good fresh food,” said General Manager Steven Cartwright, on the preparation and planning needed to keep guests fed on the remote property.     
 
Since opening in October 2024, The Farm has quietly welcomed A-list celebrities. Rumors of Denzel Washington and Ludacris sightings only add to its intrigue, but it’s the resort’s Sunday Brunch that’s creating serious buzz. 
 
THE SUNDAY BRUNCH 
 
Brunch at The Farm is as much about connection as cuisine. Guests — from six to sixty — gather around a single, shaded long table under canvas sails that lend a safari-style flair. As servers bring out the family-styled pescatarian spread, the casual dining style allows for conversation to flow amidst strangers, who at any given time in any other part of the world, may never have crossed paths or bothered to talk to each other. 
 
But leaving one's usual self behind is the entire point of The Farm’s growing Sunday Brunch of elevated Bahamian cuisine dining. 
 
To my right, there is a Connecticut family with two teenage daughters enjoying the hummus, while a Florida couple to my left enjoy the endless mango-ritas. Across the way is a Bahamian family with twin five-year-olds who love the johnny cake, and at the far end is a joyous wedding party mixed in with a sizable Australian family celebrating their matriarch’s 70^th birthday and staying at The Ocean View Club – the original LIH property located on Harbour Island’s Pink Sands Beach. They’re talking about going to lounge on a beach after brunch at The Other Side – LIH’s second hotel, just a rocky path away from The Farm.  
Conversation flows throughout the three-course feast, beginning with just-picked salads, followed by grilled Spanish Wells fish with mango salsa, coconut grits, and warm johnny cake. Dessert? House-made mango sorbet and irresistible chocolate chip cookies. 
 
“That’s actually my grandmother’s cookie recipe,” said Ben Simmons, the founder of LIH. “And the recipe for the johnny cake is from Steven’s grandmother, from Long Island.”  
“These are recipes that have been passed down [and although] they never wrote anything down, the energy of those recipes is alive in the kitchen and passes onto the plates.” 
 
From roots to vision: the LIH legacy 
 
Legacy runs deep for Simmons. Raised at The Ocean View Club, he watched his parents run the resort — his dad fixing furniture, his mom serving as chef and bookkeeper. Years later, when his mother stepped back, Simmons took over, eventually acquiring and expanding the brand.

He and his wife later opened The Other Side - a serene, off-the-grid escape on commonage land in nearby North Eleuthera - and what started as a support farm for both resorts eventually became The Farm as it is today. 
 
“We did The Farm as a utility,” Simmons explained. “The decision to turn it into a hotel gave us a new ‘why’. We’re not just a hotel for hotel’s sake. We wanted to be a part of the community and try to find a common ground. That's really the point.” 
 
The Farm is a fusion of education, hospitality, and agriculture all interacting in a space where hospitality dollars come into the community and move through the vehicle of education.  
“One percent of the top line cash that comes through the company immediately goes to community programs,” he shared.

Initiatives like a summer arts camp for kids called Space to Create are run during the off-season, when travel slows. Simmons hopes to grow the company’s educational outreach arm by next year.

But that’s not all. Simmons has big plans to expand the LIH brand, with a fourth property already underway in Current, Eleuthera. He is a supporter of Bahamians on other islands following in his path, using the resources around them to start businesses. 
 
“We’re so blessed in The Bahamas,” he said. “We often overlook how rich we are in natural resources. We can use what we already have to create something meaningful.”

The takeaway from The Farm? 
Sometimes, the dustiest roads lead to the most unexpected treasures. And at this sustainable hideaway, simplicity is more than a philosophy, it’s a lifestyle worth rediscovering.

FACT BOX: 
Like many other properties in Eleuthera and Harbour Island, The Farm is closed during peak hurricane season from August to the end of October.

INTRO: This popular farm-to-table resort has seen A-list celebrities and musicians grace its grounds for meals. Rapidly gaining traction is its Sunday Brunch at The Farm, that can seat anywhere from six to 60 people around a long table shaded by chic canvas sails that provide a certain African safari-style ambiance. Sugar cane and several varieties of mango trees, papaya, dilly, avocado, coconut trees, a banana grove, and other kinds of fruit are strewn throughout the property.