Gourmet Dining in a Cornfield

Imagine yourself seated at a luxuriously appointed table, being served a seven-course dinner by candlelight, complete with carefully selected wine.  Now imagine eating this dinner in the middle of a cornfield.

That’s what will be happening this weekend, as the third season of Dinners at the Farm kicks off in Connecticut.  This wildly popular event, which has consistently sold out since its inception in 2007, celebrates and promotes the state’s homegrown products while benefiting local agricultural and humanitarian non-profit organizations.  Between now and mid-September, lucky diners will be able to select from four different farm locations to enjoy their al fresco dinners.  Each meal is prepared and cooked on-site by trained and experiences chefs, who use only local, seasonal produce, grass-fed lamb, organic poultry and freshly caught seafood.

Those lucky enough to scarf up a $150 ticket for one of the available seatings will be dining family style, under a tent, in the middle of a field at one of the featured farms.  The scenery will be spectacular ” corn stalks gently blowing in the breeze, sheep and lambs grazing in the distance, birds chirping and beautiful sunsets over an old farmhouse or ripply-watered pond.

Since its inception in 2007, Dinners at the Farm has prepared nearly 3,000 meals to sold-out crowds. Organizers of the event have helped the local economy by purchasing more than $60,000 worth of food and wine from Connecticut’s farmers and vintners and donated over $28,000 of the proceeds to causes that help the region’s farming and agricultural community.

The Stanton Davis Farm is the First Beneficiary

This weekend’s event is being held at the Stanton Davis Farm in Stonington, which has been a working farm every year since 1654 and in the same family for 11 generations.  Proceeds from this weekend’s dinner will help renovate part of the homestead and turn it into a public museum.

“We’re the second oldest family farm still operating in New England (11 generations) and we haven’t missed a crop since 1654,”says the farm’s 85-year-old owner, Whit Davis, in an interview with The Day out of New London, Connecticut.  “We’re among the very few provision farms still working with the same family.”

Davis notes that the farm provided salt marsh hay for George Washington’s supply trains coming through Connecticut during the Revolutionary War and continues to provide salt marsh hay to horse barns today.

Upcoming Dinner Schedule

The upcoming 2009 dinners will follow at White Gate Farm in East Lyme , Barberry Hill Farm in Madison and Old Maids Farm in South Glastonbury.  Other beneficiaries of dinner proceeds include the Connecticut Farmland Trust,  The City Seed Farmers Market and the Working Lands Alliance.

The menus will be different for each location, and maybe even for each meal, depending on what is seasonal.  The idea is to make the meal as fresh and as local as possible, without any prepping beforehand.

“Part of what’s great about it, is this over-the-top celebration in these kinds of extreme locations, which makes it exciting and memorable,”says Jonathan Rapp, creator and co-founder of Dinners at the Farm.  “And partnering with these nonprofits, trying to promote and sustain local agriculture. It’s been a great collaboration”

Tips Before You Go

• Wear practical shoes
• Dress comfortably
• Dinner is rain or shine, so bring appropriate clothing layers
• Pack some bug spray … just in case
• Don’t forget your sungalasses!
• Come hungry!