Yes, the ground is frozen

“Once in a Blue Moon…” Right? That is the saying. Well, that is kind of what I am thinking right now about putting this tent up. While everyone is cozy and warm there are about six hard working guys putting up a tent and getting ready for dinner tonight.

You have to have a velvet rope for New Year's Eve

We also are going to have a number of Farmers with us tonight. Thousand Hills Cattle Company, Dragsmith Farms, Pastureland Butter and our friends at Tangletown Gardens will be joining us for dinner as well. We can all sit around and talk about local food and what we are going to plant in the spring.

Why don’t you come and join us tonight to see how it all turns out. New Years Eve Dinner

If you would like to have an evening like no other in Minneapolis on New Year’s Eve, you need to get your seat at our Tour de Farm Table! It is very easy to do and you will never forget it. You will be greeted at our reception area at 6:00pm with beer from our newest local brewery: Fulton and their IPA, Sweet Child of Vine. (It’s good.) You will nosh on appetizers made from the finest artisanal meat and cheeses Minnesota has to offer. There will be some guests of honor at the event: Yes, our farmers! Come and find out the answer to, “What do I do with rutabaga?”

Then you will move out to the (yes, big HEATED) tent to be dazzled by the amazing food stuffs Minnesota has to offer over the next 5 courses + the starting amuse featuring (YES!) house made bacon produced from Hidden Stream pork. Then we move on to dishes created with: Sweet Meat squash, Cedar summit cream, Ames Farm Apples, Northern Lites Blue cheese, Star Prairie Tout, PastureLand butter Riverbend farm polenta, Stickney Hill farm goat cheese, Thousand Hill braised grass-fed brisket, and produce from Elizabeth Emerson Farm.

And we finish on a dessert featuring: Rogue chocolate, Pepin Heights Apple cider and Garden Frame Honey.

So where are you going to be this New Year’s Eve? (You should be here!)

“So, what are were you thinking?”

That is the most frequently asked question I have gotten since we announced that we are doing a dinner on New Year’s Eve: OUTSIDE (in a HEATED tent.)

I was thinking is that this is the time of year that we have really great locally made food. We have a fantastic supply of meats, cheese, milk, butter, amazing root vegetables, etc. The list goes on and on. Yes, we have a great supply of local food! There, I said it. The excuse of not cooking locally in the winter is just not true anymore. There is more local food out in the marketplace than ever. We have the ability to eat year round with the season. That is the idea.

Ok, I know most of you understand that already or you would not have any idea that this blog exists. So, next question: Why outside?

Well, why not?

It is New Years Eve, Right? It is a special night. How many times have we gone out for New Years Eve and gone to a restaurant just for that one night because of tradition. How many times have you gone to a friend’s house, just because, well, that is what we always do? How many times have you just said, “it is just like any other night, except prices go up, and everyplace is crowded,“ and not gone anywhere. Here is your chance to ignore all the same things that you always do. Here is your chance to step out of the norm and do something that most people normally would not do. It is a special night, right? End your year with a bang. Who else amongst your friends and family are going to be able to tell this great a story about what they did on New Year’s Eve?

I think you get my point. It is a special night. Do it up.

The bigger reason is that it is a break the habits that you’ve built over your lifetime. That is really what eating locally is about: breaking the bad industrialized eating habits we’ve had in the past couple of generations.  Or should I say, we need to get back to a traditions and a habits of our grandmothers.

You go through the week, thinking about what to eat, what to cook, and we get in the habit of doing the same thing over and over. We all have our reasons: family favorites, convenience, budgets, and habits. This really comes down to habits. If we all start to change our habits, little by little, we will be able to change.

So, this year, I challenge you to break a habit right at the end of the year. Start a new tradition. Do something on New Year’s Eve that is really different. Why not start with having dinner in a HEATED TENT, in south Minneapolis.

Sounds like a good break in tradition.