Outstanding in the Field at Beekman 1802
Could be worth the splurge if this is your sort of thing: The well-known Outstanding in the Field series of farm dinners will be at the Beekman 1802 farm in Sharon Springs August 20. The hosts are Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge, AKA, The Beekman Boys (it's their farm). And the featured chef for the dinner will be John McCarthy from The Crimson Sparrow in Hudson.
What is Outstanding in the Field? From its about page:
In the summer of 1999, I [founder Jim Denevan] came up with the idea of setting a long table on a farm and inviting the public to an open-air feast in celebration of the farmer and the gifts of the land. I decided to call this idea Outstanding in the Field. I thought a big table, carefully composed alongside the ingredients for the evening's feast would inspire both a conversation at the table and a broader discussion about food, community and the meaning of place. A traveling feast with a central vision of farmers, chefs, cheese makers, ranchers, foragers and winemakers in delicious communion with the people they sustain. It would be a terrific challenge to bring this message to the field and to the world -- it would also be a lot of fun and adventure.
There have been more than 600 such events since then. Here's a Serious Eats post from a few years back about attending one of the dinners.
Tickets for the event are (gulp) $210 and available online.
One-time events like this can be expensive to stage, and no doubt a lot of skill and experience will go into pulling off this event. For some people, the experience will be worth it. It's just... you know, it makes us think that $210 could buy you a lot of delicious communion directly from the farmers at one of the local farmers' market.
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photo via Outstanding in the Field Instagram
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Comments
If the ticket to the event is $210 per person, then you're not bringing a message to the world. You're preaching to the elite choir. And judging by the photo, the "community" they are engaging with looks pretty homogenous.
... said Chris on Apr 14, 2015 at 10:30 AM | link
I went to one of these in the Berkshires two years ago - we got a "discount" because we know the organizer, but still paid $125/per. Was the food worth it? Hell no. We've paid a similar amount for farm to table fundraisers, but this appears to be a for profit enterprise.
... said Barold on Apr 14, 2015 at 11:36 AM | link