25 May 2009

FIELD OF DREAMS


It was going to take something special to get me back on the blog.
Not Heidi and Spencer getting married, not Adam Lambert's gayness, something even more delicious.
The farm dinner we went to a few weeks ago, and D's subsequent Campylobacter poisoning (unrelated), were just the things.

Friends Kate and Aaron took us to Outstanding in the Field, a farm-to-table dining extravaganza, hosted by Santa Cruz native Jim Denevan.
This guy had swagger.
These traveling dinner parties happen all over the country (even in Canada, eh), pairing up a local farmer and chef for an outdoor dining adventure featuring the farm's products and the chef's expertise.
A few basics: you can't be a wimp about bugs or weather; it's probably not a good idea to wear five-inch heels (somebody did anyway); and you're gonna be dining with complete strangers, so buck up and make a new friend or take a Xanax already.

We were greeted in the parking lot by the first of many fresh-faced farmgirls that are part of the whole Outstanding experience. A stylish shuttlebus with Carnival Cruiseline upholstry carried us (at alarming speeds) over a secret bridge, up sloping hills to a peak atop Devil's Gulch Ranch.
Beautiful, even through the fog.

After a few glasses of introductory Stubbs Chardonnay and many rounds of superlative crostini (with fava beans, mint and fresh sheep's milk ricotta), we took a picturesque path through the vineyard for the pig tour.
Yes, pig tour!
We met day-old piglets and while it was hard to imagine them as dinner-ready in a few months, our guilt subsided once we encountered the aroma of slow-roasted porchetta warming on the grill, manned by Perbacco chef Staffan Terje.

The meal was a locavore's wet dream. Burrata cheese with grilled Zuckerman Farm asparagus. Devil's Gulch rabbit ravioli. The aforementioned pork with cherry panzanella.
And if I wasn't full by then, I definitely was after the beautiful Yerena Farm strawberry crostata with Bellwether creme fraiche was served up.
Swoon.
I went to bed singing EE-I-EE-I-O.


1 comment:

Heather said...

The meal of meals. Well accounted for! Fetch thee to another field! Wonderfully done, woman.