A Farm Dinner

On Sunday our son and his wife, our talented daughter-in-law, invited us to go out to a farm dinner, served right in the barn!  The place was 'Burdock Grove Farm' (I presume this says something about the weeds they found when they bought the farm), where the farmer is also a chef.  He likes doing a dinner for 50 people in his barn.  We assume many of the diners were also their CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) customers

This is a typical old Grey County farm, with a big bank barn and some outbuildings.  Like several others we know of, this couple has developed an organic farm business growing veggies in polytunnels, and raising geese, ducks and chickens for their CSA or the local market.  They are part of the remarkable Eat Local Grey-Bruce food network too.

They let us park quite close and I only had to find my way across this grassy bumpy slope, then into the barn.

It was all set out for a big dinner, though I am glad Mrs. F.G. was there to look out for hazards like loose floorboards and sudden drops!

The barn had been well cleaned, though I wondered what old equipment had just been stored behind this screen.

It was the barn that fascinated me, and reminded me of my uncle's barn which I had been in as a child.  I once got to ride along on the hay wagon in the days when health and safety was not an issue - and when hay was raked and stored loose, not in bales, so I could picture this hay mow stored full to the rafters.

You probably canèt tell from the picture, but that big beam must have been about 30 feet long, and about 12x18 inches in size!  Where did they find trees like that?

 I do remember climbing the ladder to the top of the pile of hay, but I donèt know how you'd easily climb further to the top of the rafters.

 At our last house I had the chance to watch the neighbour's old barn being partly dismantled and reroofed, and it was fascinating.

 At a quick glance you would not recognize all the pegged mortise and tenon joints that keep these barns standing upright for over 100 years.  Every place a horizontal or diagonal beam meets a vertical one there is an invisible tenon that extends inside the mortise cavity and then it gets pegged to stay in place.  All you see on the outside is the ends of the pegs.  Here's a little diagram without the pegs if youère not making sense of this.  I think it's amazing.

Mortise                       Tenon

Soon enough it was time to turn to the menu.  Since it was a bit cool they has a warm cup of soup broth before you had the choice of going on aa farm tour.

The meal was served in serving bowls, each for 8 people, and it worked out well for all further 4 courses.

Here's the main course, duck with beets, greens and potatoes.  Desert was delicious too.  If you wonder why I didn't heap my plate up, I'm in the groove of eating half portions, since only half my body gets any exercise.

 It did drag out a bit, but we thoroughly enjoyed it and had a great visit with our son and daughter-in-law.  One of the more memorable meals we've ever had.