STACYVILLE, Maine — Last Saturday I attended what I consider to be one of this area’s best kept secrets: Gardiner Farms “Farm to Table Suppah’” in Stacyville. This twice-yearly dinner, served outside on a communal table, is nestled among the various vegetable and flower gardens that owners Mike and Jane Ricci farm and sell direct from through their farmstand.
Their farm’s byline of “Grown in the shadows of Katahdin” was available for first-hand views as diners had time to walk around the farm to check out the different fields before dinner, many of them indeed with a view of Maine’s most famous mountain.
The Ricci’s have eight acres of land in production, with about three of those acres in green manures and cover crop mixtures that help build soil health before the planting of next year’s produce. Local potato farmers, Three Oaks Farm, lease other fields that are part of the total 750 acres of farm and forest land.
The “Farm to Table Suppah’” was first sparked by a magazine article Jane read about 15 years ago, before she and Mike had retired and moved back to her family’s farm. The idea has always
been in the back of her mind and one day, when someone new stopped by the Ricci’s farmstand, Jane used her Aroostook County inquisitiveness to find out who he was and where he lived and who he might be related to and when she asked him about his work. He replied that he was a chef and she immediately told him, “Oh! Do I have a job for you!” And that was that. Chef Herman Ammerman became the creative force for Gardiner Farms’ produce resulting in a simple, fresh, and quality farm to table meal experience.
Reservations are kept to no more than 30 with diners seated at one long table under a tent decorated with touches from the season. In this case, corn stalks and large winged gourds ringed each tent pole with garden flower arrangements in quart jars lining the table covered in vintage table linens.
Jane said that it has been great working with Herman and discovering his creativity with their produce. At July’s supper he presented her with a fried green tomato topped with steamed beets and goat cheese. Her first reaction was not a positive one but when she tasted it, she couldn’t believe how delicious it was.
Mike and Jane give him total creative license and he doesn’t disappoint. For Herman, he is happy to work with their produce and is excited to share his creations with everyone through the farm to table venue. The evening I attended, the menu included a corn and cheddar fritter with oven roasted squash soup, grass-fed braised beef short ribs and vegetable saute.
Jane is a gracious host, using her cow bell to get everyone’s attention before announcing the next course, interspersed with stories of the farm and her dad Laforest Gardiner who began farming it in the 1930’s. Mike prefers the behind the scenes action and works hard to keep up with the dish washing.
I asked Jane what her dad would think of his farm now and without hesitation she said, “If it wasn’t for him building up this farm, we wouldn’t be able to do this now. He would have loved the farm to table dinners. He was a very social person.” It seems a perfect way to extend that legacy by sharing good food and conversation on a beautiful farm under the shadow of Katahdin. The Farm to Table Suppah’s are held in July and September and the farmstand hours are Tuesdays-Fridays, 10-4; and Saturdays, 10-12. For more information, call 365-4519.
