Regions: South / Southwest

This 3,000-acre ranch in South Texas is home to hundreds of Wagyu cattle, goats, sheep, horses and water buffalo who happily graze on green and golden pastures. There’s also a few real life cowboys who may ride by as we dine beneath the Big Texas Sky. The Peeler family has been raising cattle here for more than a century and take great pride in humane handling, high-quality processing and soil-healthy practices like rotational grazing. Guest chef John Brand is a big fan of the ranch and we’re thrilled to host him in the field kitchen for the fourth year in a row. The restaurant at Hotel Emma is consistently one of San Antonio’s hottest spots, with a creative farm-to-table menu that highlights the region’s multicultural foodways and its year-round agricultural bounty.

We were slated to go to Bonton for the first time in 2020 with Chef Chad Houser lined up for the field kitchen. That didn’t happen. When the bus finally rolled into town last year, it was such a fabulous experience, we knew we wanted to do it again. You’re invited to mosey on over for a delicious dinner and a big dose of inspiration. Daron Babcock and son Beau run a 40-acre organic farm in the low-income area of South Dallas that was once a food desert. The farm also brings seeds of change to the community with education programs that address health, personal finance, and housing challenges, all designed to disrupt the long-standing cycle of poverty in Bonton. Café Momentum also started from an altruistic idea; it’s a non-profit restaurant and professional training facility that works with young men and women exiting juvenile detention. Chef Chad is known for his can-do demeanor and signature dish: smoked fried chicken. Not to mention charcuterie, cheeses and vinegars, all made in-house by hardworking interns. Come for a good time you can feel seriously good about.

Blackwood is a non-profit, 33-acre teaching farm with a variety of crops, medicinal herbs, laying hens, and honey bees. Their mission is to model how regenerative agriculture practices can positively impact the planet and improve our food system. Blackwood serves local youth through summer camps and field trips while hosting workshops, tours, and weekly volunteer events for the community. We will honor that important work with a meal from guest chef Justin Yu and his superstar team at Houston’s Hotel Lucine, Squable, Theodore Rex and Better Luck Tomorrow. His three restaurants are some of Houston’s very best — known for elevated European-American menus with creative twists, locally sourced ingredients and award-winning cocktails. Over the years, they’ve won a long list of accolades from Bon Appetit, Food & Wine and James Beard. Big talent in the field kitchen at this supremely inspiring place.

Night two at this inspiring 33-acre educational farm where host farmer Cath Conlon and her team tend to a variety of vegetables, fruits, laying hens and apiaries. The farm calls itself a “living laboratory,” using restorative agriculture practices to find the essential balance between land preservation and food production. Blackwood serves local youth through summer camps and field trips while hosting workshops, tours, and weekly volunteer events for the community. Our farm tour will tell you even more. Guest chef Dawn Burrel will cook the evening’s meal in the field. Dawn is an Olympic-athlete-turned-chef. In 2000, she competed in the Summer Olympics as a long jumper representing Team USA. In 2021, she competed on Bravo’s Top Chef. After traveling the world with the USA’s Track & Field team, she worked in a slew of celebrated Texas kitchens including Uchi and Kulture. Her newest venture Late August opens in Houston this summer — with a menu that aims to “bring the soul of Afro-Asian flavors to the table.”

Bring your bandanas. Luck is Willie Nelson’s place. Usually folks come here to listen to great live music. We’re beyond tickled to bring our table to the Farm Aid pioneer’s own spread to celebrate what ranchers Tina and Orion are doing here – proving that regenerative farming techniques can work with modern technology to grow good food at scale and maintain harmony with the native habitat. Ranchers Tina and Orion Weldon founded TerraPurezza in 2015 on 5 acres of family land. In 2020, Willie Nelson’s wife Annie invited them to move onto the 500-acre Luck Ranch. The ranch is now home to heritage breed pigs adapted to Texas’ hot weather; Freedom Ranger broiler chickens and laying hens; and Dorper sheep that are doing their very important part in regenerating the rangeland. Guest chef Julien Hawkins knows just what to do with all the nutritious and delicious meat raised on the ranch. He’s the former chef behind Hestia, an award-winning modern grillhouse in Austin specializing in local meat, fish and vegetables cooked over a 20-foot live-fire hearth. This will be a feast to remember beneath the wide-open Lonestar sky.

Our second evening in the wide open, rolling grasslands of Texas Hill Country. Built in 1985 for the film “Red Headed Stranger,” Luck, TX is an Old West movie town located in Willie Nelson’s backyard on the outskirts of Austin. Willie Nelson’s wife Annie was a longtime customer of TerraPurezza when it was just a 5-acre ranch. In May of 2020, Annie asked ranchers Tina and Orion to move onto Luck Ranch and convert it to regenerative practices. Now they raise pigs, chickens and sheep here, with plans to add cattle, bison, quail and other animals over the next few years — as part of a holistic system mimicking the earth’s natural cycles. Chefs Todd and Jessica came out to cook with us at Boggy Creek when Outstanding came through Austin last year. We’re stoked to see them again, and this one will certainly be a one of a kind experience.

Boggy Creek is a charming urban farm we have been coming back to again and again for more than a decade. As boom times bring changes to Austin, it’s nice to know you can still walk the grounds and browse for dinner ingredients at the Boggy Creek farmstand set alongside the historic 1840s farmhouse — the oldest home in Austin that is still standing! Our table fits just so alongside the thriving fresh vegetables. We welcome guest chef Kevin Cannon to a favorite field kitchen for his first time at the helm. His team at Barley Swine, an Austin favorite committed to local and ethical sourcing, joined us way back in 2013. We’re excited to have them back and to see what Texas flavors they cook up at one of our most beloved places to set the table.

Renfrow Farms and its sister business Renfrow Hardware encompass more than 100 years of history and five generations of family business. The store opened in 1900 and the 9-acre farm was birthed in 2011, growing a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, nuts and flowers. They also produce honey from their 50 beehives. In 2016, Hurricane Matthew chased us into the hardware store for a unique meal down the aisles. Other years, we’ve set the table between rows of blooming flowers, fragrant lavender bushes and a colorful array of vegetables. Wherever we end up this year, we’ll have guest chef Jamie Lynch cooking an extraordinary meal in the field kitchen. Jamie’s a bit of a Charlotte celebrity, from his time on Top Chef to his wildly popular New American hotspots. His first restaurant 5Church quickly became a Charlotte institution when it opened in 2012, earning him Best Chef from Charlotte Magazine several years in a row. Now the restaurant is known as Church & Union — part of his budding brand of New American restaurants across the Southeast. Jamie’s deeply dedicated to sourcing from local farms and even built his own 6-acre fruit and vegetable farm to help supply his restaurants. He’ll feel right at home cooking amongst Renfrow’s Fall bounty.

This 40-acre farm is just a stone’s throw from downtown Nashville, even though its rolling pastures, cropland and forests feels like a countryside escape. Bells Bend Farms is the result of community members who’ve fought city developers since the 1980’s to maintain the area’s rural roots. Farmer Eric Woolridge helped build the deer fence around the current property where he farms with wife Tyler. Together, they grow a wide variety of fresh vegetables and flowers for their Music City community, helping to maintain this thriving foodhub in Davidson County. We’ll toast to another season of hard work with an early autumn meal in their fields. Guest chefs Mailea Weger & Mike Kida are the team behind Nashville hotspot lou where they craft seasonal small plates paired with an impressive list of natural wine.