Our anniversary dinner was spent at Kurtwood Farms – Kurt Timmermeister’s (formerly of Cafe Septieme fame) beautiful little slice of farm heaven on Vashon Island. An incredibly wonderful way to spend an afternoon and evening, as the courses slowly unfold and the wine is poured. This place is at the pinnacle of local offerings – everything is from this 13-14 acre farm but a few key ingredients (important things that just can’t be done there, despite his efforts – such as coffee, salt, sugar, wine). This week he had chef Matt Dillon (of Sitka & Spruce and Corson Building – which as a side note, we had as a second choice for dinner if we didn’t get to go to Kurtwood – we were in luck!). We started with wood fire oven pizzas while we mingled around the farm (one was oregano, peppers and bacon with olive oil base, the other was a mushroom and tomato sauce – both heavenly). At the table, we started with a summer squash soup, with bread and the infamous butter – unpasteurized, you can taste the fields that the cows graze on – so different and almost worth the whole adventure. Then on to an antipasti plate – his house-made farmstead “Dinah’s” cheese, with tomato jam, pickled lemon cucumbers, crackers. Followed by a beet salad, with herbs and artichoke hearts, then a 6-min egg, zucchini, herb-y dish (center image – dang that was good), then this carrot ricotta herb dish that was sweet and earthy at the same time (probably my favorite), then pork loin and sage butter yukon gold potatoes (ooh wait – another great one), and then strawberry milkshakes for dessert (which my allergy to said berry didn’t allow me to partake in, but with homemade ice cream – said to be de-lish). All very simple, but oh so good, fresh and intensely flavorful! Knowing that you are steps away from where everything was grown and processed, sitting with a gathered group of strangers-turned-friends, it is an incredible experience, and right up there as an all time favorite meal.
Unfortunately for all of us, Kurt has decided to not do the 20-person, family style sit-down on his farm after December, and you have to be on his ” list” to be eligible to go. So, if you are on the list, please don’t miss your chance – his last dinner for the unforeseeable future will be December 26th. If you don’t get his emails – find a friend that does. And if all else fails, buy his Dinah’s Cheese in select markets in Seattle – it is heavenly – and/or support his upcoming adventures by purchasing his soon-to-be released book: Growing a Farmer, How I Learned to Live Off The Land and reading his blog. Always in the leading edge of things in the Seattle food world, I am sure only great new iterations are coming!
bray hayden 