Eat right off the farm at Slow Food benefit for Sonoma Land Trust

Chef John McReynolds to cook up “heaping platters of food” at Oak Hill Farm

(SANTA ROSA, CALIF., August 20, 2008) — Dinner doesn’t get any fresher or more flavorful than when the vegetables have been picked ripe from the fields that very day — and you’re dining at the farm itself! To celebrate farmers, the land and summer’s bounty, John McReynolds, former owner and chef of Café LaHaye in Sonoma, will create a special Slow Food dinner on the evening of the full moon of Monday, September 15, at Oak Hill Farm (14805 Sonoma Highway, Glen Ellen). An optional farm tour will begin at 5 pm; dinner will be served at 6:30 pm in the White Barn, with live music to follow. Tickets cost $80 per person or $70 plus one used kitchen knife for Slow Food members (knives will be sharpened and donated to the Sonoma Community Center kitchen). Proceeds from the evening will benefit the Sonoma Land Trust and the Sonoma Community Center.

Sponsored by Slow Food Sonoma Valley and titled, “At Our Table,” the dinner will showcase seasonal offerings from the Sonoma Valley, including organic produce from Oak Hill Farm, olive oil from the Olive Press, fresh pasta from Wine Country Pasta, meats from Caggiano Sausage, regional artisan cheeses, wines from Jacuzzi Family Vineyards, Cline Cellars and Bucklin-Old Hill Ranch Winery, and more. Dinner will be served family style and the chef promises that vegetarians and meat-lovers alike will enjoy their fill of “heaping platters of food.”

“We are blessed with agricultural abundance in the Sonoma Valley and this dinner will feature plenty of the best that our region has to offer,” says McReynolds. “I’ve been wanting for a long time to cook dinner on a farm to give people the opportunity to see where the food is grown and forge a stronger connection to the land.”

Presentations by Sonoma Land Trust executive director Ralph Benson and local beekeeper Serge Labesque will follow the dinner.

With 85,000 members around the world, Slow Food adherents support local food traditions and emphasize eating local, seasonal and sustainably produced food. They also promote a recognition of the strong connections between plate and planet.

“More than anything, this event is about taking pleasure in food and community, and breaking bread with your neighbors,” says Anne Teller, owner of Oak Hill Farm. “It’s about savoring Slow-noma.”

To purchase tickets to “At Our Table,” please contact Gary Edwards of Slow Food Sonoma Valley at (707) 939-9394 or sagekase@vom.com. Seats are limited.

About the Sonoma Land Trust
The Sonoma Land Trust preserves scenic, natural, agricultural and open land for future generations. Since 1976, the Sonoma Land Trust has protected more than 19,000 acres of beautiful, productive and environmentally significant land. For more information, please visit www.sonomalandtrust.org.

CONTACT:
Sheri Cardo
Public Relations & Marketing Officer
(707) 526-6930 ext. 111
sheri@sonomalandtrust.org

… to protect the land forever