With a dappled light on the garden and the sun’s spotlight on the pasture of goats, the Maagic Mountain Farm’s “Al Pastor” dinner began as guests arrived and enjoyed the land that would offer their evening meal. The event opened with a prayer and offering of bee pollen on the tongue while local musician, Gentle Thunder, graciously blessed each person with her flute. The guests were ushered through the garden to the table with another tune while the wild birds added their song from the trees.
Chef JT Beggs of “Kin & Kitchen” in Santa Cruz, California, along with his passionate assistant Charlie, worked feverishly in the kitchen preparing five courses of Mezze including cigar-shaped, handmade filo-dough Boreki filled with fresh goat sausage and goat cheese, and braised red amaranth and spring greens with white beans.
Simultaneously, JT cooked on the outdoor applewood firepit preparing Shashlik on sword spears and fresh fire-grilled flatbread served with a fresh garlic mint yogurt dipping sauce. Homemade chokecherry mead, fresh honey-thyme tea, wild rose honey wine and kefir juice drinks were offered with warm thyme olives and goat cheeses. All this was followed by the main courses of hand-rolled couscous with tender spring vegetables, goat bone-broth yogurt soup with purslane, and Tangier, a Moroccan spiced goat meat, cooked for two days in earthenware pots created by the chef himself.
The meal was eaten on beautiful handmade spiral plates created by our local potter, Noam Zimm of Clay Dance Studios. Noam also offered guests Turkish coffee from the outdoor fire. Guests walked their coffee down to the milkstall for a splash of fresh milk offering a latte froth to the top. Last, but certainly not least, guests enjoyed desserts of Gateau Basque with fresh local cherry filling and Angelica Cake covered in fresh wild rose petals.
The evening was a true taste of the land and supported by the local community. Dave from Running Rabbit Mills delivered fresh ground flour from Fort Jones, Kate from Homeward Bounty allowed us to visit her farm in Grenada on Friday morning for the freshest produce not available from the homestead garden. Rockside Ranch of Etna offered organic pasture raised pork lard and fresh cow cream from Kid Creek Pastures of Mt. Shasta. We are privileged to live in such an amazingly abundant and supportive community.
Love and gratitude to the vibrant land, sun, water and air that feeds the plants, animals, and people “plorking” (play/working) together to create a symbiotic, nourishing life.
This entire evening was visioned by chef JT Beggs and planned for over a year. The food was raised with love and intent at Maagic Mountain Farm, and the magic presented at the table was all created and prepared over the course of three days by JT with his love of the land, animals, and international culinary traditions. Learn more about JT Beggs and “Kin & Kitchen” at http://kinandkitchen.com.
JT offered a homestead butcher class prior to the Al Pastor event and demonstrated his conscious and compassionate approach to slaughter. This homestead butcher class was attended by seven women offering a feminine hand and desire to learn to the butchering process. This evening class ended with fire-roasted flatbread, yogurt sauce, salad and roasted ribs.
This 3-day culinary experience is an inspiration and encouragement for us all to explore how to create more dinner club opportunities in our county.
ATTENTION: Hosts, Guests, Farmers & Chefs let us unite to create more local food events in our community. To learn more about future events email interest to Leslie Ellorin at Maagicmtnherd@gmail.com