Edible Food Find: Maitland Farm, Kitchen, & Spirits
Photos by Linda Campos
For all kinds of reasons and circumstances, businesses pivot and change course, sometimes growing or diversifying, other times downsizing. Holly Maitland and Andy Varela, co-owners of Maitland Mountain Farm in Salem, have done all of those things—and more than a few times— over the past five years. Since about 2009, the couple has managed the 2½-acre farm and CSA, and started and grew and then scaled back a pickle-making business. About a year ago, they opened a cozy restaurant, Maitland Farm, Kitchen, & Spirits (Varela is the chef), in downtown Salem. As if that wasn’t enough, the couple is raising three sons, ages 14, 7 and 3.
They still make pickles—“We have a passion for pickle-making and preserving food,” says Maitland—albeit on a much smaller scale. They pickle cucumbers, radishes, eggs, garlic, beets, cauliflower, carrots and mushrooms. When the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, they found there was less demand for their kind of more expensive fresh, refrigerated pickles versus shelf-stable styles. Today, they make pickles only for their restaurant and local customers.
On the farm, they grow lettuce, greens, herbs, radishes, turnips, cucumbers, summer squashes, garlic and more. They keep 150 chickens for their eggs. Restaurant and farm are intertwined as the farm’s produce, herbs, eggs and homemade pickles are used in Varela’s cooking, and the chickens happily dine on restaurant food scraps. (Did you know chickens are omnivores?)
While farming kept them busy over the last few years, “it wasn’t scratching the itch we had, which is making food for people,” says Varela. Maitland Farm, Kitchen, & Spirits fulfills a dream for the duo, who separately had always worked in restaurants, to continue serving the local community. The menu is composed of casual, approachable foods elevated by Varela’s commitment to scratch cooking and amplifying flavors using quality ingredients and plentiful herbs. (The restaurant also offers takeout meals, popular with local boaters.)
Customer favorites include fried chicken, chicken parm and the Loaded Italian sandwich (“a showstopper,” says Varela). Maitland likes the salmon Niçoise and Buddha Bowl. The pickle sandwiches (literally) are fun—knife and fork or handfuls of napkins required: no bread, just a large, halved, scooped-out pickle to hold the sandwich filling. The mushroom tartine, an open-faced sandwich, incorporates an old Italian method for preserving mushrooms, such as oyster, enoki, shiitake and king varieties, to concentrate their flavors.
The couple opened the restaurant last October in a building dating back to 1755; it previously housed the Jean Louis Pasta Shop and before that, a butcher shop. The restaurant decor reveals all kinds of remnants of barn and farmhouse woods for counters, tables and wall coverings. “We call it adaptive reuse,” says Varela. Although downtown Salem property can be very expensive, he says, “We’re here because the rent is fair. The landlord likes working with local residents.”
Recent city zoning changes have allowed them to start serving alcohol. In addition to wine, beer and cocktails, the restaurant still offers their popular mocktails, including the Ginger Spritzer (fresh ginger, turmeric, lemon juice and a dash of saffron tincture); Carrot Limeade (carrots, orange and kaffir lime tincture); and Granny Jalapeño (apples, jalapeño, spinach and lime).
For Maitland and Varela, the new restaurant satisfies many desires, including “bringing the farm to this neighborhood so people could have access to fresh food,” says Maitland. Varela adds, “We get to connect with a lot more people. And it’s more rewarding than the pickle business.” Clearly, the couple is passionate not just about making pickles, but serving their local community.
84 Derby St., Salem
maitlandfarms.com
This story appeared in the Winter 2026 issue.
