Our local farms are bursting with spring veggies energizing Chefs Jacob Rodriguez and Nick Campbell to create a new spring inspired menu from the Barn Kitchen. This season highlights the tender, sweet, juicy, crunchy, succulent bursts of flavor and texture, and the culinary team knows how to illuminate all of these qualities.
Spring greens are tender, asparagus is juicy, broccolini is crisp, carrots are sweet, turnips are succulent, and the radishes have a gloriously mild, creamy character this time of year before their bold spice emerges later in the growing season. The spring veggies have been grilled, roasted, braised, blanched, marinated and added fresh to salads complemented by savory vinaigrettes, artisan cheeses, and aromatic stocks.
You’ll discover basil featured in a pumpkin seed pesto as well as a brightly green spinach sauce. And you won’t want to miss out on the savory oats as “it takes the salads to flavor town”. Fresh herbs like parsley, chives, dill, mint, tarragon, and of course basil elevate each plate, and lemon zest brightens the flavors.
On Fridays and Saturdays, a Porchetta Focaccia Sandwich featuring Casad Family Farms pork belly will be served in very limited quantities. This sandwich is incredibly special from the sourcing to the flavors. You’ll want to come early before it sells out!
The focaccia bread is made in house by our bakers Taylor Nause and Danny St Lawrence using carefully sourced organic flours that are naturally leavened using a sourdough poolish. To learn more about the flours that we use, go here.
The pork belly comes from Casad Family Farms whose meat and honey are Land to Market Verified by the Savory Institute. Land to Market is considered the gold standard for land health, the highest level of integrity for regenerative agriculture. Their mission is to heal the planet by regenerating its grasslands, and they connect consumers to farmers that uphold these standards.
Casad Family Farms raise cattle, heritage breed hogs, as well as pastured chickens and turkeys. These animals graze an organic highly diverse locally adapted cover crop that is resilient to drought, weather extremes, and pest pressure. The animals are grazed on a rotation moving them to different sections of the pasture throughout the growing season. Manure and ammonia rich urine from the animals provide the nutrients needed to support the cover crop and build a robust soil microbiology of beneficial fungi and bacteria while grazing stimulates root growth which adds organic matter to the soil. This symbiotic relationship between plants and animals creates a closed loop nutrient cycle where no fertilizers need to be added and no waste needs to be removed, and of course no chemicals are used. In the end, each growing season results in healthier and healthier soils, greater biodiversity, and improved ecosystem function.
The pork belly on this sandwich is nutrient dense of the highest standard and comes from a farming system that is actively regenerating soils and the environment. It has been slow roasted for six hours with fennel, garlic, and fresh herbs. The porchetta is then chopped and topped with a salad of herbs, shaved fennel, and onion. Finally, the crispy pork and fresh salad are drizzled with our Calabrian chili sauce. All of this on our house made organic focaccia bread. The blending of textures and flavors is masterful. This sandwich is a treasure to be savored!
If you’re looking for a vegetarian option, boy does the culinary team have you covered. After the first bite of the Braised Carrot Focaccia Sandwich, you will need to take pause, stop conversation, and become fully present to the goodness that just landed in your mouth. The sweetness of the perfectly braised carrots intermingled with the creaminess of the whipped sheep’s milk feta combined with the nuttiness of the pesto held together by the golden chewiness of the herbed focaccia almost leaves you baffled and unable to put the sandwich down. It’s truly that good, truly that noteworthy.
So much has gone into creating this menu, from the craft of our local farmers to the artistry of our bakers and chefs. This menu is served Wednesday to Sunday 4-8pm from the Barn Kitchen.
Explore the menu here.
To learn more about Casad Family Farms and how to find their meats & honey, go here.
Photo Credit: Todd Chester
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