Our kitchens each celebrated on a day this week and here’s how our celebrations looked:

Now, that’s a Thanksgiving Lunch plate! Cathedral School

Pumpkin Pie Bars at Cathedral School – love whipped cream stars!

#hearteyes what’s better than local turkey? local turkey skin… from Bay School

The trimmings wouldn’t be complete without this Cranberry Sauce at Bay School

Bay School’s spread looks so tasty all together…

Burke’s School faculty had this greeting them on Thanksgiving Lunch day

Burke’s dining room decor was kicked up a notch

so many tasty options and so little table space at Town School

I spy a pan of pumpkin pie bars!!! thanks Town School team

Our experience is that the conference grows every year, and like each year that we cater it, it is the biggest it has ever been. This year our largest meals served 2200 guests – wowza! For our part it is an interesting mix of site logistics, staffing schedules, and gourmet preparations of the Bay Area’s finest offerings. Because the event occurs during the harvest season we really are able to offer a wide sampling of the local bounty. Our breakfasts feature local yogurt with house made granola along with pastries from local bakeries and a host of seasonal fruits. Lunches are the star of the show for us this week and feature 4-5 salads with an array of styles and flavors with some sweets at the end. We were also excited to feature the custom-roasted coffee from our sister company Acre Coffee (roastery now open in Petaluma).

Here are some pictures we snapped in the fun last week:

feeding over 2000 people per day salads means a LOT of chopping! Photo by Cassidy Werfelman

Before the guests arrive. Photo by Cassidy Werfelman

Zoe Phillips and Kristen Truchinski – part of Team SoCap!

Lunch time

The Fort Mason Center is on the bay and has amazing views of the Golden Gate this time of year

Sometimes, like today, we have to bite the bullet and do some hard stuff… like testing this recipe for cheesecake bars. Tough day at work…

These bars smell good… still waiting for them to cool to see if they taste as good as they look

Nubian and La Mancha goats that are used at the Tomales Farmstead Creamery

We learned so much about the different milks that these critters produce, how they get it from them, and how they make it into cheese or gelato. It was especially fun to learn about the water buffalo gelato at Double 8 Dairy. Also neat to learn about the intricacies of how farms work… like these cute piggies that get to eat the whey by-product of sheep cheese making.

mmm… they love whey

It was a fun day for the team to spend together, celebrate, and talk about our local foodshed.

Here are a few snaps from the recent events:

The Burke’s School hosted a seated luncheon for their guests

Dessert time for the Burke’s graduates! 400 pieces served

Town School had some super delicious bbq pulled pork sliders with pickled slaw on top. Yum!

Tomato skewers are welcome at any event as long as the cherry tomato season goes!

The Bay School punch is refreshing with their mid-day reception

This shot was “party ready” for the graduates and their guests after the ceremony. Mini sammy anyone?

I hope that all of your graduation celebrations are going well this summer too!

Acre Gourmet has worked in the past with “Farmer Ben” on various projects as we both provide services to the Town School for Boys. We’ve seen him engage students in the wonder of turning sunlight into food and the amazing reality that green things taste great when you give them a chance.

Can’t wait to see what other great things Grow Your Lunch will do for school gardening!

A couple of weeks ago we really liked the column he wrote, “Let’s Make Food Issues Real”, and the encouragement he delivered to bring food issues into the upcoming election cycle. He targets real issues that could see change with the right push from citizens on their district candidates.

Also, we can always Vote with our Forks!

What California foods do you have on your plates today?