Feast on farm-to-fork dinner amid flower fields
Destiny Hill Farm is rolling out a feast for the eyes and palate.
The Washington, Pa., flower farm is hosting its first Field to Vase Dinner on Saturday and will feature a multicourse farm-to-fork meal on white-linen tables decorated with floral arrangements and against a back-drop of lavender fields.
Launched in 2015 by Certified American Grown Flowers, the American Grown Field to Vase Dinner Tour is seeking the cachet that the farm-to-table movement has been drawing — say aye to local, just-plucked and sustainability, and nay to factory-farmed. The tour crisscrosses the country, making stops at flower farms to drive awareness about why it’s important to support American flower farmers, said administrator Kasey Cronquist.
“Eighty percent of the flowers sold in the U.S. today are imported, and customers don’t know that,” he said.
The tour typically kicks off in March and goes through November. “We usually start in California, but this year it began in a greenhouse filled with roses in Minnesota,” he said. The tour is hitting seven destinations, and is coming to Western Pennsylvania for the first time.
The $175 dinner usually draws about 100 to 150 guests, Mr. Cronquist said, and the menu decisions are made by local chefs.
Scott Burkhart, general manager and executive chef of the Washington Country Club, has collaborated with Byron Bardy, a certified master chef who retired from H.J. Heinz Co., for the Destiny Hill dinner. Their menu sources items from local farms and is in sync with the late spring/ early summer season. And of course, lavender plays a prominent role.
“We also thought about color and presentation when coming up with the menu,” Mr. Brady said.
A cocktail hour featuring crudites, artisan cheeses, fruits, domestic wines and Pennsylvania breweries will precede the four-course dinner.
Gazpacho garnished with sourdough croutons and edible flowers will be followed with a salad comprised of fresh figs, microgreens, squash blossoms and goat cheese, and tossed with a vinaigrette made with Destiny Hill’s honey and lavender. Lamb from Jamison Farm roasted with persillade (a parsley and garlic sauce) and served with Dijon demi-glace, fennel, purple sprouts, squash tossed in brown butter and rosemary fingerling potatoes will be the main course. A berry bread pudding will round off the dinner, and it will come with a honey-port wine poached pear, chantilly cream and lavender.
At the event, guests can take a farm tour, learn about the art and science of flower farming from Destiny Hill’s owners and first-generation flower farmers, Nancy and Jim Cameron, and get a lesson in designing table centerpieces from floral designer Francoise Weeks.
Ms. Weeks of European Floral Design, who has workshops on woodland designs (using barks, seed pods and branches) and botanical coutures (includes purses, jewelry and shoes), is an advocate of making arrangements with multiple textures and locally grown flowers. She doesn’t follow rules such as restricting the number of flowers or colors but says “a table arrangement below eye level is a good idea” and prefers using simple vases.
“The flowers need to be fresh,” says the Belgian native and Portland, Ore., resident.
That won’t be a problem at Destiny Hill. It’s peak season now for the farm’s 4,000 lavender plants that are mostly in various purple tones (a few are white or pale pink). In addition, the farm grows sunflowers and lilies among others in a large greenhouse, and fruits such as raspberries and blueberries. “The farm’s very hilly, and the flowers like it because there’s drainage. But it’s not human friendly,” Nancy Cameron says with a laugh.
She inherited Destiny Hill from her grandfather, who had dairy cows and grew livestock corn, and converted it to a flower farm in 2011 after the couple took classes at Penn State Extension. “My two grandmothers, mother and sisters and I all love flowers,” she says. “So I decided to go ahead with what I love most — a flower farm.”
The lavender fields are truly beautiful, she says, and the vast plantings at Destiny Hill paint a pretty picture at this time of the year.
Although it is fine dining, Mr. Cronquist says there is no dress code for the Field to Vase Dinner. “It’s more farm chic, and guests can dress up as much as they like,” he says. “I’ll be in my cowboy boots and bow tie.”
At the end of the dinner, guests will get swag bags that will include a jar of lavender honey from Destiny Hill.
“The Field to Vase Dinner salutes the flower farmer, floral designer and chef,” Mr. Cronquist says. “We want to emphasize that flowers need to be just as fresh, local and sustainable as the food on the plate.”