How Can Anyone Live in a Place This Beautiful?

The red barn with the tooth on it (Farmer Sam is a dentist), the old white farmhouse surrounded by fruit and nut trees, the grapevines in long, tended rows, 100 acres of freshly mowed fields, a partially open farm gate, the fragrantly sweet old Napa scent of hay, grass and grapes...man!

Farmer Sam was resplendent in his disco shirt.



Chef Pickle attempted to pull off American Gothic while wearing Plotnik's Barnum and Bailey hat.



Only four Tiaposians actually showed up, plus one Duck. (We now learn Mississippi Motorhead and Leah were there too, but where were they!) Everyone filled their plates enough for everyone else, trust Plottie on that one. FCA Nguyen Feinberg Lopez, Blonde Bombshell, The Great Plotnik and Chef Pickle were forced to represent for everyone.






After dinner, the barn was too packed with people to find a place to actually dance, so The Great Plotnik taught everyone the chicken dance outside. This is an especially popular dance, particularly when you're at a winery and have been at the cabernet for awhile.




The unrecognized person in the first photo, dancing under the moon, is Freddie Fix-it, who won a Blue Ribbon again, this year for his Firehouse Chili and Corn Bread.



This was Plotnik's dinner plate, and includes food only from Table Four. Chef Pickle's fabulous turkey/pork meatballs were in two enormous restaurant trays, but were long gone before the TIAPOS party could get over to Table One. (Plotnik did get there himself, of course. We're talking about the Southeast meatball on his plate, not the two Center-Left meatballs, which were very good, but nowhere near Pickle's.)



This is Nguyen/Feinberg/Lopez's dessert plate and doesn't even include the chocolate/marshmallow nut bars.





It's hard to believe that the food could have been better this year than two years ago, but it was. There were hundreds of plates of food, all different. By far, the most beautiful presentation Plotnik has ever seen was this one: roasted peaches, tomatoes, tiny squashes and various flowers in a balsamic vinaigrette. It was beyond delicious too. That pound cake tasted as good as it looked.




Turkey, ham, blackberry cobbler.





Plotnik even won a Blue Ribbon for his orange/olive/sweet onion salad, but didn't take a picture until it was almost gone.



As the sun was setting, it was time to rest on a sofa or take a little walk on the farm and see the lanterns strung in and out of the vineyard, hear the music in the distance and think for a moment how wonderful it is to be part of a night like this. Thanks, Farmer Sam, you're the best.