Communitas is a Latin word that means people coming together for the good of a community. Communitas is inspired by the vision of a better world and is an attempt to do something about it through volunteerism, investment, and ethical, sustainable business practices.

For our 11th annual Harvest Festival, over 9 chefs volunteered to prepare the bounty of Sustainable Settings’ ranch for over 200 of our supporters who attended our annual event on September 13. We have collaborating with Mark and Lari Fischer since 2003, and the chefs toured our gardens and joined in a humane slaughter at the ranch. Each chef chose meat, eggs, milk and their own selection of our garden produce to prepare the harvest dinner.
The chefs included:
Brett Thompson, the Pullman
Bryce Orblom, Town
Chris Lanter, Cache Cache
Will Nolan, Viceroy
Andreas Fischbacher, Allegria
Barclay Dodge
Lee Liebmann
Cooper Le Van

Sustainable Settings is your source for food you know that is beyond organic/biodynamic and the most nutrient dense we know how to produce and our soils improve every year. The flavor profile of our food is why the chefs keep coming back to volunteer. They get to participate the week before in the kill and slaughter of one of our hogs, three lambs and a goat. They get to work with the whole animal, the offal, and to freely create from the plethora of raw fresh ingredients that comes from our fields. If I just mention it to a chef we are thinking might like to participate they are immediately in.

The passion and creative talent that gathers each year is stellar. They take the source food from our fields and turn it into a most memorable meal, one some have said is beyond words. As our water lawyer, David McConaughy said a few years ago, “Sustainable Settings’ Harvest Festival dinner is easily one of the best five meals of my life!”

But words are what it now deserves. Someone must write about this meal, this event, someone who knows, is known. The array of dishes that comes from these chefs, created with the food that comes from our soil and carefully managed nutrient cycle, is worthy. It is time to honor them and us and this gathering, this effort.

People come from the Front Range and across the Western Slope for this meal/event! This is no ordinary farm to table meal.