Harvest Dinner at Quivira Vineyards & Winery

 

Guests at the Quivira Vineyards and Winery Harvest Dinner on Saturday, October 10 will be treated to a seasonal dinner with among other things, eggplant caponata; a broccoli and egg tart; a radicchio and tomato salad; fingerling potatoes; pork shoulder; and brown butter honey cake with figs.

Andrew Beedy, the manager of the biodynamic farm and winery, says about 95 percent of the meal (everything but the pork) comes from within 100 feet of the table where people will be eating.

“It’s nice to see what you can with one acre,” Beedy said. “I had about 50 in England.”

Beedy grew up with biodynamic farming—his parents were very involved in it—and his farm in England was organic. He moved to California to learn more about farming in a Mediterranean climate and growing olives, grapes and citrus. To farm biodynamically seems to him a step beyond organic.

Now the farm has chicken, pigs and goats. Next spring they plan to bring in a cow, and Beedy says the reason for that is for compost. That’s an example of the difference between organic and biodynamic, he says. Instead of bringing in something like fishmeal for the soil, the farm will generate all its own compost.

“You build the health of the estate from within in biodynamic,” he said. “For one thing, it takes the trucking out of it.”

On Saturday before the dinner, Beedy will give a tour of the winery and talk about biodynamic farming and Trout Unlimited staff will discuss creek restoration.