Photos © 2012 Curly Girl Design, Inc./Leigh Standley. all rights reserved.
If it feels like I talk about this event every year, it’s because I do. It is my favorite event of the year, and since tickets go on sale on March 20 (the first day of spring…although Mother Nature didn’t get the memo on that in Boston…) I thought I would once again do my best to talk you in to finding an event near you, (or one far away) and having a night, and a dinner, to remember!
I am in no way affiliated with OITF, they don’t really even know I exist, even though I totally stalk them and this year will mark my 4th dinner (which is nothing! I have met people that have gone to 15+!) I am just a huge fan of what they are doing and have had some of the greatest experiences attending their dinners. And I’m a share-er. I think you would love it. You can read more about my first time here.
The concept is simple. Local Farm + Local Chef + Uber Local Ingredients + 200 strangers and a bunch of tables = magic. The OITF team travels the country on a bus for the better part of the year making these love connections and putting on single-night feasts in every nook and cranny of this fair country (and some abroad!). Al fresco rain or shine (fortunately I have lucked out with glorious evenings), the gatherings bring together local food and farm to table enthusiasts from near and far. Each is a unique experience, but all will bring you closer to the richness of what we eat and where we eat it from.
The venues range from farms in the plains to beach coves that celebrate the gifts of the sea. I have eaten in a peach orchard, a field that ran into the Pacific Ocean and a farm down the street. The table is always the same but the food on the table and the people in the chairs is magnificently different each time.
(Photos from last summer’s dinner at Allendale Farm with Chef Tony Maws (not pictured) Pictured: OSIAF founder Jim Denevan)
Events and locations were announced here on March 1st, but tickets go on sale in two phases tomorrow March 20th starting at noon EST. Tickets sell out fast. Like, in some cases …minutes. So my suggestion is to pick a friend, pick a place and just go for it! You will never ever regret it! Maybe I will see you there!
xoxo
