I was recently part of a beautiful Annandale community dinner called Field to Feast. The idea behind these popular dinners is to bring attention to local food growers. This includes local berries, vegetables, dairy, grains and meats. Hopefully people will try these items (prepared to perfection) and think “I could make this at home” and therefore buy from local producers.
Off the bat I will say there is a cost associated with buying and eating local. It can be more expensive (with the exception of zucchini, of course that was free from a bench at Lanttos).
If you have no idea of how to imagine a community dinner I highly suggest you Google Community Dinners/Images. There is one enormously long table down the center of the street decorated for a feast. Ours had 200 guests and the table was 240 feet long, decorated with vases of beans and grains surrounded by sprigs of mountain ash berries.
To see 200 guests seated on each side of this amazing table was a vision come to life. Prior to that day we had only viewed this in photos. People raising their glasses of locally brewed beer (Thank you, Spilled Grain) and wines of both red and white gave a feeling of real community spirit.
Taste of Home columnist Sandy Holthaus enjoyed providing hundreds of pastries for the Field to Feast event in Annandale recently. The chefs who took part were (L-R) Holthaus, John Dagner and Barb Westman.
Of course everyone was there to enjoy the weather, the day and each other but the food from the local farmers was the star of the day.
I was able to work with two amazing local chefs, Barb Westman of Cottage Gourmet and John Dagner of Café Jules. Let’s just say our chefs’ meeting had some great tastings and wine. To be included with these two on stage at the dinner was an honor beyond description.
Their creativity was a blessing to our little town of Annandale. Appetizers were made with local beets, caramelized garlic and a roasted carrot soup (French Lake Farmer and local garlic producers Mary Heinz and George Martin). The first course was bread made from locally grown wheat (Fairhaven Farms), heirloom tomatoes, and delicious fresh dairy butter molded into sunflowers, (Stony Creek Dairy). The main entrees were locally raised chicken (Kindra Liebart) maple glazed with syrup (Olson Century Farm) and pork apple brats braised in Spilled Grain Beer, (Petty Brothers Meats).
I had the great honor of being the pastry chef. I must say a huge thank you to my parents and friends who saw my vision and spent hours helping me make 350 desserts. (Only 317 made it to the dinner…there was some side tasting that had to be done.)
From carrot cupcakes to hot fudge zucchini Bundt cakes (the chocolate covered the vile zucchini), fresh apple pie squares with homemade caramel sauce to ground cherry pie with a fresh butter crust, all were served on slices of wood my dad cut for us from the North Shore. We also made blueberry cheesecakes in jars with blueberries picked on the Gunflint Trail. The hit of the desserts without a doubt was Swedish Cream with Fresh Berries. This idea came from my mom who had tried this dessert at Lutsen Resort. I had so many request for the recipe I am putting it in the column.
I hope by now your mouth is watering and you will continue to support our local farmers any way you can. These are people who don’t just work hard for one huge event. They are up at dawn and work until dusk to bring us healthy and delicious food. Think Global, Buy Local. The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.
Masanobu Fukuoka,
The One-Straw Revolution
Taste of Home columnist Sandy (Anderson) Holthaus lives on a farm in South Haven, MN with her husband, Michael, and their children Zoe, Jack and Ben. Her heart remains on the North Shore where she grew up with her parents, Art and LaVonne Anderson of Schroeder. She enjoys writing about her childhood and mixes memories with delicious helpings of home-style recipes.
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