Preserve and Gather: An Autumn Dinner in Bovina, NY
The past summer was a green and bountiful one, spilling over with farmed produce of plump tomatoes and melons, succulent alliums, and bright herbs. While fall is generally thought of as the end of the growing season, we find the gathering and preserving of root crops, greens, and other vegetables at the peak of perfection to be a fine cause for celebration. This is why, at the height of autumn, we partnered with Jetsetter to host an intimate harvest dinner with Brushland Eating House on 80 acres of private land in the hamlet of Bovina, a pocket of the Catskills we find ourselves growing increasingly attached to with every north-bound visit.
Chef Sohail Zandi of Brushland Eating House worked with Chef Antonio Mora of Quality Meats in Manhattan, to grace us with an evening meal that celebrated the season’s bounty with fresh ingredients from Burnett Farms and other local purveyors, as well as cured and preserved fare that hinted at winter’s approach. Acidic wax beans, beet-stained eggs, swine confit, and sticky sun-dried tomatoes commingled with savory cheeses, fresh pasta, and hearty game. “We devised the Preserve and Gather menu quite spontaneously, near the end of summer, and spent those last months, from August on, literally gathering and preserving ingredients, using as many different techniques as possible,” explains Sohail. “We like to think we are on a farmer’s schedule here at the restaurant. At peak summer, we are overrun with delicious vegetables. Our enthusiasm grows and we know we must buy, buy, buy and worry about how to use the product later. The menu came from that feeling of being overwhelmed with goodness, not wanting to forget or waste anything.”
Our guests were a thoughtful mix of food and design folk, all of whom journeyed up from the city and different upstate regions in time to enjoy drinks and warm conversation around a golden hour bonfire. It was important to us that every element of the dinner honor upstate makers, which is how we came to dress our table with black beeswax tapers from Greentree Home Candle, powder grey linens from Boxwood Linen, blush linen napkins from Silk & Willow, and wild bouquets from flower arranger Molly J Marquand. Later, under hats and scarves, we cozied up around a decorative wooden platform set up by Tentrr for a rousing performance by one-man blues band The Bones of J.R. Jones, the sparkling embers of two small bonfires disappearing into the night. We toasted the season while sharing stories, toffee pudding, and pickle-flecked spirits; it was a time that felt much like a dream. Thank you so much to all of our makers for adding such beauty to an unforgettable event, and to our guests who traveled near and far to celebrate the magic of fall with us in a most special upstate setting.
Photos by Christian Harder, Words by Sylvie Morgan Brown