildlife habitats and ecosystem biodiversity. The approach often requires greater time and planning to change the mechanisms needed for soil health, reversing practices generations in the making. When Lipton acquired the farm, it took years to build up the organic matter in the soil, despite the fact that its only other owners began farming the land in the 1800s. “Even now,” she says, we’re still building our soil. It’s a lifelong process.”
She explains that low- or no-till farming doesn’t disrupt the microbiology of the soil, which means more nutrients remain intact. Weeds are also key detriments to the health of the ecosystem. “When you disrupt the soil, you re-energize weed seeds and mess up the composition of the soil,” Lipton says. “Things like cover crops and tarps help with weeds.”
So, too, do animals. “When you think about herbicides to kill weeds, you’re just killing the top part, but the weed is often still there,” she says. “But pigs eat the entire grass plant—the top green part, digging down 12 inches and eating the entire root. They dig out grubs and pests, and it’s brilliant in its complete ability to rid a chosen area of a weed or crop you no longer want without synthetic interventions. Chickens are rotated three rows every few weeks until all the ground is cleared, and the lake creates a habitat for birds and animals, and they help us with the pest presence.”
Lipton works on the farm alongside Erin Cuseo, Jose Miranda, and Tim Giffard, all of whom “care as much about the land and what grows here as I do,” she says. “It’s impossible not to be excited about that kind of synergy. Having a shared vision for the future is what keeps me optimistic.”
Likewise, it was a passion for community that prompted Lipton to open Winslow’s Home years ago. “I came about the business in a back door sort of way,” she recalls. “My experience is in design and architecture with an emphasis on historic renovation. I bought the building in 2006, and my intention was to restore it and sell it. But the first floor had always been a community market. First, Conrow’s and then U. City Quality Foods. And that’s when Highway 40 was closed. It cut off that neighborhood from grocery stores and a lot of essentials. When I was talking to people about where they shop for food and essentials, they would tell me they’re getting milk at gas stations.
“I began to understand the history of how we lost all of the little independent stores that were in our commercial cores. They all used to have a hardware store, bakery, dry cleaner and green grocer, but when the highway system was developed and big box stores came in, that business moved away. I thought it would be interesting to return to that general store concept.”
It was a store that didn’t fit neatly into a particular category—and though it didn’t start out as a restaurant, it seemed destined to become one. “We utilized produce from Winslow’s Farm for homemade meals, bakery items, and groceries in a reimagined general store,” Lipton recalls. “It became a restaurant when people just wanted to hang out and be with each other. The market crash of 2008 brought a lot of uncertainty. It just felt right to drag in some tables and chairs and let people gather. I feel like it became an important part of the neighborhood. Neighbors were meeting their neighbors there, and kids could walk there. We created a lot of jobs and did our part to elevate the food scene in that corner of the world with true farm-to-table offerings.”
Even today, Winslow’s Farm CSA members can opt to pick up produce at Winslow’s Table, and produce from the farm is served at Pizzeria da Gloria and Songbird, in addition to the Gallinas’ restaurants. The farm also periodically hosts dinners featuring local chefs.
Today, a bit lighter in real estate, Lipton is exactly where she wants to be. “I think it’s a very interesting time to be doing what we do because people are paying attention to where their food comes from and how it was grown,” she says. “There’s an anonymity of our food when it goes through distribution systems, but it’s really important for people who grow food to tell the story of what they do.”
Visit the Winslow’s Farm website or Instagram page to get updates on upcoming chef series farm dinners starting in August.
