A Kentucky Derby Party at My Farm, Part One

May 13, 2023

A Kentucky Derby Party at My Farm, Part One

Spring is such a wonderful time for outdoor entertaining.

You may have seen my photos on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48. I recently hosted a Kentucky Derby Party at my Bedford, New York farm benefitting the Bedford Riding Lanes Association (BRLA), which maintains and develops the historic system of riding trails and dirt roads in this area of Westchester. The event was held in my stable, the adjacent Carriage House and the cobblestone courtyard just outside. The day before and the morning of the affair were very busy - it takes a lot of planning and forethought to host a gathering of 200, but we got it all done and the weather was absolutely perfect.

Enjoy these photos.

: Leading up to this party, I decided to use tree stumps as tables around the courtyard. These are natural and very heavy – they definitely wouldn’t fall over. We cut them from a neighbor’s tree that fell down.

: We cut each to just under waist-high – all the same height and completely smooth on top. We later placed them randomly around the courtyard.

: Large televisions by Samsung were also placed in the courtyard and in my Carriage House.

: Here, Sebastian is creating a racetrack themed table centerpiece. It will be placed in my Carriage House with lots of small bites surrounding it.

: Silver is taken out and photos of what will fill each piece is placed on top. This kind of planning saves time later – assign plates and platters to the appropriate foods to avoid scrambling for the pieces later.

: Everything is also shined perfectly. Always try to do these chores days ahead, so you can focus on more time sensitive tasks closer to the event.

: This platter is for our crudités. Crudités are French appetizers consisting of sliced or whole raw vegetables which are served with a dipping sauce. Crudités usually include celery sticks, carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, bell pepper strips, broccoli, cauliflower, fennel, baby corn, and asparagus spears.

: Outside, chairs are pulled from storage and brought to the courtyard where they are dusted and placed in the Carriage House.

: Lorna and Sebastian paint a buffet table my favorite color – “Bedford Gray.”

: Copper cocktail cups are washed and placed on a table for our mint juleps. The mint julep became the official drink of the Kentucky Derby during the 1930s, when Churchill Downs started serving it in souvenir julep cups, which it ordered for the first time in 1937.

: Pitchers were also taken out for serving water and sweet tea.

: Sustainable, reusable, shatterproof wine glasses by Govino are displayed in tidy rows for our cocktails.

: Container ferns decorate our cheese buffet table. We called on the help of tastemaker, recipe developer, and food stylist Romilly Newman to help with our “table scapes” – she and her team did a wonderful job.

: Here is the racetrack centerpiece in the Carriage House. I had the miniature steeple fencing already, but we used crushed Biscoff cookies for the track.