Last Saturday evening Papa and I dropped the urchins at my parents house and headed to the farm. We were off to a fancy dinner, with a fancy chef, hosted by a fancy downtown restaurant group, at our farm. Yes, you read right, the dinner was at our CSA farm.
The event was promoted as a homage to farm fresh food and the farmers who grow it. And I think the idea was to get some city dwellers out to the the country to see where their food is grown and to meet some of the farmers who grow it. We aren’t city dwellers — I had never even heard of the restaurant or chef before that evening — but we are foodies and the dinner was in the heart of where our food comes from. The evening started in a peach orchard with passed hors d’œuvres and sparkling wine.
After a little while we all — about 100-150 guests I’d say — walked down to an open field in the middle of our farm that was set with one long table. I was talking to the woman who runs our farm and told her that Katie and Tristan call her their farmer. I think they believe she grows food just for them. She told me to tell them that they are right, she is their farmer, and it is their farm. Love that lady!
The food was fabulous. In fact it was so good that I forgot to take any photos of it. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the continuous flow of local wine. Colleen of foodietots did take photos of her plates though so thanks go to her for the food photos. We had salad with a deviled egg, ham wrapped scallop with a beet and radish crudo, and crab cakes with oak leaf lettuce.
These two photos courtesy of Colleen of foodietots.Everything was served family style and we had wonderful conversations with the people around us. We were the only ones in our part of the table who live out towards farmland and we explained what a CSA was countless times. I felt a bit evangelical about the whole eating local thing and how important our farm is to us. I was really proud to know that our urchins know that their food comes from a farm and who grows it for them. Sure, it takes effort but I know the payoff will be great. I recently heard Katie tell a friend My mommy makes everything from scratch. And while that isn’t true I’m so glad they know what food looks like and where it comes from.
And speaking of food, the extravaganza continued with a mixed grill including two cuts of beef, bison, and rabbit accompanied by red potato salad with grilled shallots. I didn’t try the rabbit, but everything else was delicious — and Stefan says the rabbit was great too. All the meat was prepared in a kitchen the chef had set-up in the field. The final course was dessert which included a chèvre cheesecake with strawberry black pepper preserves — you know I’ll be trying to make this sometime — and peanut cookies with iced espresso.
The sun set behind the hills and we walked through the grain fields back to our car. We had a wonderful time and I really can’t think of a better way to celebrate this year’s longest day.
