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!

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!

Another Awesome Evening!!!!!!!

The backdrop for another dinner was being set beautifully for us.....the weather was perfect.

Dan Butler and his assistant Amadu put together the most delightful combinations of flavors to enhance the palate.  The HG tomato salad danced beautifully with Dan's home made mozzarella.
The chicken was so tender it melted in your mouth, and.........

The Succotash was out of this world........

Many, many Thanks to Dan and Amadu for donating their time and making our dinner a great success!

Please visit them at any one of their fine dining establishments.

Toscana's, Brandywine Prime or Deep Blue.

 A great time was had by all!

We would like to extend a very special "Thanks"

to our staff:

Maria, Dan, Brandon, Bruce, Michael, Kate and 

our newcomer Abbey.

All of you made the evening a great success!

and....

Don't forget, even though the Pope is in town, there is still plenty of parking and wonderful veggies and fall treats at

SIW until October 31st!

Hayrides start this weekend and will run through the last Sunday in October.  

Sign - Up is at the stand!

Make your reservations today.

So come on down for Cider, coffee and many many decorative funky pumpkins.

And say Hello to Maria and crew!

CSA Finale Dinner - Chef Dan Butler will be cooking up a storm!

This week we look forward to our last CSA Field-to-Fork dinner for the season.  It's been a great dinner season and we're excited to wrap it up with Chef Dan Butler of Deep Blue, Brandywine Prime, Toscana's Kitchen and Piccolina Toscana.  Chef Dan clearly has a lot of experience and it will show on the farm this Wednesday night when he uses H.G.'s produce to create a tantalizing meal for all in attendance.  But, if you didn't get a chance to sign-up for this dinner, please give one of his great restaurants a try.  You won't be disappointed.  This man can cook!


CSA for Week #15

Don't Forget to sign up for HAYRIDES!!!!!

Magical Moments on the Farm

Macgregor Mann, of Junto in Chadds Ford, PA, prepared a delicious meal! On the grill he made Lamb Kabobs that were savory and marinated in his own special recipe. 

On each table was Ricotta Caponata with Grilled Artisan Bread!  (seen to the left)  Yummy!

Since Macregor is from York, PA he is an expert on PA Dutch Potato Salad and it was very good. 

He outdid himself on the Doc Martin Succotash!  Unbelievably delicious.  We heard people say that it was the best succotash they'd ever had.  So, if we can get him to give us his recipe, we'll post it for you soon.  But the magic ingredients were DOC MARTIN LIMA BEANS.  Did you know that Doc Martins were first grown in our area back in the 1800s and they are only grown in our region.  So, they are not your normal lima bean and well worth the getting.  Our customers love them and this dish was a perfect blend of H.G.'s corn and Doc Martin lima beans.  (Don't forget their on sale for $25 a half bushel.)

 His Panzanella Salad was made with H.G.'s tomatoes and the combination of flavors was delightful! 

To add a beautiful splash of green on the plate he grilled up some scallions that were perfectly done.

And to end the night we had delicious pies from Nomadic Pies of Kennett Square. You've got to try these! The combinations are amazing. Apple Ginger!! and of course the good 'ol straight apple, peach and a whole assortment of other varieties. 

For the first time, we had a string quartet perform and they were a great hit!  The Fellowship of the Strings is a local string quartet who added an extra touch of class to the evening performing a whole host of show tunes, Irish melodies, some oldies-but-goodies and some classical pieces.   

If you need a little entertainment for your cocktail party, business event, or wedding we encourage you to contact them at thefellowshipofthestrings4@gmail.com

Everyone really seemed to enjoy the ambiance, the cool night, the delicious food and time with friends and family. 

Thanks again to Macgregor Mann for all of his hard work!  




 

If you took any great shots of your magical moments last night, please post them!