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.
Taxonomy: Upcoming Events
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.
Mead Ranch
A summer meal surrounded by gorgeous views of the Grand Tetons, grazing cattle, and undulating grasslands — this is just about as good as it gets. The Mead family has been sustainably raising beef here for over a century, and ranchers Kate and Brad Mead have been our friendly hosts since we started setting the table here in 2010. We’ll hear their story with a welcome beverage at reception before taking a look around the property and sitting down to our meal from guest chef Martin Levitz. At Roadhouse Brewing Co, he’s known for simply prepared seasonal cuisine, always highlighting the region’s farmers and ranchers on the plate. The restaurant’s on-site microbrewery means craft beer sometimes makes unique appearances on the menu — like stout mustard, pale ale broth and beer can chicken. We’re excited to see what he cooks up in the field kitchen using the very best beef in Jackson.
Beekman 1802
It’s been a few years since we’ve set the table at this gorgeous farm property in upstate New York and we are thrilled to be welcomed back by our hosts Josh and Brent. This spot boasts romantic views complete with a picturesque pond, flower gardens, an elegant farmhouse built in 1802 — plus a friendly herd of goats whose milk is used to make Beekman 1802’s world-famous artisanal cheese and skincare line. This time around, we’re lucky to have husband and wife team Sohail & Sara Zandi of Brushland Eating House join us in the field kitchen. Their family-style restaurant is known for hyper-local menus, comforting classics and warm hospitality. Expect a peak summer season feast surrounded by idyllic grassland and fragrant flowers.
Indian Line Farm
The Berkshires are outstandingly beautiful: rolling green hills, sparkling streams, lush forests, and mystic morning fog. Tucked away within all that beauty is Indian Line Farm, a 17-acre oasis of certified naturally grown vegetables, herbs and fruits. Indian Line Farm became the country’s first Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm in 1985, and our host farmers have stewarded this land since 1998, partnering with The Nature Conservancy and The Community Land Trust in the Southern Berkshires to preserve the land as a working farm forevermore. Guest chefs Daire Rooney and James Corcoran are celebrated chefs in the Berkshires. They have helmed the kitchen at a slew of local hotspots and made many appearances at the James Beard House before opening Marjoram + Roux together in 2020. This will be our second event at Indian Line Farm and our first time working with chefs Daire and James. Join us in welcoming them to the culinary circus!
Red Acre Farm
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!
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.
North Arm Farm
A table set in lush green grass at the base of the Coast Mountains and majestic Mount Currie. This is one of our most beautiful farms to date. Trish and Jordan’s sixty acres are brimming with orchard fruits, berries and peak summer vegetables — music to the ears of guest chef Gus Stieffenhoffer-Brandson. Gus cooked at Michelin-starred restaurants around the world before moving back to Canada to open Published on Main. His popular Vancouver restaurant is known for its rotating seasonal menu sourced from local farms and many wild edibles that he forages himself. Wild mushrooms, huckleberries, sea asparagus or elderflowers might make an appearance on the menu.