We are driving down the blacktop through the Minnesota country side, rolling past corn fields, red barns and pastures full of cows. Clouds are threatening a little rain, but I’m hoping they will pass. I’m looking up ahead for the road to the farm. We finally turnoff onto a quiet dirt road, then pull into a grassy parking lot next to an old farm house and a very modern row of greenhouses. This is Gardens of Eagan, an collection of organic farms that’s home to one of my favorite local veggie farms, Bossy Acres. But this evening we are not here to buy Bossy Acres’ fabulous vegetables. We are here to eat them.
This is the August Farm Dinner, featuring produce by Bossy Acres, fantastic cookin’ by Chowgirls Catering, wonderful Belgian beers by Boom Island Brewing and live music by The ’53 Swingbillies Trio, all hosted by local farm dinner group Dinner on the Farm. It was an wonderful chance for my family and friends to meet and talk with these local food heroes, see the farm, eat their food and celebrate all that is good at the height of summer.
That’s how my partner Christopher, daughter Claire and I spent a wonderful Sunday evening. Our friends and neighbors Keith, AJ and Molly Herrmann (of Tastebud/Kitchen in the Market) were along for the ride. Our kids ran circles around us asking where the cows were and when could we go on the hayride? My daughter, decked out in my old cowgirl shirt and boots, and AJ, sporting a snazzy black cowboy hat, ate fresh focaccia while the adults chatted with Bossy Acres’ partners Elizabeth Millard and Karla Pankow. Standing in an open field with a tomato bruschetta in one hand (tomato picked not a 100ft from me) and a mason jar full of local beer in the other (brewed in nearby Minneapolis), I was in heaven. Sounds of a swinging live band drifted through the early evening air along with a few hungry mosquitos. Local just doesn’t get much better than this.
Links:
Bossy Acres, Dinner on the Farm, Chowgirls Catering, Boom Island Brewing, Gardens of Eagan, The ’53 Swingbillies Trio
