2012 Hunter's Dinner
Game Dinner at the Clubhouse 2/18/2012
see report and photos !
2012 Saturday February 8th Farmington Hunt Club welcomed 150 friends and members to the clubhouse for a wonderful gourmet feast of game and local produce and wines. Beth Sutton and Kay Barquin organized a hard working, dedicated volunteer team of cooks, hunters, and helpers to provide our membership with another fun time at the hunt club. We'd like to thank everyone who helped make this successful evening a financial and social success. Stephanie Guerlain, Muffin Barnes and Grenelle Delany took great photos be sure to check just a selection of the evenings highlights in the Photo Galleries- Social Activities.
Hunter's Dinner
Feb 18 2012 Event report
From Left: Sarah,Gordon and Beth Sutton,BJ Korol, Kay Barquin,Carol Ham,Grenelle Delany and Jennifer Cofield
138 guests came to FHC clubhouse in Free Union for the second bi-annual Hunter's Dinner Saturday Feb 18th. It was a balmy clear day that faded into a pleasant winter evening. We enjoyed a fire that B.J. started early and the glow extended out into the beautiful tent that was put up over the back porch by our member Scott Nunley and his crew from Virginia Tent Rental. Jay Fennell's tables helped seat the numbers of guests at dinner. To begin, we served about 25 pounds of hot goose "poppers" that were expertly grilled by Gordon and Taylor Sutton, complemented by 250 Oysters roasted by Gordon and shucked at the bar by Taylor Sutton with help from Brodie Lower and her friend John, and Taylor's partner Amy Lemons. Brian Barquin, David Sutton and Ernest Williams tended a full bar with premium liquor and wines from local vineyards including our neighbors at the Glass House, White Hall, Blenheim, Knight's Gambit (Paul Summers) and Albemarle farm. The feast that followed offered a wide variety of game generously donated by our hunt club hunters and expertly cooked and served by member and guest volunteers.
Kay Barquin and I would like to extend thanks to the following family and friends for everything they did to make the evening fun, successful, and profitable for the club. To B. J. Korol, our indefatigable house manager who made sure the club was ship shape both before and after, and who worked with Tommy McCauley and the Beeneys to make sure the direction signs and the club tent were all in place in time for the party. To Robin Lundgren who helped us at the start, bringing a superb venison dip and helping unload cars and set up platters and prep the salad from Planet Earth Diversified greenhouse. Connie Laudenschlager volunteered to sit at the registration table welcoming our guests who started arriving shortly after 6 pm.
My heartfelt thanks go to Muffin Barnes, Carol Ham, Jennifer Cofield and Kay Barquin who gave up a hunting day to spend many hours starting at 8 am Saturday in the kitchen at Three Rivers rolling hundreds of poppers, and to my Sutton Sons (Taylor and Gordon) for donating all the geese that went into the poppers, for picking up and cooking hundreds of oysters and poppers that we enjoyed hot off the grill. To Evie Cowles who used Becky Barlow's lovely artwork and her graphic design expertise to create dozens of table labels so we knew what we were eating, and who also made some great rabbit pies. To Grenelle Delany whose excellent sense of style made the clubhouse beautiful, to her husband Peter who cooked about 30 pounds of Venison donated by Peter and Carol Easter and smoked multiple geese donated by Reynolds Cowles. To Collins Huff from Gryffon's Aerie in White Hall, a local farmer, cook and friend who, with his wife Ramona for the once again generously donated delicious Tamworth Hams, and expertly carved them for us at the table. To Carol Ham who expertly prepared over a dozen South Dakota pheasant donated by David Sutton and local pheasant donated by Brian Barquin. Carol also generously donated (and cracked!!) thirty pounds of stone crab claws flown in especially for the evening from her native Apalachicola Florida. To Jennifer Cofield, our new member of the club and a valuable professional sous chef who willingly took part in the preparation of food, including cooking many pounds of Minnesota Black Pearl rice ordered especially for the dinner, who created a gorgeous platter of very local Monastery Gouda cheese, and who managed to dress up several pounds of Lake Michigan Salmon donated by fishermen Taylor and Gordon Sutton.
And to the many additional cooks: Phyllis Jones for the Bear, Bob Martin for donating and cooking 25 quail, Carol Easter and Beth for cooking over 150 quail provided by Sam Wells and Peter Easter, to Reynolds Cowles who hand delivered extra ducks that I roasted with oranges with homemade Michigan currant sauce, Tom Bishop for donating and preparing Venison, Kay Butterfield for donating and preparing her salad, Kay Barquin for making multiple batches of Sandy Motley's recipe for Polenta and Havarti cheese and helping taste test recipes during the week and work as sous chef all day, and Kyle and Keedie Grones Leonard for smoked Pheasant. We are also very fortunate to have had service help from volunteers Bo Cofield and Stephanie Guerlain who shuttled guests from the parking area below the clubhouse, Liz Uffelman who helped all of us serve and clear tables working alongside professional Marika Willams, who came all the way from Zion Crossroads with her wonderful husband Ernest doing all we needed to help us make the evening go well. And finally, the crowning sweetness to end it all came from Debbie Wright whose baking skill is now the stuff of legend. She created and presented a vast assortment and table full of delicious desserts that impressed every guest, and were enjoyed by the lucky ones who got a bite.
We hope everyone had fun, and for those members who were not able to attend and who mailed us donations-you know who you are and we thank you sincerely. On behalf of the Hunt Club, we are grateful for your support. Please enjoy looking at the pictures! The party was thoroughly documented by our team of excellent photographers Grenelle Delany, Muffin Barnes and Stephanie Guerlain. If you were there you are bound to find your moment in one of the 135 photos on the website at www.farmingtonhunt.org in the "Galleries" under Social activities.
Beth Sutton
2/21/2012
