Harvest Dinner and Film Screening, "Growing Local"

First of all, Robin Hills Farm would like to extend a massive thank you to all who made the Farm-to-Table Dinner and Film Screening of "Growing Local" possible! We would especially like to  thank Chef Emily Van der Waard, her students and those who volunteered, especially Kathy Carter, Steve Hinz, and Brooke Ratliff, who helped prepare, cook, and serve the delicious "Garden Party" meal. We would also like to thank the Chelsea Community Kitchen, especially Stephanie Willette, Jane Pacheco, and Kathy Carter, who generously partnered with Robin Hills and led the organization of the event. Finally we would like to thank the panelists, including Taryn Hammer Marcus, who helped to lead the discussion on the importance of going local, and all the guests who showed their support for local food through their donations! All in all, we had a tremendously successful event, and we felt grateful to be working with such inspiring individuals seeking to make the world a better place (and what better place to start than on the local level!).

As luck would have it, the finale to the 'Garden Party Series,' a farm-to-table dinner prepared by the instructor and students of the series, was combined with a film screening that the Chelsea Community Kitchen was organizing. Since the dinner was a fundraiser for the Chelsea Community Kitchen, it was fitting that the screening would be held at Robin Hills Farm following the dinner.  We have a giant greenhouse with seating that accommodates for around a 50-person dinner party, and we have plenty of lawn space to have an outdoor film screening. An outdoor film screening is worthless, however, without a giant inflatable screen, and we were fortunate enough to have one donated by Gary Mazzeo for the event (thank you, Gary!!).

Prior to the day of the event, Sept. 28th, everything seemed to be in order. Tickets had sold out weeks prior, the temporary food license was in process, and we had all the ingredients sourced (thank you, Zingerman's, for your cheeses and baguettes, Goetz's for your cauliflower, and Sparrow Market for your chicken!). The rest of the ingredients were sourced right here at Robin Hills Farm, which included tomatoes, herbs, peppers, ground cherries, onions, garlic, and more.

The only thing left to do was execute the event, which was no small task. Emily, her husband, her students, and a few volunteers began the day preparing the meal at 8 am in the kitchen of the Chelsea Methodist Church. There was plenty of slicing and dicing, boiling and stirring, washing and drying, and a good deal of shucking ground cherry husks (can you use 'shuck' for things other than corn?!). Morale was high, and tasks were being completed efficiently and effectively. This prep madness lasted until 11 am, when the prep team parted ways. In the meantime, Kathy and Emily visited the Greenhouse to decorate for the dinner, a classy, country theme made possible with donated tablecloths and platters. The Greenhouse was looking good.

Once the decor was carefully laid out, the team parted ways yet again, some to finish the meal prep while others handled the final logistics concerning temp food license, cooking equipment, etc. By 5:30 pm, guests began to arrive for a pre-dinner tour of Robin Hills Farm. About a dozen joined Ben in a stroll around the property, and the tour led right into the dinner. We were granted our temporary food license, and dinner kicked off a few minutes late, but the guests were gracious and friendly.

The menu went over tremendously well and the guests gave the chef and her assistants a standing ovation. Then, everyone moved outside with their blankets and lawn chairs to set up for the film screening. The temperature was perfect (too cold for mosquitoes, just right for the humans!), and the sky was clear and full of moon and stars. The feature presentation was a documentary titled "Growing Local," a series of vignettes on the local food movement in Maine. One of the vignettes focused on a farm/grocery store called Sheepscot General owned and run by Chelsea native, Taryn Hammer Marcus, and her husband, Ben. The theme of the film was the plight of the struggling farmer and how important it is to both grow locally and buy locally, and this was made all the more real by the panel discussion that followed the film featuring four panelists: Taryn Hammer Marcus, Emily Griswold, a local farmer north of Chelsea, Susan Lackey, executive director for Legacy Land Conservancy, and Stefanie Stauffer, representing Tillian Farm Development Center, a farm incubator program in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The events from the night left guests feeling invested and inspired by the possibilities that come along with local food and local farmers.