Having been a customer of Farm Fresh To You for awhile now, I was absolutely thrilled to be invited to attend my first farm-to-fork dinner event of theirs at Fish Public last night for the benefit of the San Diego Food Bank. We were treated to a wonderful menu inspired by the fresh produce supplied by local Farm Fresh to You partners, Capay Organic, Suzie’s Farm and Stehly Farms Organics.
The evening began with mingling amongst passed hors d’oeuvre trays and freely flowing wine, generously donated by Epic Wines & Spirits. We sampled a creamy kale soup, a roasted heirloom pumpkin crostini and lobster spiedini while getting to know our local farmers and the faces behind Farm Fresh To You.
As we were seated for our dinner, we were treated to an informative speech by Thaddeus Barsotti, Co-CEO and Chief Farmer at Farm Fresh To You and their farm, Capay Organic. He thoughtfully explained the history of his company and their strong desire to help everyone eat healthier, including those who are less advantaged.
Farm Fresh To You is a huge supporter of the local food banks in the various cities they operate in, including our local San Diego Food Bank. Thaddeus explained the Donate-A-Box program that his company offers and introduced us to James Floros, President & CEO of the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank. We heard some amazing statistics about the amount of food that is provided by our local food bank to those in need. We then were treated to a very passionate and moving overview of Suzie’s Farm from one of its founders, Lucila De Alejandro. We also heard from Jerome Stehly of Stehly Farms Organics and were excited to hear they are opening a market soon right near Fish Public!
Our dinner began with a gorgeous beet & green apple salad with spiced yogurt and pistachios. I’m not typically a fan of beets, but this salad was amazing! The colors were stunning and it was a wonderful start to our meal. As we ate we got to know everyone at our table a bit, including Thaddeus and his wife Moyra. My husband and I also talked with table mates who worked in the greenhouse at Suzie’s Farm and another who worked in sales for them. We spoke with Farm Fresh To You’s Procurement Director, Brendan, about how he decides what items to put into the weekly CSA boxes and gave our feedback on the items we’ve loved the most. The more we talked with everyone, the more we appreciated the very food we were eating.
Our main courses consisted of speck-wrapped roast pork loin and whole roasted brazino, both served in eye-catching family-style portions. We had fun digging into the fish at our end of the table and loved the accompanying sauces almost as much as the meat itself! We were treated to a thoughtful explanation of the menu by Fish Public’s chef Mark Schmitt. It was easy to sense his enthusiasm for cooking with the amazing produce provided by the local farms.
We also enjoyed 3 wonderful side dishes that definitely tasted as good as they sounded! The roasted nantes carrots with treviso and herb goat cheese had to be my favorite, the flavor combination was out of this world! We’ve been getting these same nantes carrots in our weekly Farm Fresh To You boxes and I’m a huge fan, they are delicious!
Finally, we ended with a generous dessert serving consisting of a chocolate almond torte topped with satsumas and white chocolate ganache. Yes, it was as good as it looks!
This was a fabulous event for such a great cause and my husband and I both learned so much. We couldn’t stop talking about the experience the whole way home, we were so moved by all of the passion we saw behind the meal we had just eaten. We especially loved that the farm-to-fork event benefited our local San Diego Food Bank. I look forward to attending future dinner events for Farm Fresh To You and will let you all know when I get details on the next one! Please also see my post about the Farm Fresh To You CSA program!
I attended an MPI function there – great place! I could see holding more events there. 🙂 Food was awesome and great wine list, too!