We finished up our two day Harvest Dinnerpalooza late last night and as I sat in the dining room after everyone had left I thought to myself 'this is a great beginning'. You might think this odd(well, if you don't think my blog is a little odd, you should seek medical help) that after two nights of preparing the finishing touches on our annual dinner I would be considering a beginning not an end. It's easy think about 'finishing up' after an evening that was as fun and exciting as the evenings we had, but I was ready to build on what we laid out during those two nights.
I won't go into details about the dinner. If you wanted the details, you would have been at the dinner. If you still want details, sign up for next years dinner(we already have commitments, so I'd call NOW).
Three years ago we produced our first Harvest Dinner to a small group of people, who although small in number were very excited about the scope of the dinner. Honestly, after that dinner I remarked to Karen that I didn't want to do another Harvest Dinner. I wasn't sure people 'got it' and we really didn't have that big of a crowd....in fact, i think only one dining room was used. During the summer months of last year, the question came up 'do we want to to another Harvest Dinner?' I got on board, but I have to say I was pretty nervous about whether or not we'd have a good turnout. Well, in 2008 we filled two dining rooms for the dinner and had another amazing time.(I'm not sure what I worry about....if our staff were left with just the producers who grow for us and no one came, we still have an amazing time....it would just be tough to pay the bills.) Fast forward to 2009 and we had two full NIGHTS of celebration. So, in three short years this yearly celebration of our producers and their harvest has grown from using only one dining room to two full nights. That's the beginning I'm talking about.
I'm a 'want it yesterday' kind of guy. I expect things to happen NOW and have a problem with waiting. So, it's comforting for me to look back over three years and see the building success of our harvest dinners. So, after the dinner when I was able to reflect a little bit I realized that this dinner and every day after it marked a beginning. The beginning of bringing our style of food and food products to people. Every day we have the ability to make an impact with how creatively we are sourcing, pairing and preparing the food. There will never be an end to this, just a series of new beginnings as we discover new and innovative ways to work with the amazing products that are delivered to our backdoor.
Special thanks to Kathy Glahn, Beau Ramsburg, and Heather Sheppard Lunn....without your inspired products we'd have no reason to put on a crisp white coat every morning and do what we do.
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