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Shake the Hand That Feeds You open-air farm dinner

The Shake the Hand That Feeds You dinner at Flying J Farm is our most anticipated event of the year: last year, tickets sold out in a matter of minutes. It's not hard to see why. It takes place on a lovely organic farm in Johnstown; much of the food is on the vine mere hours before it ends up on the plate; the diners convene along a long, beautiful table in the middle of a field; and the meal is produced by the talented crew of Skillet Rustic Urban Food, the compact German Village restaurant at the forefront of the sustainable-food movement.

Farmer Dick will lead a tour of his certified organic farm. We will harvest the vegetables for our meal before dinner. Cocktail maven Nicolene Schwartz of MoJoe Lounge will get crafty with Watershed gin and garden goodies, and we will enjoy CBC beer and great wines from United Estates Importers and Wine on High as well. Chef Kevin is making soup again this year in a cauldron over wood fire with beans from Shagbark Seed and Mill, and there will be plenty of delicious sides, bread from Lucky Cat bakery, wood-fired pizzas by Susan Kaiser from Faire la Cuisine, and last but not least, grass-fed beef from the farm. Ride a bike that churns ice cream with Warren Taylor of Snowville Creamery. Camping overnight is an option; we'll have press pot coffee and Sunday breakfast cooked over a wood fire.

To us, this dinner represents the apex of Slow Food: people coming together to harvest their dinners, making friends in the process and finding a new family at the table. Some of our best friends, and our best memories, have come from the Flying J dinner.

In short, you want to be there.

To add to the fantastic food and ambience, the proceeds from this year's dinner will help fund central Ohio's nine delegates to Slow Food International's Terra Madre conference in Torino, Italy. Terra Madre is a global sustainable-food network, an event that brings thousands of carefully selected applicants from all over the globe. 2010 delegates Jeni Britton Bauer, Warren Taylor, and Mike Laughlin all described Terra Madre as "a life-changing experience" - a remarkable statement from these pioneers in the sustainable food movement.

Tickets go on sale Monday, August 27, at noon. They cost $75 for members and $100 for nonmembers - and not coincidentally, membership costs $25. Breakfast the next morning for overnight campers will be available for $10 per person, at the event. Please come join us at the table.