This vibrant ecological oasis in San Juan Capistrano is an undeniably beautiful place to set the long table. The 28-acre bounty of organic vegetables, fruit trees, and flowers is surrounded by a swath of rolling hills and is close enough to the coast to catch a whiff of the sea. It’s also quite inspiring to hear from host farmer Evan Marks, a visionary when it comes to building a more sustainable, community-driven future. He converted this once vacant lot into the bountiful agricultural center it is today. And he continues to serve the community through educational programming, community outreach, farm apprenticeships and festivities. We’ll honor that vision with a shared meal from chefs Ashley and Tyler Wells, the enthusiastic and talented team behind L.A.’s beloved All Time. Their unique and colorful menus are known to showcase the glorious local produce of Southern California — so they’re sure to have some fun with the winter bounty at The Ecology Center.
On our second night at Dos Pueblos, we welcome chef team Lauren Herman and Christina Olufson to this coastal dreamscape. 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. 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 Bossie’s, they’re committed to sourcing local and organic ingredients from the abundance of area farms.
Cross the 23-mile causeway over Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans and you can find yourself in John and Nancy Bartlett’s bountiful oasis of flower fields and vegetable beds. We first came to Bartlett Farm in 2014 and it’s now one of our favorite stops along our yearly trek across the South. Once again, we’ll set the table between fields of blooming blossoms — and enjoy a Big Easy feast of wild-caught Gulf Coast seafood, John and Nancy’s naturally grown vegetables, and other local delights. Guest chef Alfredo Nogueira is known for his hyper-seasonal menus that combine New Orleans Cajun and Creole cuisine with the flavors of his Cuban heritage. Expect everything from tostones and empanadas with house-made hot sauce to crawfish croquettes and conch salad.
A fragrant orange grove, a couple of charming farmers, and a friendly flock of egg-laying fowl. All that plus a meal from guest chefs Albert DeSue and Mike Camacho of Mockingbird to the field kitchen. Mockingbird is known for its progressive and eclectic tasting menus featuring hyperlocal ingredients and inventive takes on Florida cuisine. Think crab salad, Gulf coast oysters, and a smattering of Florida-grown fruits and vegetables — from star fruit to okra to avocados to amaranth. This is bound to be a fun one.
Lush beds of organically grown vegetables, tropical fruit trees heavy with ripe winter fruit, a flock of free-running pastured hens. That’s about as good as it gets. Holman’s Harvest is an inspiring place to spend an afternoon, especially when feasting on a meal sourced with ingredients growing right behind your seat. After a stroll around the farm, we’ll take a seat at the long table set somewhere between their thriving garden beds (or perhaps in the coconut grove?) for a meal showcasing the best of what the farm has to offer from guest chef Niven Patel. Patel was inducted into Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs Class of 2020 for his passion for locally sourced ingredients which serves as the cornerstone of his cooking philosophy at Orno, his latest venture in Miami.
When we first visited Mexico City in January 2020, we were captivated by the chinampas of Xochimilco. The floating gardens of Xochimilco date back to the Aztecs, who created a system of agriculture with crops grown on small islands built-up on interwoven reeds in the shallow freshwater lake beds of the Valley of Mexico. Host farmer Lucio Usobiaga founded Arca Tierra to conserve this ancient farming system. The maze of canals surrounding the floating farms are plied by colorful gondola-like boats festooned with garlands of flowers — quite the jovial setting for a long table meal.
Sweetwater Organic Community Farm is a six-acre parcel of overflowing goodness in the suburbs of Tampa. Here, along Sweetwater Creek, farmer Chris Kenrick and his crew grow organic vegetables and herbs, sharing the harvest with hundreds of Tampa Bay residents through the area’s oldest-running CSA program and farmers’ market. Farmer Chris, who also founded the St. Pete EcoVillage, is a true champion of local foodsheds and sustainable agriculture and believes in building community from the ground up. We’ll toast a glass to that community when we sit down for dinner from award-winning chef Ferrell Alvarez of Rooster & The Till. The Tampa Bay Times named Rooster & The Till the best restaurant in Tampa for two years in a row — and Ferrell has a James Beard nomination under his belt. He’ll cook up quite the feast among Sweetwater’s flourishing fields.
