A Night at Jubilant Fields: Recap of the 2026 Farm to Table Dinner
Last Saturday, October 17th, about 80 people gathered at Jubilant Fields Equestrian Center here in Gates County, North Carolina, for the second annual Farm to Table Dinner, hosted by the Gates County Chamber of Commerce. I was there behind the camera, and listen when I tell you: it’s hard to photograph a five-course meal when every plate coming out of the kitchen makes you hungrier than the last.
Supporting Meals on Wheels and the Open Wide Backpack Ministry
Proceeds from the dinner benefited Meals on Wheels and the Open Wide Backpack Ministry, two programs that help make sure people in our community have food on the table. It’s a fitting cause for an evening built around local food.
The Chef and Planners Behind the Dinner
Marinda Lane served as event planner, working with the Farm to Table committee (Temperence Bryant, Suzanne Stallings, Jackie Bundy, and Cheryl Paz) to pull the evening together. In the kitchen, Chef Kyle Hobbs led a team of two helpers, and Chef Anthony Allen is credited alongside him on the menu.
The Five-Course Farm to Table Menu
What I like most about this dinner is that the menu reads like a map of our area. Local names show up on almost every line, and several of them, including Lane Angus Beef, Spence Fields, and 32 North, also appear on the Chamber’s 2026 member board.
To Start: Outer Banks Shrimp Salad on Steve Kenney’s Milk Bread, with lemon aioli, pickled Sunbury apple, poppy seed butter, crispy sweet potato, and chives
1st Course: Salad of Local Lettuce with buttermilk dressing, Eure Farm egg, crispy Layden’s ham, ember roasted tomato, and watermelon radish
2nd Course: Spence Fields Pork Loin with a 32 North coffee rub, roasted fig jam, Gatesville pumpkin puree, Grandma Hobbs’ lace cornbread, brown butter powder, and maple-mustard gastrique
3rd Course: Smoked North Carolina Trout with NC blue crab, Albemarle grits, tomato-sherry beurre blanc, butterbean and field pea relish, and Tidewater benne
4th Course: Slow Roasted Lane Angus Beef Brisket, sticky apple cider glazed, with turnip and potato gratin, autumn root vegetable slaw, Gates County mushrooms, and smoked onion jus
To Finish: Tony’s Cinnamon-Raisin Pound Cake with cookie butter streusel, fig leaf oil, mountain grape compote, and burnt crème anglaise
Why Local Food Matters in Gates County
Nights like this are a good reminder of what we’ve got right here in Gates County: farms, producers, cooks, and people willing to put in the work to bring everyone to the same table. Two years in, the dinner is shaping up to be something to look forward to every fall.
Thank you to our sponsors and host
None of this happens without the businesses that back it.
Platinum Sponsor: First Team
Gold Sponsor: Obici Healthcare Foundation
Bronze Sponsors: The Plant Park, Small Business Center at College of The Albemarle, Southern Bank, Perk & G. Lee, Taylor-Franklin Lumber, Cheryl Ann Media, AgCarolina Farm Credit, and Tempting Treats Catering
A big thank you as well to Marinda Lane and the committee, Chef Kyle Hobbs and his team, the Chamber’s 2026 members, and everyone who came out to support Meals on Wheels and the Open Wide Backpack Ministry. Photography for the event was by Cheryl Ann Media.
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