Events let diners break bread with local farmers
While the term “farm-to-table” may sound more familiar to the ear, the Metes & Bounds team refers to their mobile dining experiences as purely “table-to-farm” – a fresh take on the mission to highlight the bounty of local agriculture. Equipped with a school-bus-turned-kitchen named “Hugo,” a wood-burning grill called “The Boss” and a team of practiced culinary professionals, the new venture offers foodies an opportunity to enjoy high-quality food at its source – local Sonoma County farms.
Metes & Bounds regularly organizes multi-course dinners for the public at local farms throughout Sonoma County and the surrounding area, incorporating ingredients from the host farm into the cuisine. Manager and wine director Drew Duggan and founder and executive chef Heath Thomson met through a similar venture in Colorado called Meadow Lark Farm Dinners, and drew inspiration for Metes & Bounds from that enterprise.
With a short growing season in Colorado, Duggan explained that he and Thomson sought to branch out to an area that would allow them to organize community dinners year-round. “And I wanted to do it in a place that has a very active wine culture, so Sonoma County was our first choice,” Duggan said. In addition, Sonoma County stood out for its agricultural diversity. After deciding to move forward with Metes & Bounds in June of 2013, Duggan and Thomson hosted their first test dinner the following December.
“We didn’t do our first community dinner that was open to the public that we sold tickets to until May 1 [of 2014],” Duggan said. “That was the inaugural one. I guess we’ve done 10 dinners this season.”
Since its debut, Metes & Bounds has received a positive reception from local farmers. “They’ve actually been really wonderful in outreaching to the entire farming community,” said Lynda Hopkins of Foggy River Farm, located in the Russian River Valley off of Eastside Road. After approaching Foggy River at a local farmers market, Metes & Bounds worked with Hopkins and her husband to plan a five-course feast held at the farm on July 12.
“It’s a really amazing opportunity to showcase the produce that we grow and then to actually have it prepared and cooked onsite,” Hopkins said. “It’s a really neat concept.” As custom with Metes & Bounds, diners at the Foggy River Farm event gathered outdoors at a single long table, in this case stationed between a vineyard and veggie field, for a meal that lasted over five hours. “It was really beautiful, with all these sort-of Christmas lights they had strung up,” Hopkins said. “People didn’t want to leave.”
In addition, Hopkins said she appreciated the opportunity to take part in the dining experience and sample studied culinary interpretations of the produce she grows, noting that oftentimes, farmers may not necessarily be able to afford to eat at the restaurants to which they supply the food they grow. “We really felt spoiled to be eating such an amazing feast,” she said.
“We think that that’s important, that the farmer be able to participate,” Duggan said. “They’re working very hard to create this fantastic produce and so even though from an economic point of view, that may not be the world’s best paying job, it’s a job that we feel should be rewarded.”
Before the dining event at Foggy River Farm, Hopkins said her husband took the Metes & Bounds crew on a tour of their field to help pick ingredients. “They picked some things that we wouldn’t ever have thought of using,” Hopkins said. “They literally walk the field and pick ingredients by hand… so they made sure they knew what they were going to get.” Resultant dishes included salmon rillettes with ashed onion dip, Tokyo turnip soup and a ricotta pudding with squab.
Joining Duggan and Thomson as part of the Metes & Bounds team are Chef de Partie Alicia Deal, whose culinary credits include working under James Beard Award-winning Chef Jerry Traunfeld and graduating as Culinarian of the Year from the Seattle Culinary Academy, as well as Sous Chef Kingsley Fuller, who has worked at Cyrus restaurant in Healdsburg and at Manresa in Los Gatos.
Upcoming Metes & Bounds community farm dinners include an outing to Bernier Farms in Alexander Valley on August 16 and to Dry Creek Peach and Produce on August 23. Both events commence at 5:30 p.m., ticket prices $120 – $175, visit www.metesandbounds.co for purchase and details. Metes & Bounds returns to Foggy River Farm on Sept. 20.
