I love the fall. It is my favorite season of the year. I love the crisp bite to the air, the warm glow of shifting sunlight and the dramatic color changes in the trees. Last Sunday, we had our first light frost. The produce at the organic farms has shifted from berries, peaches and plums to squash, gourds, pumpkins. Last night, I attended the September Farm Dinner at Blooming Hill Organic Farm. The guest chef this month is a woman named Meredith. She is the pastry chef at Otto in New York City. Guy's lecture focused on food preservation. He explained to us how the first settlers of this area were all farmers. When they built their houses, they dug their root cellars first. So we talked about keeping the dirt on the potatoes to keep them fresh longer. He told us that the potato – like most plants – has an internal clock in its DNA. Come March, the potato will start to sprout buds. He talked to us about Pumpkin harvesting; did you know that all pumpkins actually have to be picked prior to the frost, otherwise they rot. So, the farmers have actually harvested all those "fresh" Halloween pumpkins by the first of October. As to be expected with a pastry chef in the kitchen, my favorite course was dessert. She made a thick, creamy buttermilk panna cotta that she toped with a dollop of lemon curd and a scoop of grape sorbet.

She found this fantastic Swiss-style Italian artisan cheese from Aldo Adage that she layered in between wedges of polenta and baked, then topped it off with Swiss chard sautéed in butter.

Prior to the polenta, we enjoyed a fresh tomato salad, using the last of Guy's heirloom tomatoes with a cilantro vinaigrette. We began our meal with a dish of room temperature lentils with sautéed spinach and sliced radishes. When Meredith first described the first course, I thought it sounded awful. But when I tasted it, the dish surprised me with its tastiness.

When I first arrived, I chatted with some farm-friends and nibbled on the appetizers of ricotta and squash pizza; ricotta crustinis, roasted corn; a Greek walnut dip called Streaga (sp?);and two different salsas; a traditional tomato salsa and a tomatillo and chili sauce. For the first time in about four months, we sat inside the farm stand. The nighttime temperatures dropped into the mid-50s. Guy built a bonfire out in the garden and we talked around the fire, taking in the night air. By 9:00pm, the night sky glittered with stars and the moon peeked its face out from above the mountain.

Overall, I had a lovely evening enjoying good company and taking in nature's beauty and bounty.