Living Kitchen Farm & Dairy and FarmBar welcome Bree Stock, MW, of Limited Addition Wine for our very first wine dinner on the farm!

Bree Stock holds one of the highest qualifications in the wine industry. She is Oregon’s first Master of Wines and the only female MW in the Pacific Northwest.

An avid explorer and learner, Bree is a certified WSET educator (2008) and became a Master of Wine in 2016. An international consultant developing and presenting wine certification programs for trade organizations (Oregon Wine Board, Willamette Valley Wineries Association, NW Wine Coalition, Washington State Wine and Tempranillo Alliance) and consumers.

She sits on the board of Assemblage Women in Wine.

Bree also co-founded Constant Crush Advisors in 2017 to continue her commitments to knowledge and idea sharing and to expanding the conversation around sustainable and innovative vineyard and wine production.

We will serve a 5-course plated dinner with wine pairings from Limited Addition. Cost is $115/person, plus tax and gratuity.

Reservations

Halima Olubukola Salazar is a farmer and a chef. She was raised in Nigeria and came to the United States to attend college. When she first came to the US, she found it difficult to eat the food because it was so different. As she immersed herself more into the culture, she started to find meals, like black-eyed peas and greens, that seemed familiar to her. It was like someone created certain dishes out of the essence of remembering and trying to hold onto what was once familiar. She has lived in 4 states across the US from Texas to New Mexico and has felt traces of her ancestors in the food. As an immigrant, she learned as she became more involved with cooking for her African community how to replace ingredients from her home with ingredients that were available, much like the enslaved did when they were forcefully taken away from their ancestral home.

In 2013, Halima had the opportunity to return to her home country, where she attended Chef’s Academy in Abuja, Nigeria. She learned how to cook West African cuisine with an emphasis on Nigerian cuisine. While there, she also learned the various reasons why certain ingredients are combined, and it showed how and why the enslaved in the southern part of the United States used certain ingredients to retain the essence of their food. After returning to the United States and living in the South, Halima started Gimbia’s Kitchen and is the head chef. The series that Gimbia's Kitchen is currently focused on is called “Journey from Home”, which showcases West African Cuisine and helps people follow the journey from African seeds to the southern plate.

Dria Price is the co-owner and pastry chef of Gimbia’s Kitchen. She is farming alongside Halima, her business partner and best friend. the two also own Justevia Teas, an herbal tea company. Dria grew up surrounded by amazing cooks who knew the importance of creating meals that were not only delicious but also nutritious. Her love for food started when she would watch her grandfather and mother in the kitchen, eventually easing her way in front of the stove after years of begging. Dria’s style of cooking focuses on recreating childhood favorites and exploring the methods behind family recipes.

We (Lisa and Linda) met Halima at a conference for women in the food service industry earlier this year. When Halima stood up and introduced herself as a farmer, we knew we had to meet her. Recognizing that we have a lot in common with our business models focused on farming and thoughtful, sustainable cuisine, we wanted to have Halima and Dria join us at Living Kitchen to do a farm table dinner focused on the connection between Halima’s Western African heritage and Dria’s American South heritage.

This evening’s tasting menu dinner will focus on the rebuilding of the gastronomical bridge that the transatlantic slave trade destroyed by displacing African people in a land where they had little to no access to their cultural foods. The purpose of this meal is to tell a story about the journey between the two continents and how it evolved from comfort food in West Africa to the comfort food of the south.

They plan to introduce each dish and discuss what it means to them. They will also be glad to do a question and response during dinner, answering questions about our cultures, cuisines, and more. One of our goals in everything they do is to take advantage of seasonal, local ingredients to create these delicious dishes.

Tickets for this dinner can be purchased at https://www.exploretock.com/livingkitchen/event/362438/halima-dria-at-living-kitchen.

Cost: $115/person, plus 20% gratuity; profits after expenses are covered will go to Halima & Dria.