Town and Country

 In the last few years I became aware of the local food movement, reading books like Plenty about locavores and about food versus food science by journalist Michael Pollan which gave simple rules like “Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” I tried to make better choices at the grocery store. I became a label reader: organic, natural, local. I shopped the farmers markets.

Thanks to my days as a community reporter, I know a lot about Longmont’s transition from an agricultural hub of Northern Colorado to its now overlooked, easy-to-mock place against the much more publicized, so-called better places like Fort Collins, Boulder and Denver for qualities such as fitness, entrepreneurship, good looking singles and microbrews.

That’s fine by me. You go there, I’ll stay here in Longmont. I delight in driving along a road here only to discover glimpses of Longmont’s past, like a family farm nestled between a modern public art sculpture and nondescript buildings for some of the area’s tech companies.  I had read about these “farm to table” dinners last year: the farms grow what they can, source ingredients that they don’t from other area farms and then host a dinner featuring local fare on site.

As Liz Lemon says, “I want to go to there.”
Annie (whose blog you can read by clicking here)  got on the horn this year,
collected all interested parties and soon we had a nice little group reserved for the 
Summer Solstice Farm Dinner at Ollin Farms.
I couldn’t think of a better way to start the season.

We parked our cars by the fields where much of our dinner was likely grown
and took the little walk through this cove of mature cottonwoods. 
Better than a red carpet entrance! 

It’s BYOB at Ollin Farms.
Don’t forget your tickets!
You can buy them from their stand at the Longmont Farmers Market
or call the farm with your credit card ready
and a very nice woman named Kena will put them in the mail for you.

Live music welcomes us.
Tents under which long tables await guests.
Dusk settles in.    

APPETIZERS
Grilled asparagus
Buttered baguette with shaved radish
Pickled devil eggs
Spanikopita with spinach and goat cheese

SALADS
Fresh spinach and strawberry salad
Ollin Farms Salad Mix: greenhouse tomatoes, turnips, radishes

MAIN COURSE
Roast Steamship of King Canyon Buffalo
Wild mushroom strudel
Organic red potato and creamed Russian kale
Braised Russian cabbage

DESSERT
Strawberry rhubarb shortcake
(I’m sure you wouldn’t want any.)

  
Farmer Mark Guttridge greets guests at arrival,
thanked us at the start of the meal (almost prayerlike) for supporting local
and visited with guests at the end of the meal.

Mark inherited his grandparents’ 10-acre farm.  
The property is adjacent to a branch of Left Hand Creek with century-old trees.
As a kid he played in the fields around here, which are now paved over with condos and a blighted shopping mall.
You can read more about Mark’s philosphies as a local farmer and what the heck Ollin means by clicking here.  

Last photo courtesy of Denver Jill’s camera and Travis Bush’s photo skills.

***

And, of course, a good meal is more than the food on the table.
A good meal includes good people and good conversation.
Old friends and new aquaintances.
Let’s just say I left with a full belly and full heart.

Elizabeth here took video of this farm dinner,
which you can see by clicking here.