Farmers' Showcase
Dinners Feature Best Ingredients,
And It's For A Good Cause
Excerpt from The Hartford Courant
By MARYELLEN FILLO | Courant Staff Writer
June 5, 2008
Used by permission
A BOWL of seasoned tomatoes sits atop a flatbed 1953 Ford at last year's farm dinner at Chamard Vineyards in Clinton. The event returns this weekend. (YOON S. BYUN / COURANT FILE PHOTO / July 13, 2007)
It's that time of year again when the fields and farms are beginning to produce the best the area offers in fruits, vegetables, dairy products and meats. And a host of restaurants and chefs are taking advantage by offering dining events that showcase those local ingredients.
Jonathan Rapp, who owns River Tavern in Chester, and Drew McLachan, who owns Feast Gourmet Market in Deep River, will again offer their popular farm dinner series this summer. The sit-down dinners are staged under a tent at area farms and features spontaneous menus that showcase local foods and farms. Proceeds from each event are donated to a local agricultural and humanitarian nonprofit organizations.
Instead of hosting the dinners every Friday evening, as they did last year, the chefs have chosen different weekends beginning this weekend. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a dinner benefiting the Connecticut Farmland Trust will take place at Chamard Vineyard in Clinton.
And if there is any doubt about the growing popularity of the farm dinner concept, check out the June 30 edition of Time magazine in which Rapp and McLachan will be featured in a story about their farm dinners……..
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