A Trip to Abbotsford To Central Park Farms  – Free Range Farming At Its Best

There’s nothing better than dinner in the field when the weather is good and the food comes from mere meters away.  We meet the farmers from Central Park Farms earlier in the summer when we dined at Maan Farms and immediately hit it off. Kendall Ballantine jumped from the corporate world to farming in 2015 when she founded Central Park Farms in south Langley. This farm’s goal is to help their community make ethical and sustainable food choices.  They specializing in non-GMO fed pasture raised chicken, pasture raised pork, grass fed beef, and farm fresh eggs from pasture raised hens. We’d Central Park Farms their pork that night at Maan Farms, and it was superb, so we happily accepted their invitation to dinner out at their own farm.

We were greeted by a pair of donkey’s at the front gate and a delicious Vital Vodka Lemonade from Roots and Wings Distillery with Organic Fare Lavender essence.

The table setting was absolutely perfect, designed by the mother and daughter team at Valley Weddings.

Chef Adrian Betty from Food From the Farm, was hard at work grilling up the chicken and finalizing the plating of the salads. He’s pictured above with Summer Dhillon, who planned the event and coordinated the media for the night. She’s a great friend and THE PR whiz in the Valley should you ever need some media coaverage! In addition to Central Park Farms, True Grit Farm provided vegetables and microgreens and BC Buzz the honey. Upon departing se were blessed with a goody bag with the True Grit microgreens, Central Park Farms Eggs and a beautiful homemade soap from Pep Soap Co.

Sliders were served while we roamed the fields and wines from Backyard Vineyards and beer from Trading Post Brewing.

Beautiful Biscuits by Chef Adrian Beatty.

Beneath the True Grit Farms microgreens we found spice roasted squash & apple salad, chèvre and rye crumb roasted hazelnuts, and kale, tossed in an apple cider vinaigrette. (Apples, squash, and apple cider provided by Taves Farms. Chevre by Mt. Lehman Cheese. Vinaigrette features Campbell’s Honey)

Central Park Farms chicken was turned into a roulade with roasted red peppers & goat feta over blackened corn & cucamelon succotash topped with mustard jus. (Goat feta by Mt. Lehman, corn by Neufelds, chicken by Maple Hills and cucamelons by Taves Farms)
The dish was served with roasted parsnips with caramelized onions & apples, elderflower and thyme Sautéed green beans with herb chimichurri and a harvest squash risotto with Fraser Valley grown rice and sunflower seed crumble.

Ham and sausages with Central Park Farms pork were served up with a delicious bacon jam.

Dessert was an apple pie pavlova egg white meringue, with crème rraîche, french vanilla ice cream, pecans & salted caramel
(Eggs provided by Vitala, ice cream by Birchwood Dairy).

Fantastic night getting to know these dedicated farmers. Look for Central Park Farms at farmers markets near you.