Sunday, September 18, 2011

Dinner on the Farm Series for 2011

There is a hunger out there, not just to fill your stomach with food, but also for knowledge about  agriculture, the farmer and our values. It seems that people want to have a connection to THE AMERICAN FARM and to those who raise the food they eat. And that is the reason why Farmer Joe and I host our (free) Dinner on the Farm series each year.  Is a lot of work? Yup, and we love every minute of it.   Connecting with people and sharing what we do has lasting effects, at least for us and ( hopefully) for our guests.   We set the stage for the event and the guests write the script for the evening.  It is like that  Lowe's TV commerical, you have questions, we have answers. 

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A vintage farm book says it all
  Name tags are printed and ready..... not only for us, but our guests as well.

As no one knows each other, name tage are helpful
 Our daughter, Jen helped take photos of the first dinner and my sister-in-law, Denise helped take photos of the second dinner.  The first dinner was also video taped by friend and former news reporter, Camille.(I'll post that once she finishes it) We were really excited to have Camille's expertise to document this.
The menu
The menu is the first thing the guests see, I like to have a variety of entrees and try to focus the food on what is grown locally around this area.  I love to make desserts so I have 4 different kinds as well.


Table decorations that include wheat kernels
The table is set and ready for the guests.  Special special attention is paid to details as a nice ambiance helps set the stage for a perfect evening filled with good food and  great conversation.


The outdoor setting of our farmhouse is decorated as well.







Me and Sheila, our farm host wife for the dinner on September 10

Facing the camera is farm hosts, Eric and Sheila visiting with guests
Eric, our Farm Host shares a laugh  guest, Pat
A good glass of wine poured before dinner.
We like to feature local wineries for our dinners and our guests loved getting to sample some great wines.

Each dinner is different and sometimes there is a group conversation that includes the entire table or several conversations at once.  The latter was the case for this dinner. 


Guests getting to know one another
Below is a picture of Ray & Cathy, our farm hosts for the second dinner, along with myself and Farmer Joe.  This year both of our farm hosts were both farmers and ranchers, a bonus for our guests as many had questons about animal agriculture.
Ray, Cathy, me (holding a bowl of freshly harvested garbs) and Joe

Farmer  Joe explaining about the combine
 The guests were good sports as the weather for this dinner had turned cool and windy, but we all still went out into the field to see the equipment.
A question and answer session
Below is a Flickr photostream on more pictures.  If you are unable to view it via the email subscription, please go directly to the blog site at http://www.idahofarmwife.net/.  Thanks.


 

Well, there you have it, a view of our Dinner on the Farm series.   As in the past our local Pacific Northwest Farmers Co-op furnished cookbooks and 2 pound bags of lentils for the guests.  The Pea & Lentil Commission furnished a baggie of garbanzo beans, magnetic recipe cards and a magnetic clippie and I also added homemade lentil brownies to the guest packs as well. 

All my best, Gayle.  I can be contacted at Idahofarmwife@gmail.com or leave a comment.  I will be posting the recipes (soon) on my recipe pages.