Way back in June, we wrote about the brand new Austin Farmer’s Market and our “frequent bouquet buyer’s card.” Every time a customer bought one of our Texas Garden Bouquets for $12, or an equivalent amount of our “Mix ‘n Match” bunches, they got a stamp on their bouquet card. After fifteen purchases, the bearer of the card received two tickets to “Dinner at the Farm” on October 25th. By mid-September, we had given out over 800 cards and we were worried about HOW many people might actually fill their cards! Many people had cards that were more than half filled, and we believe that the incentive of getting those stamps encouraged repeat customers at the market. We ended up seating 80 people at our dinner! And the response was phenomenal – we were in awe of both the success of the event and the bigger picture of what an event like this meant to building community.

Ah, the food! The Sunday before the dinner, we took a couple of days off and went down to Rockport on the Texas Coast and bought 200 of Mrs. Radke’s stuffed crab, and 14 pounds of shrimp from the Casterlines Fishermen. Especially for this dinner, we planted fall vegetables, lettuces, turnips, squash, peppers, and chiles, and tomatoes. That morning at the market, we picked up Pure Luck Dairy’s fresh chevre, and Texas French Bread’s ciabatta.

During the week before the dinner, Pamela baked an enormous blackberry cobbler, pecan pies from our just-harvested pecans, and a giant chocolate cake; then she turned her attention to the logistics of the party. A restaurant loaned us the silverware and glassware; we used paper plates and napkins. The Sustainable Food Center (which runs the Austin Farmer’s Market) loaned us the tables and chairs. We set up the tables in our barn, end on end, covered them in different patterns of Mexican oilcloth, tiny bouquets, mini pumpkins and gourds, and votive candles. Our barn is festooned in giant heavenly blue morning glories, and the rafters are strung with multicolored Christmas lights.

Frank’s good friend, Jim Kamas, who is the grape extension specialist for Texas, visited regional wineries a couple of days earlier and picked up cases of the best Texas wines. As Jim served folks, he also talked up the wines. Then we served hors d’oeuvres of Pizza peppers (which we renamed Rancho Dulce) stuffed with a filling of goat cheese with finely minced Flamingo peppers, and Gulf shrimp with our version of cocktail sauce.

We served the meal “family style” with platters of stuffed crab (“honey, I’m from the Chesapeake, and those are the very best stuffed crab I have ever put in my mouth! “), Frank’s squash casserole (feta, poblano chiles, and cilantro were the secret ingredients), fresh turnips and greens (who ever heard of simple ol’ turnips and greens being a gourmet dish?!), colorful tossed salad (all the greens barely two hours old), and baskets of bread.

As the evening unfolded, ALL of us were in awe that such an event was taking place, and we were getting to be a part of such a “community.” Because everyone was there in celebration, having “earned” the experience, the meeting and mixing was immediate (name tags helped); everything was “really real.”

These comments from one of our guests summed up the general feeling,
“Thank you so much for an absolutely magical evening. Everything about it was perfection…
•the relaxation of an evening with your lovely and loving family (Pamela’s parents and one brother were there to “tell the story of the farm” )
•the verve and fabulous food and flowers
•the people who were basking in the kindness of your gift to community, who so appreciate and honor what you do.”

This was all about building community at the market, getting people turned on to the necessity of having flowers in their houses every week, and celebrating each other!