Farm to Fork dinners
OREGON WINE PRESS STORY, SOUTHERN OREGON MAGAZINE STORY, JACKSONVILLE REVIEW STORY BELOW
OREGON WINE PRESS>Farm to Fork to Your Mouth
A new series of farm dinners in the Rogue Valley awaken palates to local goodness
By Janet Eastman
On June 5, a party will grow at Peter Salant’s remote Jacksonville farm. Musicians will start to perform, guests will arrive and wine will be poured. Then platters of grass-fed beef, wild mushrooms, asparagus and other ingredients raised within reach will be carried out of the kitchen and set under the evening sky on tables that stretch out in front of a garden.
Before sunset, those contributing to the event – farmers, chefs, winemakers and organizers of the Rogue Valley Farm to Fork dinners – will take a bow before a now-stuffed group of people who believe the best food is grown locally and eaten fresh in season.
Thus will launch a new series of farmland dinners designed to put cash in local food producers’ pockets. And remind every eater that fruits, vegetables, meat, seafood, dairy products and bread doesn’t magically appear in grocery stores but is the result of hard labor under the sun, in the rain, frost and snow and finally, delivered to be enjoyed.
Seven Farm to Fork dinners will be held from later spring through fall. Each will be hosted on a different farm: Salant Family Ranch in Jacksonville (June 5); Dunbar Farms’ wheat field in Medford (June 26); Restoration Farm, which grows fruits, nuts and blueberries outside of Ashland (July 31); the Happy Dirt Veggie Patch in Ashland (Aug. 28); Blackberry Lane farm and garden in Grants Pass (Sept. 11); Rogue Valley Brambles pastured poultry farm in Talent (Oct. 9); and finally returning to Dunbar Farms (Nov. 6).
The appetizers, soups, salads, risottos, meat entrees and desserts will be dictated by what’s freshly harvested and prepared by Chefs Matthew Domingo and Kristen Lyon. The two celebrated chefs have helped organized the events along with specialty food producer and teacher Lori Campbell and Sascha Meier, a sustainable business consultant and promoter of small farm agriculture.
Unlike other well-known roving al fresco farm dinners such as Outstanding in the Field, which can cost $220 a person, the suggested minimum donation for a Rogue Valley Farm to Fork event is $60 (plus a tip to the professional servers). This includes a four- to five-course meal, three glasses of wine, a guided tour of the land by the farmer and time to chat with the food providers. The Nov. 6 Season Finale is only $25. “We want to make healthy, local food accessible to everyone,” says Chef Lyon, “and still support our local farm and food economy.”
Suppliers will be compensated and contributions will also be made to support food advocate groups including the Ashland-Talent Growers Collective, Friends of Family Farmers and Rogue Valley Farm to School, which teaches schoolchildren about agriculture and nutrition, and works to incorporate locally produced food into school cafeteria menus.
As for the adults attending the dinners, “Wine is not an afterthought,” says Chef Domingo. The Farm to Fork founders met early on with Southern Oregon winemakers to showcase their Viognier and Pinot Gris, Rose and Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.
Wineries and local farmers have always been joined at the terroir. Participating grape growers and wine producers – Caprice Vineyards, Cowhorn Vineyard & Garden, Quady North Winery, Rocky Knoll Vineyards, RoxyAnn Winery, Trium Wines and Valley View Winery – often offer events in which locally harvested foods are expertly paired with regional wine.
A Farm to Fork dinner is another good example of how “all local” makes sense, says Laura Lotspeich of Trium Wines in Talent. “The foods and wines that go best together all come from the same places,” she says. “The soils that nurture the vines feed the animals, grow the vegetables and fruit. The cheese from the milk and the fish from our rivers are as much the terroir as the wines are.”
She continues: “It is also part and parcel of sustainability to support other local products and producers. More local folks make a better living and we spend less on transportation, the food is fresher and healthier for all of us.”
RoxyAnn Winery holds a weekly grower’s markets on its Medford land and encourages all efforts to bolster small family farms that managing director Michael Donovan calls “the foundation of our Rogue Valley agricultural heritage.” He adds: “We believe in supporting local growers who truly care about good food and the quality of life that can be gained from living close to the earth and its natural rhythms.”
Cattleman Salant can’t wait to host the first Farm to Fork dinner.
“Everyone who attends will be shown that it’s possible to have a great eating experience in an amazing setting and they’ll get to meet the people who produce their food,” he says, while driving through his pasture populated by nonchalant Black Angus cows and curious calves.
Salant bought his picturesque land irrigated by the Little Applegate River in 1994 while he was still a partner in a food distribution company. He moved here with his wife Karen and daughter Carly from Encinitas, California in 1998. A former student member of the 4-H program, he wanted to get back to the land and raise cattle naturally, without filling them with hormones or antibiotics.
A decade later, he’s happy with his decision. “Southern Oregon is the perfect place to raise kids and cattle,” he says.
With a hoped-for 64 guests, this will be the largest party Salant has hosted on his property.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” he says, standing near blooming wisteria. “I love sharing my ranch.”
SOUTHERN OREGON MAGAZINE SUMMER 2010
Farm to Fork: Dining at the source
By Janet Eastman
There’s a dining experience in which the freshest food is served in a postcard setting to patrons who are treated like family. It’s the ideal restaurant. And yet, there’s something boldly inconsistent about it: It’s never the same. Not the menu. Not the wine. Not even the location.
Farm to Fork is a new traveling restaurant set up on farms and ranches throughout the Rogue Valley. The events tap into the specialty of this land and the talents of those who nurture it to produce distinctive meats, produce, dairy and wine.
The seven alfresco dinners are scheduled from June 5 to November 6. Each is hosted by a cattle rancher, a vegetable farmer, a wheat grower or another provider who believes that hard work and sustainable decisions in the field pay off in healthier, tastier food.
Ingredients are selected by hand when they reach their peak, then Chefs Matthew Domingo and Kristen Lyon take over. They use their infinite-cookbook imaginations to create four to five courses, from seasonal soups to salads and risottos. Depending on the day, the entrée could be grass-fed beef or lamb, pastured poultry or pork, or albacore tuna. Vegetarians don’t despair: There will also be platters of just-picked greens, heirloom vegetables, wild mushrooms, berries and fruits.
“To be dining in a setting where the food you are eating is actually produced reaches out to all of the senses,” says Lori Campbell, who founded Farm to Fork with Domingo, Lyon and sustainable business consultant Sascha Meier.
Campbell is also the owner of Blackberry Lane, which supplies specialty produce to restaurants and shoppers at growers markets. Her Grants Pass farm will be the site of the September 11 dinner and a place, she says, along with the others, that “will teach people the incredible bounty of the area, as well as all the steps it takes to actually get this food to the plate.”
Many of the courses will be served family style, giving the 60 or so diners a chance to greet, pass to and connect to the others at their outdoor table.
The suggested minimum donation for the evening – including food, wine, music, a guided tour of pastures, fields and orchards, and a chance to linger long after dessert is served – is $60 per person (excluding gratuity). The November 6 Farm to Fork Season Finale at Dunbar Farms in Medford is only $25. A portion of the money collected will be contributed to Southern Oregon small-scale farmers and programs that promote farm education and local food use in restaurants, markets and schools.
Southern Oregon’s notable wine producers will be introduced at the events, as well. Adult guests can enjoy three glasses of wine and a chance to speak to wine pros from well-known Biodynamic vineyard Cowhorn, large producers RoxyAnn and Valley View, boutique wineries Rocky Knoll, Quady North and Trium, and the newest winery in Jacksonville, Caprice Vineyards.
Caprice owner Jim Davidian seized the opportunity to pour his Cabernet and Chardonnay at the September 11 dinner. He says, “Getting people to know us and our wines is a part of sharing. What better way to enjoy all this than the Farm to Fork events?”
There is another element to these dinners: You. The farmers and the Farm to Fork organizers want it known that supporting local providers helps them and all of us. It rewards small-scale producers who take the slower, more hands-on approach. It encourages them to grow what’s hard to find in grocery stores. And it gives them their well-deserved time on center stage.
Eating local food, too, also boosts our economy: Every dollar spent at a small business, say experts, gets circulated three times in our community. Buying locally, too, cuts down on transportation waste.
Beyond economics, though, is good old-fashion taste. What’s pulled from Southern Oregon’s patch of the planet has flavors and aromas unlike anything trucked here.
“The dinners will be the finest food this valley has to offer, creatively prepared with heart and joy,” says Blackberry Lane’s Campbell. “Once people taste the difference of farm fresh, sustain-ably raised food, they will question shopping at a grocery store again. Once people learn why to support the local economy, they will be more apt to.”
Besides, what could possibly be a better dining experience than biting into a peach still warm from the same rays of the sun shining on you?
Janet Eastman writes for national publications and covers Southern Oregon wine for www.examiner.com. Her work can be seen at www.janeteastman.com.
Farm to Fork dinners will be held June 5 at Salant Family Ranch in Jacksonville; June 26 at Dunbar Farms’ wheat field in Medford; July 31 at Restoration Farm outside of Ashland; August 28 at the Happy Dirt Veggie Patch in Ashland; September 11 at Blackberry Lane farm and garden in Grants Pass; October 9 at Rogue Valley Brambles pastured poultry farm in Talent; and returning November 6 to Dunbar Farms.
Farm to Fork
$60-75 suggested donation ($35 for Season Finale)
http://farmtoforkevents.com
farmtoforkevents@gmail.com
(503) 473-3952
JACKSONVILLE REVIEW
Farm to Fork: The Latest and Tastiest Way to Support the Local Food Movement
By Janet Eastman
You don’t have to be told that these strawberries were just picked. You can taste it. Chew into those teeny seeds. Relish the juicy explosion and the flavors that linger. And with every luscious bite, smile knowing that you’ve just helped a farmer and contributed to the local food movement.
Now, wasn’t that easy?
Fortunately, there are many ways to support Jackson County farmers, from buying directly from them at growers markets to subscribing to a community supported agriculture collective and receiving a box of fresh food every week.
New this year is Farm to Fork, a series of dinners held on farms in which the meat, vegetables or fruit was nurtured.
Imagine you, as the diner, getting to sit at a long table under the evening sky with 59 others who also like the idea of eating healthy, flavorful food picked in season and prepared by talented chefs: Matthew Domingo, an Oregon Culinary Institute graduate who worked at Portland’s respected Park Kitchen, and Kristen Lyon, a personal chef and event caterer who created artisan dinners at the Garden Bistro in Jacksonville’s McCully House.
The cost: $60, which includes music, a tour of the farm by the owner, a five-course meal and three glasses of wine, made from grapes that also benefit from this region’s soil and sun.
Herb Quady of Quady North in Jacksonville will pour his wines at the July 31 dinner. “We decided to participate because we like the concept and are excited about supporting local producers,” he says. “This integrates well with our own series of Friday Food Pairings, where we feature local producers in our tasting room, pairing their produce with selected wines. Wine is nothing more than an extension of agriculture and it's great to work in tandem.”
The season finale barbecue hoedown on Nov. 6 cost $35 to attend. Proceeds from all the events benefit local farmers and organizations supporting small farms, food security and greater accessibility to local food.
Food and Friendship
Is it the experience or the food that makes Farm to Fork dinners so special, so talked about, so almost sold out?
People who attended the first dinner on June 5 at Salant Family Farm in Jacksonville might not completely remember that they were treated to crunchy white spring radishes stuffed with chevre cheese and fresh herbs, chewy sourdough toasts topped with spiced carrot puree, earthy asparagus and mushroom soup, smoky New York roast on crispy potatoes with garlic sauce, and creamy vanilla semifreddo with rhubarb compote. Oh, and those delicious strawberries.
But they do remember the quality of the food. And the generous portion size. And the way chefs Domingo and Lyon would break away from their outdoor kitchen to stand near the long tables to introduce the people who provided each unique taste: The baker. The rancher. The farmer who pulled shallots from the ground hours before and rushed them over so they could be one of the stars of the flank steak and Rogue Creamery blue cheese salad’s vinaigrette.
And sometime before the end of the meal, after meeting each other over glasses of Valley View Winery’s Anna Maria Viognier, Tempranillo and Syrah, everyone attending became a believer that the best way to support local farmers, ranchers, wineries and chefs is to eat and drink local.
It has been estimated that only 3 percent of what we eat here is grown in our lush valleys. Local growers need more from our food budget. Buying from neighboring farms help those who have been toiling their soil for generations. And young families who believe they can live off the land and sell a little of their surplus cheese, carrots, chickens. And older adults who stepped away from their first career to get back to the principles they learned in 4H or to live a life they dreamed about. Something lures them to bust their muscles in the sun, slosh through the rain and pray the frost and snow doesn’t wipe them out. They depend on us.
As Barbara Kingsolver writes in her well-researched book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,” “You can’t save the whales by eating whales, but paradoxically, you can help save rare, domesticated foods by eating them. They’re kept alive by gardeners who have a taste for them, and farmers who know they’ll be able to sell them.”
At the end of the first Farm to Fork dinner, Jeff Golden, who is running for Jackson County Commissioner, was invited to talk about ways to rev up the small farm economy so more people could make a living. No one wanted heavy campaign talk, and Golden hit the right key of unity:
“On the campaign trail you run into a lot of gloom out there, most recently after the oil disaster in the Gulf,” he said. “What we've heard tonight are exciting, inspiring possibilities for turning our community and country around.”
He praised Farm to Fork and the event's beneficiaries, food advocate groups such as the Ashland-Talent Growers Collective, Friends of Family Farmers and Rogue Valley Farm to School, as practical programs that help people reconnect to the land and support our local economy.
“It's up to us to spread the word every way we can think of, to give people we know hope and inspiration and specific ways to get involved, to get motivated again to make a difference,” he added. “The local food movement is showing, right now, today, that it can be the center of that critical shift. Let's let people know about it!”
FARM TO FORK DINNERS will be held:
June 5 at Salant Farm in Jacksonville
June 26 at Dunbar Farms in Medfor
July 31 at Restoration Farm in Ashland with Magnolia Farm grass-fed lamb and Quady North Winery wine
August 28 at the Happy Dirt Veggie Patch in Ashland with Port Orford sustainable seafood and Cowhorn Vineyard & Garden wine
September 11 at Blackberry Lane in Grants Pass with Willow-Witt Ranch pastured pork and Caprice Vineyard wine
October 9 at Rogue Valley Brambles farm in Talent featuring its poultry paired with Trium wines
November 6 season finale location, menu, winery and brewery to be announced
The suggested donation for a ticket is $60 (plus gratuity), which includes five courses, wine, music and a guided tour of the farm. Tickets for the Season Finale are $35.
For more info: Contact founder Sascha Meier at farmtoforkevents@gmail.com or visit the website at http://farmtoforkevents.com or call (503) 473-3952.
Janet Eastman writes for national publications and covers Southern Oregon wine for www.examiner.com. Her work can be seen at www.janeteastman.com