We don’t bring our long table to Utah too often, but when we do, wow! With its kaleidoscopic, water-carved landscape of pink cliffs and lava-lamp hoodoos, it’s a trippily beautiful place! We first visited Red Acre Farm in 2018 and vowed to be back some day. That day has come. This is a high-desert location, at 6000 feet elevation about an hour from Zion National Park. The Patterson family left southern California for Utah in 2005 and now grow year-round in the red dirt of southern Utah, inspired by the boundless enthusiasm of daughter Sara. Sadly, Dad Lynn passed on in 2015, but the indomitable mother-and-daughter team of Symbria and Sara continue to do amazing things here, providing devoted CSA members with nutrient-dense produce, meat, dairy and baked goods from the Red Acre fields and farm kitchen. Guest chef Shon Foster will make magic with our farmers’ summer bounty. At his Kanab restaurant Sego, Shon cooks up a rotating menu of shared New American small plates, celebrating unique flavors and food traditions across the country while sourcing as much as possible from farms and producers within the fine state of Utah. Shon cooked us an epic feast for our last event at Red Acre and we are thrilled to welcome him back to the field kitchen!
Archives: Events
Events
Wild Harmony Farm
Farmers Ben and Rachael raise cows, chickens and pigs as close to the “wild” as possible: they roam freely through acres of lush pastures dotted with wildflowers and thick woodlands. This is a very inspiring place and an equally beautiful spot to dine outdoors. This year, chef Benjamin Sukle will return to the field kitchen to cook us a feast of Wild Harmony’s thoughtfully raised meat plus lots of peak summer vegetables and fruits. Chef Benjamin has quite the culinary resume, including a brief stint at Noma in Copenhagen and two James Beard nominations for Best Chef: Northeast. At Oberlin, he’s known for creative, seasonally driven menus that celebrate the rich agricultural landscape of Rhode Island. His homemade sourdough bread and nduja were big hits at the table last time around — perhaps we’ll see an encore this year?
McArthur Gulch
Guest chef Kelly Whitaker is one of the most celebrated chefs in Colorado, with two James Beard awards under his belt and a spot on Bon Appetit’s Ten Best New Restaurants list in 2019. At The Wolf’s Tailor, he’s known for intricate and creative menus highlighting Colorado’s wild edibles and game. He also grows his own vegetables and herbs, mills local heritage grains for his bread, utilizes whole animal butchery, and practices an impressive low-waste culinary program. We are thrilled to have him back in the field kitchen at McArthur Gulch after a fantastic event last year. This 480-acre expanse of land protected by the Colorado Land Board Trust encompasses rolling grasslands, woodland, and wildlife including elk calving grounds and goshawk nesting areas. The view from the field kitchen doesn’t get much better than this. Same goes for the table. Guests audibly gasped last year when they saw the table revealed in a sweeping meadow of tall grass and wildflowers.
McArthur Gulch
A second night at this majestic spot in the Colorado Rockies. Once again, we’ll dine in a vast meadow dotted with wildflowers and surrounded by rolling hills, woodland and wildlife beneath summer skies. Guest chef Caroline Glover cooked a fantastic feast for us at the Gulch last year—and we are thrilled to have her back! Her Aurora Restaurant Annette has made big waves in the Rocky Mountain food scene since it opened in 2016 and has earned her quite a few James Beard nominations. This year, she’s a finalist for the Best Chef: Mountain category! Her menu last year featured all sorts of glorious summer produce from area farms and freshwater fish caught in nearby mountain streams. We can’t wait to see what she cooks up this year.
Gainey Vineyard
At this lush ranch in the rolling hills of California’s central coast, host vintner Jeff LeBard and his team tend to a variety of warmer-climate grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc and transform that fruit into some very lovely wines. After a reception at the historic barn, we’ll take a stroll around the property and settle into the table set in their sun-soaked vineyard or under the shade of the live oaks, depending on the weather. Then we’ll sip on a sampling of Gainey Family wines while guest chefs Jeff and Janet Olsson of Industrial Eats work their magic in the field kitchen. This husband-and-wife chef team has cooked for us several times over the years at many equally extraordinary sites. They’re also masters of the wood-burning oven and good friends with a slew of sustainable farms, foragers and fisherpeople across the Central Coast which they’ll source from for the menu.
Gainey Vineyard
One long table set between the vines surrounded by rolling golden hills and the pink light of early summer sun. A place like this deserves two nights. This plot of land in the eastern end of Santa Ynez Valley is ideal for growing warmer-climate grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc and host vintner Jeff LeBard and his team transform all that high-quality fruit into some very scrumptious wines in their on-site cellar. We’ll sample many varieties of their delicious wines alongside our meal from guest chefs Lauren and Christina Olufson. Lauren and Christina have quite the culinary chops between the two of them, including long tenures at Suzanne Goin’s a.o.c. and Luques in L.A. In 2019, the couple opened Bossie’s Kitchen in Santa Barbara in The Live Oak Dairy building, a Milpas Street landmark built in the last phase of Art Deco in the late 1930’s. At Bossies, they’re committed to sourcing local and organic ingredients from the abundance of area farms. This dynamic duo cooked for us earlier this year at Dos Pueblos Orchid Farm and we are thrilled to have them back in the field kitchen.
Oxbow Farm & Conservation Center
This is a supremely strong pairing of farm and chef. Last year’s event was one of our most inspiring to date. Oxbow is a 240-acre non-profit farm, protected forest, conservation and education center dedicated to regenerative agriculture, environmental education, and native plant restoration. They grow a huge amount of organic produce for the Seattle community, including hunger relief organizations and local schools. Melissa Miranda is a deeply conscientious and talented chef who draws inspiration from the Filipino flavors and food traditions of her childhood. During the pandemic, she converted her Seattle restaurant Musang into a community kitchen serving those in need. We are thrilled to see what she brings to the field kitchen this time around — we’re still thinking about last year’s local cod with calamansi vinaigrette.
Forlorn Hope
This vineyard and winery is the brainchild of host vintner Matthew Rorick and the result of his very hardworking team of vignerons, farmworkers and cellar hands. We feel quite lucky to dine among their 75 acres of organically grown grapes in the Sierra Foothills — where steep rows of vines are surrounded by thick woods and cascading hills gleaming under the California sun. The property’s limestone soils and 2,000 ft. elevation make for elegant, distinctive wines with deep aromatics, texture, and acidity. And low intervention winemaking without additives or commercial yeasts means the wines maintain their natural terroir. We’ll taste all those delicious wines alongside a Mediterranean meal from guest chef Kevin O’Connor. He’s a Sierra Foothills native passionate about hunting, foraging, and cooking outdoors. He’s also a self proclaimed olive oil geek and a certified olive oil sommelier. This is bound to be a fun one.
Taylor Shellfish
Taylor Shellfish is home to some of the most celebrated oysters in the Pacific — and their property along the Puget Sound is a certifiably beautiful place to dine. The Taylor family has farmed shellfish in the Puget Sound since 1890 and have been pioneers of sustainability from the beginning. We’ll get a crash course on oyster farming from the family at the table while we slurp on fresh shellfish raised right beyond our seats. The evening also will include a diurnal display of mother ocean, with the tide rising and falling (you may get your feet wet) and a waxing moon. Guest chef Cameron Hanin will wear his wellies to cook up the evening’s feast in the field kitchen. Cameron has an impressive culinary resume of celebrated kitchens in NYC and Seattle and is currently the Chef and Pizzaiolo at Lupo, where he cooks up Neapolitan pies, pastas, and wood-roasted local vegetables. He’s also the chef/owner of Guerrilla Pizza Kitchen, a naturally leavened pizza pop-up where he combines elements of music, art and politics into his food. Come hungry!
Lower Town Farm
Gordon Ramsey calls the meat from this farm “the best tasting meat in the world.” On this 500-year-old family farm, host farmer Matt Chatfield is a passionate and conscientious sheep farmer and a staunch supporter of regenerative agriculture. For the last ten years, his Cornwall Project has established working relationships with some of London’s best chefs to shorten their restaurant supply chains and boost the local farming economies. Matt raises beef cattle and “cull yaws” – the Cornish term for retired sheep slaughtered at 5-6 years – and partners with famed butcher Philip Warren to dry-age the meat. We’ll host a tight team of chefs in the field kitchen, including Cornwall native Ben Quinn who brings expertise in wood-fired and outdoor cooking. Longtime OITF friend Adam Dulye will hop the pond to join Ben for a feast that celebrates cull yaw as much as the summer bounty of Southwest England’s vibrant farming community. And Jim plans to do some drawing in the sand along the rugged Cornwall coast.