Push your comfort zone with these unique farm-to-table dinners

Published 2:33 pm Thursday, July 2, 2026

EVERETT — Zander Natallanni has always been fascinated by food.

While he lived on a farm when he was too young to remember, he said, his farming journey really began when he got his first piece of land in Seattle in 2013.

“I started farming on a quarter acre, grew about 7,000 pounds of food. It was amazing,” he said.

Since then, the farm, Goat & Seed, has moved to Snohomish County, most recently Everett, where Natallanni and his wife, Marie, host farm-to-table dinners. The dinners focus on serving 85 to 90% locally grown food and crafting a themed culinary experience, complete with a detailed menu guiding visitors through each dish.

“Goat & Seed, in a nutshell, specializes in the process of food, from seed to your table,” he said.

For Natallanni, it’s all about creating an experience straight from nature. Before the dinner, the guests can take a tour of the farm, including meeting the goats and chickens that call it home.

“We’re in the process of making our farm a talking farm,” he said. “Where you walk to the goat pen, and you can see a picture, do a little QR code, and then there’s a video of me or my son or my wife that pops up and tells you about the area.”

During the actual dinner, the staff is silent, and the next of the seven to eight courses is announced with a bell. This is done so guests can keep the flow of their conversations, Natallanni said. Guests are also encouraged to forgo taking photos so they can live in the moment.

“We want people to leave better than the way they came,” Natallanni said.

Some of the dishes may push people out of their comfort zone, such as the candied chicken skin dessert served as part of “the egg and the chicken” themed dinner. Natallanni said they can accommodate dietary needs and preferences if you alert them in advance.

The Natallanni family does include their faith in the event, but everyone is welcome to attend. At the beginning of the dinners, they invite visitors to join them in a prayer or write down something they are going through if they want it included.

The dinners only happen for 20 weeks a year. Last season ended with a Valentine’s Farm-to-Table Dinner pop-up in Snohomish.

One attendee, Taylor Sether, said her favorite of the courses was the dessert, a dark chocolate butternut squash ganache finished with coffee-infused caramelized bacon.

“It opened my palate to flavors I never expected from a squash-based dessert,” she said in an email. “It was so good that I even reached out for the recipe so I could recreate it and share it with the people I care about.”

She recommended that first-time attendees come with an open mind.

“I was given the opportunity to try a variety of foods that I normally wouldn’t eat or even consider trying,” she recalled. “For the sake of the experience, I set aside my preconceived ideas and just let myself try new things. I’m really glad I did because I ended up enjoying things I never would have ordered on my own.”

If you go

There are limited seats available for the dinners, which cost $180 per person. The proceeds of the dinners go to Natallanni’s nonprofit, The Why Not Us Foundation, which provides food to families during the holiday season and farming education.

The farm is moving to the Three Lakes area of Snohomish County, but you can still attend this year’s dinners. The first dinner is July 11 at 4 p.m. To learn more, visit goatandseed.com.

Jenna Millikan: 425-339-3035; jenna.millikan@heraldnet.com; X: @JennaMillikan