‘Know your farmer, know your food’ theme of evening

SAN LUIS VALLEY— The Valley Roots Food Hub hosted a farm-to-table dinner at the Colorado Farm Brewery on Friday, June 22. About 200 guests enjoyed the Summer Shindig meal, made solely from Colorado-produced foods— from the salad’s edible flowers to the mini corn muffins, quinoa pilaf, fingerling potatoes, grilled chicken and smoked top sirloin. And, of course, the beer, which was made from barley grown right in the fields surrounding the evening’s dinner guests before being malted and brewed on site.

“The event was a way of treating producers in the hub’s network to dinner and allowing them to mingle with CSA shareholders,” said hub staff member Nick Chambers. “The shareholders are basically the folks who buy produce boxes from us. So, it was a know-your-farmer, know-your-food type of a thing.

Valley Roots Food Hub is a non-profit community organization of the San Luis Valley Local Foods Coalition that works to connect residents in the Valley and beyond with quality, locally-produced foods. The organizations four lines of year-round business include wholesale distribution, their CSA program, commissary commercial kitchen rental and food production.

Individuals can buy summer produce boxes and their favorite a la carte items on the organization’s website, for pick up at locations in Alamosa, Crestone, Saguache, Denver, Creede, Del Norte and Salida.

The food hub team worked on June’s Summer Shindig for months. It was the first event of its kind for the four-year-old organization, which had up to then only served samplings for booth-type setups and organized three relatively small, formal dinners. “But this was a first for all of us,” Chambers said, “to do an event of this scale, to seat over 200 people in a field like.”

“When we do this next year, we plan on having double the volunteers,” Chambers added.

Building just the right menu and recipes were part of the group’s journey to a successful shindig. And so were long dinner tables with white linen tablecloths and real china and glassware set up outside the brewery under tents. Kantankerous Traditional Bluegrass band entertained guests as they chatted, waited in the buffet line and then ate.  

Despite the long buffet line, it was a happy crowd. The vibe was perfect. The music was perfect. And the food and beer were nothing short of lip-smackingly delicious. For some, it could be said this was one of the Valley’s best events of the year.

The San Luis Valley Local Foods Coalition will next host a “Farm to Barbecue Dinner” with 2014 James Beard winner Adrian Miller at the Rio Grande Farm Park in Alamosa on Aug. 25. The dinner will explore traditional Matanza as well as southern and Mexican barbecue styles.

For more information about Valley Roots Food Hub, visit valleyrootsfoodhub.com. For more information on the farm-to-barbeque dinner in August, visit riograndefarmpark.org.