For social media maven Darien Rozell, the creative force behind the dreamy local Instagram account @pantry.hill, connecting with a community over a digital grid of photographs is great, but connecting at her kitchen table over her family’s generations-old pie dough recipe is better.
That desire for a tangible exchange with the followers of her burgeoning lifestyle brand was the impetus for a series of seasonal pie-making workshops, hosted at her northern Saratoga property. August’s workshop, featuring peach pie, marked her fourth event open to the public. Like the three that preceded it, and the upcoming apple pie workshop scheduled for October, it was met with much enthusiasm from her audience of over 33,000 followers, and sold out within a week.
“I always thought someday I’d love to invite people here to experience what we’re doing,” says Rozell. “Last summer, I thought ‘What am I waiting for? Let’s just see if anyone might be interested.’ ”
To understand the fervor of the response, one must only spend time scrolling the @pantry.hill Instagram account, where Rozell shares carefully curated snapshots of her domestic life with her husband and high school sweetheart, Eric, and their three young sons.
Rozell’s home is a magazine-worthy study in a “traditional meets cozy” aesthetic– a blend of both Americana and English country house. A butler’s pantry with a generous farmhouse sink (perfect for washing homegrown vegetables from their garden) abuts a boot room that wouldn’t be out of place in a British manor. And paired with every well-composed photograph of this domestic dreamscape are Rozell’s captions, which illustrate the easy rhythms of both her family life, and the changing seasons.
Rozell’s skill at building her social media account comes from both her professional editorial experience in magazines, as well as her background in education and childhood literacy, which she references when articulating exactly what Pantry Hill is, as both a home for her family — where she explores her passions for cooking, baking, and gardening — and as a lifestyle brand.
“Pantry Hill is like a storybook that we’re writing,” she explains. “It’s a lifestyle brand, based on our heritage and home, and how we combine those two things with seasonal living. We draw a lot from our family traditions. What I’m really passionate about is pulling images and telling a beautiful story.”
“We’re sharing the romance of the folk country experience that we’re living.”
That desire to share in a tangible way might be what most sets Rozell and @pantry.hill apart from other lifestyle accounts so popular on Instagram. For now, she has chosen not to monetize her account, foregoing brand partnerships, affiliate links, and sponsored content. Her one foray into products has been a small line of candles, which she collaborates on with a neighbor, and hand pours in her kitchen.
“Right now, I don’t want Pantry Hill to be a quick exchange of money for goods. I want people to feel emotionally connected to what we’re building,” she says.
To bolster that feeling of authentic connection, Rozell literally opens her doors to her followers through the seasonal pie workshops. She caps each event at twelve attendees, to allow for one simultaneous baking session in her oven, and to ensure that each baker benefits from her hands-on instruction, offered from across her kitchen island or farmhouse table.
“I chose the pies because they’re seasonal. Pie is something you really have to get your hands on to know if the dough is going to turn out the way you want it to, and that depends on the humidity, the season, and so many different factors,” she explains.
“The recipe is my great-grandmother’s. So now we’re tying in that history, we’re tying in the educational aspect, and for people who have never made pies before, the hands-on, physical experience is great. Pie is so creative. You can design it however you want. Everyone walks away with something different.”
The pie recipe itself is an homage to her great-grandmother, but it’s clear that Rozell draws great inspiration in general from the women in her family, whose hardworking, resourceful, creative ethos she prizes and hopes to perpetuate. Rozell involves her closest influences by enlisting the help of her sister, aunt, and mother at her workshops, where they greet attendees, pass out baking supplies and materials, and offer practical advice as each guest, donning a signature Pantry Hill monogrammed apron, completes their individual pie and decorates the crust using tools from an impressive collection of both vintage and modern kitchen gadgets.
While the pies bake, guests are escorted out to Rozell’s garden, where a seasonal tablescape sits among the raised beds of vegetables and a charming cottage-esque shed. At each workshop, Rozell invites local experts to share their knowledge or wares in a way that celebrates the fruit at the heart of the pie, be it raspberries, peaches or apples.
For the peach pie workshop, Alex Lempka, executive chef at Hamlet and Ghost, composed a menu of assorted local cheeses, selected to pair with peaches. Attendees were invited to taste them all from a snack board designed and presented by Rozell, also featuring local honey and chocolate. Local wine expert Annmarie Guglielmo presented a tasting of three different wines to compliment peaches as well. Finally, each guest received a sneak peak of what they had spent the afternoon baking, as Rozell served up slices of her own sweet, jammy peach pie, encased in a flaky crust, baked earlier that day.
Rozell has hosted workshop guests from across the country, some coming from as far as Virgina, Maryland, and Maine to experience Pantry Hill in real life.
Louise Hulbert drove from Hancock in Delaware County to attend the peach pie workshop, having discovered Pantry Hill through Instagram and connecting with Rozell’s love of gardening and her sense of style. Before departing with her freshly baked pie, packaged in twine and festooned with a Pantry Hill recipe card, she gave the event a ringing endorsement.
“I saw last year’s photos from a sold-out workshop, and thought ‘I have to do that!’ ” says Hulbert. “I had a very good time. I would highly recommend it, even if you have to travel to get here.”
Carrie Shea, owner of Sugarbush Lane Mercantile in Charlton, echoes Hulbert’s enthusiasm. “I’ve been following Darien on Instagram for years. I heard about the workshop through Instagram and saw the beautiful pictures from last year,” she says. “It looked like a great community event for women and people in this space that have a lot of connection to tradition and things that I love.”
Rozell looks forward to continuing the pie workshops, and possibly expanding into other kinds of creative classes and events that offer an opportunity for her to engage with her followers offline.
“I love getting to teach people. After every single one, I feel so invigorated about the connections I’ve made with the attendees,” she says. “We want people to leave the workshops feeling like they just walked out of their favorite storybook.”
To learn more, visit @pantry.hill on Instagram. For first access to future workshops, sign up for the Pantry Hill email newsletter.
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