Mud Creek Farm: Farm to Table Dinner

I'm so excited about this blog entry!  While I really love my photo sessions, I have been itching to do some shooting for me...something new, challenging and something that would also benefit someone else.  So when I saw a post from Modest Wanderer on Facebook promoting an event they were teaming up with Mud Creek Farm on I thought it would be the perfect project.  Mud Creek Farm was looking to convert their current tractor into an electric tractor to reduce the use of fossil fuels.  For more details check this out. 

I don't usually photograph events, but I love photographing gardens as well as food.  To be honest, I would love to take photos for a cookbook one day.  Photos in cookbooks are just beautiful, I could spend hours pouring over them and trying to recreate them...and sometimes, I do!

The night of the event I stepped onto the fields and started awwwwing over all the fresh produce.  It was beautiful!

There was a nice cocktail area for the guests to mingle, drink and even get a ride on the tractor!  Here are a few detail shots:

 Finger Lakes Coffee Roasters donated prizes!

                            Peanut Butter Chocolate Stout?? YES PLEASE...that is right up my alley! 

 

 This bug spray, Herbal Armor was AMAZING. It was such a hot night and I was attracting bugs like crazy.  Then I put on this spray and not one single bug touched me the rest of the night.  I need to write these people a thank you note!

 While everyone mingled I found these cute lil piggies :)

 And now for my favorite part - the BEAUTIFUL dinner table set-up.  This looked like it came right off of Pinterest.  So so beautiful, in the middle of a vegetable field. Friends, amazing food, lots of laughs and all for a good cause.  All food (except desert) was made by Chef K2.  The desert was from The Owl House.

 

 

It was an awesome night that had such a positive vibe.  I loved it!  Big thanks to Modest Wanderer and Mud Creek Farms for letting me document your special event.  It was great to be a part of a local effort!

Garlic Scape Peso!

I have had the canning bug BIG time lately mostly because this ridiculously hot, humid weather has kept us indoors.  That and I have a new canning book that I'll talk about in an upcoming blog.  So I've been busy making jams, salsas, conserves and curds (amazing on biscuits!).  One thing I've always wanted to make was pesto.  I've never gotten around to it, until today!  My mother in law gave me a large bag of garlic scapes and I wasn't sure what to do with them until I went to a recent event (blog to come!) where they had....Garlic Scape Pesto!  What a fantastic idea!  So I found several recipes but none of them had the exact ingredients that I had in my kitchen, so I mixed and matched until it tasted good....take a peek!

I started out by cutting a good cup of basil from my garden...things have finally started to grow!  I also clipped a few chives.

I added them into the chopper/grinder with a handful of walnuts, olive oil, a tiny bit of water, lemon juice, a pinch of sugar and about 6 scapes (flower heads removed).

 I whizzed it up...such a pretty green.  And such a strong garlic-y smell...it's pretty strong so you might want to add more lemon juice, water etc...to your taste.

 Wala!  Soooo good and fresh!  I'm not sure what I'll put it on...any suggestions??  After I went rummaging through my fridge I found a bunch of cilantro that hadn't been used. In the blender it went for a Cilantro Pesto! 

This cutie pie was patiently waiting for me to finish so we could play.  How could I resist that face?! :)  Next canning blog: Vanilla-Rhubarb with Earl Gray tea jam (heavenly).