Farm to Table Event at Chankaska Ranch & Winery
You’ve probably already heard about this one on social media but we recently provided the majority of the produce for a farm to table dinner out at Chankaska Ranch & Winery and we were blown away! The 5 course meal was incredible and incorporated our produce in practical, delicious and ingenious ways. Each course was paired with a wine from Chankaska and the pairings were excellent. We were honored to be the first farm selected to be featured and we had a great time at the event.
The warm up course was a simple caramel corn that used our popcorn and some shredded coconut. The first course was a salad featuring our head lettuce, beets, and carrots with a black raspberry vinaigrette. The second course was a delicious chicken taco with a kohlrabi slaw from our kohlrabi and also featured our cilantro, radish, and jalapenos. The third course - my least favorite but points for creativity - was a garden pudding with our sugar snap peas, carrots and cilantro. The fourth course was a black garlic and sausage ravioli that used our garlic scapes in the pesto sauce they served with it. The final course was a desert course with beet & carrot ice cream. I know. Kind of strange but it was some of the best ice cream we’d ever had. Chef Jun basically powdered the beets and carrots to enhance their flavor and sweetness and whipped them with ice cream and granola. So GOOD!
Chef Jun said it best: “Local just tastes better, we believe in supporting local farms and local producers because we all do better when we all do better.”
New Plastic Installed!
Last week we wrote about how a pop-up storm severely damaged the plastic on our largest tunnel necessitating replacement. I’m happy to let every know that we were lucky enough to get a calm day where we were able to pull the replacement plastic on our tunnel.
Pulling plastic on a tunnel this big is a very difficult task for a variety of reasons. First, the plastic roll itself weighs between 150-200lbs. That weight needs to be lifted up across the peak of the tunnel which is around 15’ tall. Compounding on that and for best results, the plastic needs to be pulled as taught and tight as possible to minimize the amount it billows in the wind. This detail was one of the main reasons our original plastic failed. Finally, the weather needs to be favorable as even a tiny gust of wind can make the project go south in a heart beat.
Using a method we found from Tunnel Vision Hoops - a supplier of high tunnels and accessories - we were able to install the plastic with relative ease in about 2 hours. We’re happy with how tight the plastic is on the new tunnel and hope we’ll get many years of service out of it before it needs to be replaced again.
