Farm to Fork Picnic: Arguably "Best AYCE Feast in Country"

I drove through a merciful break in the thunderstorms to the Farm to Fork Picnic yesterday, anticipating a delicious experience but not convinced that I'd find what Bon Appetit restaurant editor Andrew Knowlton calls "The country's best all-you-can-eat feast."

Oh, Andrew, you are SO right! Nearly 50 booths served up breathtakingly fresh and creative food, ringing a field not nearly as muddy as it could have been. In the center, folks sat on hay bales or their own lawn chairs. The unamplified band sounded more like klezmer than bluegrass: another sign that while the barbeque may rule in the Triangle, there's much more going on.

After making my first sampling tour, I came back to the Magnolia Grill booth for my Best of Show round. I told baking genius Karen Barker, "This is even better than Host City Night at the IACP in Portland!" "Welcome home," said Karen with a smile as she offered me another slice of her cornmeal cake with blueberries and sorghum buttermilk cream.

Why better? Not afraid of flavor. Luxury in the form of super fresh, local ingredients. Fun and wit. Here are some highlights:

• Box Turtle Bakery's savory croissant with heirloom red fife wheat, Castlemaine Swiss chard, roasted garlic, and spring onions. I didn't recognize this super-tender and tasty stuffed whole-wheat bread as a croissant: no tell-tale flaky layers. But baker Abraham Palmer told me butter is one secret to the rich taste and texture. Another secret? Palmer arranged to have the red fife wheat grown by a local farmer, then grinds it himself just before baking. Freshly ground whole-wheat flour is to store-bought all-purpose flour as a ripe garden tomato is to a shrink-wrapped grocery-store tomato. It's hard to believe they are related.


• Farmer's Daughter's spicy napa cabbage kimchi. April McGreger makes this spicy fermented Korean dish using a variety of organic or pesticide-free produce. Her kimchi's still-crisp cabbage in pungent tomato sauce will wake up any meal.


• Vimala's Curryblossom Cafe's vegetable pakoras with various chutneys. Oh, I can hardly wait for Vimala's Cafe to open this summer. Her hot, crispy vegetable fritters will entice hushpuppy lovers to try Indian food. Vimala's booth was one of many that paired a chef with a farm: in this case, Fiddle Creek Farm.

Other great bites and sips included a pea-green garlic wasabi shot, beet gazpacho, zucchini frittelle with basil aioli, deviled eggs, and strawberry tartlets with with creme anglaise.





Hats off to the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, the Orange County Cooperative Extension, and Slow Food Triangle for organizing this great event. Every detail worked, including the butcher-paper covered tables upon which the chefs had scrawled the names of their offerings.

I drove back through stormy weather, admiring a rainbow on the way (could it get any better?) and thinking about all the great people in the area who collaborate to make the eating here so excellent, from farm to fork. It IS good to be home.