Curtain Otaku: Farm Table Dinner

Last week Stacey and I had the rather good fortune to be part of an amazing shared experience at the UBC Farm. 50 of Vancouver's top professionals in the fields of Interior Design and Architecture were invited to a long table dinner hosted by Richard Millson and his partner Heather McDonald of Millson Techonologies honouring these people who are outstanding in their field and whose contributions through their work have in some way shaped design in our city. Millson is a world leader in the home automation industry and it was a huge and unexpected honour to be invited.
The dinner that night was put together by an organization called Outstanding in the Field, who describe themselves as a roving culinary adventure, a restaurant without walls. They travel all over the world coordinating events such as this, bringing together the farmers, artisans and chefs who create beautiful food sourced from local ingredients. Several of the ingredients in our meal that night were harvested right on the farm we were eating at.

I am so happy everyone washed their cars. Care to guess which one is mine? Hint.... it's the only one you can actually fit a curtain into....

A view over one of the garden plots.

We arrived promptly at 6pm and parked on the grassy lot at the edge of the farm. Walking down to the event we passed a full orchard (with over 60 varieties or so of apples), two cows, a bunch of chickens, rows and rows of fava beans and peas, gigantic heads of butter lettuce, garlic, wheat, etc.... It was amazing to see all that food growing! We were greeted with a glass of Gewurztraminer and several rather delicious canapes such as....Cucumber and Daylily sorbet soup... Savoury Rosemary and Camembert Parfait, Tarragon Panna Cotta and SOLEfood radishes grown in the Downtown Eastside. YUM! And those were just the appies.

Jim and Katy Waxing poetic...

After about my third glass of Gewurtztraminer, and having met several of the distinguished guests, Jim Denevan (click on his name to see some of this man's amazing artwork) founder of Outstanding in the Field, and his right hand Katy Oursler spoke to us about some of the work they were doing, travelling around the world feeding people, reconnecting people to the importance of understanding our food choices, it was very inspiring, especially as Stacey has the most remarkable garden in our yard and what they spoke about really hit home for us. I know it is a very important topic, but I was kind of pre-occupied with the wine, it was really yummy!

Circa 1800? that's right... the orchard is preserving these species of apple, some date back to the 1600's.

Mark from the UBC Farm took us on a tour, here is showing us the state of the art LEED platinum bee housing.

Fava anyone?

Preceding the main even we were treated to a small tour of the farm itself, learned about bees, apple varieties, cows and electric fences. I was secretly hoping someone would touch the fence, but it never happened... :( Next time perhaps.

Seated and enjoying BBQ flatbread!

Onto Dinner.... The meal was prepared by Andrea Carlson from Bishop's Restaurant, yes WOW!
Our First course was Poached Biodynamic Eggs, buckwheat and sunflower sprout salad, green peas, radishes and seedy crisps. These eggs were ridiculously amazing, I have never had such large eggs before. The peas... let me tell you about the peas...firm succulent, sweet, ripe... yum! :) Wine Pairing... 2010 Gewurtztraminer... Nichol Vineyards of Naramata supplied all the wines for the evenings festivities.

Ridiculous right? these were so yummilicious.

Peas anyone?

Second Course.... Ricotta stuffed squash blossoms and spotted shrimp, served with a black garlic puree, purslane, scapes and fava tips....shall I tell you about it.... Who takes a squash blossom, stuffs it with seasoned ricotta, batters it and perfectly deep fries it? Andrea Carlson and her crew that's who! And who eats four of them without even thinking about it... Me, that's who! Wine pairing...Orange, yes Orange Pinot Gris...

Nuff Said!

Orange coloured pinot....!

Third Course.... Slow BBQ Fraser Valley Lamb Shoulder, Leeks in a hazelnut Romesco, spinach, roasted radish and warba potatoes(whatever those are)....Ok I am a vegetarian, I am sure the lamb was really good, but I wasn't having any of it... Instead for Stacey and I and a couple of other veggies they specially prepared red quinoa with morel mushrooms... I suspect it kicked butt on the lamb... Wine pairing 2008 Cab Franc... so heavy, so full, so voluptuous...she lingered on my lips a long while... before bringing me close.

Red quinoa anyone?

You say lamb shoulders, I say Lamb Roly Polies!

Desert you ask? Yes of course... Nootka Rose and Strawberry Ice Cream bar with roasted Strawberries...what a perfect end to a perfect meal... smiles....