It's all local: Carolina Farm Trust Dinner at Vin Rouge

The mission of the Carolina Farm Trust is to protect farmland and foster an ecosystem of sustainable farming in both North Carolina and South Carolina. Here’s a not-so-fun fact - in North Carolina alone, we lose about 100,000 acres of land every year to urban and suburban development. That figure shocked me. Once that land is gone, it’s gone.

Carolina Farm Trust founder Zack Wyatt recognized the land shortage we have in North and South Carolina as the single greatest impediment for new farmers and for those who desire to expand their farms. Wyatt is passionate about helping Carolina farmers extend the life of their farms, helping them acquire new land, assisting with expensive farm equipment repairs and replacements and other challenges that go into being a small local farmer.

Sure, you can go the Carolina Farm Trust website to donate money for their cause, but you can also attend a fun and delicious fundraiser event like this dinner. That's what I did.

Right before each course was served, we heard a little bit from each farmer who provided the ingredients for the given course. It really brought it home for me, hearing from the very people who actually own and work these farms and learning just how seriously they take farming. It made for not just a fun and delicious event, but a meaningful one, too.

These are small local farmers who sell either straight from their farms or from various farmers markets and stores that deal with small local farms.

The featured farmers at the dinner included:

Compliments to the chef! Or in this case, chefs! Chefs John Knox and Matthew Kelly created amazingly delicious courses for this dinner.

My very favorite was the first course - Spanish Mackerel served with a kefir, cucumber and watermelon sauce. Never have I ever had or thought to have cucumber and watermelon combined, but it was an unexpected and delicious surprise.

For the second course, we were served rabbit and okra gumbo. It was very hearty and flavorful, and I liked it a lot. The third course was Harissa braised pork shank. Not only outstanding in taste, the dish looked beautiful, too.

Lastly, for our fourth course, we had a dish called the "Field of Creams," which was cheese with pepper jam and loose hazelnuts. It was a very tasty finish to the evening.

And, what is dinner without wine? The generous folks at Bordeaux Fine & Rare donated all of the wine for this wonderful dinner.

The event was organized by Tabletop Media Group. If you aren’t familiar, founder and NC native Kristen Baughman and her team often organize events such as these.