Farm Dinner

Mom and Dad took us to a Whole Hog dinner at the Prairie Fruits Farm outside of Urbana last Saturday. Chicago suburban chef of Vie, Somebody Somebody, did the menu, which had pork all the way through until the cheese and dessert courses. We started with a headcheese torte, basically slow-cooked meat from the cheeks and head of the pig with some aromatics, wrapped up in a puff pastry dough that I could have eaten all night, and some mortadella (from the shoulder), and some red iced sugary tea which tasted like hibiscus/dableni/oseille from my Peace Corps days (but in fact probably was more berry-based, as they have lots of berry bushes).

 

Here's the smoker/oven they used for the porchetta and the roasted tomatoes:

 

And the barn where we ate inside, as it was threatening rain (we didn't end up getting any).

 

The farm has fruit trees and goats. Here's the goat milking operation, including Farmboy. They sell their cheeses at the local farmer's market but also to fancypants Chicago restaurants.

 

Their lovely herb garden:

From Farm Dinner

The porchetta. I was disappointed in my fellow eaters as most of them left the pork fat on the plate. The kale, beans n ham and tomatoes were pretty good, but the pork fat was the best part. I really wanted to ask my neighbor if I could have the fat she wasn't going to eat.

From Farm Dinner

Mom and Pop.

From Farm Dinner

Cheese Plate - including homemade preserves (one each strawberry and gooseberry), and their newest first harvest of honey(comb).

From Farm Dinner

And a nice sunset, too:

From Farm Dinner