This last weekend we hosted our 4th Field to Feast community dinner. Because the weather was beautiful, it was the second time we were able to host this event in the street by Pleasant Lake. Forty-two tables set up in three rows. The colors this year were white, blue and wheat representing waves of grain.
Everything about the day was special, the amazing menu created by four fabulous area chefs, the wine, the Spilled Grain Brewery beer, and root beer, the Frisky Rooster Bloody Marys, and a very fruity cocktail selection created by Denise. There is something about breaking bread together, side-by-side, with your neighbors and friends that warms the heart.
We also had a silent auction. This is one of my favorite things to attend. I am not a gambler by nature, but I will outbid you if I have to, friendships aside. I once guarded a giant Pearson’s salted nut roll at an auction for an hour to make sure it came home with me for Zoe’s graduation party.
I also have a chainsaw pumpkin in my barn from a church auction years ago. There is no method to my madness. Silent auctions bring out the competitiveness in me. At the Field to Feast silent auction, I bought an adorable baby gift basket for my parent’s neighbor. The only one who might have outbid me was my dad until he saw that I had the winning bid and assumed it was for them.
I have worked on the Field to Feast committee since the first idea came to be. My role has changed and morphed into a wonderful experience for me as an event coordinator. Everyone on this committee works very hard for months in advance to make sure the day goes off without a hitch.
Having 320 guests sit at a table together is no small feat. That is about 10 percent of the population gathered together to share one particular day.
Last year we lost committee member Maggie Corr before the dinner, and this year we honored a community friend, Rose Mary Nelson, who died earlier this year from cancer. They both loved the Field to Feast dinner. I believe it was them smiling down on all of us that day full of sunshine and a soft breeze. A feather floated to my feet, so I tucked it in my pocket. I know it was a hello from the girls saying job well done.
“I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.”
~ George Bernard Shaw
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. You can email her your thoughts and messages at sandyholthaus1010@gmail.com. She would love to hear from you.
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