One of the happiest discoveries I made when I first moved here to Portland is how accessible it is to not only enjoy farm to table dinners in Portland with many restaurants, but it is also very easy to enjoy and support local producers by dining at the farms and vineyards, right at the source. This is not just a summer activity either. For instance, Field and Vine Dinners are scheduled from spring through the end of the year.
With over 30 of their Dinners in the Field events scheduled a year, Field and Vine farm to table dinners probably have one that fits your calendar. As of this post there are still 14 more dinners available. They are also pretty affordable – a great majority of the dinners are priced at about $100, and that includes all of the food, drinks, and gratuity. 
I really applaud Field and Vine events for the variety of locations for their dinner series. You will find dinners set out in the field for dining al fresco of course, but also in barns, barrel rooms, and even at a classic horse show, an alpaca ranch (upcoming on September 21 2019) or elk farm (upcoming October 12 2019). If you are reading this past 2019 – not to worry, they re-visit many of these locations every year.
You will find family-style 6-7 course dinners paired with wine from local vineyards, but Field and Vine also partners with beverage partners too like Westward Whiskey, Portland Cider Co., Trail Distilling, and Coin Toss Brewing – and there are still tickets to dinners with these libation friends still on the calendar coming up this year. Some of the dinners may be in collaboration with other local makers like farmers, chocolatiers, and cheesemakers.
This past weekend I attended one of the dinners, one with Elk Cove Vineyards and TMK Creamery. Elk Cove Vineyards is a family owned winery with 200 acres of estate vineyard. It was founded in 1974 in the Northern Willamette Valley, making it one of Oregon’s oldest wine producers. In fact, for our dinner we sat right by the location where the winery was founded and the elk bedded down and which inspired the vineyard’s name, and dined next to where those first vines were planted.
TMK Creamery is a family-run creamery in Canby with high quality milk from what they call “Cowlebrities”. Being a cheese lover, I particularly picked out this dinner because their presence meant their cheeses would be incorporated into some of the courses at the dinner. We also got to sample some of their curds during the initial half hour as people arrived and we sipped Elk Cove Vineyards 2018 Hog Wild Rosé. 
Then, during the dinner, we were also able to enjoy pours of Elk Cove Vineyards 2016 Goodrich Chardonnay, 2016 Mount Richmond Pinot Noir, and even get a taste of 2016 Old Vines Pinot Noir (a wine made from those original planted vines of 1974 we were dining by). Here are the other dishes to give you an idea of the fresh from the farm ingredients that can be used.
We started the dinner with Charred Corn Crostini with Grano Bakery Ciabatta, olive oil, spicy aioli, smoked gouda, bacon, and micro arugula. I thought this was a great idea for a crostini for a party that takes advantage of sweet summer corn.
Next was Endive Salad with radicchio, romaine, orange vinaigrette, tomatoes, cheddar, and candied hazelnuts. I always love a salad with lots of textures and big pieces of cheese.
Grilled Peaches with burrata, shaved jalapeno, bourbon gastrique, smoked salt, and pine nuts were a delight at the table, though I couldn’t detect the shaved jalapeno. 
One of the fun things that Chef Pascal challenged diners to do is guess how many pounds of peaches were used for tonight’s dinner, and when this came out there were definitely some guests making calculations. Spoiler alert: the answer is for ~188 guests I believe it was 41 pounds of peaches. You can see Chef Pascal Chureau below with the cowbell he used to get our attention – Chef Pascal not only has a regular day job at his restaurant Allium Bistro in West Linn, but he is also the owner of Field and Vine Events.
Saffron Couscous with chickpeas, currants, cilantro, mint, almonds and Braised Lamb Shoulder with fennel, tomatoes, sweet onions, and spicy chimi churri were next. The vegetable dish was a Moroccan Ratatouille with stewed squashes, tomatoes, eggplant, and carrots.
Finally for dessert, we each had little servings of Blackberry-Cassis Mousse with honeyed cream, candied ginger shortbread.
If you are interested, definitely look up and see if you can attend of of the remaining Field and Vine dinners for 2019 from their schedule.
One last look at Elk Cove Vineyards – before dinner, and after dinner.
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