Love La Farm Bakery?
Bananas about Bond Brothers Beer?
Find these foodie favorites and quite a few more at the ninth annual Farm to Fork Picnic Weekend, taking place across the region this Friday through Sunday.
The weekend features area chefs producing bite-size dishes made with local, seasonal ingredients grown by a farm paired with that chef.
“Give me a million dollars, and I’m not going to leave farming. It’s the only thing I ever want to do,” said Ben Shields, who founded In Good Heart Farm with his wife, Patricia Parker. Their farm is also on the weekend menu, paired with Kimbap Café of Raleigh.
In Good Heart Farm serves the Cary area through its CSA program and the Western Wake Farmers’ Market, producing everything from herbs and salad greens to watermelon and strawberries, using sustainable organic practices.
Farm to Fork Picnic Weekend also spotlights food artisans, breweries, wine importers, coffee roasters and tea companies, each providing samples of their products.
Drive for Your Dinner
All proceeds of the weekend’s events benefit beginning farmer training programs at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems and the W.C. Breeze Family Farm Extension and Research Center.
“With the average age of farmers now 58 and many farm kids not returning to the farm, training and support for the next generation of farmers is at a critical juncture,” said Nancy Creamer, professor of sustainable agriculture and community-based food systems at N.C. State University and director of CEFS.
“This year we also wanted to highlight youth engagement and leadership as a way to cultivate interest in agriculture early on.”
At Farm to Fork Picnic Weekend, all less than an hour’s drive from Cary you’ll find:
A sustainably-sourced supper in Saxapahaw (say that three times fast);
A five-course dinner and a conversation with Sam Kass, former personal chef to President Obama, in Durham; and
A picnic in Hurdle Mills featuring more than three dozen chefs, 14 food artisans and breweries, and more.
For tickets and more info, visit farmtoforknc.com.
