All About Our 2022 Fall Harvest Dinner
For years, I’ve had a vision of hosting a Harvest Dinner on our property using exclusively ingredients grown in our organic garden. Finally this year I made that dream a reality! I invited family and friends to enjoy a 4-course vegetarian meal prepared by an amazing local chef.
Here’s a look at our 2022 Fall Harvest Dinner!
And if you’re inspired to host your own, be sure to check out my post 5 Tips For Hosting A Garden Harvest Dinner Party
This post covers:
- What Is A Harvest Dinner
- Our Harvest Dinner Decor
- Our Harvest Dinner Menu
What Is A Harvest Dinner
A Harvest Dinner can really be whatever you want to make of it!
Typically, they’re hosted in the Fall when harvest is at its peak and there’s a variety of local food to cook with.
I was very inspired by the Sustainable South Osborne Community Co-Op (SSOCC) Harvest Dinner. They’re a local community garden co-op based here in Winnipeg, MB that hosts an annual event with Chef Ben Kramer.
A few years ago we had some of the team members from SSOCC on The Grow Guide Podcast to share about their event. Since then, I’ve been wanting to host my own with a few twists…
Here’s how I wanted our Harvest Dinner to go:
- Be hosted on our property so that it was hyper-local for my guests with having the food literally grown a few feet away from where they eat.
- Incorporate ingredients from the garden into each dish (including cocktails!). Any ingredients that couldn’t be garden-grown I requested be sourced from other local farms, brands, etc..
- Have a local chef cook for us so that I could enjoy the evening and the food would be top notch.
Our Harvest Dinner Decor
I love decorating for a party…like absolutely love.
And one of the great things about hosting a Harvest Dinner in the Fall is that there’s tons of garden flowers in bloom to decorate with. So we went all out.
We created one long table for all 20 of the guests so that everyone was sitting together.
In the centre of each table, I had vases filled with garden zinnias, sunflowers and cosmos. And beside that were mini pumpkins to add to the Fall vibes.
I also used more pumpkins from our patch and some potted Mums to decorate the entrance of the tent as well as on our front porch where we hosted cocktail hour.
Now for the big decor moment of the evening…
DIY Suspended Greenery Centrepiece
Since we were eating in a tent, I wanted to create some sort of floral arbor that could hang above us.
This seemed like a lofty idea and something that might be difficult to execute, but it surprisingly ended up being a simple DIY!
It turned out perfectly! And added so much to the tent.
You’ll find all the steps for creating this showstopper here How To Build A DIY Suspended Floral Centrepiece.
Our Harvest Dinner Menu
The food. The most important part of a Fall Harvest Dinner, of course.
I met with our chef, Zac Chizda from The Oxbow Winnipeg a few weeks before our dinner to plan the menu.
We discussed what garden harvest would be ready for the dinner, which was set for mid September, and planned the menu from there.
As someone who doesn’t eat meat, I of course wanted all the dishes to be vegetarian. But I also wanted to ensure they were packed with flavour and something new and exciting my guests wouldn’t have tried before.
In addition to all that, I wanted to have great wine pairings with each course.
Was I asking for too much? Maybe…but Zac blew us away!
Here’s what we came up with.
Cocktail Hour Menu
Fresh Focaccia w/ Baked Brie, Cherry Tomato Jam & Basil
- Bread baked in-house by The Oxbow
- Cheese sourced locally from The Cheesemongers Fromagerie
- Cherry Tomatoes & Basil grown in our garden
- Fresh cut calendula from our garden for garnish
Cauliflower Fritters w/ Yogurt & Honey
- Cauliflower and zucchini from our garden
- Local Manitoba honey
- Homemade yogurt made with Chaeban cream
Lemon Balm & Mint Gin Smash Cocktail
- Herbs from our garden
- Patent 5 Distillery gin
Dinner Menu
Smoked Potato & Corn Chowder w/ Charred Peppers
- Potatoes, corn and peppers from our garden
- Cream from Chaeban
Green Goddess Salad w/ Marinated Patty Pan
- Salad greens from Wild Earth Farms
- Patty Pan from our garden
- Herbs from our garden for the green goddess dressing
Roasted Vegetable Rotolo
- Squash, tomatoes and peppers from our garden
- Fresh rotolo pasta made in-house at The Oxbow
- Cheese from The Cheesemongers Fromagerie
Garden “Key Lime Pie” w/ Ground Cherries & Bergamot Cream
- Ground cherries and bergamot from our garden
So as you can see, we feasted!
It was an incredible meal and we are so thankful to Chef Zac as well as Chef Meg and Abby (bartender/server) who made the evening extremely successful.
Support your local restaurants, folks. They deserve it.
And there you have it!
I hope you enjoyed this read all about our Harvest Dinner.
Leave a comment below if you have any questions, I answer all comments! Or if you’ve hosted your own Harvest Dinner, I’d love to hear about it.
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