Gathering with friends over locally grown meal

It makes your mouth water: Spareribs, roasted vegetables, fried cheese curd and bacon appetizers, cranberry groat granola bites and peach pie and rhubarb torte.

(Apologies if you heard my slurp there. It was a delicious meal!)

That was the menu of our Locally Grown Meal Part 2. Just like our Part 1 meal which featured spatchcocked chicken, roasted fingerling potatoes and spiced aronia berry galette, everything was locally sourced from area growers and farmers.

But this meal had a bit of a twist.

“What if we invited another couple to join us, but they would be responsible for dessert featuring a locally produced item?” I asked Leon and Lori.

They knew a couple who would be a great addition - Dave and Shawn Schneeberger. I know them, too! And they are no strangers to meals like our Locally Grown Meal. They are part of a dinner group. All are friends and the host of the meal gives each person or couple a recipe. So someone gets the entree, another a vegetable recipe and someone else gets a salad. Everything is covered from appetizers to dessert.

Sounds like fun. What a great idea!

So when Leon and Lori contacted the Schneebergers to take part in our Locally Grown Meal, they were interested.

They knew every aspect of our meal focuses on something sourced locally. I was in charge of the meat, Leon and Lori purchased the vegetables and Shawn and Dave took care of desert.

A few weeks before the meal, Leon and Lori and Dave and Shawn visited Redhead Creamery (it has been featured in The Local Growers) and got a tour of the farm, the cheese production and Leon received a cooking lesson in how to prepare a friend cheese curd appetizer with maple glazed bacon! He made it for the meal and it was great!

There were some initial concerns over the dessert. Well, not really concerns, but Shawn was looking for honey berries and her source, local berry growers, had none. Sold out.

No problem for this great cook! She not only prepared one dessert in the end, but two! She received rhubarb from a friend and had purchased peaches through a local church youth group fundraiser. (We don’t raise peaches in Minnesota, at least where I live).

Shawn sourced the local ingredients well. Why, even the eggs used in the desserts were local. They came from a six-year-old who is selling eggs so she can buy a splash pad. Enterprising young gal. I love the story!

The desserts Shawn prepared were a rhubarb torte and a peach pie. I think everyone opted for a bit of each to taste these wonderful desserts. More pictures and recipes on these in upcoming The Local Growers posts.

The meats for this meal - spareribs and bacon - came from Haffner Family Farm by Eagle Bend, MN and Doubting Thomas Farm provided the groats which became the cranberry granola bites we enjoyed when we first arrived at Leon and Lori’s house.

i thank them all - Leon and Lori for their hospitality and Dave and Shawn for joining us - for a wonderful evening. Great food. Great conversation. Great friends. What more does one need?

The groats for the oat groat granola bites came from Doubting Thomas Farm of Moorhead. The spareribs and bacon came from Haffner Family Farm by Eagle Bend. Leon got the vegetables from the Fergus Falls Farmers Market vendors. Cheese curds came from Redhead Creamery by Brooten.

Several of these growers also have online shops so items are available throughout the year.

Leon and I like to talk before the meal prep to discuss things we observed in our ingredient sourcing and meal prep. I asked him what his impressions were following our first meal. He said he became more aware of the ingredients he was using and how many things he purchased that were, indeed locally grown and produced.

I recall that first meal and how Leon and Lori served me a cup of Stumbeano’s Comstock coffee blend. It’s roasted by our own Stumbeano’s here in Fergus Falls, MN and is named after a Fergus Falls man, Gus Comstock, who drank 85 8-ounce cups of coffee in a six hour period. I love coffee and, although I drink my fair share of the brew, haven’t met Gus’ record. He’s my hero.

The point of my Gus Comstock story and the Locally Grown Meal Part 1, is the fun stories shared and learned through the meal. Like the six-year-old girl selling eggs to earn money for a splash pad.

Redhead Creamery cheese served at Part 1 (I LOVE their cheddars. I am such a cheddar snob and they have some great ones.) prompted their visit to the creamery and the cheese curd appetizer served in Part 1. Leon and Lori and Dave and Shawn used Millerville Co-Op Creamery butter in their dishes. Shawn and Lori also took a tour of the plant.

And there were the local connections. Rhubarb from Ron’s rhubarb patch and the six-year-old and her chickens. And don’t forget the locally milled flours and the groats.

The grower stories, recipes and meal conversation will be appearing over the next few weeks. May this preamble be an encouragement to learn something from the growers you are buying produce and meats from at the farmers market. Or the online connections you may make from the online stores the farms have established.

There’s nothing like the freshness of the products.

I am eager to share their stories and the story of this fantastic meal!