Connecting to our community through the meal table, beautiful food and health has always been important to us.
Closing the farm to the public was a difficult, yet necessary decision. Back in those days there also was a big interest for what we call "basic life skills" and so, we held many workshops to teach, inspire, encourage - how to garden, how to grow food, how to compost, how to can and how to prepare special meals. We also taught animal husbandry workshops like chicken and goat keeping.
As with any garden, they run their season and sometimes you stop growing in that garden for awhile - to let it rest. Everything has a beginning and an ending and sometimes it's hard to stop something that seems so good and so helpful . . . but for us, looking back, we know that decision to end was a necessary one.
We needed to end the Thursday morning market - we needed to close our front gates (but never our hearts) and we needed to step back and regroup - we needed to make a shift for our family and follow our heart to connect with our community in a different way.
Creating whole botanical skincare and wellness products seemed like the perfect next step. Our farm has always grown and cultivated baskets and bundles of culinary and medicinal herbs and flowers like rosemary, moringa, marjoram, chamomile, calendula, dandelion, nettle, hibiscus, and within the past two years - beautiful roses. So, we shifted by beginning to expand the percentage grown of those skin and body healing botanicals.
We turned our market (former horse barn) into our farm lab where our farm grown botanicals that have been processed begin a slow beauty infusion process for our estate beauty blend. It's a slow beauty - seed to serum process. Our estate beauty blend is formulated with other carefully chosen whole plant organic oils - the combinations are used in various bespoke beauty products. I like to think of our lab as the culmination of the garden beauty that is poured into bottles and becomes part of a woman's special skin and body ritual.
The other side of the horse barn was converted into our drying botanical room and recently to our wellness Apothecary with botanical old ladders hanging to dry the botanicals.
So, we connect to our community through our wellness Apothecary and also through our farm's meal tables as we partner with local chefs. Our Moonlight Farm Dinner is a multi-course, fine-dining experience that begins at sunset when the stars light the sky and you arrive for your memorable culinary experience.
When the pivot happened - Moonlight Farm Dinners - we took to time to rethink and expand the garden space in the Gathering Garden. We added our wood fire pizza ovens (the centerpiece in the outdoor kitchen), we extended the arbor, Michael, along with a good friend, built eight beautiful 8' tables. We have been able to seat up to 100 dinner guests.
It is the place where we gather with you, our AZ community for Moonlight, multi-course, fine-dining experiences prepared on our wood-fire ovens by some of the valley's amazing local chefs.
Please join us on Saturday, October 16, as we welcome Food Network Chopped Champion Adam Allison for a special multi-course, fine-dining experience under the stars. Two seating are available - our Community Table and The Chef's Table.
Chef Adam will be gifting each guest seated at The Chef’s Table a bottle of wine, a signed copy of Phoenix Cooks and some special surprises.
