Autumn brings not only farmer’s markets and brilliant colors, it also brings two significant dates in my life—my birthday, and, two days hence, my wedding anniversary. I never forget my birthday, so I figured this proximity would at least give the appearance of attentiveness.

This year, I decided to take my wife on a weekend getaway. Fuel costs being what they are, I decided to look for a place close to home that would give us solitude, good food, and an opportunity to meet interesting people.

Here at Aspen Post, I look forward to the posts of Aspen Chef Dava Parr. She’s the food connoisseur of Aspen Post, and being a shameless Food Network junky, I love reading about her in-season produce. Dava enjoys a reputation on Colorado’s western slope as a reliable source of locally-grown, organic produce, meats, eggs, and cheeses. Her business, Fresh & Wyld (www.freshandwyld.com), is part of a Paonia-area farmer’s cooperative committed to making healthy, home-grown foods available to Colorado families and small businesses.

Last July 30, Chef Dava announced on Aspen Post the opening of her 1908 Paonia farm house as a Bed & Breakfast, so last month I decided to surprise my wife with a visit to Dava’s Bead & Breakfast for our 14th wedding anniversary. Frankly, I could not be more pleased with this decision, and neither could my wife.

After a morning of soccer games and kid shuttles, we dropped the children off at the grandparent’s house and began a weekend of uninterrupted, adult conversation. By the time we turned south on scenic Highway 133 at Carbondale, the burden of routine and responsibility began to lift. The cottonwoods along the Crystal River were just beginning to turn bright yellow, and we could see some orange hues in the oak brush. Even though most of the Aspens were still clinging to summer green, fall colors were everywhere. We stopped in Redstone, where we bought our first house fifteen years ago, and had lunch at the Crystal Club Café. After a drive through our old neighborhood, we turned south toward McClure Pass. Even at this leisurely pace, we were in Paonia in just two hours.

Now in the interest of full-disclosure, I must confess to being essentially carnivorous. Somewhere along the way I got the impression that Chef Dava focuses exclusively on vegetarian cooking. Don’t get me wrong. I like garden-grown tomatoes with buffalo mozzarella and basil salad as much as the next guy, but I’ll pass up a bowl of turnip greens for a roasted pheasant every time. If I had any reservation about a night at Fresh & Wyld Bed & Breakfast, it was the idea that I’d be eating a lot of vegetables. As it turns out, I did eat a lot of vegetables—fresh, deliciously prepared vegetables—yet I was pleasantly surprised to find meat on my plate at both dinner and breakfast the next morning.

When we arrived at Fresh & Wyld, we walked in the patio door and were struck by the unmistakable aroma of curry. In a moment Chef Dava walked in and welcomed us with open arms and good cheer. I had exchanged emails with Dava about how to keep home-grown arugula from bolting, but I’d never met her. She gave us a tour of the house, a high-ceilinged, meticulously-decorated, turn-of-the-century farm house with a professional kitchen in the back and an unusually high number of dining tables. Dava showed us two suites, The King Suite, with a king-size bed and private bath, and The Queen Suite, with a queen size bed, private bath, and a reading room. There are also rooms with twin beds and shared baths. We chose The Queen Suite for the reading room.

Dava told us about nearby hiking opportunities. A trail system behind the farm house gives you the choice of a forty-minute streamside walk, or a several-mile jaunt to the top of a scenic bluff. She also invited us to visit the vegetable garden and the Fresh & Wyld Boutique, which features the arts and crafts of Paonia-area artists. Then she informed us that appetizers and Hors d’Oeuvres would be served at six, and added that we could shop for a dinner wine at any one of several local wineries. Dava recommended we look for Bethlehem Pinot Noir, a first-year local wine bottled by a California wine expert who recently moved to the area. With three hours of spare time before dinner, we decided to pay a visit to Black Bridge Winery (www.blackbridgewinery.com).

Situated on the bank of the North Fork of the Gunnison River, Black Bridge Winery offers a wide variety of home-made products, including marinades, preserves, olive oils, balsamic vinegars, and cheeses, just to name a few. You will also find a wide variety of wines, any of which you are welcome to taste. We tried several Cabernets, two Pinot Noirs, and a Riesling. Wines are available by the bottle or the case. We mixed a case several selections, including a Bethlehem Pinot Noir for dinner. We also purchased a variety of balsamic vinaigrettes and barbecue sauces for Christmas gifts, and some huckleberry jam for our children.

On our return to Fresh & Wyld, there wasn’t quite enough time to go for a walk, so we decided to check out the vegetable garden, a rectangle about one-hundred feet wide and sixty feet deep. Rows of corn stalks, beets, pumpkins, squash, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, and vines for peas and green beans were tall and bushy. Interspersed with the vegetables were rows of nasturtiums, marigolds, and bachelor buttons, and plenty of basil to keep the bugs down. The garden looked wooly and ripe for the Harvest Festival, which would take place the following weekend (September 26, 27, and 28). Just to the east of the garden is a chicken coop for Fresh & Wyld’s egg-laying hens.

Dinner attire was western slope casual. One local showed up with tasseled loafers and a Chicago Cubs cap and no one batted an eye. Fresh & Wyld’s Saturday dinner is served very much in the French tradition: an aperitif followed by a multi-course meal, with lots of time in between each course for friendly discourse.

At six, servers brought out several appetizers, including roasted pumpkin seeds, sautéed eggplant with garlic and parsely, and my favorite, samosas made with curried pumkin, chèvre chaud, and whole wheat phyllo dough. When I was a University of London student back in the early 80s, I would save my food money during the week and head into the Pakistani neighborhoods North of Euston Station for a meal of samosas. Ordinarily, samosas are made of potatoes, peas, onions, and paneer, but these were made of pumpkin and goat cheese. I wouldn’t have thought you could make a pumpkin work in samosas, but Dava did it. I had to restrain myself from hoarding this delicious starter all to myself, and I would have been quite satisfied to grab the entire platter of somosas and scurry off to my own private repast, but that would have been short-sighted of me.

At seven, we were seated for dinner. My wife, Karen, and I sat at a table with a couple from Aspen and Hotchkiss ranchers Dave and Sue Whittlesey who, it turns out, brought the evening’s entrée: buffalo ribs.

The first course was a warm pumpkin tomato bisque soup. Neither flavor over-powered the other but combined nicely. This bisque was my wife’s favorite course.

For the second course, Dava prepared an arugula salad with a creamy vinaigrette dressing that softened the peppery bite of the arugula. As I mentioned earlier, I’d let on about my taste for arugula in a series of emails to Dava. I took this as an indication of how much Dava enjoys pleasing guests, a treat made even better by how well the salad complimented the tomato pumpkin soup.

For the entrée, Dava served the Whittlesey’s buffalo ribs wit
h a red wine reduction, mashed potatoes, and steamed chard. The buffalo ribs were served on top of the sauce such that when you cut into the meat, it would soak up just the right amount of flavor enhancing wine sauce, and the mash potatoes and steamed chard, served hot, rounded out this mouth-watering course quite nicely.

For dessert, Dava served blackberry apple crisp and coffee. I’m not usually a dessert eater, but I couldn’t pass this up. The blackberries made the apples look like beets, but the flavor was divine, and at the end of the day, that’s all that really matters.

By the time the wait staff collected the desert plates, it was half past nine, and not only did I know the first names and professions of everyone at the table, but also the first names of their children. This was more than a meal, or a dinner we didn’t have to cook, it was an evening of fine dining and meeting interesting people.

Next time you feel the itch to get away, remember this subtle suggestion:

Fresh & Wyld Bed & Breakfast
1978 Harding Road
Paonia, Colorado 81428
970.527.4389 (office)
970.309.0510 (mobile)

Oh, and by the way, Sunday Brunch is every bit as good…