I had dinner in a cornfield

Over the weekend, the mister and I were joined by two of our friends for a very cool, farm-to-table dinner.  In fact, our meal was enjoyed in the middle of a cornfield, under a tree.



Before I start romanticizing the scene any more, I will tell you that we were under the tree trying to escape a quick-moving rainstorm. 



Last year, a neighbor friend of ours told us about the French and Pickering Trust's Homegrown Harvest.  It is an outdoor dinner with foodstuffs made by or supplied by local farms and restaurants.  We attended last year's event and had a blast. First of all, the surroundings are gorgeous...the event is held outdoors, atop a hill overlooking the cornfields and marshlands that surround us.

There are tables setup everywhere, topped with wild flowers in Mason jars for decoration. There is a live  bluegrass band playing in the background (I love bluegrass music) and the aromas have your mouth watering.  The dinner is completely all self-serve, so you can enjoy and try a large variety of foods.  Everything from the appetizers to dessert are carefully created using local products or employing the donations of local businesses.

We bought tickets for this year's event and felt raindrops falling just before we got in the car.  But, we knew that the rain was predicted to be fast, so we headed out to the Homegrown Harvest.  Even with a few passing showers, the event was a ton of fun.

This year's menu included: Frank Spera's roast pig, Eden Valley Farm's beef burgers on brioche rolls, Henry's Cafe's cold borscht soup, Amani's BYOB's heirloom tomato gazpacho, Yellow Springs Inn's blueberry soup, Becca's tomato-mozzarella napoleons, grilled spicy lamb sausage, grilled pork sausage, grilled The Farmer's Daughter new potatoes, grilled corn on the cob from Yeagers Farm Market and Pearl's Market, Kimberton CSA Zucchini tart, Sweet onion tart,  Corn and bean salad, Kimberton CSA eggplant pomegranate salad, roasted beets and lima beans with Seven Stars yogurt and feta, Kimberton CSA cucumber salad, wild greens salad, Maysie's Farm CSA potatoes with tomatillo-poblano dressing, corn jalapeno muffins.



I didn't get a chance to sample everything--that would have been too much!  Between the four of us, I am pretty confident that we tasted everything from the menu.  I'm glad that I saved room for dessert, since I had a taste of strawberry-rhubarb pie (never had rhubarb before!), peach cobbler, and fresh whipped cream.  After enjoying this amazing food in gorgeous surroundings, we all went home and went to bed early, because our bellies were so full.

I'm already looking forward to attending next year's dinner.