Bryan Sikora’s cooking experience ranges far and wide. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, Sikora devoted much of his career to traveling and working in kitchens across the United States. Working on Cape Cod’s Chatham Bars Inn, Sikora mastered the restaurant’s then-Austrian inspired cuisine. He went on to make tapas in Portland for the Kimpton Group and cooked an all-organic menu while working with Nora Pouillon at Nora’s in Washington, D.C. Sikora finally headed back to Philadelphia, where he created Morroccan feasts at Tangerine.

While traveling around the country, Sikora met and married his wife, Aimee Olexy. After working at Tangerine, then 30-year-old Sikora realized he longed for the spontaneity and personalization of a small restaurant, so he and his wife created a venue of their own where Sikora could have full creative license and run his own show. Together, Sikora and Olexy opened Django, an intimate and food driven 36-seat restaurant, where Sikora earned a 2004 StarChefs.com Rising Stars Award. Django, named after the great jazz guitarist and composer, Django Reinhardt, was a popular spot for diners as far out as Washington, D.C. and Harrisburg. After closing Django in 2008, Sikora moved around to several city locales before settling at a.kitchen, a casual bistro inside AKA Rittenhouse Square.

Sikora’s success is, in large part, due to the fact that he doesn’t believe in culinary short cuts - this labor-intensive philosophy is evident in his cuisine. From baking his own bread to making his own pastas, pastries, and even pickles, Sikora subscribes to the “old world” European philosophy of cooking. Sikora’s cuisine also centers on purchasing local and fresh top-quality ingredients from regional farmers, whom he credits on his daily menus.

(Rising Star Chef Bryan Sikora of a.kitchen - Biography [Interview]. (2011, November). Retrieved August 09, 2017, from https://www.starchefs.com/cook/chefs/bio/bryan-sikora)

He now owns Hearth Kitchen at 847 E Baltimore Pike, Kennett Square, PA 19348. A fabulous kitchen that has a specialty in Handcrafted Pizza, Pasta and Italian Influenced Food. Such great food is served in a fantastic environment. 

David A. Schorn has worked for 25 years in restaurants both corporate and private venues. Always working towards mastery of overall restaurant operations. In 2001, David took a culinary position with Wolfgang Puck's restaurant in Sunrise, Florida. This is where he focused on a variety of cuisines including Pacific Rim, East Asian, and Caribbean. As Executive Chef for Gold Coast Seafood Grill and Wine Bar in Boca Raton, David achieved recognition of his restaurants Bacchanal Food and Wine Festival. His love for the "Wine Bar" concept and search for a new adventure led him to Harvest Seasonal Grill & Wine Bar. This is a Chef-driven concept where David works closely with his culinary team and local farms to bring a creative and fresh seasonally changing menu to their guests.

The Field to Fork Dinner held here on the farm was prepared by Harvest Seasonal Grill & Wine Bar. David and his team did an amazing job with creating such wonderful dishes featuring our own produce. The whole night consisted of four courses and fun! 

The feast began with crostini with veggie kabobs, roasted red pepper hummus, fruits with cheeses, Harvest's own jams, and local Honey. 

Next was our own heirloom tomatoes, pickled shallot, ricotta, oil, and more. All were absolutely delicious.

The third course was chicken asado, Jicama slaw, and BBQ. Yum!

Finally our own corn and some more to top it all off. David and his team truly prepared an amazing meal for everyone! 

Brian Ashby, winner of Food Network 50 best brunches, is bringing his talents to our farm. 8th and Union Kitchen will be cooking for you on Wednesday July 26th in our barn. Brian studied at the University of Delaware with a degree in Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management. After completing his bachelors, he spent the next year at Le Cordon Bleu in Sydney Australia immersed in French cuisine.  Once he returned to the US, he went to work for James Beard nominated chef Jay Caputo at Espuma in Rehoboth Beach. The next few years were spent living in NYC and LA working for Michelin starred chefs, April Bloomfield at The Spotted Pig, Daniel Humm at Eleven Madison Park, and Brendan Collins at Waterloo and City.  Before returning to Delaware, he had the opportunity to open a restaurant in the caribbean off the coast of Honduras.  Finally in April of 2015 8th & Union Kitchen was born, where he has been ever since. 

8th and Union Kitchen is a wonderfully rustic restaurant located in a little Italy neighborhood in Wilmington. The menu showcases creative food items by mixing American flavors with some Mexican and Southeast Asian specialties. They feature burgers, pad thai, pho, and a whole variety of small plates.  The majority of our menu can be gluten free and can also be prepared vegetarian or vegan.

Field to Fork Dinner with David Banks

This Wednesday we have our last Field to Fork dinner of the season.

David Banks of Harry's Hospitality group will be joining us for this dinner. Chef Banks is the executive chef of Harry’s Hospitality Group and is co-owner of Harry’s Seafood Grill and Harry’s Fish Market + Grill. He is also a partner in ownership of Kid Shelleen’s Charcoal House & Saloon.

Chef David Banks

Chef Banks is known for creating and presenting innovative menus, he uses his diverse food background for the development of the menus and specialty events for which Harry’s is known. He was selected as the American Culinary Federation First State Chefs Association Chef of the Year in 1996 and 2001. Chef Banks was inducted into the prestigious American Academy of Chefs in 2003 and serves as Northeast Regional representative for the Academy.

A special on the menu at Harry's Seafood Grill

Chef Banks also uses his knowledge of food and love of preparing delicious meals to benefit a good cause. Chef Banks has served as chair of the Share Our Strength “Taste of the Nation” Benefit in Wilmington since 1994, helping to raise more than $900,000 in the fight against childhood hunger. Harry's Savoy Grill hosted the last dinner in 2014. Chef Banks is highly respected for his dedication to community service and a willingness to lend his expertise to many worthy causes and we're excited he's joining us at the farm!

Chef David Banks & Crew at SIW

CSA Week #12

CSA Week #12 is here! The list is as delicious as it is diverse in offerings!

CSA Week #12 list

 We're over halfway into the 2016 season at SIW and are looking for all the fun things to come. We still have a bounty of delicious produce to offer for your lunches and dinners, and more! We've had some delicious and amazing Farm to Table Dinners with MacGregor Mann of Junto & Merry Catanuto and William Hoffman of The House of William & Merry! The menus were amazing and the company was even better!

Field to Fork Dinner with Junto Menu

Junto's Tomato Panzanella Salad

W&M Field to Fork Dinner Menu

W&M's Caprese Salad

 We hope you'll join us for a dinner in the 2017 season!

CSA Week #8

The CSA is in full swing and the list just gets better and better!

 

Check back later in the week for a recap of our second Field to Fork Dinner of the season with MacGregor Mann of Junto!

CSA Week #7 is here & Field to Fork Dinner #2 is coming up!

CSA Week #7 is here! The list is looking great again this week! More and more variety is being added each week.

CSA Week #7

We're also excited that our next Field to Fork Dinner with MacGregor Mann of Junto is right around the corner! MacGregor has joined us before for our Field to Fork series and everyone had an amazing time. Of course we're excited to have him with us again!

MacGregor and HG at last years Field to Fork dinner

MacGregor Mann has been a chef since 2000. He started his career at Penne at the Inn at Penn, moved on to Washington Square and then started at Amada under Chef Jose Garces in 2005. Wanting a change he moved to Chicago in 2008 to work at Mercat. He came back to Philadelphia to work at Amada again in 2009, becoming head chef this time around! Wanting to add to his culinary experiences he move to Denmark for 4 months in 2012 to work at Noma. Following his trip to Noma, he landed at Henry’s Fork Lodge in Idaho but returned to his roots during the winter of 2013. At this time he began working on the process of creating Junto which opened in May of 2014.

Our mouths are still watering from this Lima Bean Succotash MacGregor created for one of the dinners last year!

We can't wait to see what menu MacGregor is creating for the dinner on August 3rd! HG has some delicious veggies that are being harvested for MacGregor to choose from!

An evening with Cocina Lolo

We had our first Field to Fork Dinner of the 2016 season on July 13th with Bryan Sikora of Cocina Lolo. It was an amazing night! We had some rain but it cleared up and provided the perfect backdrop for the evening.

The menu included corn and tomatoes grown at SIW

The dinner was served family style so everyone socialized and mingled in the barn. 

             

The lighting and flowers set the perfect ambiance in the barn for the night

Bryan and the team prepared a delicious meal starting with fresh salsa & guacamole along side swordfish escabeche. This was followed by grilled skirt steak and chicken, a divine pasole with vegetable jasmine rice. The grill was going and the food was flowing!

Grilled corn getting ready to head to the tables for guests to enjoy.  This was the first taste of the season for HG's sweet corn and it was delicious!

Bryan slicing up the grilled steak for tacos! The meal was amazing and showcased the farms delicious veggies perfectly. We would like to say a huge THANK YOU to Bryan and his team for making the evening such a delight. We also want to thank everyone who attended and make our Field to Fork series a success!

We can't wait for the next dinner!

CSA Week #5

The fields are really starting to "produce"!

CSA Week #5

We'll have HG's sweet corn until the end of summer! The tomatoes are coming along nicely as are the figs. 

The onions and garlic are in the barn curing and fresh are available at the stand. Keep an eye out on Instagram and Facebook for specials and what's hitting the stand as it's coming out of the fields. We had our first Field to Fork dinner on Wednesday night with Cocina Lolo and it was amazing! We'll have a recap of on the blog soon.

Paste tomatoes soon!

Stop by the stand and see all the beautiful produce!

Cocina Lolo CSA Dinner

Next week is our first Farm to Fork Dinner of the season at the farm! On July 13th Bryan Sikora of Cocina Lolo will be joining us to prepare an amazing meal using SIW produce. 

Chef Bryan Sikora

Chef Bryan Sikora is a graduate of Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. and spent most of his early career traveling and cooking in different kitchens across the United States. In 2001 he opened Django in Philadelphia, at the time it was the first BYOB to receive four bells from the Craig LaBan, renowned food critic of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Sikora and his then wife made the decision to sell Django and move to Chester County and there found the inspiration to open Talula’s Table. From his time at Django and Talula's he has moved on to open La Fia, an artisan bakery and bistro using locally sourced ingredients. Since he has opened Cocina Lolo which features a Mexicali menu using locally sourced ingredients. You might just happen to see Bryan at the SIW Farmstand once or twice a week buying ingredients to use in menu items at his restaurants.

An amazing dish by Bryan at Cocina Lolo

We're excited to have Bryan joining us at SIW for our first Field to Fork Dinner of the season! This dinner is sold out but you can find other dates on our events calendar page.  

CSA Week 4 is upon us and the share contents are looking great!

CSA Week 4 Share Contents

Don't forget to find us on Instagram and Facebook for updates about items hitting the farmstand!

CSA Week #2 is here!

The first day of summer has come and gone but left behind the sunny, warm weather!

Stop by the stand for a gorgeous bouquet!

This week's share includes:

CSA Week 2

The share is full of summer this week! The sunflowers bring a burst of color, the basil is one of the familiar smells of summer, and the snow peas are a tasty treat that aren't around for long. Garlic scapes are the flower bud of the garlic plant and taste exactly like garlic. They can be used in all the same ways you would use garlic. One of our favorite ways things to do with garlic scapes is turning them into pickles!

The first corn is coming along nicely!

We took a walk around the fields to see what is almost ready and we found some tomatoes gaining some color. Blackberries are close, so close! The raspberries are just starting to turn, the burst of heat we're getting will help them to ripen quicker. 

The tomatoes are starting to ripen!

Don't forget we have our Wild Edibles Walk on Thursday evening. If you are interested in joining, please send us an email at siwveggies@gmail.com to let us know. Also, check our calendar for the Field to Fork Dinners! They're filling up quickly!

Things are rolling in!

The weather has been lovely and this means the crops are bursting and coming along nicely. HG and the crew are busy tending the fields and checking on the progress of each and every crop. It looks like this week we'll have more great things on the farm stand so keep your eyes peeled for cucumbers, squash and green beans.

These beautiful snow peas are part of the CSA share this week

The share this week is pretty well rounded. You'll get some delicious fresh veggies and beautiful sunflowers to get you through the week!

CSA Week 1 Contents

We also have Styer's Peonies at the stand. You don't want to miss these beauties so stop by and grab some while we still have them!

Styer's Peonies

We're crossing our fingers for green beans to come in sooner, they're about a week from being ready to harvest. The blackberries are close, so close we can already taste them! Blackberries have a short season around here, usually lasting 5-6 weeks. Since it's a short burst, one of our favorite things to do (aside from eating blackberries fresh) is make blackberry jam! One of the easiest recipes to follow is Marissa at Food in Jars recipe for Blackberry Jam.

Blackberry Jam | Food in Jars

Don't forget to check the events calendar for upcoming events on the farm. We have the Farm Tour on June 16th, our Wild Edibles Walk on June 23rd and the Field to Fork Dinners are fast approaching. We hope to see you at the farm stand!

We're Open!

The stand is open for the 2016 season as of today!

We are so excited that opening day is finally here! As we're coming to a close for the first day we wanted to let everyone know, THANK YOU! The season is starting to roll, and we can't wait to share the delicious items that will soon be in abundance. We can't get enough of the beautiful flowers that are blooming already. We like them so much that we have sunflowers and peonies at the stand this week!

We do have a few reminders for everyone! The CSA pick ups begin next week, the week of June 6th starting with full shares, half shares begin picking up the following week. The Farm Tour is on June 16th at 6pm and the Farm to Table Dinners are on the events calendar. If you'd like to reserve a spot for the tour or a dinner please email us at siwveggies@gmail.com. We also have a Wild Edibles Walk coming up on June 23rd, you can read more about this event here.

That's all for now! We hope to see you at the stand this week!

23 days...

We're getting closer and closer to opening day and we couldn't be more excited!

Opening Day is June 1st!

Opening day is June 1st and we're well on our way getting things ready around the farm. The greenhouse has been busy and bursting at the seams (see those updates here and here).

Tomatoes that were started in the greenhouse

Some of our favorite veggies are in the fields and coming along nicely. We can't wait to taste those delicious tomatoes, have a fresh ear of corn or enjoy some delicious peas! We're so excited we're already contemplating our summer dinner menus.

Peas in the field with morning dew glistening in the sun

With opening day fast approaching, we're getting excited about all the upcoming events on the farm. Don't forget to check the calendar for our Field to Fork Dinners. We also have the Annual Farm Tour coming up on June 16th. Don't forget we also are hosting a Wild Edibles Walk with Nathaniel Whitmore, you can read more about that here.

What are you excited for this summer?

It's almost time!

The warmer temperatures are reminding us that it's getting close to opening day!

There's been a lot happening on the farm in the last couple weeks. Fingers crossed we won't have any sudden cold snaps like we did with the freak snow day a little while back. The green house is bursting with growth, which means things are starting to be transplanted into the fields. 

Tomatoes being transplanted into the field

Another exciting happening is the first sweet corn has been planted in the fields! We all LOVE HG's sweet corn. This is a good sign that the stand will be opening soon. The corn has been planted and covered with what looks like a large blanket, and in theory, it is just that! This large cover helps heat the soil which aids in germination and emergence of the corn.

First Sweet Corn of the season in the fields

All this talk of tomatoes and sweet corn is making us ready for summer! The stand will open on June 1st! We also have a few events on the calendar for everyone to check out.  The Field to Fork dinners have been announced and we can't wait! We also have a volunteer opportunity on Saturday, April 30th for our Crop Mob with the DCH. If you'd like to volunteer, email us at siwveggies@gmail.com no later then Wednesday, April 27th to let us know.

Dr. Martin Lima Bean Succotash | 2015 Field to Fork Dinner

We're excited to get the 2016 season rolling and share all the delicious fruits and vegetables with you and your families!

Tomatoes, tomatoes & more tomatoes!

We have heirlooms, cherries, plums and more varieties well on their way!

(Planting heirloom tomato varieties under low tunnels in the fields)

The tomatoes are well on their way, some varieties even have flowers already! We're keeping our fingers crossed that Spring is truly here and we don't have any more cold snaps. The garlic and onions are coming along nicely as well. This all means one thing for us...

(Garlic coming along nicely in the field)

We're so close to opening day of the stand! June 1st is opening day at the stand! We're working hard to get all the veggies and flowers ready.

(Heirloom tomatoes at the stand)

We're also really excited for our Field to Fork dinners this coming summer as well. If you haven't checked out the dates yet head on over to our Events page and check them out. The next Crop Mob is on April 30th, if you're interested in volunteering for the morning at the farm, email us at siwveggies@gmail.com. We can't wait to see everyone!

Snow in April?!

The "onion snow" came and went...

The whacky weather over the past week has been interesting. A late snow like we got on this past Saturday can be known as an "onion snow". This is a term specific to Pennsylvania originating from the Pennsylvania Dutch. It refers to snowfall that occurs after the spring onions have been planted, and comes right as they are sprouting. 

(Snow covered Barn)

The forecast for this week is looking much better with lots of sunshine, warmer temps and some rain. We're going to keep trucking along with production in the greenhouse and hope the warm weather sticks around. 

(Seedlings in greenhouse)

We have a few exciting things coming up for SIW. Our next Crop Mob with the Delaware Center for Horticulture is on April 30th. If you're interested in joining the fun please email siwveggies@gmail.com. Once the work is done, we'll have lunch from Talula's Table! The dates for our Field to Fork dinners have been posted. You can find the dates, chefs, chefs and pricing here. We're also extremely excited that we're inching closer to opening day on June 1st as well as our annual Farm Tour on June 16th! If you would like to attend any of the upcoming SIW event's please email us at siwveggies@gmail.com. 

(Fields of SIW at Spring)

One last note, we still are taking sign ups for our CSA. If you are interested please email us at siwveggies@gmail.com. Enrollment will be open for a short time longer so don't miss out!