My mother always subscribed to Better Homes and Gardens magazine. I always loved the articles about outdoor living and entertaining, dreaming of eating a meal off a table spread with real tableclothes, bouquets of wild flowers and under the trees. This weekend we had an opportunity to do just that. The Minnesota Food Association, which runs Big River Farms of which we are a part was having a “donor breakfast.” They requested that we share our experience as farmers in the program.

We arrived early in the fog and there the table was. Breakfast appetizers were fresh strawberry and coconut muffins made with strawberries grown on site. We talked for awhile, ate muffins and drank carrot/cucumber juice made with a juicer while we waited. After a brief tour of the farm and our little talk is was back to the table to eat.

Proeun and Mavis enjoy the lovely food provided by Good Life Catering.

Quiche with fresh corn, basil, tomato and Black River Gorgonzola

Potato hash with green beans, peppers, eggplant and red onion

Yogurt with fresh peaches

All the produce except the peaches came right from Big River Farms. Everett Fruit provided the peaches from sustainable family farms and the grain was local as well from Whole Grain Milling.

The yogurt came from Lilly, the neighborhood goat. The eggs from the chickens that continually romp the farm on the lookout for food scraps. As we were eating one was prowling under the table someone said, “I thought that was a dog, then I realized that we don’t have a dog.”

Of course my favorite was the wildflowers. What a beautiful morning!