I joined my parents for a fun night at the Wind Ridge Herb Farm for a dinner with herbs! The farm is doing one per month during the summer, and we had a gorgeous night for it. Several tables were set out on the lawn and the chef worked under a tent at one end of the group. She picked herbs from the various plants growing in the surrounding gardens and used produce from local farmers. Her local restaurant tries to use as many local resources as possible, too, which was neat to hear.Each course
had a different wine from local wine shops/wineries, which also gave a neat local flair to the event. We started with a several kinds of appetizers and salads. This watermelon one had onions, salt, pepper, mint, onions and Calendula flowers for garnish (see those little orange pieces?)--quite yummy.We then moved into a couple
of main and vegetable dishes. I'm afraid I don't remember the herbs in the dish pictured here, but I do recall she used Chinese Five Spice in the buckwheat noodles (Chip and I are always looking for uses for that stuff--we have a small jar). And, no, I didn't eat my prawn: Chip got it.Dessert, of course, was last and was fantastic. The chef made two little ones for us to try: strawberries sautéd in a little balsamic vinegar, tossed with a little mint and then tucked next to a scoop of ice cream. And, this little figgy beauty:
Overall, the night was quite relaxing and we enjoyed getting to try little bits of different things. And the chef gave some great tips, like when sautéing vegetables, add a little butter right at the end to give a little burst of flavor. She also said to freeze leftover fruit salad to use in sangria later (she also put mint in her sangria--it was rather unique!). Everyone got to take one of the herbal centerpieces as a 'thank you for coming', so now we have some sweet marjoram to play with! Plus, Chip and I are inspired to do something like this for our friends--either cook fresh or use fresh herbs in every dish.
We'll have to see if Northwinds does this!
Book recommendation: Here Are My Hands by Bill Martin, Jr.
Recipe recommendation: Watermelon Salad
Movie recommendation: Der Tunnel
3 comments:
I saw a show on PBS all about having big parties with the local food. it looked really interesting and your post made me think of that show!
To have an entire meal prepared with herbs presented before me would be like a little bit of Heaven. How lucky to have such a nice evening out!
Chip and I are hoping Bible study folks will be able to come over the end of August and we can do this for them!
In the meantime, we're gathering recipes to use the herbs we have a little more frequently in our everyday meals. And taking advantage of what's ripe now--like squash and zucchini.
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