Have had several delightful outings with the Fraus here, so decided on the spur of the moment to bring Herr Lunch here for Friday brunch on the patio after a stressful doctor visit so we could unwind and chill out. What a great idea that turned out to be!
As ever, the farm-fresh menu made for much deliberation: how can you possibly choose between such delicious options? But we had the incredibly lovely and lively Sophia to patiently guide us through with her impeccable sense of humour, warmth, and perfect timing -- their staff always seem hand-picked and trained to be beautiful, kind, and simultaneously calm but vivacious, but Sophia is truly next level!
I've tried much of the menu from past visits, so I encouraged Herr Lunch to choose our fate this time (we always share everything when it arrives to the table -- one of the best advantages of coupledom, I assure you!). With drinks promptly delivered, he was fortified and swiftly chose an interesting approach: breakfast starter of biscuits and bacon followed by lunch main of pomodoro pizza. (I should have guessed that a lot of veggies would not be on his agenda, but we can always have salad for supper )
The tender biscuits were accompanied by whipped butter and incredibly delicious strawberry-rhubarb jam. The bacon was thick-sliced, but also somehow wider sliced than what you find in the store: four veritable planks of meaty, porky goodness. It reminded me of the cuts of bacon one might be served in the UK: lots of meat with a border of creamy bacon fat; however in this case, the bacon avoided the flabby, hammy nature of its UK counterpart, and instead carried the flavours and textures of a properly smoked and cooked US bacon. The portion was so generous that we opted to take half the bacon home to save room for the next phase of our brunch. Plus, then we would have delicious bacon to look forward to on the evening salad-to-come...
With spot-on timing, the pomodoro pizza was delivered from its sojourn in the wood-fired oven at the peak of perfection: crispy and flavourful crust, amazing sauce, and just the right amount of toppings, served piping hot. The pizza is larger than you would think -- it could easily serve 6 as an appetizer, three as a small plate, or in our case, 2 with some leftovers that went home to be eaten alongside our supper salad. (It became quickly apparent with our generous brunch servings that supper would not consist merely of salad, so I was just going to have to embrace that.)
Although so many of the dessert menu items were tempting, with the limited remaining space in our very happy tums, Herr Lunch and I opted to share a dish of the gelato (the choice was very close to being sorbetto, but when we learned that the hazelnut gelato was just the nut, unburdened by chocolate, as so often happens, we were all-in for gelato), a fantastic choice to end our experience.
Along with the bill came a coupon for 10% off the farm store, so of course we took a post-prandial stroll on the delightful grounds, spying on the cheerful preparations for an upcoming wedding (what a perfectly lovely venue for such!), and ended with some purchases from the offerings of fresh veggies and fruits, flowers and herbs, honey and maple syrup, and other garden-related products in the cute little hobbit-shop, making the evening salad an easy reality with no need to divert the trip home to the hustle-bustle of a garishly lit or over-air-conditioned supermarket.
With the sun beaming down on the gorgeous farm, a slight breeze to riffle the greenery and tease the hair, delicious food and drinks, glorious company, perfect attention from Sophia, and little-to-no humidity, it was easy to feel transported to paradise. Although the view is completely different, the feel absolutely reminded me of the soul-balm of having popovers on the lawn at Jordan Pond in Acadia after a morning of hiking. Perhaps the homemade jam and genteel treatment was the key to that feeling, but whatever the case, our visit to Blooming Hill Farm quickly took our minds off our mundane troubles and had us focusing on all the beauty there is in the world. May you get to experience the same exquisitely peaceful feeling soon! read more