An idyllic place to dine. Garden beds bursting with peak summer produce, herds of happy sheep grazing in the farm’s rolling green pastures, trees heavy with ripe fruit. And then there’s the trout pond, the brightly colored flowers and the friendly flock of hens. We’ve been coming to the Hickories since 2013 and we’ve been back nearly every year since, often for two nights in a row. Farmer Dina Brewster and her team grow over 160 varieties of vegetables, fruits and herbs plus pastured hens and sheep for meat and wool — which means guest chef Johan Jensen has plenty to pick from for the evening’s menu. He opened Whitecrest Eatery in 2019 to much acclaim, quickly becoming one of Stonington’s most celebrated restaurants. We are thrilled to welcome him to the field kitchen for the first time.
Taxonomy: 2022 Tour
Eagles Nest Point
A long, winding table carved into the coastline of Duxbury Bay. Succulent oysters plucked from the sea beyond our seats. Multiple glasses of sparkling wine. All that, plus one of the finest sunsets of the season. Legendary oyster farmer CJ will share his breadth of knowledge about our favorite mollusks, grown just a stone’s throw from the shore-side table. And with guest chef Tiffani Faison helming the beach kitchen, this is not one to be missed. Tiffani has quite the reputation, including a stint on Top Chef and three James Beard nominations for Best Chef: Northeast, on top of her highly acclaimed Boston-area restaurants. At Orfano, she cooks up upscale Italian fare and handmade pastas with a focus on fresh-caught seafood and other local goodness.
Brooklyn Grange at Sunset Park
Brooklyn Grange is one of the first rooftop farms in the country. And this 3.2-acre Sunset Park location is their newest venture — where an abundance of vegetables, herbs, flowers, and honeybees is paired with a particularly spectacular view of Lady Liberty. Brooklyn Grange operates some of the world’s largest rooftop soil farms, producing over 100,000 pounds of organic vegetables each year for the New York City community and donating over 30% of their produce to individuals in need. It’s both a very impressive operation—and Kyrelle Leefatt and Pedro Arvizu of 1:1 Foods are an equally impressive pair of chefs. Brooklyn Grange introduced us to 1:1 Foods, a culinary social enterprise focused on community-led food justice through collaborative events, catering and community gatherings. They source locally from farms like The Grange, paying particular attention to businesses who use regenerative growing practices and pay fair wages, all while investing 100% of their profits back into grassroots food justice work. Kyrelle is a Brooklyn native who helmed the kitchen at The Meat Hook and Threes Brewing before taking the role as 1:1’s Culinary Director, where he crafts menus with international flavors and techniques inspired by his childhood in Bed Stuy. Pedro Arvizu is 1:1’s COO as well as a talented pastry chef who will cook the evening’s seasonal dessert. You can expect a stunning summer meal to match the scenery.
Edwin County Farms
We will set the table in beautiful Prince Edward County for the first-time with a visit to this busy farm that is a bountiful pantry for locals and many fine Bay of Quinte restaurants. Established in 2010, Edwin County Farms encompasses 700 acres and land that has been cultivated for hundreds of years. The farm produces a vast variety of organic vegetable crops, beef and broiler chickens, eggs, wheat, honey and maple syrup, with careful attention to synergistic systems in the fields and stewardship of the surrounding forests. Perhaps we’ll put the table under the wide embrace of oak branches, next to the glistening pond, or in a field of wheat. Our hosts will tell us the history of this land, from the Iroquori to the first settlers to today, and how they have worked to reclaim much of the arable land and restore it to its agricultural glory. Guest chef Coco Gaona will be busy cooking an Argentinian-inspired feast in the field kitchen. He and partner Alejandra run Tiempo, a rustic but refined culinary experience that embraces the Argentinian tradition of live fire cooking and high-quality local ingredients. “Tiempo” is Spanish for “time” — a nod to the precious pause in time of sharing a meal, sitting fireside and appreciating the land. This is bound to be a magical one.
Grade A Gardens
After three years away, we’re thrilled to return to the fine state of Iowa and catch up with our friends at Grade A Gardens. At our dinner in 2018, farmer Jordan proposed to Whitney while standing on the apple box at reception and introducing the farm. She said yes and now we return to their growing farm and growing family. They have two kiddos now and recently expanded to a larger property in Earlham that they’ve turned into farmland from scratch. This will be our first time seeing their new spot, and we have no idea where we may choose to set the table. What we do know is that guest chef James Arbaugh will be cooking a delectable feast with the farm’s summer bounty. James ran the kitchen at Michelin-starred spot Plumed Horse in the Bay Area for many years before joining the team at Lua Brewing, where he cooks a “melting pot of American cuisine” with high-quality seasonal ingredients to pair with the brewery’s selection of carefully made craft beers. Lua has already made waves in the Des Moines dining community since opening in 2019—so we feel quite lucky to have James and the team for a night off in the field kitchen.
Eagles Nest Point
Another night of slurping oysters and quaffing crisp wines along Duxbury Bay. Another opportunity to join host extrordinaire CJ for a wade into the waters at low tide to get a peep of the oyster beds. Another stunning sunset just beyond the hills. And another illustrious Boston-area chef team cooking in their wellies in the beach kitchen. Kate and Trevor met while working for our friend Tony Maws at Craigie Street Bistrot (the precursor to Craigie on Main), a Boston institution. They both then worked at a host of hotspot kitchens across the Northeast before opening Thistle & Leek at the height of the pandemic — a supremely challenging but rewarding feat. Their London-style gastropub cuisine will mesh beautifully with the salty sea air for an epic night along the bay.
Allandale Farm
This is Boston’s oldest working farm and host farmer Helen works hard to keep its agricultural history alive and well. We’ve spent many summer evenings dining amongst their myriad organic vegetables, herbs and flowers and we are thrilled to be back for another round. Guest chef Karen Akunowicz has an impressive culinary resume around Beantown and beyond. She’s worked at several celebrated Boston kitchens including Oleana and Myers+Chang, appeared on Top Chef, and won a James Beard award for Best Chef: Northeast in 2019. She also spent a year in Italy mastering the local cuisine before opening Fox & The Knife — a modern Italian ristorante inspired by her time in Modena. She went on to open Bar Volpe last year, a Southern Italian restaurant and pastificio featuring wood-fired Atlantic seafood and handcrafted pastas.
Tangletown Gardens
This 140-acre property in the Minneapolis suburbs has become one of our favorite places to set the table over the years. Farmer Dean runs an impressive operation of flower beds, food crops, farm animals, bee hives and aquaponic koi ponds and is bursting with knowledge and passion for regenerative farming, soil health and biodiversity. There’s always something new to learn from Farmer Dean at the table, which is often tucked between tall rows of blooming sunflowers. We are thrilled to host guest chef Jorge Guzmán in the field kitchen for the first time. He’s a three-time James Beard award semifinalist and the man behind the very popular Petite Léon in Minneapolis—where he crafts creative seasonal menus with globally inspired flavors, including nods to his childhood in the Yucatan peninsula. Think adobo-grilled pork, arroz con leche, and broccolini with mole verde and miso vinaigrette.
Tangletown Gardens
We love Tangletown Gardens so much, we’ve decided to spend two nights this year. Farmer Dean’s farm tour is always one of the most informative and inspiring of the season, and there’s plenty of pretty places on the farm to set the table. On night two, we have guest chef Niki Heber cooking the feast. He’s a good friend of OITF and no stranger to the field kitchen — he was our kitchen expeditor on the 2012 traveling tour crew, working closely with our roster of celebrated chefs. Since then, he’s run the kitchens at some of the best restaurants in Minneapolis including Libertine and 4 Bells. He’s also a self-proclaimed Yakitori enthusiast, so there’s a good chance we’ll see some wood-fired skewers on the menu.
La Ferme des Quatre-Temps, Hemmingford
We were supposed to come back to La Ferme in 2020, but it’s been two years since the Canadian border was closed to us and everyone else. Now we’re beyond excited to return and see what rock star farmer Jean-Martin and his innovative crew have been up to and what they will show us. La Ferme des Quatre-Temps is an agricultural project that aims to demonstrate what the farm of the future could look like, paving the way toward a more ecological agro-food model for all of Quebec. It also is a remarkably beautiful spot for a farm dinner, with eight acres of bio-intensively farmed vegetables, 40 wooded acres for the pigs to roam, and 60 acres of grassy pasture for beef cattle and laying hens in moveable egg-mobiles. Guest chef Emilie Bégin will pick from the very best of the farm’s bounty for our late summer meal in the field. She’s the chef at Montreal’s Society for Arts and Technology (SAT), where she crafts inventive locally sourced menus that celebrate Quebec’s wealth of farmers and food producers like host farmer Jean-Martin. Before taking the reins at SAT, Emilie cooked at a number of lauded restaurants in Canada including La Bête à Pain, Mesón, and the three-starred Clos de Sens.
Nous devions revenir à La Ferme en 2020, mais la frontière canadienne nous est fermée ainsi qu’à tous les autres depuis deux ans. Maintenant, nous sommes fou de joie de revenir et de voir sur quoi l’agriculteur rock star Jean-Martin et son équipe innovante ont travaillé et ce qu’ils vont nous montrer. La Ferme des Quatre-Temps est un projet agricole qui vise à démontrer à quoi pourrait ressembler la ferme du futur, ouvrant la voie vers un modèle agroalimentaire plus écologique pour tout le Québec. C’est aussi un endroit remarquablement beau pour un dîner à la ferme, avec 8 acres de légumes cultivés de manière bio-intensive, 40 acres boisés pour les porcs et 60 acres de pâturage herbeux pour les bovins de boucherie et les poules pondeuses. La chef invitée, Emilie Bégin, choisira parmi les meilleurs produits de la ferme pour notre repas de fin d’été dans les champs. Elle est chef à la Société des arts technologiques (SAT) de Montréal, où elle élabore des menus inventifs à base de produits locaux qui célèbrent la richesse des agriculteurs et des producteurs alimentaires du Québec, comme l’agriculteur hôte Jean-Martin. Avant de prendre les rênes de la SAT, Emilie a cuisiné dans plusieurs restaurants renommés au Canada, dont La Bête à Pain, Mesón, et Clos de Sens avec ses trois étoiles Michelin.