Kimball, Dale and Scheuermann Farm to be part of Black Dirt Feast

PINE ISLAND — The Black Dirt Feast, to be held on Tuesday, Aug. 2 will feature pottery designed and produced by potters Andrea Carr Kimball and Marilyn Dale, to be filled with fresh flowers from the Scheuermann Farm & Greenhouses in Pine Island. Each year the feast celebrates the collaboration between chefs and the farmers who produce the food used in the five-course dinner, Tuscan-style seating on the great lawn at the Scheuermann Farm. “We are excited to be able to have Andrea and Marilyn creating the ceramic vases this year,” said co-chair Sondra Hall. “Both artists do extraordinary work.” Kimball is a potter known for her work in wood fired stoneware and porcelain. She built and maintains a noborigama kiln in Warwick and is a partner in a long fire anagama kiln in upstate Columbia County. Dale is an educator and studio potter. Organizers said she believes “art is a means of communication. It exists somewhere between the physical and the spiritual self, and, like the fire that bakes the clay, it has an intelligence all its own.” Included in this year’s volunteer staff will be several students from the BOCES culinary program, who will be working with several of the region’s top chefs in the preparation of a five-course dinner. The al fresco fund-raiser, organized by the Pine Island Chamber of Commerce, will benefit the local community. Tickets are available by calling 258-4176.