Let the S.O.U.L Cooking Class Season begin! Fresh & Wyld is famous for being the home of delicious S.O.U.L food cooking, and our farmhouse chefs are ready to share their secrets with you! S.O.U.L. food is held to the highest nutritional and sustainable standards. It stands for Seasonal, Organic, Unprocessed and Local, and we’ll show you how to make feeling good taste good.

Oct. 20st: First Fall Cooking Lesson with Chefs Dava & John

Time to get those pots a bubbling and get that big old oven cranking out sexy Fall delights.  We want to try out a new evening class format. You’ll come in for an affordable educational experience and have the opportunity to enjoy the dinner you helped prepare.

Spend a beautiful fall Saturday evening navigating your way around seasonal, local and organic dishes with Chefs Dava Parr and John Garrison in the Fresh & Wyld kitchen. Healthy cooking can be gourmet, and Dava and John, our seasoned and experienced chefs, will show you how!

We’re keeping the class size small so you’ll receive personal instruction and guidance from our chefs. If you’re taking the class, invite a couple of folks to dinner and make sure that everyone RSVP’s. This will be a rare and special opportunity to experience an intimate class and dining experience here at the farmhouse. Class is limited to 7 participants and 20 overall Diners….
 Want to Skip The Cooking, and just Eat?

If you wish to come to a superb and lively dinner and not participate in the class, we would still love to have you this Saturday. This three course meal is a steal, and is sure to be a new Fall highlight at the Fresh & Wyld Farmhouse. Look for the S.O.U.L. cooking classes in the months to come, and join us for the dinner afterwards. We will continue our Friday night dinners into the fall as well, in case these Saturday’s become so popular that they fill up, and you are suffering from a bad case of Farmhouse food cravings.

Beginner’s and Experts are welcome! To cook and to dine!
Where? The Fresh & Wyld Farmhouse, 1978 Harding Road, Paonia, Co
When? Saturday, October 20th
What time? Class starts at 4 pm
Dinner will be served at 7 pm
How much? Class only- $25
Class + Dinner- $40
Dinner for guests of Class participants and General Public $25

Menu:  

Roasted Tomato Bisque with Cheddar-ed Rye Croutons
Pie Pumpkin Strata w/ Cider Gravy
Cabbage & Apple Slaw w/ Sesame-Ginger dressing  
Roasted Pork w/ Mustard, Caraway & Apple
Cherry Ginger Sorbet

Please reserve ASAP, the class was scheduled a bit impulsively, because of a last minute group Cancellation at the Farmhouse, and we could use some warm bodies to fill us up! We have lots of rooms available too if you want to stay overnight!

Email Dava: davaparr@tds.net or call 970-527-4374

The Lavender Association of Western Colorado is proud to announce its speaker line-up for the upcoming Southwest Lavender Conference – Beyond the Basics.  We will also have a guided motorcoach tour of area lavender farms on Sunday, September 30, 2012.

The conference will be held at Two Rivers Convention Center in downtown Grand Junction, Colorado on September 28, 29 and 30, 2012.  Please visit our website at www.coloradolavender.org to register for this informative conference.

Beyond the Basics
Raphael d’Angelo, MD , founder and director of the Center for Holistic & Integrative Medicine in Aurora, CO and the ParaWellness Research Program.
Five Things We Must Do to Move American Aromatherapy Forward
How to Beat Infections: The Doctor’s New Black Bag
Beachcombing for Lavender – Pretty Shells and Glitzy Pebbles

Susan Harrington, owner Labyrinth Hill Lavender, Hansville, WA
    CSI: Grand Junction--forensic analysis of a marketing campaign

Sarah Bader, owner Lavender at Stonegate, West Linn, Oregon
    Growing & harvesting lavender for essential Oils

Rhonda Follman, Area Director CSU Extension Tri-River Area, Grand Junction, CO
Colorado Cottage Foods Act and more

Janet Scavarda, DC,  Grand Junction, CO
    Essential Oils – A new paradigm for saving ourselves from the stress that is killing us.

Cindy Jones, MD, owner Sagescript Institute, Longmont, CO
    Using Hydrosols in cosemetics

Barbara Lucks, RA, owner Oasis Botanica/Alma del Sol, Mack CO
    Hydrosols: Fresh, local,  accessible aromatherapy

Lida Lafferty, author of Spike It with Lavender; Recipes for Living, Grand Junction CO    
    Getting Started in the Pantry
    Cooking with wine and lavender

Roxi Lane, owner Dayspring Farm. Olathe, CO
    Farm Fresh Food with lavender

Montanya Distillers, Karen Hoskins,  Crested Butte, CO
    A True Story: When Cocktails met Lavender and Fell in Love

If you have any questions please visit our website at www.coloradolavender.org or email Kathy Kimbrough at kkimbro49@yahoo.com

Join Local instructors Wind Clearwater and Pat Frazier, as they partner with their compadres in Telluride – Kris Holstrom and Daniel Aragon of Tomten Farm, and Robyn Wilson of University Centers of San Miguel, for a 2 week in-residence permaculture design course.  Students will receive a certificate in Permaculture Design accredited through Colorado Mesa University. The course will emphasize Permaculture Design specific to our bioregion and microclimates of high altitude to high desert habitats. The emerging marriage of Biodynamics and Permaculture will be explored as a paradigm of earth stewardship.

Click here for details on the course, registrations, and locations.

Cherry Days will be highlighting local food and spirits on Saturday, July 7 in Paonia Town Park.  This celebration of all good, local products will begin at 3:30PM with a beer tasting class, followed by a wine tasting class and culminating with 2 farm to table dinners.

Revolution Brewing's Mike King will conduct the beer tasting class from 3:30 to 4:30PM at the Storytelling Tent. Mike will educate what he calls the "average with interested" palate.  He will explore the three dimensions of beer: bitterness, malty sweetness and alcohol and the way various recipes and styles quite deliberately balance these three elements.

At 4:30PM Brent Helleckson of Stone Cottage Cellars will lead the wine tasting class. He will demonstrate how to taste and what to look for in wine, highlight what is unique about the wines produced from the grapes grown in the North Fork Valley and those made in the Grand Valley by Palisade and how they differ.  He will also recommend food pairings with the various wines.

After the tasting classes, the Storytelling Tent will become the site for the farm to table dinners - 2 seatings at 6 and 7:30PM. Local chefs will take advantage of the wonderful local bounty and offer delectable dishes. Michael Gillespie of the Living Farm Cafe, Dava Parr of Fresh & Wyld, Kelly Steinmetz of the Flying Fork Cafe and Ed Vaughn of Delicious Orchards will show off their talents. Michael will prepare the apple wood smoked chicken and apple wood smoked baked beans for the dinner. If Mother Nature cooperates, Dava plans to concoct a red, white and blue potato dish with a green herb and goat cheese vinaigrette. A salad with a plethora (up to 9 different types) of greens will also be on the menu. Kelly's contribution to the farm to table dinner will be a garden dish that will include spinach, zucchini, squash, pan-seared polenta and a zesty puttanesca sauce. Ed will be doing the cherry pies for the dinner.  In all of his cooking experience, he considers the sour cherries in this region the most flavorful - the cherries just speak for themselves.

Proceeds from these three spirit and food events will go to the Paonia Chamber of Commerce, which promotes local business and the area's unique quality of life. The beer tasting class is $25 per person; the wine tasting class is $25 and the farm to table dinner is $25.  Tickets can be purchased via Brown Paper Tickets on the Chamber web site, www.paoniachamber.com, and at the Chamber office at 124 Grand Ave.