small things...

Dinner on the farm

I first had dinner at Heritage Prairie Farm a year ago (Earth Day) with a bunch of girlfriends.  We were newly bonding over our shared love of local foods and had a really wonderful night eating dinner in the barn and touring the greenhouses.

So last night I went back with another good friend for a summer dinner on the farm.  It was a gorgeous (though steamy) night.  The food again was amazing, the people all giddy and excited to be hanging out on the farm having dinner.  It feels a little like being in on a secret (though with a good 50 other people there, it’s hardly a secret.)  Farm dinners are apparently the next big thing (are the current big thing?) for the foodie contingency.  I know why  - and here’s my evidence:

 

Upon arrival we were greeted with a “Welcome Cocktail”: The French 75
(sparkling wine, Deaths Door Gin from Washington Island, Lemon and Sugar)

We arrived just in time for a tour of the farm (something we missed the first time I was there due to an amazing and torrential rain storm!)

I totally couldn’t hear at all but was happy to just tool around sniff the dirt, peek at all the veggies and marvel at everything they had going on on this farm.  Take your own peek:

This is a portable greenhouse.  My friend Mike (who used to work on this farm, wrote about these greenhouses here, many moons ago).  Mike and his family now run their own farm in Iowa

See this crazy jungle? Those are tomato plants!  7 feet tall – thick and healthy.  It was amazing to walk through those plants.  Apparently they have tomatoes growing in 2 greenhouses – one that is a bit more maintained and this one, where they let the tomatoes grow wild.  Everyone was oohing and ahhing all the way through

Oh, Nature! sometimes you make me blush

creepy, creepy garlic

 

But now for the really good stuff:  DINNER!

veggies all from the farm!

veggies and chicken all up on my plate!

“Oh, hello…”  Not the friend I brought with me to dinner, but I did contemplating making this the friend I brought home from dinner!

This is what dinner on the farm looks like.

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I spent much of the evening contemplating my new life down on the farm.  I’m not so sure how great I’d be at the demanding physical labor.  But the dinner parties I could get used to.

Guru’s aren’t for everyone

I had the opportunity recently to have a 1 hour conversation with a woman who I thought very highly of, admired for the way she’s taken life head on and wanted to learn something from.  I secretly hoped maybe she could be my guru.  That finally I would meet someone from whom I would be willing to learn life’s secrets from.  I have long suspected that i am not the guru-having type.  I am a doubter, skeptical by nature. 

This is how I imagine conversations going with me and potential gurus:

Guru: Why do you seek me, my dear?

Me: I want to know the secret to life…

Guru: *whispers the answer into my ear*

Me, with a scrunched up face and a wave of the hand while I turn to walk away: Naaaahhhh.

I have felt for awhile as if I am on the precipice of my own major life change only I’m stuck at the edge of it.  I keep seeking out answers to try to figure out how to make the move forward.  which direction to take etc…etc…Speaking with my would-be guru was one of these quests for answers.

It didn’t work out.  She didn’t tell me much that I didn’t already know.  There were no major light bulb moments.  Ultimately her story is just not going to be my story.  Plus, she said that dairy was the devil.  And I don’t trust anyone who believes in those kinds of absolutes.  Guru’s are all about absolutes.  Which doesn’t bode well for my other guru applicants.

Just kidding.  I’m not accepting applications.