Sourced & Served: a Farm-to-Table Dinner with Jess Jager of Your Friends Farm

BY JESS JAGER

PHOTOS BY CAILI HARTMAN 

Prior to becoming a farmer, I was an in-home chef that prided myself on my ability to provide a farm-to-table meal. Everything I prepared was made from ingredients sourced within 15 miles of where it was to be served. I wanted the food I made to have a discernible origin. I wanted to know where it was grown, how it had been cared for; I wanted to know the face of the person who grew or caught it and I wanted to see their hands too. I would tell stories to my clients of the fisherman who caught their salmon, often that morning in the Sound off of their front yard, or the vegetables that I picked up in the misty field, early to avoid the heat. I wanted to do more than just make a fancy meal, I wanted to connect people to the land that they ate from, and the people that gathered from it.

Now every night is a farm-to-table dinner, made by me, for our family. We grow all of our own meat, we harvest all of our veggies and we even milk our own cow to meet our desire for dairy. My love for cooking has only grown through my experience of being a farmer, as my connection to the ingredients has deepened. I can tell our customers where the seeds came from for their lettuce, how we tended the soil before we planted it, and what had been planted in the space the year before. I can provide information about the amount of time each animal spent eating pasture grass versus dry hay or alfalfa, what their birth was like and how much time they spent on our farm before harvest. I can speak of the loss and joy that comes with living this close to our food and dependent on our soil.

On the farm, one of my biggest goals is to build the connection between our friends and their food. I want them to know why what they eat matters. I want them to benefit from the intimate relationship that comes from food that aims to nourish their body and bring joy to their souls.

Recently, I was able to host my friends from Edible Inland Northwest for a true farm-to-table dinner held in our very own farmyard. You could say that the meal took a full 24 hours to cook, from start to finish, but in all reality it took longer than that. I am not sure when to start the clock, actually.

The chicken that I served arrived at the farm 10 weeks ago, but I had reserved them long before they even hatched in January of 2022. Perhaps, then, the meal began in the fall of 2021, when I ordered my seeds and planned the garden, or in the days before when I began quick pickling veggies and planning out sauces and dressings. Or perhaps it began 15 years ago when I dreamt of the moment I could serve a meal with food grown and raised by my own hand, on my own land, in my own home.

We plan for the food that our friends will eventually receive in their homes a year prior to the harvest, if not longer than that. We have absorbed the cost of planting, sowing, tending, and harvesting even before they begin to dream of fresh veggies in the spring. Each batch of chickens takes about 80 hours of work, all of which is done in the 10 weeks prior to them ending up butchered and in their freezers.

80% of the ingredients for this meal were grown right here on our farm, 15% were sourced from other farmers local to us, and the last 5% was made up of pantry items that I have yet to find in our area.

I began creating this meal the night before when we hand-selected chickens to harvest for the Chicken Paillard that we would serve for the main course. They would be harvested, cleaned and left to rest. The next morning when we would break down each one into pieces to be marinated until I was ready to prepare the dish.

The morning of the meal, I woke up early to collect veggies for salad, pick herbs for the dressings and sauces, and pluck eggs for the dessert.

As I washed and prepared each ingredient, I listened to the noises of the animals in the fields, I watched bees work furiously in their effort to collect pollen for their own use, while sharing with us the gift of pollination to further the growth of our own harvest. I felt the soil beneath my fingernails as I harvested carrots and beets, lettuce and tomatoes while soaking up the warm sun on my back. And I felt my heart warm through my ability to source the things I had not grown, from others who know these sounds and sights and feelings as well.

If you saw the face of this farmer, you would notice the marks the sun has left from the many hours I have spent in it. There are blonde bits of hair that aren't covered by my hat. If you looked at my hands you would see that a farmer's work is not delicate, but messy and hard. In the summer, I cannot completely clean the dirt that collects in the wrinkles of the skin on my hands, nor can I escape the presence of slivers from the thistles or blisters from the use of the many tools of harvest.

My hands look different now than they did 15 years ago when this dream began, as I no longer simply prepare the ingredients but I grow them, I tend them, I mourn the losses that come and feel the joy of success in each harvest differently now. And I feel in a sense that I have arrived in a place that was always meant for me.

Throughout all of that, I would hope the smile on my face that comes from working in a way that brings joy to my soul and nourishment to my body, as well as food to my community, would be an invitation to deeply consider what it might feel like to be deeply connected to it all.

This meal was created with love and intention, it took years to prepare, months to grow, and hours and hours to harvest. As I plated each course and set them in front of our friends that gathered at the table underneath the pines on our farm, I felt fulfilled and proud of my role as a farmer, of the community that I am a part of, and the willingness of my friends to trust us with feeding them and theirs.

Is cooking the easiest part?

What a beautiful evening!

On the Menu

Our opening course was a scape and chive flatbread topped with caramelized onions and a tomato jam. The scapes were sourced from Vinegar Flats Farm near Downtown Spokane. Our tomatoes were supplemented with some from Dogwild Farm just down the road.

The main course was chicken paillard, served with a simple green salad, roasted beets and carrots, topped with a drizzle of herby cream dressing. All of the ingredients aside from the sour cream and honey for the dressing (which came from Tate’s Honey Farm in Millwood) were sourced from here at Your Friends Farm.

Dessert was a fresh-made pavlova topped with apricot curd, fresh whipped cream made with cream from Schoonover Farms, fresh peaches and raspberries from High Country Orchard, and shaved dark chocolate.

As guests arrived, we all shared a graze board from Bites & Treats Catering. Our friends at Liberty Lake Wine Cellars provided a selection of delicious wines to pair with the meal including their award-winning Cabernet Sauvignon and TAHIJA Rosé. YaYa Brewing brought their wonderful New England-style IPA, Fluffy Puffy Sunshine, to accompany our time together. We had sparkling lemonade made with Side Hustle Syrup’s Lemon-Lavender Simple Syrup to help beat the heat of summer in Spokane–some of us even added a little bit of Dry Fly Distilling vodka!

Special Thanks to

Your Friends Farm
Bites & Treats Catering
Liberty Lake Wine Cellars
Yaya Brewing Company
Side Hustle Syrups

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