SOUTH HAVEN, Mich. — A lot of restaurants tout farm-to-table dining. The dining event company Outstanding in the Field takes that hyperlocal, seasonal approach to the next level, bringing the table to the farm.

Founded more than 20 years ago by California native, chef and artist Jim Denevan, Outstanding in the Field (OITF) is billed as a roving restaurant without walls. The locations of its moveable feasts change. That’s part of the charm. But the script usually goes something like this: Lots of diners gather around a long table — typically on a farm, beach, fishing dock or some other Instagram-worthy location — and share a communal meal prepared by a guest chef. Menus lean heavily on ingredients harvested on-site or nearby. The farmers or producers behind the bounty share stories about the food and surroundings.

What started as a modest dinner on Denevan’s brother’s farm has blossomed into a big business. Over the years, OITF has put on more than 1,000 table-to-farm experiences in every state and 16 countries.

The annual calendar of events was unveiled earlier this month. Tickets tend to go fast when reservations open for the upcoming season, which they did on March 19 at outstandinginthefield.com.

The start of the 2020 season has been pushed back because of the coronavirus pandemic. California events in late April, May and early June have been canceled or postponed. The first dinner of the season will now take place June 20 at Everett Family Farm in Santa Cruz, California.

Dozens of other OITF events are scheduled this year, including some at new venues, like a ranch in the Colorado Rockies, a cotton plantation in South Carolina and an urban farm in Dallas that helps recent parolees get a fresh start.

Tickets aren’t cheap. They start at $265, plus sales tax and service fee. The price covers a welcome reception with alcoholic drinks and passed appetizers, a tour of the farm or event site, a four-course dinner served family style by OITF’s traveling waitstaff, wine pairings and gratuity.

For a birthday splurge last summer, I decided to treat myself and my husband to an OITF dinner in Michigan at Seedling farm in South Haven. I felt a mild wave of panic as my mouse cursor hovered over the “buy” button. My online research had turned up lots of positive reviews about OITF, but a few negative ones gave me pause. Would it really be worth the money? Did I really want to have dinner in the middle of a farm, sitting elbow-to-elbow with people we didn’t know? After all, we could eat at some of Chicago’s finest restaurants for this price.

I bought the tickets anyway, and I’m glad I did. Fancy restaurants will always be here. There’s something singular and a bit magical about these types of ephemeral events that make it easier to justify the steep tab — as long as the quality of the food, service and ambiance don’t disappoint. And on this particular balmy evening in August on a farm in southwest Michigan, they did not disappoint.

Arriving at Seedling, we made our way to the rustic-chic check-in table. That’s when we noticed that everyone in the short line in front of us was holding an empty plate. We somehow missed the memo that diners are encouraged to bring their own dish to eat off — a long-standing OITF tradition. (Staff will wash it and send it home with you.) The friendly guy behind the host stand told us not to worry. We could borrow two of theirs.

Outside a weathered barn, guests wandered around the grounds, happily munching on apps of deviled eggs and chicken liver gougeres. Bartenders served cocktails made with Detroit City Distillery rye whiskey and fresh herbs and poured wine from Traverse City, Michigan’s Mari Vineyards. Winemaker Sean O’Keefe mingled with guests. So did the cowboy-hat wearing OITF founder Denevan.

After an hour or so, Seedling owner and “polycropper” Peter Klein climbed onto a wooden crate to officially welcome us to his 81-acre orchard, where he talked about some of what he grows here: myriad varieties of apples, peaches, cherries and pears, plus elderberries, figs, paw paws and “all sorts of crazy stuff.”

Klein spoke candidly about the challenges he and other Midwest farmers were up against.

“We’re having a super sh---y year for agriculture,” he said, noting the brutal one-two punch of freezing and flooding that did a number on his crops.

“There’s a lot of disease out there,” he said. “Some of the fields were super wet and we couldn’t get in to take care of things. … Not to bring you down before dinner,” he added with a laugh.

After a short walking tour among the apple trees, 162 of us went deeper into the orchard to take our seats at a lengthy, white-clothed table flanked by fruit trees. Long rows of wooden chairs and wineglasses spread before us like neatly planted crops. (There’s always a Plan B to protect diners from the elements in the event of rain.)

Michelin-starred Detroit chef Thomas Lents incorporated the farm’s melons, berries, sugar snap peas, plums and peaches into a flavor-packed menu of roasted chicken, grilled squid and cobbler with buttermilk dumplings and elderflower sorbet. Mother Nature may have been cruel to Seedling farm, but that recent beating didn’t take a toll on the taste of the food.

Passing platters of creamy burrata and bowls of harissa-grilled corn, strangers bonded over what brought us here (lots of birthday celebrations), the bucolic scenery and the creative spread. When the sun started to peter out and “magic hour” gave the landscape a golden glow, everyone with a smartphone — which is to say, everyone — snapped away.

A couple next to us said they forked over several hundred dollars to spend the night in one of the “glamping” canvas tents temporarily set up on the farm — a convenient option rolled out last year at some OITF events in Michigan, Massachusetts and Washington. That convenience comes at a price, though. We spent considerably less money staying just a few miles away at The Fields, a glamp site in South Haven.

OITF returns to Seedling farm Aug. 15 with guest chefs Jennifer Jackson and Justin Tootla of Voyager in Ferndale, Michigan, and Aug. 16, when Lents, executive chef of The Apparatus Room at Detroit Foundation Hotel, is back in the mobile kitchen.

Last year, OITF also started offering “Community Table” street dinners featuring not only farmers and food producers, but local makers, designers and artists whose works get showcased on the long table. These will be held in Los Angeles on May 29 and Galena, Illinois, on Aug. 6.

“Our Community Table events expand on the foundational idea of OITF: Origin Stories,” Denevan explained in a statement. “Just as we celebrate local farmers and chefs and the stories of where our food comes from, Community Table events recognize the creativity and craftsmanship that bring beauty to the table and enhance the enjoyment of breaking bread together.”

lrackl@chicagotribune.com