Celebrating Community, Farmers, Local Food & Farmland Preservation
Buy Local Connecticut!
Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa in Groton, CT will host a 5-Course Farmer's Dinner using local food from local farms in Connecticut.
Executive Chef Steve Rosen of the award-winning Octagon Steakhouse - a AAA 4 Diamond Award Winner in Connecticut - is a former Food & Wine Magazine top ten new chef, bringing 22 years of culinary experience in upscale dining to the Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa. And with all of that expertise at numerous upscale restaurants around the country, there is something special Chef Rosen finds in Connecticut. He's jumping into the local and sustainable food movement.
"Using local food is a no brainer. The quality and the flavor of local food is hands-down superior." More importantly though, Chef Steve touches on another point, "I drive by some of these farms every day. I like to know where my food comes from and have a connection to our farmers and producers. As a Chef, this brings us back to the inherent art of cooking." Reflecting on his two boys, "The future of our food is based in our local economy. Quality food is dependent on the survival of our local farmers. We NEED local farms, and the future will be brighter for all of our children because of them."
Chef Steve Rosen's Farmer's Dinner will forever change how you view Hotel Food!
The inaugural Farmer's Dinner will be held on June 28th at the Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa in Groton and will feature a reception, with speakers from some of the local farms, followed by a five course menu featuring locally grown produced and harvested items from this region's best source of sustainable foods. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Connecticut Farmland Trust, whose sole mission is to permanently protect Connecticut's farmland. June 28th, 2010Reception at 6:00pm Dinner at 7:00pm$89 per Person/Includes Tax and GratuityDownload the Press Release
FOR RESERVATIONS call: 860-326-0360
And if preserving farmland doesn't get your attention, check out this Locally Sourced Menu!
Supporting Farmers, Preserving Farmland
The beneficiary of the Mystic Marriott's Farm Dinner benefits Connecticut Farmland Trust. According to Henry Talmage, Executive Director, "Connecticut's farmland is disappearing at an alarming rate of over 8,000 acres a year - one of the fastest rates in the entire country." His passion and dedication are infectious and palpable. "Everyone in Connecticut reaps the benefits of farmland," and Henry is quick to point out that CT farms contribute $2 billion dollars annually to our local economy. Help them preserve Lebanon family farms!
What an amazing way to support the Connecticut Farmland Trust - a local dinner by a progressive chef and hotel group!
Pure, Savory Delight from New London County's Local Farms
Your palate may have never had it so good! Revel in the amazing flavor of sweet Peas from White Gate Farm, Cornmeal and green garlic from Century Farm & Stanton- Davis Homestead, lamb from Sankow's Beaverbrook Farm, Dutch Farmstead Cheese from Cato Corners, Eggs from Groton Family Farm, Spinach, arugula, and sunflower shoots from Aki Farms, Juniper Bacon from Nodine's Smokehouse, smoked poultry from Studio Farm Products, scallops from Bomster Scallops and much, MUCH more. These local farmers and producers offer the very best of gastronomic perfection.
Here's just a sampling . . .
John Whitman "Whit" Davis has been named ‘Farmer of the Century' and has been a strong advocate for conservation by preserving his family's history and possessions and serving on the Stonington Conservation and Wetland Commission for two decades, as well as, donating a portion of the farm to the Abalonia Land Trust. The Stanton-Davis Homestead is in lower Pawcatuck in the southeastern corner of Southeastern Connecticut. This is where Whit Davis and eleven generations of family lived and earned a living. The Homestead began in 1654, when Pequot Plantation, in an array of land grants, gave Thomas Stanton 300 acres at "Pawkatuck."
Farmer Whit made his point with passion, "You people better realize that once it's gone, it's gone! They're not making any more land. If you want to keep developing it for condominiums and fancy houses, etc., you won't have it to survive on. It will be destroyed!"
Mark & Elizabeth McAlister of Cato Corner Farm Farmstead Cheese in Colechester
Cato Corner Farm is a small family farm in Colchester, Connecticut, where the mother-son team of Elizabeth and Mark raises 40 free-range Jersey cows without the use of hormones or subtherapeutic antibiotics. This is a truly symbiotic mother-son partnership. Elizabeth MacAlister has owned the farm for more than 25 years. She began milking cows and making cheese in 1997 as a way to keep her farm sustainable.
Nowadays, Mark makes most of the cheese and oversees its aging, while Elizabeth manages the farm operations including milking and caring for the cows. The rest of the Cato Corner family includes several full time and part time workers and a pair of diligent and attentive border collies named Flute and Harp.
Gregg Wershoven is not your typical Old MacDonald. He is a grower of fungi and his farm is located within an old mill an an industrial section of Waterbury. Gregg is a longtime mushroom lover and fungi have fascinated him for decades! Until recently, mushroom growing was simply a hobby. Not now! Mountaintop Mushroom will soon be producing over 100lb per day supplying restaurants and selling retail.
Urban Oaks is an Organic Farm in the city of New Britain. Part of the New Britain Neighborhood Revitalization Zone, their farm stand is open year-round and they specialize in specialty and heirloom organic crops.
A true neighborhood farm, volunteers are welcome and participate in just about every facet of organic farming; and they are offered discounts at the Farmstand. If you love working with plants, enjoy the exercise that gardening or farm work offers (doctors say it's the most versatile and the best exercise program), you just want to work outside, or your just plain hungry for fresh organic produce, Urban Oaks Organic Farm is a success story.
Beaver Brook Farm has been home to the Sankow family since 1917. Situated on one hundred and seventy-five acres in Lyme, CT, it was originally worked as a dairy farm. In 1984, Stan and Suzanne Sankow introduced their first sheep, Sherry and Ding, to the farm. In 2002, they re-introduced cattle to the farm. It is now a sheep and cow dairy farm producing goods of the highest quality. Suzanne spins and weaves the wool from the sheep. Now, the farm is home to a dozen nut-brown Jersey Cows alongside 600 sheep.
At Beaver Brook Farm, they are committed to preserving the environment. They are proud to bring their products directly from the farm to you, from sweaters and vests, to farm-fresh sheep and cow's milk cheeses.
The Groton Family Farm is a small farm right in the center of the town of Groton, CT. They sell free range, pasture raised eggs, a variety of fruits and vegetables and wool from a small flock of registered Shetland sheep. To be brief, the Groton Family Farm was started by happenstance. Warren's family, or rather his five brothers and sisters, brought their ailing and failing parents down from their big house in Brookline, MA to the old homestead in Groton, CT where Warren's father was born.
This was the house in which his father was actually born in 1918, and in which his father's father was born in the late 1800's, and where his father's father's father moved after the Civil war, when he bought it from a relative who's family owned since it was built in 1784. The farm now has grown to 400 free range, pasture raised eggs laying hens, nine Shetland sheep, and a 3/4 acre vegetable garden.
Gazy Brothers Farm is going on its fourth generation of farming. Established in 1918, Grandma and Grandpa Gazsi purchased their farm in Oxford. At that time, they raised the freshest vegetables sold at local grocery stores and delis in the Naugatuck Valley area. The Gazsi cousins owned a butcher shop and would sell Grandma Gazsi's homemade pickles and sauerkraut from the cucumbers and cabbage raised on the farm.
Today, Joe Gazy owns the 80 acre farm and his son Ed runs it with the help of his wife, Alexis; his brothers, Pete and Tony; and his four children, Dominic, Roseanne, Nicholas, and Albert. Neighbors tend to give a helping hand during the busy hay season, too.
Mr. Bomster and his wife, Venna Jo, own Stonington Seafood Harvesters with their three grown sons, Bill Jr., Mike and Joe. The scallops they bring back from 10- to 12-day trips out into the Atlantic are so good and so fresh that the Bomsters have built a cultlike following through word of mouth over the last 30 years. Unlike bay scallops, which are harvested from October through April in the waters around New York, sea scallops are harvested year round. The Bomsters search for them from Newfoundland to North Carolina in their twin 90-foot scallop trawlers.
Not totally familiar with the Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa?
The Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa is located in the beautiful Mystic region of Coastal Connecticut. An architecturally stunning property with a resort feel, the Mystic Marriott welcomes business and leisure travelers alike. Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa, along with Octagon steakhouse, are AAA Four-Diamond rated facilities. Octagon, a recipient of the Prestigious Wine Spectator Award and a Zagat rating, is recognized as one of the most unique and well established steakhouses in Connecticut whose wine room offers more than 250 unique and recognized wines from regions all over the world. The renowned, newly renovated, Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa, offers head to toe pampering with discounts available to overnight hotel guests. A wonderful venue for weddings, conferences or board meetings, a well appointed 20,000 square feet of function space can be found at this property which has made AAA's prestigious list of four-diamond properties for 9 consecutive years.
