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Cold Night and Warm Hearts

Cold, friggid, freeeezing… we talked a lot about the weather for the first few minutes after we arrived. As you do when you’re trying to figure out what you have in common besides being uncomfortable.

Everyone was a stranger and that was the point. Lindsay and Luca curated this dinner to explore community, connection and sharing meals. The guests were a mix of artists, cooks, brewers, farmers and community leaders. Each of us were invited because they knew we’d have something worth talking about and could appreciate a good but unconventional meal.

On arrival, we found Chef Luca Ballard (formerly of Northridge Inn) stoking and turning a fire pit filled with whole chickens and squash. Above the flames hung a deer ribcage that they had weaseled off a hunter in a walmart parking lot earlier that day. The burnt bones would serve as the most epic centre piece for the table.

Inside is a tiny kitchen filled with cooks plating beautifully charred meats and vegetable sourced from local farmers. We were invited to get to know each other, drink some killer cocktails or Canvas beers from Muskoka.

We braved the cold to appreciate food being cooked over open fire, drank some bespoke herbal cocktails and by the time we sat down we were speechless. This overflowing bounty of food laid out on the table, in this beautiful farmhouse on this beautiful land was stunning.

Dinner was served family style and slowed the pace of eating. Passing dishes and talking takes time. It gave us time to savour instead of the instant gratification of a plated meal. At the end, a very gentle prompt from Lindsay came to talk about our experiences feeling isolated in the winter in rural Ontario. It all kind of dissolved into a hilarious group therapy session, but with wine and warm but unnaturally chocolatey chocolate chip cookies.

Sadly, these dinners don’t happen anymore. I’m grateful I was invited to document and participate in this feast turned social experiment. The photos feel like some baroque painting or gothic Canadiana Food and Wine magazine spread.

In contrast, here’s a Farm To Table Supper I shot in summer… much of the same philosophy but a very different setting at Field Good Farms.

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