Dinner Club: Farm To Table Menu

Late summer is the time of year to celebrate local produce with friends, so here is a Farm To Table menu from my Gourmet Dinner Club. Cook food that comes from farms, not factories and talk about where your food comes from. #Eatlocal is the hashtag.

Three images; an outdoor granary turned covered eating area, a bouquet of flowers from the garden and a dish of freshly dug vegetables for our Farm to Table dinner.

Jump to:

Eat Local
The Best of Dinner Club
In The Spirit of Farm-To-Table
How To Start a Gluten Free Dinner Club
Equipment: Make The Presentation Count
A Farm To Table Menu
More Dinner Club Menus

Eat Local

It seems impossible but year after year there are more and more choices for food. More ultra-processed food and more varieties of fresh food. It comes from local farms and it's also flown from half way around the world.

You've got all year to support local, national and international companies that supply the safe, gluten free packaged food we want and need. You definitely should support them.

Farm to table is to bypass the ingredients from far away and enjoy the bounty of the harvest from local gardens and markets.

When I make the effort to visit a Farmer's Market I'm often surprised to find interesting ingredients. Lesser know varieties of vegetables like candy cane beets, purple beans or carrots, every kind of potato, beautiful edible flowers and so much more.

The Best of Dinner Club

My friends are serious foodies and this is why you should have a dinner club.

One year I made this Harvest Jewelled Salad to show off candy cane beets, something you don't see everyday. I've grown them in my garden but these came from the market because you know, I love a great presentation!

A glass bowl with Garden Harvest Jewelled Salad containing sliced candy cane beets, grated golden beets, raspberries, blackberries and a variety of lettuce.

Kathy dressed in beekeeping wear using a large knife to point to the queen bee in the center of a hexagon-shaped bee hive piece.

The plan for this particular Farm-To-Table dinner was to help ourselves from my friends garden and complete our dishes together. I knew I would get honey for my salad dressing, fresh honey from her own bees. What I didn't know was, we'd also get Bee Keeping 101.

You can read more about that amazing Dinner Club night in the post for my Harvest Jewelled Salad.

In The Spirit of Farm-To-Table

Don't avoid a dinner like this because of what you think are the rules for eating local. I say host your dinner in the spirit of farm-to-table. Serve real food, without labels where you can. In my Dinner Club hearing about everyone's shopping adventures is always part of the fun.

Make rules if you want (remember the 100 mile diet) but I'm sure many foods don't grow anywhere near you. In-the-spirit simply means do the best you can. I have made my Prosecco Berry Sangria many times, often giving in and buying a single orange, flown to my grocery store from half way around the world.

So make your menu as exciting as you can, read the stickers on the produce you buy (with the tiniest print ever!) and make the table conversation about where your food comes from.

How To Start a Gluten Free Dinner Club

Dinner Club is a perfect way for people living on a restricted diet to come together and share their experiences. If you want to be part of a Dinner Club share the idea with friends.

Plan a Farm To Table dinner right now and don't worry about future dinners. Brainstorm the idea and see where it goes. Check out this post, How To Start a Dinner Club for some ideas to do this.

Equipment: Make The Presentation Count

Every kitchen needs tools to cook and serving dishes to serve. To minimize the amount of dishes I buy, I have collected a nice selection of clear glass and plain white platters and trays.

For my Gazpacho I chose Mason jars for a casual presentation to match the barefoot farm to table dinner I took it too. I did a Google image search for garnishes and created the cucumber ribbon with garden tomatoes and fresh thyme.

Gluten free cooks know that reusable grilling sheets are ideal to prevent cross contact when cooking on someone else's' barbecue. To make my Summer Fruit Pizza I used a 12-inch tart pan with removable bottom and you can read all about how to do that in the recipe description for the Fruit Pizza.

So here is a Farm To Table menu I put together for you. No matter whether your meal is simple or elaborate, I hope you have an interesting discussion about where your food came from.

I'd love to hear anything from your dinner conversation in the comments below.