Imagine a table set for 100 or more, crisp white linen, field flowers, wine glasses and silverware - set against a backdrop of oak-studded, peach-hued hills and a baby blue sky.
Seat yourself on a hay bale, if you will, at this extraordinary, family-style farm to table feast as your fellow guests co-mingle in a communal spirit of celebration of summer time bounty.
Black cows roam the hillside ridge beyond, a striking silhouette of rustic serenity against the parched grass and clear, August sky. Pasture-raised pigs and chickens roam in sustainably rotated areas here at bucolic Tara Firma Farms as fields of organic salad greens and tomatoes grow like chemical-free gangbusters beside the sprawling Sunday evening dinner table.
It is Tara Firma's first official on-site Farm to Dinner meal, open to members of West Petaluma's lively, biodynamic family-run farm and those with a passion and appetite for the locavore's life: slow food, sustainability, soaking in the season's sunshine with regional wines and like minded friends and neighbors.
To launch her two-year-old, environmentally-friendly farm's family-style dinner series, the inviting of Master Chef Tony Najiola of Petaluma's popular Central Market was a natural first choice for owner Tara Smith and family.
And Najiola doesn't disappoint. Phenomenal in his state-of-the-art, open kitchen at Central Market, the regionally renowned chef made cooking a four-course, multi-dish, organic, outdoor family-style dinner look like a breeze.
His skilled staff were equally adept in their outdoor service as appetizers of smokey wood fired pizzetas, beet pickled deviled eggs with chicken and platters of vegetable crudites with aioli and herb oil showcased the farm's tasty offerings alongside biodynamic and organic wines of Sonoma County-based Porter Bass.
For those new to the farm (Free Sunday tours start at 10 am on the hour through to 4 pm), Smith walked a large group of guests through picturesque pastures and rustic barns, as perfectly poised and at home this particular late afternoon in a stunning, black sundress as in more typical farm boots and jeans.
Dinner at five was served by Central Market's super efficient, friendly crew with western boots and cowboy hats completing the picture of a classic Southern Sonoma County farm feast and educational gathering.
For Smith is most adept in captivating her audience with all the reasons why the charismatic former insurance executive is compelled towards creating a happier, healthier more wholesome farming model.
If Najiola's outstanding gastronomic interpretation of Tara Firma's farm to table fare is anything to go by, a monthly speaker series of these family-style dinners will put West Petaluma on the map for unique dining events in which guests from all over the Bay Area and beyond are sure to be drawn on a regular basis.
Next up at the farm to table dinner this September, author Lierre Keith (The Vegetarian Myth) is set to speak on food, justice and sustainability, followed by two dates in October for enticing Halloween fare with pumpkin lighting at dusk. An early Thanksgiving Feast is slated for November and a Yuletide Feast in December.
Sign up for a place at the communal table and you can expect to be wined and dined to your hearts content with such delights as heaping salads of hearts of Romaine topped with heirloom tomatoes, mixed roasted beets with arugula and creamy goats cheese, grilled chicken and veggies with Chimmichuri, Central Market Chorizo and red wine garlic sausage over Rancho Gordo beans, platters of beef steaks and slow cooked brisket, slaw veggies and chipolte sauce.
Now, go back to our initial vision, please, reader! Close your eyes and picture dessert: Green String Farm's plum apple crisp served warm with scoops of local vanilla ice cream from Strauss, LaLoos and Three Twins. I think I'll leave you with that sensation. Should suffice to have you checking out Tara Firma Farms upcoming events and making a date with a little slice of edible heaven right here in Sonoma County !
10:00 am through 4:00 pm
Tara Firma Farms is Open to the public!
South of Petaluma & North of Novato
(707) 765-1202
You're making me hungry with all these great photos and your descriptive text on the delicacies served up by Tony using the freshest of ingredients from the farm.
It looked like a huge success!
Posted by: Anastasia Schuster | Tuesday, August 03, 2025 at 02:53 PM