The group pauses at the stone terrace with its large circular fire pit. Jamie Pauls, Blandfield’s chef, offers refreshments and places oysters on the grill covering the fire pit. The guests take a seat around the fire, enjoying oysters on the half shell, rare seared black and white sesame seed-encrusted tuna with Old Bay waffle chips, cucumber salad, pickled ginger, and roasted vegetable tarts finished with a balsamic reduction and parsley oil—and those are just the appetizers. Later, at dinner, the group will dine on Swineford’s famous lamb chops and beef tenderloin—literally cooked “in the barrel” and served with mint jelly and Pauls’ chimichurri sauce—or grouper pan-seared with purple basil pesto, accompanied by roasted garlic mashed potatoes and hominy succotash. Sitting by the fire, cocktails in hand, the group can hear ducks winging their way into the marsh to roost—just as the moon is high enough to produce a mirror image of itself on the Rappahannock River. It is a scene that’s hard to describe but not easily forgotten.
Earlier, Jimmy Wheat had told me that the hunting lodge reminds him of the times when he and his father used to duck hunt on Parramore Island. There were no TVs, phones or electricity. “It was there I learned to appreciate the camaraderie of hunting,” he says. “Hunting can be good and bad and always unpredictable, [yet] it’s always conducive to conversation, friendship, story-telling and a sense of remoteness .…”
In other words, it’s an escape from the world for a day or two, and who doesn’t need that? •
Latest Comments
Upper Rappahannock
Posted by John Chewning April 28, 2010 09:23:35
Excellent Story
Posted by Bryan Hunter February 18, 2010 11:18:24
Qual Hunting
Posted by Paul Richmond February 05, 2010 10:51:28
Great Story
Posted by Andy Jordan January 20, 2010 10:19:39