If you haven’t watched the Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown episode on West Virginia, go watch it right now. In it, you will see the late food connoisseur enjoying Appalachian dishes at Lost Creek Farm in Harrison County, West Virginia.
Lost Creek Farm is an up-and-coming West Virginia farm and kitchen that hosts a variety of heritage foods grown, foraged, and cooked by chefs Mike Costello and Amy Dawson. Their property is a historic farm and farm house that is being renovated with love into a home and professional kitchen for the duo. While they have been operating out of this farmhouse for a few years, their dream is to build a kitchen and educational center to share their love of heritage foods.
In an effort to begin fundraising for such an endeavor, they established a Farm & Forage Supper club. This season they hosted dinners on August 23rd and 24th with dinners to come September 13th and 14th as well as October 12th and 13th. My love of West Virginia food and interest in the their farm encouraged me to purchase tickets for the very first dinner on Friday, August 23rd. I was not disappointed.
We arrived after ascending a gravel road to the top of a rolling farm hill. We cracked a Big Timber and began mingling as the hors d’oeuvres arrived. Pork and apple souse on salt rising toast as well as delicious smoked rabbit rillettes on communion wafer with knotweed syrup and milkweed capers.
We settled down into a cozy table and poured some byob wine under lit string lights and a view of the old farm house. A cow mooed down the hill and the sun began to set between the hills. The first dish of roasted squash soup arrived and Mike welcomed us to this intimate dinner. Each course was explained down to when they picked the beans and there was plenty of time to enjoy and socialize between courses.
After the soup came a delicious beet and peach salad. It was savory and garlicy and wonderful. After enjoying such as salad, chicken and dumplings graced our table. It featured local chicken and foraged chicken of the woods and a green tomato gravy you wanted to lick off the plate along with the prettiest purple pole beans. From there we moved on to a farm-raised venison roast with smoked wild elderberry accompanied by sweet potato squash and onions.
Not wanted to night to end but looking forward to dessert, the most wonderful chicory root panna cotta appeared. It was topped with crumbled buckwheat bark, shagbark hickory syrup, cured farm egg, and a chicory blossom. The only thing that made dessert better was the adorable jam-jar servings of coffee and cream.
I cannot recommend this dinner series and Lost Creek Farm more. My partner and I had a lovely evening full of wonderful food outside in a beautiful West Virginia, celebrating our anniversary and enjoying Appalachian cuisine. Although we were celebrating, you don’t need a special occasion to jump on their rare tickets that transport you into a wonderful place and food and merriment.
For more information on Lost Creek Farm check out: http://www.lostcreekfarmwv.com/ and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
The Wild West Virginian 