Diners across the U.S. head to the farm
By CARA RUBINSKY
The Associated Press;
LYME, Conn. (AP) — Forget the maitre d' and imported caviar. Sophisticated diners are now tromping across muddy fields and braving mosquito bites to eat gourmet food at its very source.
Outdoor dinners at family farms, popular on the West Coast for several years, are making their way east as part of a local food movement fueled by concerns about tainted food and a desire to eat vegetables grown nearby rather than halfway around the world.
"The cruel irony is that this is the way everyone used to eat," said chef and restaurant owner Jonathan Rapp, a co-founder of Connecticut's Dinners at the Farm series. "Now it is special, and hopefully we're going to get to a point where it becomes ordinary again, where eating wholesome, locally grown delicious food is every day."...
"Everybody has to eat and they eat every day, yet previously no one had any idea where their food came from," Denevan said. "People realized along the line that the story of where the food came from might make food more interesting but also make it taste better."...
"This is so wonderful to actually be in the spot where your food was grown, and it reconnects you to nature," said Alyse Chin of East Haddam, whose sister bought her and her husband dinner tickets as a birthday present.
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