The Full Moon Farm to Table Dinner menu:

Appetizer~ Bruscheita with Yogurt Cheese Spread and Pickled Root Vegetables
Traditional French baguettes are made from Riverplains whole spelt four. Started with a poolish (overnight pre-fermentation process) and carefully kneaded many times throughout the day, this bread is truly artisan crafted. The herbed yogurt cheese is handmade from local grass-fed Jersey cow's milk (her name is Dandy) and freshly cut herbs. For an additional topping we have pickled fall vegetables, including carrots, garlic and beets.

First Course~ Texas Indian Muschata Squash and Fire Roasted Bell Pepper Soup
This hearty soup begins with a stock made from whole, free-terrain chickens that are cooked for 24 hours in order to ensure a high vitamin, mineral, and gelatin content. The squash, a heritage breed, is then added along with bell peppers that have been roasted over an open fire. It is finished with freshly ground coriander seeds and thyme, highlighting the subtle flavors of the squash and peppers.

Main Course- Roasted Beef with Sweet Potato Puree
Some say the true test of the ultimate roast lies not in the cook's skill, but in the quality of the meat itself. Therefore we began with our fully pastured Riverplains Senepol beef brisket and roasts, marinated in blackberry vinegar, blackberry cordial, and pickling spice berries. Accompanied by a savory sweet potato puree made with roasted garlic and a dash of heavy cream. The beef is braised at a high temperature briefly to reach caramelizing, then slow-cooked to perfection at low temperatures, preserving the pure and unadulterated taste of the superior quality of the grass-fed meat. Drizzled on top is a light gravy made of pan drippings and spelt flour.

Mixed Fall Greens
Young collard, turnip, and mustard greens are braised in olive oil with a pinch of fresh garlic. Among their many nutrients, these dark green leafy vegetables provide calcium, iron and carotenoids in abundance. For maximum benefit, these types of greens should always be eaten cooked, but not overcooked. Simple braising neutralizes the greens' oxalic acid- a naturally occurring chemical that can inhibit enzymes and block calcium and iron absorption.

Rosemary & Garlic Hickory Cane Corn Muffins
These muffins can trace their beginnings to the river-bottom fields of Riverplains Farm where the Hickory Cane corn crop grows. This open pollinated heirloom corn is ground by local miller Clive Valentine, then combined with handmade kefir and Cruze Farms buttermilk, free-terrain eggs, and fresh garlic and rosemary. Possibly the most delicious corn muffin you will ever eat!

Butter and Jellies
If anything could make the muffins even better, it would be hand-churned cultured butter from the cream of Dandy the Jersey. Rachel's muscadine hot pepper jelly was made from grapes grown a few miles down the road and cayennes, jalapeños, serranos, and anaheims from this year's garden.

Dessert~ Iron Skillet Apple Cobbler 
Everything seems to taste better from an old-fashioned iron skillet, even an apple cobbler! We have made ours with Riverplains Hickory Cane corn flour and corn meal, our free-terrain eggs, and kefir made from Dandy's milk. Pippin apples from Carver's Orchard are cooked in handmade butter. Freshly whipped cream tops this traditional dessert.

The Farm to Table Dinner & Ride (bicycle not horses) on August 14, 2010 was a big success! Hosted by MockingBird Events and Riverplains Farm, over 40 people enjoyed a meal cooked by Anna and Jennifer Niceley. All the food was raised and grown here on Riverplains Farm with additional spices donated by Three Rivers Market. Here is the menu that was served:
Whole Spelt Crackers and Assorted Pickles:
Spelt is an ancient relative of modern wheat. Many know of it today as a wheat-alternative, mainly because the gluten in spelt is more easily digested. It is also a highly nutritious grain, and delicious. Grown in the river bottoms here at the farm it has done remarkably well as an organic crop. The whole spelt used in these crackers, ground by our gracious miller Clive Valentine of Valentine Mill in Dandridge, is soaked for 24 hours in homemade yogurt before cooking. Soaking grains and legumes is an ancient and universal culinary practice, improving digestibility and making nutrients more available. Pickling vegetables, as everyone knows, is a wonderful way to preserve the summer's abundance. In addition to vinegar pickles this year we tried our hand at fermenting, wherein the vegetables are pickled by lacto-fermentation brought on by a salt brine and time.
Chilled Tomato + Cucumber Dill Bisque served with organic Hickory Cane Corn Muffins
This soup has organic heirloom tomatoes (Amish Paste, Mortgage Lifter and Homesteader) and Boston Pickling Cucumbers from this year's garden in it. The base for this soup is a rich vegetable and bone stock- using the bones from our grass fed beef. The nutrients from the marrow, gelatin, and fat from such traditional stocks are sorely missing in most of our modern diets and provide nutritional healing for the whole body. The bisque is completed with a healthy dose of heavy cream, skimmed from the milk provided by one of our pastured Jerseys, Betty Ann. Sometimes called "Hickory King," the open pollinated variety grown in the Riverplains bottoms is a favorite of old timers for roasting ears and great for corn meal grits (Ground at Valentine Mill). Hickory Cane is also a multi-purpose corn; stored in the grain bin it serves as feed for the chickens and pigs all year long. The buttermilk used in the muffins is freshly churned- the by product of making our own cultured butter.
Grass Fed Hamburger on Spelt Bun with Feta + Tomato Chutney
Nature never intended for cows to eat grain or live in feed lots. Our 100% grass fed beef cattle roam on over 100 acres of land, which allows their stomachs to maintain a healthy balance of beneficial bacteria. Our cows enjoy optimum health, never require the use of pharmaceuticals, and off high levels of CLA, a very healthy type of fat. Topped with a homemade cow's milk feta and a spicy (lacto-fermented) tomato chutney from this year's tomatoes.
Succotash Salad + Watermelon
The word "succotash" comes from a Narragansett word that is thought to mean "fragments," referring to a stew that always included boiled corn kernels. Our salad version highlights the freshness of the baby while limas and Hickory Cane corn, in addition to red and green bell peppers, tomatoes and onion. The succotash is finished with an olive oil and vinegar dressing. The watermelon, an heirloom called Moon and Stars, is topped with a balsamic vinaigrette.
Lemon-Vanilla Custard with Blackberry Syrup+ Fresh Berries
This fresh whole milk custard infused with vanilla and lemon zest and made with farm fresh eggs (which contribute to the yellow color) became divine once paired with a blackberry syrup. We picked the blackberries from among the fields and fence-rows on the farm. The domestic berries are raised by Harvey Young in New Market. A close friend of Riverplains and farmer himself.

Bill and I got up early today to drive down to Lenoir City where my mare Bella was showing at the Windrush Farm Schooling Dressage Show. Susan Willis has been working with Bella and today showed her in the USEF First Level, Tests 3 & 4.  Bella looked great and showed very well, a little different than her normal dressage class where she has Ritza beside her and pulling a carriage! Next year Bella will resume showing in CDE's but for now she is enjoying her ridden dressage. For her dressage video's Click HERE. Bella is now available for lease to a dressage rider. Email me for questions.

Saturday we hosted the TVH Trail Ride "Jump" here at Riverplains to give people a chance to jump some of the coops in a relaxed environment. There was also a large group of non-jumpers that enjoyed riding out, many for their first time. The ride started out jumping 4 small coops to get everyone warmed up and then went on to some larger coops that are often jumped while hunting. Twenty-five riders came out to battle the heat and humidity and support the hunt.

Afterwords Cyndie Niceley prepared a tasty meal using her grass fattened beef that came from Riverplains, as well as, organic corn meal for the cornbread that was also raised here on the farm! Everyone relaxed under the shade trees at the house enjoying another good day. Kurt the new huntsman rode my mare Isabella and Lorin Grimsley rode Riverplains Evita, leading the way over all the jumps. You can watch a video of people jumping 6 of the coops HERE.

Special thanks to my husband Brian, Frank and Dino for helping weed eat and lower some of the coops (who then all got really bad poison ivy). And to our new Master Gretchen Pelham for arranging help to clean up the remaining jumps. Thanks so much!

Frank on Ritza, Erin D. on Taos, Lyndsey  on Earl Grey and John on Chase, all saddled up for a trail ride at Panther Creek. It was hot but luckily the trail is pretty shady as it is mostly wooded and runs along side Cherokee lake so there was a nice breeze. While we were supposed to take a different trail, as Rachel advised us to do, we ended up missing our turn and riding on a loop that is extremely rocky and has hazardous footing signs along the way. Leave it to us to be on the most extreme and challenging trail. It wouldn’t be the same without a little excitement. There were some points where the horses had to literally climb up rocky embankments and were walking on top of solid slabs of rock. They all handled it quite well (that’s the Niceley foxhunter breeding coming out in them) and remained sure-footed the whole time. On our way back we did finally see the entrance to the trail Rachel was referring us to. Our next trip back we plan to tackle the Maple Arch trail in hopes that it will be a little easier to negotiate. Never the less, the rocky trail (I don’t remember the name) is a good experience for young horses and teaches them to pay attention to where they are walking. I hope to go back to Panther Creek again soon.
Happy Trails,
Erin Doyle

My amazing young hunt horse Falstaff has been in dressage training the past 5 weeks with Susan Willis to round out his education. He attended his first dressage show yesterday at the Crossroads Dressage and Combined Training Society Schooling Show at Penrose Farm in Knoxville, TN. He was very calm and warmed up well and was super steady in the covered arena that had mirrors all on one side of the arena. Now thats not something you see in the hunt field! He won his Training Level Test 1 class out of 7 entries with a 63%. His Training Level Test 2 was going really well until he threw in a very discreet small buck to protest his canter transition that needed a bit more impulsion:) So that dropped him down to a 61% and Th place out of 7 entries, but I was still proud him. To just think that a little over 5 weeks ago he was running fearlessly through the woods, sailing over jumps on all types of terrain to steady dressage horse at his first show is amazing. Kudos to Susan for doing such a wonderful job with him. Check out his dressage video HERE.

Later that day Cruze the pony had to go to his first big birthday party bash. He was a good boy and loved all the attention. Perhaps this might be good side job for him!

The Live Oak International CDE is the "premier CDE in North America" and once again it lived up to its title. Coming from the cold rainy weather of East TN the warm balmy weather was heaven and my horses enjoyed it and the green grass immensely. I was competing in Intermediate Horse Pairs and was the only entry in my class that didn't have a presentation carriage. Despite this fact, my girls performed well in dressage (looking beautiful I might add) and we were in 1st place after dressage! The next day was marathon and they again performed great taking on the hazards with no problems. They did get tired as it was almost 80 degrees and a long course with some deep footing from rain the night before so we came in 2nd on the marathon and dropped to 2nd place over all. Not bad though for not training in Florida all winter like everyone else! Cones day came really early as our division was the first to go. I went clear but had a few time penalties. This kept me in 2nd place out of our 4 competitors in my class that were all older men:) They all were very nice and did great jobs themselves. I was once again very proud of my girls and to represent mares in general as well as Friesian x Saddlebred crosses.  For all of my show pictures click HERE.

I had lots of great help at this show with Amy navigating for me once again, Erin W. as groom for dressage and cones and John really came through helping with the horses. My mom also went to act as super nanny so Skyler could come with me and he had a great time hanging out at the show and at Barb's house. Her hospitality was so helpful and appreciated by all of us and my horses:) The drive down is long from TN but it is well worth it either to compete or to be a  spectator. You won't be disappointed either way! I will have video clips up soon on my YouTube Channel. This show was also the last leg of the Driving Triple Crown, the National Championships for Singles and Four in Hands and a selection trail for the WEG.

Today was our hunt club's Closing Meet. Yes, it was extremely muddy like the majority of all the hunts this season. I think this was the muddiest hunt season I can remember in the past 21 years of hunting! I rode my mare Isabella and she was perfect and so nice to ride:) John took out Earl Grey, a up incoming hunt horse for his second hunt ever. He rode in the back of first field and just opened a few gates instead of jumping coops, but still got to go fast and enjoy the action. I was so proud of him for keeping up and sliding down the mud hills (that seem to go on forever when its muddy), crossing the ever widening creeks and scrambling up the steep muddy banks. Plus he did all this with no shoes on! I think he is going to do great next hunt season. Erin D. was riding her young hunt horse Taos and jumped their first coop ever today. One of of our ex-MFH Jim S. rode Falstaff and sailed beautifully over the coops and muddy terrain. It was good to see him out again. Well another great day was had by all and now onto show season and trail riding. Until next fall and the fun starts all over again with cub hunting:) Cheers!

 Yesterday I went foxhunting here at the farm with the TN Valley Hunt. I was taking a student out for his first hunt so I let him ride my "made" field hunter Isabella in my very balanced Flyover saddle that is made for hunting and cross country jumping. John was riding Falstaff so I decided to ride my "carriage" horse Ritza in my dressage saddle since we were not going first flight. No problem I thought....then the snow started blowing so hard sideways that you couldn't see anything. Trotting through the woods blind can be a exciting experience and was all well and good till Ritza over and over tried to buck me off, especially after jumping ditches and logs like a crazed grand prix jumper! As the day progressed I knew I was on borrowed time so I went to the back of the field in search for some calmness:) I didn't get it. 

I saw the log coming up that was on a slight down hill and saw the riders ahead of me having trouble, but all stayed on and then the next thing I knew I was flying through the air and realized, oh sh** I am falling off! (Ritza took off about 15 ft too early and then bucked). Then I hit and continued to hit various body parts as I flipped down the hill:) My first thought was I can't even remember the last time I fell off- then my next thought was well thats what I get for not riding a real true hunt horse! Especially in a dressage saddle, I knew better but thought I could get by....the number one thing I tell prospective fox hunters is that its all about having the right horse and equipment. My student riding my wonderful hunt horse Isabella finished the hunt a few hours later, smiling. I decided to come on back with a friend who had to get back to work. Next time I am riding Falstaff and John can ride another young one! As for Ritza, she will go back into the carriage and keep on showing in CDE's where she is a great driving horse.

I competed Bella & Ritza in Intermediate Horse Pairs at the Little Everglades International CDE in Dade City, FL this past weekend. We were 2nd after dressage out of 5 horse pairs and I felt like we had a good test. The marathon was beautiful driving around the ranch and the hazards were fun. We placed 2nd in most of the hazards, the girls did well but we didn't have as much bursts of speed as I would have liked.  On the walk section they calmed down so much that I couldn't get them to walk on and racked up a lot of walk penalties. That brought us down to 3rd place even though we had a awesome cones course and was actually 2nd in cones as well, but 3rd place over all is fine with me since the girls performed beautifully in all 3 phases. Amy Neary also showed her mare Reggie in Prelim Single Horse and had a amazing marathon with a 2nd place there and a good cones course to finish up in 4th place over all. John went with us and was my groom for dressage and cones and navigated for Amy. A very special thanks to Scotty for navigating for me! It was a really fun show and would recommend it to anyone to show or to come as a spectator.

TVH had a joint meet with the Belle Meade Hunt Club in Thomson, GA so it was time for another road trip! Erin, John, Pat and I loaded up and drove down Friday and hunted that afternoon and Saturday morning. Everything was warm and sunny when we got there (a huge contrast to the cold and snow we have had here) and the hunting was intense. They ride very fast with lots of territory, fun coops, ditches and a few wooden bridges. I was on my trusty mare Isabella who carried me safely both days despite having a bad headache. Erin rode Falstaff who jumped smooth for her as this was her first hunt back after her broken collar bone. Pat was on her wonder pony Ollie and John rode Taos in the Hilltoppers as this was his first away hunt from the farm. I think there was 12 total riders from TVH and we all throughly enjoyed the hunting and hospitality of the Belle Meade Hunt.

Boxing day is normally a great day for hunting and this year was no exception. I rode Isabella and Pat (who's pony had too much egg nog) rode Falstaff in first flight. It was really muddy and slippery, but our horses didn't mind and we jumped lots of coops and logs. It was also a Jr. Day so there were lots of young riders out on ponies and small horses. After hunting hard for 2 hours I had to stop off at the barn for the little girls room and after I got off, it felt so good I decided to stay off and have a drink and relax! Shortly after that the field and car hunters saw a gorgeous red fox twice! He circled around to say "top of the day" to the people watching from the road. I think he must have been enjoying himself too.

The hunting this season has been great at Riverplains and a special thank you to the TVH Huntsman Beth Blackwell for all her hard work and dedication. If you haven't been out hunting yet this season, dust off your boots and come join the fun before the season ends. It will be well worth it.

Happy Hunting!

This year was the Tennessee Valley Hunt Club's 21st annual Blessing of the Hounds returning to Riverplains Farm after a few years hiatus. The crowd of riders and spectators enjoyed a gorgeous day on top of the hill with a catered breakfast and complimentary coffee from Frank and his helper Skyler! The vendors set up nice booths and the bag pipe player in the background always sets the sporting mood. This year WBIR came out and did a news clip as well. I think there was around 50 riders and maybe 200 spectators, maybe more. Several carriages and tally ho wagons completed the scene.

I didn't ride this year due to time conflicts with Brian's family's dinner. Erin is still recovering from her broken collar bone and Lindsey had family obligations as well. So this left John to ride Falstaff in first field and jumped all the coops around the bend (special thanks to dad and him for repairing all the coops!) someone said they jumped 20 coops. Since I wasn't riding I asked Mary Sue Younger if she would like to ride Isabella. It was great to see her out hunting again!  The funniest moment for me was when the hounds came up close to the crowd during the blessing and Fiji, my pug, started barking at them and sent them all running back to Beth! Who knew a pug had a voice of a master! Anyway, it was a beautiful day and a great way to start our Thanks-Giving.

Once again the Katydid CDE in Aiken, SC was a fun show! I was first in Intermediate Horse Pairs with Bella & Ritza. We got there late Thursday and were the very first to do our dressage test on Friday morning at 9AM. My front carriage brakes locked up on me during my warm-up and caused extra stress for me and the horses. Luckily between Amy, John and Gavin they got them disconnected and I was able to continue driving. The girls had some great moments in their warm up but didn't want to continue it over to our dressage test! They redeemed themselves by putting in a awesome marathon and a very smooth cones course. The hazards all flowed well and Amy kept me on track on where to go. The cones course had some tricky spots, but Bella & Ritza were perfect with me only hitting one ball at the the end of a very tight serpentine.

It was really fun this year seeing all of our friends and watching all the beautiful 4 in hands competing. John navigated for Erin W. who showed in Prelim Single Horse and Fred won Prelim Horse Pairs. This was John's first CDE and he is now hooked and looking forward to helping out again soon. The nights were really cold and the days nice and warm. We had to drive back after cones, via Atlanta, and got home about 11:15 PM. Not bad for a great weekend!

This year TVH decided to have their Opening Meet earlier in the season than usual. Today was cold and still wet from lots of rain so the conditions were good for a great hunt! It started at the Kennels then a photo in front of the Day House, then on to hunt at the Knobs. I was not riding today since I sprained my wrist earlier in the week working one of my young ponies and what a day to miss. Lots of galloping and jumping in first field is always a great day! Erin D. rode Isabella and John rode Falstaff in first field. As this is Falstaff's first season of hunting he is doing wonderful to already be going first field and jumping some of the coops! I am so proud of him. Hopefully today is a good sign of many great hunts to come this season. Afterwards the Masters hosted a hunt breakfast at the Kennels for all the hungry people that was greatly appreciated. The traditional Blessing of the Hounds will still be on Thanksgiving Day at Riverplains Farm.