Farm-to-table and eat local continue to be the hot trends in eating out.  Restaurants at all levels are listing the source of their ingredients, touting local suppliers and describing the pedigree of your meal. It’s a good idea. The advertised sources are usually small, quality-conscious farmers, often local, chosen with care, likely organic or pesticide free, bringing food to your table with pride and accountability.  Connecticut, despite the density of Fairfield County, has lots of close-by sources for home-grown fare.

But farm-to-table is not limited to restaurant dining.  It’s fun and interesting to put together a dinner at home with the same approach to food sources.  Our nephew, the farmer at Sweet Acre Farm in Lebanon, CT, raised a flock of free-range roasting chickens – now processed and ready for cooking. With this naturally raised chicken as the centerpiece of a meal, we began to think about how we could fill in the rest of the menu with ingredients and products from Connecticut farmers.

It’s surprising how diverse the options are and how easy it is to stock up. Farmers markets are great for this, each farm displaying the fruit of their fields. The markets often have vendors with other offerings like cheese, eggs, local honey, meat, pickles and more. My wife and I also gathered some supplies from our recent travels to Connecticut’s northeast corner, including a stop at the Willimantic Co-op, an important distribution venue for many Connecticut farmers on the east side of the Connecticut River. With the chicken in hand, it was a snap to line up vegetables and fruit. Connecticut is a big dairy producing state so milk, cream and cheese were readily available. Eggs, too, are usually available from local farmers.  We even had after dinner drinks of apple and pear brandies from Westford Hill Distillers. The most local food was the

Brandies from Westford Hill

parsley, sage and rosemary that came from our front steps (remarkable for November) and a pot in the window.

We gathered with our friends Beth and Paul on Sunday evening to dig into the local bounty. The evening started with Connecticut cheese and local eggs, deviled with a family recipe.  The roast chicken was served with rosemary roasted potatoes, parsley carrots and cranberry-honey chutney.  Apple crisp with homemade ice cream was the dessert.   The menu was:

Cheese

Beltane Farm Fresh Chevre (Goat) – Lebanon

Cato Corner Farm, Vivace Bambino (Cow) – Colchester

Butterfield Farm, Meadow Zew (Aged Goat) – Suffield

Deviled Eggs – Campbells Crossing Farm, Tolland

Sweet Acre Farm, Barred Rock Chicken roasted with Garlic & Sage – Lebanon

Sage from our front steps.

Local Potatoes, roasted with rosemary from the pot in the window

Sweet Acre Farms Parsley Carrots – Lebanon

Cranberry Chutney with Beardsley Cider Vinegar – Shelton

Apple Crisp – Winesap and Jonagold Apples – Gazy Brothers Farm, Oxford

Vanilla Ice Cream, Farmer’s Cow Cooperative Milk & Cream – Lebanon

Westford Hill Distillers Aged Apple Brandy and Pear William Eau-de-vie, Ashford

Our cheeses presented a diverse range of styles; fresh and aged, goat and cow, washed and bloomy rind. The Butterfield Farm Meadow Zew was

Cheese aging at Cato Corner Farm

the most popular (just barely) with the Cato Corner Vivace Bambino a close second. The delicious Beltane Chevre was a little too delicate to challenge the aged cheeses.  These were just a small sampling of the abundance of cheese made in Connecticut.

Our Barred Rock chicken had longer legs and a narrower breast. The skin browned beautifully into a crisp crunchy crust cooked at 475° for the first 20 minutes then back to 400° for another 30 minutes. The meat, typical of free range chicken, was firmer and slightly drier with a bolder chicken flavor – delicious but clearly different. The local carrots were sweet, and the recently harvested potatoes flavorful, both with a just-picked freshness and intensity. Sweet and sour tension between the honey and Beardsley vinegar had everyone asking for seconds on the chutney.

My wife’s apple crisp is made from her mother’s recipe.  The local in-season apples were tangy with fresh apple

Peeling the apples for Grandma Pat’s Crisp

flavor – a perfect foundation for the crunchy streusel on top. The ice cream, made the day before with a electric ice cream maker, was an international combination of local milk and imported vanilla.  The Aged Apple Brandy was delicious with the crisp.  With its fresh-fruit aroma and ripe flavor, the Westford Hill Pear William was the favorite after dessert.

We didn’t have any local wines with the dinner – a serious oversight. Connecticut wineries like Stonington Vineyards, Jones Farm Winery, or DiGrazia Vineyards are fun to visit and good sources for wines that will compliment a Connecticut menu.

There are endless options for farm-to-table eating. Getting the goods is half the fun – visiting the farmers at the markets, tracking down the cheeses, menu planning based on available ingredients. (Keep this in mind when you’re planning Thanksgiving dinner.)  Cooking together for friends is always a pleasure. Sitting down to a delicious dinner, enjoying Connecticut’s bounty, knowing you’re supporting local farmers, is the best reward of all.

Recipes for Roast Chicken, Cranberry-orange chutney, and Grandma Pat’s Apple Crisp are available at www.FranksFeast.com