Lazy S Farms’ Beefy, Buttery Red Wattle Pork

 

Whole Hog Dinners, March 14-17, 2017
Reserve online or call 510.547.5356

Lazy S. Farms is a 200-acre spread in Cloud County, Kansas owned by Larry and Madonna Sorell. Since the 1970s, they’ve been farming and raising several heritage breeds, including Red Wattle Hog, a species that is now part of the Slow Food Ark of Taste.

Because of their docile tempers, Red Wattle Hogs were once popular amongst small, independent farmers, but they fell out of favor as farmers sought pigs with a high enough fat content to provide soap and lard. They roamed the hills of Eastern Texas and were hunted to near extinction, when H.C. Wenger found a herd foraging wild in a Texas forest. Robert Prentice found a similar herd five years later. By 1999, there were still only 42 registered Red Wattles in the country. When Larry decided to come out of retirement to raise these hardy pigs for Heritage USA, he drove 18,000 miles over 3 to 4 months in search of pure stock to start his herd. It is in major part due to Larry and Madonna’s work that the breed is no longer considered endangered, and is listed as threatened by the Livestock Conservancy.

Red Wattle Hogs are named such because of two small wattles at either side of the ruddy pig’s neck. Its meat is juicy and tender, and is sometimes described as sweet and buttery. Others have called it beefy.

We’re looking forward to honoring this breed as part of our Whole Hog Dinners. We hope to see you then!

Our Whole Hog Line-up:

A whole pig will be roasted each night. We’ll be sharing the full menu later this week!

March 14 (Tuesday) – Cinta-Berkshire from Front Porch Farm
March 15 (Wednesday) Red Wattle from Lazy S Farm
March 16 (Thursday) – pure Berkshire from Morgan Farm
Friday 17 (Friday) – Berkshire cross from Devil’s Gulch

Reserve online or call 510.547.5356

2017-09-12T15:46:30-07:00March 8th, 2017|2015, Coming up..., Events|0 Comments

Truffles for Home

weighing-truffles-600

We’re passing along the surplus of white truffles from our amazing truffle dinners to you! We’re selling our truffles at an agreeable price of $220/ounce. They would make for a swoon-worthy Thanksgiving table and do wonders for mashed potatoes and stuffing.

 

Please call us to place an order!
2017-09-12T15:46:46-07:00November 24th, 2015|2015, Coming up..., Kitchen Notes|0 Comments

Sunday Impromptu Concert

Tessa-and-jiyeon

 

Jiyoen Kim and Tessa Seymour
Sunday, November 22, 2015

This Sunday, we’ll be interrupting our regularly scheduled program for an impromptu performance by cellist Tessa Seymour and guitarist Jiyeon Kim, two prodigiously talented artists from the Curtis Institute of Music with exceptionally bright futures before them.

Seymour and Kim will be performing in the later half of Sunday evening, dining with us and playing as the mood strikes. Friends as well as colleagues, they are mesmerizing to watch as they perform both classical repertoire and contemporary work . As always we’ll be enhancing their musical interludes with our Magic Room’s marvelous Meyer Sound system .

The performance is free. Please come, book a table during the later half of Sunday evening, and enjoy some compelling music.

Jiyeon Kim is a multifaceted instrumentalist, playing a wide range of music from free improvisation to contemporary classical music on both classical and electric guitar. Hailing from Seoul, South Korea, Kim entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2011 and studied with renowned guitarists David Starobin and Jason Vieaux. Ms. Kim has appeared on NPR’s From the Top, and has performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Great Mountains International Music Festival, and the Bang on a Can Music Festival.

Tessa Seymour recently graduated from Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Carter Brey, principal cello of the New York Philharmonic, and Peter Wiley of the Guarneri Quartet. Ms. Seymour held the Jack Kent Cooke Fellowship at Curtis. Ms. Seymour made her televised Carnegie Hall debut in 2007 and has performed as concerto soloist with numerous orchestras. Her debut solo album is set to be released this year. Ms. Seymour’s cello is the 1720 Carlo Giuseppe Testore “Camilla” of Milan.

Kim and Seymour will also be performing at the Center for New Music on November 25th: Five Faces of Modernity, with works by Falla, Reich, Vasks, and Gardiner.

Truffles Afoot

These truffled times are going our way.

Circumstances kept us from our annual visit to northern Italy with its truffle hunts and festivals, which has made it unusually challenging to procure a cache for our annual Truffle Dinners. Our northern Italian friends gave early word that that the 2015 harvest was looking bleak, but we’re now in the midst of a turnaround.

High-quality truffles have been procured. They are pricier than last year’s, but not excessively so, and we’re looking forward with unbridled delight to some of our most gorgeous special dinners.

High-quality truffles have been procured. They are pricier than last year’s, but not excessively so, and we’re looking forward with unbridled delight to some of our most gorgeous special dinners.

  • Crudo of Magruder beef with Chalk Hill olio nuovo, lobster mushroom, white truffle aïoli, and Parmesan cheese
  • Sformatino of Parmesan cheese with black truffle spumante sauce

Annual Truffle Dinners
November 17-21, 2015

2017-09-12T15:46:48-07:00November 10th, 2015|2015, Coming up..., This Just In|0 Comments

New Oil and Fall Delights

tajarin 600x400

 It’s Fall (Finally)

Mild it may be, but it is indeed fall. The afternoon light is as rich as egg yolk, the clocks have shifted, and our menu has shifted too.

Nocellara olio nuovo has just arrived from Sicily. It’s an intensely green oil made from nocellara del Belice olives (the same ones which, when cured correctly, become extra-mild Castelvetrano olives for the table). At the moment, we’re drizzling it on our ribollita, an autumn vegetable soup with smoked tomato, Tuscan kale, and poached egg.

Other things to look forward to:

  • locally produced new oils (we’re currently scouting these out)
  • our annual Truffle Dinners, set for November 17th through the 21st

Sunday Farmhouse Supper, October 25th, 2015

 

Photo Courtesy of Catherine Wilson/Flickr/Creative Commons

 

Abruzzo

Fried mozzarella with saffron

Chitarra with Espelette peppers, garlic, and olive oil

Brasato of Magruder lamb with egg yolk and lemon

 

Dessert: TBD

*

Prix fixe $40.

Served family-style. For parties of one to twelve. The whole table must order the prix fixe menu.

(Please note that wine and service charge are not included.)

call 510-547-5356 or reserve online

Larger parties: please let us know at the time of your reservation if your table will be ordering the Sunday Supper menu so that we can plan accordingly. Thanks!

Sunday Family Supper, October 18th, 2015

 

photo by Francesca Cappa/Creative Commons

 

Liguria

Puntarelle with garlic, anchovies, and black pepper

Spaghetti alla puttanesca

Liberty Farm duck with giblets, prosciutto, and plums

 

Dessert: TBD

*

Prix fixe $40.

Served family-style. For parties of one to twelve. The whole table must order theprix fixe menu.

(Please note that wine and service charge are not included.)

call 510-547-5356 or reserve online

Larger parties: please let us know at the time of your reservation if your table will be ordering the Sunday Supper menu so that we can plan accordingly. Thanks!

Bach Solos in the Magic Room

sound-system

 

Benvenue House Concert Series Migrates

With Meyer Sound’s extraordinary acoustical engineering, our dining room has become a Magic Room – capable of heightening one’s ability to hear one’s dining companions while reducing the conversations of those away from the table to a honeyed hum. It can also make our dining room sound like a cathedral, or a symphony hall.

In the next few months, we’ll be experimenting how best to make use of our Magic Room for musical performances, starting with an exciting partnership with Benvenue House, which will be migrating its series of chamber music events to our dining room.

The first “Benvenue House Music Presents” concert at Oliveto will feature guitarist, Marc Teicholz and cellist, Tanya Tomkins playing solo Bach.

good walking solo shot-cropped

Chamber musician and soloist Tanya Tomkins specializes in both modern and Baroque cello. In addition to her current position as co-Principal cellist in both the Portland and Philharmonia Baroque orchestras, she has performed as a soloist with various orchestras and festivals throughout the world. Of special recognition are Tanya’s performances of the Bach Suites on Baroque cello. Together with pianist Eric Zivian, Tanya is co-Founder and Artistic Director of the new Valley of the Moon Music Festival in Sonoma. She also founded Benvenue House Music, a chamber music house concert series in the Bay Area.

teicholz photoMarc Teicholz, classical guitarist, is the first prize-winner of the 1989 International Guitar Foundation of America competition.  Marc Teicholz has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, receiving critical acclaim for his recitals and master classes. He is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and at California State University East Bay.

Friday, October 30th
8:45 p.m.
$80
 

Tickets Available  

The evening includes a light, three-course prix-fixe dinner ($45)  at 8:45 p.m., with the performance ($35) following at 9:30 p.m., with time to chat with the performers afterwards. Beverages, service charge (18%) on dinner and beverages, and tax are additional and will be charged that evening. Check the Eventbrite listing October 16th for the program and menu.

2017-09-12T15:46:51-07:00October 9th, 2015|2015, Coming up...|0 Comments
Go to Top