Phil McGrath, farmer, friend and visionary invited us to participate in his first ever customer appreciation day at his family's farm in Oxnard. We've known Phil for years and have bought his produce espescially his beets forever.His farm's produce is legendary and Phil has always supported the dinners we have held on various farms as well as at the restaurants and many times joining us for meals. Maybe this was payback.
Anyway when he invited us to make some food for his first annual customer appreciation day it was an offer we couldn't refuse. After all it was only about an hour and 45 minutes to the Central exit on the 101 in Oxnard and it was only 50 - 75 people, okay maybe 200 - 300 people. It sounded like fun in a Huck Finn kind of way.
I drafted Adam as a volunteer and we kicked around some food ideas. August is a great time to visit a farm and we wanted to highlight the vegies and have some fun at the same time. Drawing on our earlier summer farm trips we hit on grilled pizzas, grilled sweet corn, warm roast beets and wilted dandelion greens and srawberry shortcake with a sweet vanilla cream.
Phil got the wood grill and the mesquite, supplied the vegies and we drove to Oxnard to cook the food. Pizza is such a great way to highlight great veggies and grilling them is such a wonderful rustic way to cook them. Fresh tomatoes, grilled zucchini, bell peppers and red onions, dandelion greens, fresh herbs, a tomato jam made from Phil's heirloom cherry tomatoes and add some mozzarella and burrata cheeses, these pizzas were great. The sweet corn, just picked and thrown on the grill. We made a chipotle lime butter ( the chipotles came from Windrose farms) and slatherred it on the corn which didn't really need to be cooked since it was soo fresh and sweet. The beets were roasted and peeled and we heated them over the fire and wilted the dandelion greens in another pan and tossed them together with a simple dijon red wine vinaigrette, a touch of walnut oil and sprinkled with a horseradish creme fraiche.
And finally Mark's strawberry shortcake with McGrath Farms macerated strawberries, the shortcake, a huge hit and a spoonful or sweet vanilla cream. A menu that seemed simple and rustic, very representative of our food yet alot of work for two people to put together. But it was fun with the Herzog Kosher Zinfandel from just down the street ( besides the wine they brought a bruschetta with the heirloom cherry tomatoes, cannelini beans and lamb bacon(?!)), and most importantly the people. A. Weiser was there ( anywhere for a party) as well as members of the McGrath family and their customers many of whom participate in his very successful CSA program. The Market they built on the farm has really developed. And at the end when everyone left it was the feeling you get from being around people who appreciate the farm and the food. You hug people goodbye that you just met and as one person put it once you've eaten food like this it's hard to go back to the grocery store
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