From kitchen to classroom: Wichita chef is taking on a new role in January
Just to be clear: She’s not leaving Elderslie Farm, nor is she abandoning its kitchen.
But Katharine Elder, the chef who over the past 13 years has helped make the farm at 3501 E 101st St. North in Kechi a dining destination, is taking a temporary step back that will allow her to pursue another passion: teaching.
Katharine, the culinary brains behind the farm’s seasonal blackberry farm cafe and its fine-dining farm-to-table evening meals, has accepted a long-term substitute teaching position at Trinity Academy, the K-12 Christian school at 12345 E. 21st St. North.
She’ll be teaching seventh-grade science, taking over a position about to be left vacant by Kent Warrington, a teacher at Trinity since 2004 who is retiring at the end of this semester to care for his wife. Katharine is committed to teaching for the coming semester, “and then we’ll go from there,” she said.
What will that mean for the farm?
Katharine said she wants to make it clear that Elderslie Farm will continue as normal. She’ll still be cooking the meals for the farm’s Thursday-through-Saturday dinners.
But she and her husband, George Elder, have made some changes that will free her up during the day. George, whose time was limited after the couple expanded the farm to include a goat creamery, now has the ability to return to managing the front-of-house at the restaurant. (The couple closed the creamery in May 2024.)
Also, the couple has hired a new general manager for the restaurant: Abbey Way — who previously worked with the Elders when they had their Everyday by Elderslie store at Bradley Fair from 2022 to 2024. She’ll be taking over operational and administrative duties at the restaurant, which Katharine had been handling.
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“In this season, now that the creamery is closed... we’re just really starting to come home to the original intention of why we started the farm to begin with: to share this place in life with our kids and our community,” Katharine said.
‘It couldn’t be a better fit’
When Warrington decided he was leaving Trinity, Katharine said, some friends casually suggested that she fill in. The friends knew that, back in 2011 and 2012, Katharine taught science at Northfield Academy, where her late mother-in-law, Becky Elder, was the longtime headmistress and one of the school’s founders.
Katharine said she laughed at first. But then, she really started thinking about it. Taking the job would mean that she could spend more time with her school-aged children, seventh-grader Martha and fifth-grader Oliver.
“I got to thinking about it a little more and thought that it sounded like an amazing fit,” she said.
After making the decision, the Elders enrolled Oliver at Trinity Academy. Martha will start next semester and will have her mother as a teacher. The two children have been attending the Classical School of Wichita, which Katharine said the family also loved.
Katharine won’t have to be at Trinity full-time: She’ll be there just in the mornings, teaching three science classes.
And once blackberry season returns again in the summer — the busiest time at the farm, which also runs a popular you-pick operation— school will be out of session.
“It couldn’t be a better fit for me to continue to be able to do what I love and still participate with my kids’ school,” she said.
“As any artist would say, the opportunity to step away from one’s work so that they can come back into it really fully is critical. Being able to be around my kids ... and talking about science and all the things that I love and that gave me the itch to start cooking on the farm to begin with, I think, is really life-giving and will hopefully infuse both environments with more joy and panache.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2025 at 1:58 PM.
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