There’s no denying that Pizza Farm season is winding down. Week by week, more and more farms close up shop for the season. The calendar starts to look a little sparse and it is a good idea to double check the farm’s website and 
make sure they are still serving. Even if the farm has prepped about 50 pizzas for “people who don’t check the internet” it is still extremely embarrassing to be one of those who show up the week after the Final Pizza Night. As a pizza farm blogger, I feel it is important to experience as many pizza nights as possible and sometimes you make mistakes. Each time I go I have an experience that is special and unique and that’s what keeps me coming back. This one will be remembered as the time we went when they were closed and it certainly was memorable on several levels.
We’ve been experiencing some unseasonably warm October weather here in Minneapolis, so it was hard to not go to a pizza farm in mid-October when the fall colors are approaching their prime and we didn’t need jackets or anything! We loaded up the car with chairs, drinks, and people and set off from Minneapolis to Northfield. It seemed a little quiet when we arrived and a couple things were out of the ordinary. Someone had already started the 
fire in the fire pit, a dog was running around, and the chickens were roaming about quite freely. The man stoking the fire approached us with Good News and Bad News. We chose to hear the bad news first and I was speechless when he said Red Barn Farm was closed for the season. After a few seconds of silence, he said, “Don’t you want the good news?” We recovered enough from the shock to say “Yes,” and we learned that there was just enough dough prepared and enough ingredients to feed the people who didn’t double check whether the farm was open. Father Denny and his group had reserved the Farm for a private event, so they figured the farm was open, why not make a few pizzas. Father Denny really helped us out in that regard.
Aside from the intense embarrassment, the evening went wonderfully. The leaves and the sky were beautiful. The fire warmed us after the sun went down. Most of the pizza options were available, including a very nice seasonal one with butternut squash and spinach and the classic Greek. Father Denny’s group was using the barn, so although we owed it to them that the farm was serving pizza, we didn’t have face to face opportunities to thank them.
Red Barn Farm is extremely kid-friendly and once again there were quite a few kids, several of who may have been with the group in the barn. But overall the amount of people getting pizza was fairly small, so we had a quiet evening on the farm. The chickens seemed to feel a bit more bold with the lack of pizza eaters and roamed about freely. A third horse appeared, although we are unsure when it arrived. Some geese passed overheard and as the sun went down, the temperature quickly dropped a little and sitting around that fire was definitely a treat!
Remember our lesson here today – always double check the farm website! So, that got us to the Last Last Red Barn Farm Pizza Night of the season. There are only a couple weeks left for every farm and then we have to wait and save up our Pizza Farm appetite until Spring.
