Farm to Table Fundraiser Stars Local Food and Chefs

Luke Smithson spent three days last week preparing for Saturday's farm to table dinner, but he wasn't in a kitchen.

Instead, Smithson, an executive chef at Jamie Hollander Gourmet, was out in the woods and fields, on properties the Heritage Conservancy has preserved, foraging for food.

His finds will be served on platters Saturday at Heritage Conservancy's fourth annual From Farm to Table Dinner. The annual fundraiser for the conservation organization is held at Lindsay Farm, on Almshouse Road in Warminster Township.

The event, which sold out again this year, gives guests a chance to enjoy locally grown and harvested foods, and this year's menu is no exception.

Smithson and David Zuckerman, of Earl’s Bucks County, have crafted a menu to showcase the best Bucks County has to offer.

For Smithson's part, he put his skills as a forager to good use, visiting properties the Heritage Conservancy has preserved from development to see what was growing wild.

He found wineberries on Lindsay Farm, which will star in a wineberry vinaigrette, according to Kate Conaway, event planner for Jamie Hollander's. He also found nettles, which went into a house-make pork sausage, and wild garlic mustard that went into a turkey sausage, Conaway said.

His crowning achievement was gathering 25 pounds of wild-growing chanterelle mushrooms from various properties the Heritage Conservancy had helped preserve through the years.

"We really try to incorporate what we do into our work," Conaway said. "Luke is a wild greens and mushroom forager, so when he was coming up with the menu, he really wanted to use the Heritage properties to showcase what grows there."

Saturday's event will feature appetizers and a buffet-style meal served under tents outdoors at Lindsay Farm. Guests will be bussed from the parking area at the Middle Bucks Institute of Technology to and from the farm.

The Heritage Conservancy started the farm to table event in 2009, as interest in local food began to increase. It's a perfect fit for the agency which has worked since 1958 to preserve open space, farmland and historic properties in Bucks County and beyond.

"More and more, people are taking an interest in where their food comes from and how it’s grown," Robin Folkerts, of Heritage Conservancy, said in a statement. "Fresh, locally produced food is not only good for our bodies, but good for the economy and the environment."

Tickets to the event, which sold out for the fourth straight year, were $75 per person. Proceeds benefit the conservancy's work.

To learn more about the conservancy, which is based out of Doylestown's historic , visit the group's website.