Our First Wedding

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Since we opened the restaurant this summer, we have had a lot of people ask us if we host weddings. It seems a lot of folks appreciate the quaint environment of the Tea Room and Chef's skills in the kitchen. The land and the property also provide a beautiful backdrop for photos....sometimes living here day in and day out, we forget what we have to offer.

So the short answer is yes, although our capacity is somewhat limited.

Already, earlier this year, young newlyweds Jessica and Scott decided to take some wedding photos at the farm....and they really made it all look so good.

With Jessica and Scott, our raspberry canes never looked so good!

This week it was time for us to host our first wedding at the restaurant. Although the weather has not cooperated greatly in the past few days, the day was perfect for Cathy and Dominic who wanted to take their vows and hold a small reception at the farm.

We were really happy to share this moment with Cathy and Dominic this week.

The newlyweds had some very specific requests of the meal to be served at this function. So they worked with Chef to create a menu with a bit of an Italian twist.

Using our principles (avoiding prepared "industrial" foods), Chef created from scratch a five course meal.

With sparkling wine, we served appetizers which consisted of home-made Goujeres (a cheese puff pastry), salmon and cream cheese as well as Duxelles (finely chopped mix of Portobello mushrooms) all wrapped in a filo pastry.

Chef's Goujeres are always a treat.

To begin the meal, Chef prepared an Italian wedding soup. A beautiful home made broth to which is added kale, meat balls, noodles and cheese. This was followed by an Arugula salad with home made croutons.

Chef's Italian Wedding Soup

The main course was a traditionally made Chicken Cacciatore on a bed of creamed polenta.

Chef's main course: Chicken Cacciatore

Prior to breaking into the wedding cake which was provided by the bride, the meal was concluded with a refreshing fruit salad composed of Papaya and Pineapple.

Plating the fruit salad.

We actually really enjoyed ourselves that evening, so much so that we do hope to host many more such events. In fact, it seems that 3 more wedding functions are already booked for 2014....it's perhaps time we create our own Ridge Berry Farm wedding album :)

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the farm, we still have a lot of work to do. This week, it was time to clean up the debris from the ice storm. The key problem are the trees around the manor and the barn.

Still encrusted in ice, some of the fallen branches were extremely heavy. It is no surprise that such large branches were literally peeled off their trunks.

Cleaning the debris of the ice storm proved to be heavy work.

We took the time to also prune some branches and clean up the resulting wounds. Our pole pruner proved useful although some of the damage remains on the upper most branches of our very tall pines

The pole pruner came to good use.

We still have some work to do, including an ancient, two trunk, 50 foot willow that straddles both our creek and path (half way down the farm). This one will prove to be quite a challenge. In the meantime, all of this work is generating a significant amount of fire wood and a massive burn pile.

Finally, we will conclude this week, by wishing all our readers a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!

See you all in 2014!