News

The holidays are lurking right around the corner and we’ve begun our preparations for Thanksgiving, Lighting of the Tree, our annual Holiday Open House, and more than a few holiday parties and get-togethers hosted by the Club. We currently have over 1,000 pounds of turkey thawing in our coolers! Between our full to-go dinners and our Thanksgiving buffet, the day of Thanksgiving gets hectic in a hurry.

Though the pace can be frenetic, our staff seem to enjoy themselves, and there seems to be an extra helping of hospitality coming from the staff during the holiday season. It’s a wonderful thing to witness a staff of people genuinely wanting to do a little extra to make a holiday function special. If you haven’t booked your holiday party, there is still time.

The harvest is complete and the farmers are putting their fields to bed for the season. Now, we turn to the fresh produce that overwinters well. You will now see things like acorn squash, butternut squash, hubbard squash, all kinds of potatoes, carrots and garlic on our menus, as well as locally grown greenhouse produce like micro greens, lettuces and spinach—not to mention our bounty of maple syrup and honey coming right from the Egypt Valley grounds. We even have some of our delicious EVCC strawberries frozen for current and future use.

We have a great kitchen staff going into the holiday season, and we are appreciative of all the sacrifices and hard work put in this season by each and every one of them. They are the lifeblood of what we do in the kitchen, and I want to personally extend my sincerest gratitude to all of them. They are like family in many ways; it feels good to spend time with our staff around the holidays.

As we look forward to next season, we are filled with optimism. I believe this is the best kitchen staff we have had to close out a season, which means we should be able to shoot right out of the gate come springtime. With that being said, we still have to cross the finish line for the 2024 season, and we plan on finishing strong.

Thank you to everyone who supported our food and beverage program in 2024. You are the reason we do this. It’s not always easy, in fact it’s generally quite the opposite, but we love what we do and we love who we do it for. Taking great care of you is a pillar of our kitchen mission statement, and we do it humbly and with immense gratitude.

See you at the Club,
Chef Ben Stinson, CEC