In late September, Oslo-based Food Studio hosted a dinner in a field near the old king's residence in Bygdøy. With the delivery of a greenhouse, a pile of sheepskin and Norwegian sweaters, and Nordic farm-to-table fare, a wintery dinner was born.
The Dinner in the Fields was at Kongsgården, the country's largest bionymanic garden, owned and tended to by University of Oslo Biology professor Linda Jolly. As 16 guests arrived at five in the afternoon, Idun Leinaas, from Norwegian Biologisk-dynamisk Forening, gave a garden tour encouraging guests to taste raw produce and snack on basil varieties grown in cold frames.
The group then went into the house to pickle beet root in a traditional Norwegian method. "Everybody had brought a jar with them to take it home filled with their own pickled beets as a juicy reminder of the experience," says Valentina Bertoldo and Brian W. Jones of Food Studio. Next the dinner guests headed into the field for dinner...
Photography by Christoffer Johannesen and Tim Varney for Food Studio.
Above: A glass greenhouse is set on wooden palettes, delivered by Hobby Drivhus.
Above: Table benches were covered in various sheepskin to help insulate the greenhouse.
Above: The table prepped for the five-course dinner prepared in the field (with the garden's produce) by Food Studio house chefs Magne Ilsaas, and Jan and Tove Svartsund.
Above: Dinner guests on a tour of garden-to-table produce on offer in the Kongsgården.
Above: Food Studio teamed up with Fretex to keep dinner guests warm with traditional Norwegian sweaters.
Above: Oversized hurricane candleholders are paired with rectangular wooden plates.
Above: Bundled twigs function as table decor.
Above: Chef Magne Ilsaas plated dishes by head lamp, moving from the greenhouse to the open-air kitchen to serve each course.
Above: The dinner included: Bøgedal beers from Denmark, rhubarb juice, pickled mussels, pumpkin gnocchi, fiskerboller, goose, and smoky apples with oatmeal cream.
Above: Guests dining beneath a looming Norwegian night sky; a path dotted with candles and sugar pie pumpkins made a glowing path to the main house.
N.B.: See 22 more inspiring Greenhouses in our Gallery of rooms and spaces.