'Farm Dinner' Makes Comeback Friday Night

The burgeoning locavore movement — a way of life wildly popular in Sonoma County, that’s focused on consumption of sustainably grown produce and other local foodstuffs — is catching on in Rohnert Park.

First, the Friday night Farmers Market. Then, . Now, local grower Valley End Farm is partnering with an area restaurant to put on monthly “farm dinner.”

Don Nolan, the head chef of Bacchus Restaurant and Wine Bar at the in Rohnert Park, departs slightly from his Mediterranean-inspired menu for the restaurant’s new farm dinner.

Sure, the menu regularly boasts organic Sonoma greens, Petaluma chickens and cheeses from Sebastopol-based Redwood Hill Farm — but there’s also a charcuterie with meats from the Midwest, Kobe beef and peppadew peppers.

But, for the farm dinner, it's all local.

“The idea is to get all of our products from Sonoma County, and work with local growers,” Nolan said. “Our industry has gone topsy turvy, we’ve come to expect that we can have anything we want at any time, not looking at the climate or the environment.”

The dinner’s more than a dinner. It's a social gathering, a Q&A with farmers. It’s small, 40 or 50 reservations are accepted, and guests are invited to come an hour before service for a wine tasting and to meet the growers — taste the raw mushrooms, the mustardas, the olive oil, straight from the producer’s hands.

“It’s rare as a chef that we get to see how our food is actually grown, and get a chance to talk to the people who grow it. This is an opportunity to listen to the challenges they’re facing, to learn what’s actually available and what they might be doing,” Nolan said. “We can take a step back and really look at where our food is coming from … if it’s from here or flown in from Mexico or travelled half way across the world.”

For example, if I want to serve tomatoes in the winter, I might have to serve them in a different way — preserved or packed in oil, Nolan added.

March marked the first month of the farm dinner. Valley End Farm owner Sharon Grossi said it was a hit.

“We need to get the community to look at where our food supply is coming from,” Grossi said. “It may not be sustainable to truck in our food from across the country. Oil prices are going up, and it costs so much to keep things fresh. We need to secure local food sources.”

The menu for the farm dinner? Last month, patrons sampled such items as duck from a local rancher, mycopia mushrooms from Sebastopol, wild arugula and broccoli raabe. The next dinner, on April 1, will likely host Rocky Range chickens from Petaluma Poultry, olive oils from B.R. Cohn in Sonoma Valley and cheeses from Sonoma’s Vella Cheese Company.

Grossi considers herself a Rohnert Park local, even though Valley End Farm is technically in Santa Rosa, by a couple feet.

Besides working with Bacchaus, she can be found peddling her produce at local Farmers Markets when there’s room, at Oliver’s and across the city through her community-supported agriculture program.

Grossi’s son, Clint, heads up the CSA program.

Small, medium and large boxes of seasonal produce are available. Clint said he currently delivers about 300 boxes of food a month, and the program is growing.

“We deliver all over Rohnert Park, Cotati, Santa Rosa, Healdsburg, Sebastopol, some in Windsor and we’re getting ready to start Sonoma,” he said. “We’re getting lot of calls, people are wanting more and more to know where their food comes from.”

Valley End Farm is working on partnering with other local farmers and chefs to host education days on their Petaluma Hill Road operation.

“We’ll have cooking demos, cool easy recipe ideas, sampling and education days,” she said. “Parents will be able to come with their kids, and learn how their food grows.”

Grossi said she was even working on partnering with local schools and nonprofits to expand weekend education days.

“I would love to welcome schools out here, to bring kids and teach them about what’s growing right in their back yard,” Clint said.

Valley End Farm also sells local wildflower honey, cheeses, bread from Full Circle Bakery.

“We’re still growing and expanding,” Clint said.

The monthly farm dinner is held the first Friday of the month at Bacchus, located in the DoubleTree Rohnert Park, at 1 Doubletree Dr. The April 1 dinner begins at 6:30 p.m. with a wine tasting. Seating is at 7 p.m., and dinner lasts until about 9 p.m. Cost is $35 plus tax and tip. Call 707-586-4679 for reservations or more information.

Valley End Farm’s CSA boxes per month are $60 for a small, $80 for a medium and $100 for a large. Boxes are available Tuesday through Saturday from 1-6:30 p.m. Deliveries are also available. For more information call 707-585-1123 or check out the farm’s Facebook page, where ingredients are posted every Friday for the following week’s delivery. Ingredients can be swapped out in individual boxes, if the farm is notified by Friday night at the latest. Send emails to valleyend@hotmail.com.

Editor’s note: Are you a foodie? Maybe just someone interested in local farming and agricultural issues. Stay tuned at Rohnert Park Patch throughout the week for daily features. Tomorrow we're running a story about a community garden in Rohnert Park that feeds the needy.