Malibu Farms September Sessions

Farms? In Point Dume?

Oh you betcha, and if you want to see for yourself just how rurally bountiful Point Dume can be, on Sept. 10 and 11 Helene Henderson and Nettie Bode are running the second edition of their Malibu Farms dinners.

Out of the 1800s and into the early 1900s, the Point Dume area was once used for cattle grazing, and growing 1,500 acres of lima beans around 1905. What was a bare hill as recently as 1949 has now been transformed into the Garden of Eden through the miracle of irrigation and cultivation.

There are parts of Point Dume that are still rural, and one of those fertile acres is owned by Helene Henderson and her husband, movie director John Stockwell. 

Helene ran Lavender Farms Catering for many years, catering many events for celebrity clients such as Barbra Streisand, Kiefer Sutherland and Madonna. She has published a book, The Swedish Table and is in high demand as a private chef for individuals and families around Malibu and Los Angeles.

Approaching the summer of 2011, Helene and her partner Nettie Bode decided to go public and offer monthly outdoor dinners featuring wine, honey, cheese and leafy greens, all grown within the 90265 area code.

"In addition to my job in town, I also have cooking classes that many of the moms from attend," Helene said. "Not sure when, but somewhere along the way we started talking about throwing a fundraiser for the school and I asked my friend Netti if she would join me as CEO and Director of Cool. Once me and Netti started talking about putting together the dinner, the idea started growing. As a caterer your job is to please the client, but this time we could incorporate the look we wanted."

The look is rural. Malibu Farms is the name of the operation, and their first sit-down, outdoor dinner in June was a success. Guests wandered through Stockwell Acres, sampling wines, cheeses and leafy greens. They then sat down to a long, regal table for 66 to eat lamb carpaccio, jidori chicken and other wonders.

To bookend the summer of 2011, Malibu Farms is gearing up to prepare dinner for 66 x 2 on Saturday and Sunday, but Helene took time out to give an advanced tour of how the September event will go.

In the front yard meet Arnold, our pot bellied pig, along with our furry-footed hens. Eat bacon and chicken, mini-sliders and sip on a pickle soup.

In the vegetable gardens, meet Malibu Mary—Malibu's own best bloody mary drink.

Oops, no more corn, so pop-corn appetizer.

By the barn, meet Casey and Quincey, our Nubian goats, and Sonja from Casa Dumetz, who will offer you awesome local wines.

By the corral, meet our Barbados sheep and Robert from : taste freshly baked breads dipped in the local oil.

Down below, meet Malibu Honey: Queen Azhula and her worker bees. Then eat gravlax with a mustard Malibu honey sauce.

After all that wandering around the farm, before you sit to eat, we will have goat milk soaps (not soups) from Danette of Chevre Lavande.

You can wash your hands, then join us at the long community table for a four-course feast. The menu is still a work in progress depending on what we can source locally, but there may be figs, home-made goats milk ricotta cheese, corn couscous, pork belly, cod and black kale, jidori chicken and butternut squash straight from the farm.

Then we will finish it all off with a peach upside down cake and homemade saffron ice cream.

Mellow live jazz music during dinner, and after dessert, ready set let's dance.

If Helene's description of the food and drinks isn't enough, layer in the view from Stockwell Acres off to the Santa Monica Mountains, all of it covered with September skies. As seen from that regal, clean and well-lighted table for 66 neighbors, strangers and fellow adventure gourmands.

The June event at Malibu Farm was so successful they are doing Saturday and Sunday nights this year. Saturday night sold out fast and there is a waiting list, but there are still seats available for Sunday.

"The primary reason we wanted to split the dinners into two nights is because this cuts the rental bill in half," Helene said. “So that savings will allow us to make a more sizeable donation to Point Dume Marine Science Elementary."

For more information on the dinner, go to www.malibu-farm.com