Renfrow Farms and its sister business Renfrow Hardware encompass more than 100 years of history and five generations of family business. The store opened in 1900 and the 9-acre farm was birthed in 2011, growing a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, nuts and flowers. They also produce honey from their 50 beehives. In 2016, Hurricane Matthew chased us into the hardware store for a unique meal down the aisles. Other years, we’ve set the table between rows of blooming flowers, fragrant lavender bushes and a colorful array of vegetables.

Wherever we end up this year, we’ll have guest chef Jamie Lynch cooking an extraordinary meal in the field kitchen. Jamie’s a bit of a Charlotte celebrity, from his time on Top Chef to his wildly popular New American hotspots. His first restaurant 5Church quickly became a Charlotte institution when it opened in 2012, earning him Best Chef from Charlotte Magazine several years in a row. Now the restaurant is known as Church & Union — part of his budding brand of New American restaurants across the Southeast. Jamie’s deeply dedicated to sourcing from local farms and even built his own 6-acre fruit and vegetable farm to help supply his restaurants. He’ll feel right at home cooking amongst Renfrow’s Fall bounty.