Some dishes ask you to slow down. This is one of them.

At its heart is a mixed mushroom parfait — silky, deeply savory, and spiked with brandy, port, and Madeira until it settles into something rich and warming.

On top: butter-kissed boletes, pillowy lion's mane, and earthy porcini, each one bringing its own quiet depth. Pickled shallots cut through the richness with a bright little lift, and an elderflower gastrique drifts over everything with a delicate, floral finish.

It all comes together on a thick slice of Rise Up! sourdough — baked in a wood-burning stone oven, nearly 13 feet across, deep in the Little Applegate Valley. Born out of an intentional community living on 280 acres of forest and farmland, Rise Up! has been hand-crafting bread in the French artisan tradition since 2007. Chewy, tangy, and unapologetically sour — exactly the foundation this dish deserves.

Tayberries and marionberries from Pennington Farms are in the kitchen right now, showing up in sauces, sorbets, and wherever else their deep, sun-ripened flavor inspires.

Pennington is the kind of farm you stumble onto down a winding Applegate Valley road — a barn, a farm stand, and somewhere north of 50 varieties of berries growing on 90 acres of Southern Oregon wilderness. The Pennington family has been tending this land since 1994, growing rare heirloom cultivars by hand, without herbicides, in the shadow of the Siskiyous. The berries are smaller than what you'd find in a grocery store. The flavor is not.

That intensity is exactly what drew Cowhorn Kitchen to their door — and it's exactly what you'll taste this season.

Evan Bolling
Chef de Cuisine