Sunswept Farm hosts Rosenstein dinner

The Terra Madre fundraiser will be at Sunswept Farm on Sept. 18

Slow Food Asheville just posted some great events, the highlight being the Terra Madre fundraiser at Sunswept Farm in Spring Creek, Madison County, on Sept. 18. Terra Madre is Slow Food International’s big confab in Italy, attended by local Slow Food delegates around the world. 

Sunswept will give tours of its farm, surrounded by 68 acres of conservation land. Dinner will follow, orchestrated by chef Mark Rosenstein, who  brought seasonal cooking to Asheville four decades ago when he founded The Market Place restaurant.  The cost is $45 and tickets can be purchased here.

I was just wrapping up the mountain portion of “Farm Fresh North Carolina” last fall when I learned that Mark had left Market Place. Ack! I was relieved to learn that his successor, William Dissen, is equally committed to local sourcing. So the restaurant stayed  in the book. 

Originally, Sunswept was in the book as well, as a farm to visit, but when I ended up having to cut many listings for space, I deleted it. I plan to check in again if there’s a second edition. 

Dory Brown with one of her calves

I did enjoy my visit there in spring of 2009. I showed up on a very rainy day to find farmer Dory Brown trying to coax a calf to drink milk out of a bucket on the ground. “For calves, all food is up, not down,” she said. Good point. She an and her husband, John, were early back-to-the-landers who moved there in the early 1970s, built their home by hand, and use hydroelectric and solar power. They grow produce on about an acre, and raise cows, pigs, and chickens. They also have spots for platform camping. If you visit, let me know what you thought.

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