Dinner Scouting

Outstanding in the Field preseason planning involves plenty of farm and restaurant visits. Last weekend we headed South in perfect spring weather to Southern California to check 2009 and 2010 dinner sites, meet chefs and get some needed time outside of the office. First stop on our road trip: a visit to Rustic Canyon Wine Bar and Seasonal Kitchen in Santa Monica to sample seasonal dishes from our Wattles Farm dinner guest chef Evan Funke. Chef Evan greeted us and soon several courses were served. Spring in Southern California does bring a lot of fresh produce to the table. Owner Josh Loeb has put together an encyclopedic wine list with almost everything you would ever want. We sipped a Red Car Wine syrah and loved every dish. Red Car will be pouring their wine at our sold out October 10 dinner at Wattles Farm in Hollywood.

The next day we boarded a ferry to Catalina Island. An Outstanding friend Hollace Rice alerted us to the possibility of a Catalina dinner. We weren't able to put it all together for 2009 as island dinners requires a bit more time and a lot more planning. A tour of the island and meeting the islanders would give us what we need for a well-planned 2010 event. When we arrived we met Gregg and girlfriend Sana who would be our guides to the island. Gregg owns the Hotel Metropole which became our home base for the next few days. Gregg and Sana are excited to bring Outstanding in the Field to the island and make room for Outstanding guests at the hotel. What amazing guides they were! We saw ALL of the island: beautiful coves, ranches, vineyards, buffalo, fishing piers, foxes, mountain top vistas- even an unexpected vintage Flxible tour bus! We had enough experiences to fill a book, but here are some pictures to give you an idea. We hope to see you on the island next year.

A Flxible- on Catalina Island!

Guess we won't have to bring our own bus

One of the many beautiful coves around Catalina Island

Leah sporting her new Catalina gear

Where the buffalo roam...

Jim at the Rusack Ranch

Vineyard at the Rusack Ranch

Paso Robles Wine Country

After our busy but relaxing weekend on Catalina we grabbed the late ferry to Long Beach and started the drive to Paso Robles. The next day we made our way to Windrose to see our farmer friends Bill and Barbara Spencer and meet up with guest chef Chris Kobayashi of Artisan Restaurant. Chef Chris was honored this year with a James Beard Award Nomination for Best Chef: Pacific Region. We're very excited to have Chris at the Outstanding table. Chris arrived with his wife Shandi and their boy Cooper and soon we were tromping around the field with Bill Spencer. Farmer Bill showed us his dozens of apple varieties, the young potato plants, cover crops and myriad other farm curiosities. Bill provided us with a really cool map of where all of the goodies would be growing at the time of the dinner. Chef Chris, map in hand, went about thoughtfully planning the menu. Jim spied our table site; an ancient sheltering oak with enough shade to cool all the diners. We are looking forward to an amazing feast!

Out in the field with Chef Chris Kobayashi and Farmer Bill Spencer

Our proposed table site- in the shade of the old oak tree

A Different Kind of Farm

What a location! Our long table will be perched on a cliff overlooking crashing waves and endless vistas. When we arrived we soaked in the views and poked around looking for our host. We soon found Bradley Buckley of The Abalone Farm and enjoyed a thorough tour of the grounds, learning everything about abalone - very fascinating! Bradley is the perfect tour guide: knowledgable, interested and charming. Our enthusiastic guest chef and Outstanding event veteran Deborah Scarborough of Black Cat Bistro is so excited she's already written most of the menu which of course revolves around our key ingredient: abalone.

Ocean view at The Abalone Farm


Leah and Brad working out some details

Brad showing the young abalone

Back to the Farm

We just caught our breath. It has been quite a busy time with a tsunami of reservation requests since our schedule release on the first day of Spring. More events than ever and more people eager to have a seat at the table. This year we thought we'd make more room at the table by adding one-third more events. Everything has worked out well.

After all of that hard work in the office we've been looking forward to getting back out into the field. Last week we payed a visit to Blue Moon Organics in Aptos. Blue Moon Organics is the site of our first dinner on May 16th and OITF founder Jim Denevan will be preparing the feast. Farmer Greg Rawlings was out on his tractor plowing the field. Greg hopped off his tractor and took us on a walking tour of the property. We sauntered over to the greenhouse which has a lovely grassy area for our initial greeting of guests. Jim spied a nice table site near the blackberries. We went over and took a good look and Jim got very excited thinking about where things would go.







Tomorrow we head off to Catalina Island to scout out a dinner site for 2010. We're getting a tour of the wild side of the island. Looks like an Adventure Dinner! On the trip back up to Santa Cruz we will be stopping in to visit our friends Bill and Barbara Spencer at Windrose Farm in Paso Robles. Chef Chris Kobayashi from nearby Artisan Restaurant will be meeting us for a walk around the farm where we will discuss our June 18th dinner.

One more thing:
Outstanding in the Field is now on Facebook and Twitter- check it out!

Eco-Farm National Farming Conference

OITF founder Jim Denevan loves cooking for farmers. Jim has cooked lunch for the Eco-Farm farm bus tour for 17 years in a row! Eco-Farm is a long running winter sustainable farming conference in coastal California. Farmers come from around the country to take a break from farming, socialize and learn more from their peers. This year Eco-Farm asked Jim to speak at one of the conference seminars. Jim shared the stage with chef Annie Somerville of Greens restaurant and chef Jesse Cool of Flea Street Cafe. The subject of the seminar was "Food as Art." Jim had quite a bit to say and plenty of pictures.

Off Season - Art Season

The depths of winter is a slow time for Outstanding in the Field but a busy time when it comes to OITF founder Jim Denevan's art work. On several days of each month Jim heads up to a favorite secret beach north of Santa Cruz, CA to draw in sand. The trail to the beach is washed out so Jim has to wade down the center of a small stream to reach the sand. All this difficulty means few footprints and few visitors: a beautiful peaceful place to draw. The tide must be very low, only ten or more days per month have the preferred conditions. When conditions are right Jim spends hours on the sand, composing huge freehand temporary drawings that wash away with the tide.

Here are some photographs from the past month:

A New Year...

With a new year comes new ideas... One of those ideas is having more Outstanding in the Field private events. Florence was fun. New York City was good. And here in California in late December 'just up the road' is great. Yesterday, north of Santa Cruz, Pie Ranch barn was dressed up for an occasion. It was a signature Outstanding event with menu ingredients gathered from such past OITF participants as Hans from H & H Fresh Fish, Jeff Larkey of Route One Farm and Jerry Thomas from Thomas Farm.

Katy Oursler, farm tour veteran of four cross country trips and now OITF private events director orchestrated the elegant/earthy festivities which included an all galoshes tour of the farm. For those of you considering a special occasion visit our private events page.

Thank You

After a busy season and before seeds are planted the next one is a good time to rest and take stock. Into the new year as the days lengthen with promise of a new year we want to take an opportunity to thank everyone that made 2008 such a success. Our upcoming newsletter recognizes Outstanding staff that played a big part in our biggest year yet. We would also like to warmly thank all our dinner guests. Our guests support is what makes it possible to bring everyone to the table. Finally and most importantly we want to thank all our farmers, producers and artisans who joined us at the table. Your stories are what makes the food taste good. In the coming year we hope all of you will seek out and support the farmer and producer participants from past dinners. We have an updated event map and participants page to help with that effort.

Foraging Feast

After several weeks hiatus, the OITF crew reconvened at Pie Ranch in San Mateo County California for our 5th annual foraging feast. Besides having a lovely forest setting for our forage explorations Pie Ranch is a very cool operation that works to bring inner city youth out of the city and on to the farm. Jered Lawson, Nancy Vail and Karen Heisler of Pie Ranch partner with San Francisco high schools to get kids out to the field to "get their hands dirty". The farm's urban connection is Mission Pie, a sweet little cafe and bakery in San Francisco's Mission district. Mission Pie's menu features ingredients from local farms... including Pie Ranch. We are excited to support such a project, but also love Pie Ranch as it has the perfect nice cozy barn to host a late season event.

Though it was nearly December we were blessed with a beautiful and warm late fall afternoon. As guests arrived a cool fog gave way to bright sun while further up the hill guests gathered for the reception. Long time OITF supporter Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Vineyard poured his Vin Gris de Cigare. A crisp glass of pink wine was welcome reward after the short hike through towering eucalyptus trees from the parking area below. Guests toured the farm sipping wine, nibbling salt cod crostini, picking strawberries, visiting the chickens and enjoying the sunny rays. Forager David Chambers tempted everyone with the aroma of sauteed porcinis, a special treat for after the foraging hike. Guests gathered, introductions were made and David tromped off with all in tow. With a glorious view of forest and ocean from high on the nearby hill all stood rapt soaking in the foragers lore. With a final 'Let's Eat!!' everyone began the long trek back to the barn to feast.

Guest chef Morgan Mueller and his spirited crew from Bacar were prepared for arriving guests with four delicious courses. The idea behind the foraging dinner is to use local Santa Cruz Mountains ingredients, highlighting foraged items such as seafood (mussels, abalone, fish), wild nettles, miner's lettuce and of course wild mushrooms like chanterelles, porcinis and boletes. A couple of times the menu has even featured wild boar!

A glass of Vin de Cigare Blanc and a steaming bowl of spicy, hearty soup welcomed our forest hikers in the corn- and gourd-decorated barn. The soup, composed of fresh fresh mussels (just harvested the day before by Andre LaFleur and David Chambers), potatoes, proscuitto and jalapenos warmed and satisfied our well-walked guests. Heaters warmed the guests as strangers became friends over good food and wine. Pictured below is both the soup and then a delicious platter of wild nettles (from literally right outside the barn), mixed wild mushrooms and black cod. See the full menu for the evening here.

Jered shared a beautiful little documentary (barn multimedia, something we usually don't have out in the field) about Pie Ranch, starring several Bay Area high school students visiting the ranch. By the time the pies were cut for dessert (pumpkin, squash, apple and elderberry & madrone berry pies, oh my!) it felt like one big family in the barn, celebrating Thanksgiving: local food, great farmers and foragers, winemakers and chefs. A wonderful finale to 2008.

Thank you to "Culinary Fool" Brenda Pederson for lending use of her beautiful photos from this event for this post. Earlier this season, Brenda started a Flickr pool for Outstanding in the Field photos. You can contribute to and/or enjoy it here.

Where do we put this thing?

Something we don't think too much about when we are on the road... we just park our bus anywhere we happen to be... since we are always moving we are unlikely to overstay our welcome. With very little space in front of Jim's small house in Santa Cruz (you can't see the house if the bus is parked in front) we needed a storage solution. Fortunately our new friend Stanley, a foraging dinner guest (Thanks Stanley!!) offered his Santa Cruz mountain redwood glade for winter storage. Another big adventure for driver Caleb as it is not so easy to take a big bus up up up into the mountains... not to mention get it off road and deep into the woods. Quite a spot to leave the old girl.

Cities Farm

Recently Absolut Vodka asked Jim to come up with a visionary idea for their 'In an Absolut World' campaign. Jim's idea: "In An Absolut World Cities Farm" resulted in an exciting gala fete on a Manhattan rooftop above Rockefeller Plaza honoring New York City's farmers and gardeners. A celebration of urban agriculture, our dinner ingredients were gathered from each of the five boroughs. Several weeks earlier Jim had designed a menu based on ingredients he found visiting farms and gardens in the five boroughs: Queens Farm, Taqwa Community Farm in the Bronx, East New York Farms in Brooklyn, Gericke Farm in Staten Island and Central Park in Manhattan. (see previous post)

The Absolut campaign includes other 'visionaries' such as Eddie Izzard, Kanye West, Perez Hilton and Improv Everywhere.

Leah and Jim arrived in Manhattan a few days prior to the event on Halloween night, promptly donning freaky scary Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein get ups to hit the town. Jim had received an invitation from the Accompanied Literary Society to an exclusive reading of a lost manuscript of Edgar Allen Poe read by actor Josh Lucas (dressed as glam rocker). Frank and Bride of Frank are always a good costume choices for the tall and lanky.

Next day tasks included foraging for berries in Central Park. Foraging day was also New York Marathon day, so getting past the bounding hoards and into Central Park was not so easy. The whole time en route Jim was thinking "Did the birds get those berries?" and "Maybe we should have picked them a few weeks ago and put them in the freezer." After some worrying and a long hike the bounty was rediscovered and they proceeded to pick.

In the week before the event, Santa Cruz local Johnny Wilson, who had relocated to NY for the summer to work at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture traveled the five boroughs and gathered all the ingredients. He delivered the goodies to our chef friend Alejandro Alcocer at Brown Cafe in the Lower East Side. Alejandro and crew would be preparing the food for the dinner.

Monday, November 3rd was the big day. A combined effort of Outstanding in the Field, Great Works and Shiraz Events, the dinner turned out wonderfully. Guests included many of New York's Green initiators, including representatives from Treehugger.com, Edible Manhattan, Just Food, Friends of the Highline and some of the cities eco-committees as well as TV celebrities/restauranteurs Tom Colicchio and Mario Batali. Also attending were some notable fans of Jim's art: David Ross the former Whitney Museum director and Neville Wakefield guest curator at PS1 and MOMA. Many of the guests had special interests in urban food and agriculture including rooftop gardening. We're sure there was plenty of interesting dinner conversation!

Prior to gathering at the table, dinner guests enjoyed the open rooftop with spectacular views. Our two featured cocktails of the evening: the Central Park (featuring wild viburnum berries picked near 79th and 5th) Bloody Marys (the tomato juice made with love at Queens Farm - 4 different versions with heirloom tomatoes: Green Zebras, Cherokee Purples, Brandywines and then a lovely mix of them all). Filmmakers from Absolut had followed Jim while he visited gardeners and farmers from the 5 boroughs. A short documentary about the gathering of ingredients and OITF was shown during the reception. You can see it here.

The menu for this delicious dinner is shared here.

Of course the wonderful farmers and gardeners who contributed to the meal were also present and essentially stole the show when they were given the opportunity to stand up and tell their story. Bobby and Abu Talib of Taqwa shared inspiring and heartfelt stories of planting their garden in the Bronx that transformed a crime ridden trash heap into a fertile city oasis. Michael Grady Robertson of Queens Farm shared his story with clear enthusiasm: that of Apollonia the pig. All gathered heard a lot about Appolonia's daily life on the farm. Michael said that one of the main reasons he sold Apollonia to us for our dinner (Queens farm only has 4 pigs...) was that the diners could also hear the pig's life story, something that would not have been possible if she had been sold to a restaurant or at the Green Market. Deborah at East New York Farms celebrated the growing success and interest in East New York Farms and their sidewalk-side farmstand. Jen Griffith of Just Food tied it up nicely by telling people about using Just Food as a resource to help access NYC urban gardeners/farmers and promote sustainable food systems in the big city.

This was documented by award winning filmmaker Victor Quinaz and the final product can now be seen here. Check out this Absolut's "In an Absolut World" Campaign site for more photos and info.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this event!