MIDDLEBORO — Middleboro residents were treated to all sorts of fresh and local food at Soule Homestead Education Center’s Farm to Table dinner on Saturday, Aug. 17.

The annual Farm to Table Dinner is a community effort with volunteers of all ages helping to lend a hand to make the fundraiser for the farm a success, said the Education Center’s Director Kelly MacDonald Weeks. 

With farmers picking produce as close to the dinner as possible to ensure freshness, employees gathering ingredients for the meal from local farms and businesses across the South Shore and setting up the agricultural center for its biggest fundraiser of the year, the week leading up to the event was a busy one, MacDonald Weeks said. 

Everything, even the flowers used for the event, were locally sourced, said the director. Flowers were grown and donated by Elise Freda, farmer at Crooked Barn Flower Farm in Kingston.

This year’s chef was Stephanie McArdell of Wilde Flour: Food with roots, who started renting the commercial kitchen at Soule Homestead earlier in the summer.

“Sourcing things for the dinner is one of my favorite parts of this event,” said MacDonald Weeks, who added that getting ingredients locally “really makes all the dishes prepared for the evening shine.” 

MacDonald Weeks said she loves getting to tell guests: “that amazing thing you just tasted was grown just down the road,” and encouraging them to visit local vendors. 

The dinner featured pork from Old Earth Orchard Farm in Taunton, green beans from Teedlebug Farm and beets from Lolans Farm in Middleboro, among other locally grown items.  

First-time dinner attendee Sue Johnson said “the food was excellent from start to finish,” and that she’s “looking forward to next year’s dinner!”