This for-profit’s mission is “to reconnect diners to the land and to honor the local farmers and food artisans who cultivate it.” They truly caught the wave and have grown their agenda to an astounding 86 events this year across the U.S. and Canada. Prior locations have included this one:
An October dinner will take place on the roof of the Smithsonian; reportedly it sold out in 45 seconds.
The traveling show returned to the Berkshires last night, having last celebrated locally 8 years ago at Old Chatham Sheepherding Company. This time, the Red Lion’s CIA-trained executive chef Brian Alberg produced a spectacular feast for 150 at Elizabeth Keen and Al Thorpe’s Indian Line Farm in Egremont. 
As has become customary at these events, the Outstanding folks and Al and Liz had ample time to tell their stories. Al and Liz then led tours of the farm, talking about the importance for them of starting small, staying debt-free, learning from other local famers, and revealing such secrets as the fact that their greenhouse tomatoes (the earliest around) were grafted onto disease-free rootstock. Even Ted took notice. 
Brian’s menu included Lila’s lamb, Ted’s greens, Laura’s cherry tomatoes, Liz and Al’s root vegetables and a host of other local products, including Brian’s pork, and our honey. Brian and crew produced the feast right in the field, just across from the tables. Part of the meal thus traveled no more than a few yards from farm to table.
Among Nancy Fitzpatrick, Lila, Ted, Laura, Liz and Al were an oil industry executive now working in Iraq and her sister, a man working to turn around failing schools, a branding consultant who worked for Prince Charles, a hog farmer from Columbia County. 
Many of the diners had attended several Outstanding events before; one noted with astonishment that the organizers had greeted her by name.
Diners connected up and down the tables under a dramatic sky. 
Snippets of thought: a pig’s gestation is 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days. You know you need a new job if yours has an “exit route.” A different (and very decent) NY State wine accompanied each course. A certain style evolved as diners managed keeping the same wineglass throughout by sloshing any excess over the shoulder, back into the earth.
As temperatures fell, the sun set on an amazing event, seemingly produced without a hitch. 
Thanks to Laurie Norton Moffatt for her photo of Brian, to OITF for the photo of the West Coast dinner and to Nancy Fitzpatrick for the photo of the Indian Line tables before the guests arrived.
What’s next for the Berkshires as culinary destination, for area’s many gifted farmers and food producers, for those still on the sidelines, for those who treasure the agricultural landscape, and for all of us concerned with the region’s economic sustainability? As we digest the success of this event, which sold out quickly @ $200/seat, surely there is much to consider.
