Farm-to-table meals, community building… and pancakes

By Seth Dolinsky | Sonoma Valley Farm Scene —

Community meals have existed since time immemorial.

In America, we have gathered together over meals for all manner of occasion, from traditional national religious and seasonal holidays to community celebratory events.  Folks of particular affiliations may break bread in support of various organizations, such as local fire departments, veterans clubs, service clubs, and fraternal organizations like the Sonoma Valley Grange. 

The National and State Granges are fraternal in the sense that they are organizations formed around a common bond, and that is support of local farming and agriculture. 

Founded in 1924, our local Grange has served Sonoma Valley farmers and food producers for almost 100 years. As the Valley grew, and small family farms were lost to progress and development, the Hall became an important community center for the Valley and especially the Springs area.

Pancake breakfasts have been a mainstay at the Grange.  These weekend morning gatherings were held to bring the community together, and were lively events to attend or volunteer, where you meet old friends, make new ones, and, especially in recent years, enjoy a high quality, local and organic meal.  By sourcing locally, these meals highlight the best of Sonoma Valley and the surrounding area, and remind us of the good things in life. 

In recent years, Chef Sean Paxton has been “kicking it up a notch”, building menus around local produce from Paul’s Produce and Oak Hill Farms, Strauss Creamery, Vella Cheese, fresh-milled flour from Mike the Bejkr, and whatever other goodness he can glean locally.  

The process of working with local foods is both rewarding and revealing.  You learn what is actually available in a given season, or even week.  Connections are made with local producers that give insight into their operations, methods, mission and ingredients.  And the gaps on what is locally available become evident – for example local tree fruit and nuts, in decades past a mainstay of the Valley, now virtually nonexistent on a large scale. 

Many Sonomans recall picking up milk at a local dairy, now nowhere to be found in the Valley. So we work with what we have, hoping to highlight those that remain so they can thrive and attract more to fill in the gaps.

As people congregate at these farm-to-table events, they find comaraderie in the appreciation for our local bounty, and share tables and stories, catching up in these busy times and creating a vision not only of times past but of a future where we can work to slow down again, grow food again, and remember the value of sustainable and self-sufficient systems that can provide us with the best things in life. 

At the Sonoma Valley Grange, those are simple: Healthy Farms, Healthy Food, Healthy Community!

The next Farm-to-table pancake breakfast is coming to the Sonoma Valley Grange, 18627 Highway 12, Sunday, September 17th from 9-11:30am, where the menu includes – wait for it – late summer squash frittata, Sean’s fig, thyme and caramelized onion sausage, Sean’s famous buttermilk pancakes, a seasonal apple cinnamon and sprouted oak pancake with walnuts, coffee and orange juice. 

See you there!

Seth Dolinsky is Lecturer at the Sonoma Valley Grange, a Sonoma Valley organization aimed at supporting local farms and food producers using organic methods and ingredients, and is owner of New Land Systems, a regenerative land management company.