Cornbread Supper

Awesome Alison -- That's how I think of her, now that I have been a lucky part of her engagement with a room full of interested farmers, potential farmers, and their urban allies. Alison drove more than two hours to share her expertise in year-round vegetable farming in Kentucky. In the earl 1990s, Alison and her husband Paul received one of the first Kentucky organic certifications for their Au Naturel Farm near Mammoth Cave. They then piloted the use of high tunnels -- unheated hoop-style greenhouses -- for winter salad vegetable production. Alison said a University of Kentucky professor, Dr. Emery Emmert , developed the technique in the 1940s and 1950s, and then Kentucky growers pretty much forgot about Dr. Emmert's discoveries. Alison also credited Eliot Coleman of Maine's Four Season Farm, who has written several books on winter vegetable production and organic farming, some of them with his wife, Barbara Damrosch , who writes a weekly column , A Cook's Garden ...

Quick news: Alison Wiediger of Au Naturel Farm will be at the July 20 Cornbread Supper to talk about high tunnels, or hoop houses, from 5 - 6 PM. Supper starts at 6 PM as usual. Mick Jeffries will make and offer fresh artisanal cocktails for the July 27 Supper. Blueberries, perhaps... Susan Miller, goat cheesemaker extraordinaire, Slow Food Bluegrass member, and proprietor of Bleugrass Chevre , will host a special country Cornbread Supper edition on Monday, August 10, on Grimes Mill Road. More details will follow - save this date for an extraordinary evening of Bluegrass/Bleugrass conviviality. No Cornbread Suppers on August 3, 17, and 24 while your hosts play in Massachusetts. We'll see you promptly at 6 PM on August 31. (and July 20 and July 27, of course.) And the July 13 Bastille Day edition of Cornbread Suppers? Fantastic. 45 people or so -- with only two short folks under the age of 10, which we hope is NOT a trend -- and a wonderful spread of food and drinks. Cornbreads in...

Greens grower extraordinaire Alison Wiediger joins us at 5:00 PM Monday, July 20 - one hour before the usual Supper start time - to talk with us about growing vegetables year-round, using unheated high tunnels , also known as hoop houses. Please come! Alison and her husband Paul own Au Naturel Farm in Smiths Grove , Kentucky. The Wiedigers are national experts on high tunnels. They have written Walking to Spring , a book about using high tunnels to grow food year round. They do workshops around the country, and share generously with others about ways to launch and sustain a successful, profitable farm-based business like theirs. Of great interest to both growers and eaters: the opportunity for growers to create real profits and for eaters to enjoy fresh local salads in deep winter, thanks to greens grown in high tunnels. Come at 5:00 on Monday, July 20, 2009, to talk with Alison, and stay for the usual Cornbread Supper, starting at 6 PM. See the sidebar for location and other details ...

Ah, the watermelon juice! As unexpected, refreshing, and utterly cool as the 54 people (at least) who came to Cornbread Supper this week. At least 13 people were first-timers. At least 10 wiggly ones were under the age of 8 or so. Food poured in, "supervalue" sparkling J. Roget poured out (and we liked the Extra Dry better than the Brut) - and then the hula hoopers showed up! Lovely hoopstress and neighbor Ms. SB brought a clutch of hoops of different sizes, and a hoopathon set in after the meal, working circles around the short end of Campsie. So many energy circles got set in motion and rippled out into space, we're still eating round-cornered food days later. Mexican Cornbread, adapted from a family recipe and filled with Kentucky ingredients, disappeared quickly. So did the Blue Moon/Full Moon/Music vegetarian cornbread, made with Blue Moon Farm's leeks and Music garlic. So many treats, one a cool green pea soup with mint, with its seductive, surprising, slow cay...

It was a foodie extravaganza, unpreplanned, as always. Wines came in abundance, too, as seems to be the case each week. Pictures of some of the foods follow after the listing. It's too bad we have no audio record of the oohs, ahhhhs, and outright squeals that greeted the deviled eggs, and the yummmms all around for all the other delights, including these (from the paper slips describing the dishes): Homemade gnocchi, with homemade ricotta as a prime ingredient Pistachio nuts and sunflower seeds Vegan blueberry pie (Blueberries, Ginger, Sugar, Wheat & White Flour, Cornstarch & Salt) Green Beans Vinaigrette Black-eyed Peas (meat-free) Mediterranean Coucous w/Lentil Salad (w/vinaigrette, tomatoes, arugula, mint) - and Feta Cucumbers & Dill w/garlic and lemon & a bit of Feta Last Spring 09 greens from Campsie garden w/lemon mustard vinaigrette Blueberry (barely) cornmeal poundcake from Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life Buttermilk Vanilla ice cream - local pasteurize...