The Champagne Brunch at Wadson?s Farm, part of the Culinary Arts Festival held this weekend presents one of those moral dilemmas that reporters are sometimes faced with.

Should this reporter give the Champagne Brunch a good review and have more unsuspecting people flock to the farm next year? If the reporter gave it a bad review it would reduce the number of next year?s brunchers thereby reserving fantastic food and champagne for the reporter.

Yes, it turns out sometimes the media does have a self-serving agenda.

The Champagne Brunch was arguably one of the most delicious events of the Culinary Arts Festival this year. So don?t go next year, please, the food was simply too delicious to share.

The breakfast was held on Wadson?s Farm on Luke?s Pond Road in Southampton. It had been raining and to get to the breakfast you had to walk over wet dirt and authentic farm mud. Along the way, farmer Tom Wadson?s turkeys, sheep and chickens watched curiously from pens. If you were upset about losing your high heels to the mud, you could wash away the pain with one of the mimosas (orange juice and champagne) waiting for you as you entered. There were three different types of champagne from which to choose.

In addition to growing strawberries and other vegetables the regular way (in muck), Mr. Wadson also grows tomatoes hydroponically (sans muck) in long sheds.

The breakfast tables were set up actually between the tomato vines. This left only a small amount of space between people?s chairs and the vines, so to get to your seat you had to walk down the neighbouring tomato vine aisles, then crawl through the vines when you thought you were at the spot where you thought your place should be.

Since the vines were leafy it was difficult to pinpoint precisely where your seat was, so as you ate, people periodically stuck their heads through the vines, then withdrew them if it wasn?t the right place.

After you found a place to eat (there was no assigned seating) you had to pop back through the vines then wander through the farm buildings until you found the food.

The event was catered by the Fairmont Southampton Princess. Much of the food ? such as the strawberries or the field greens ? was grown or raised on Wadson?s farm, and it was safe to say that the tomatoes were very fresh.

There was a range of things on hand to try including minted mango, strawberry salad; organic Sweet potatoes, quesadillas with jalapenos with goats cheese and white cheddar; organic Yukon gold gratin potatoes, poached egg on smoked chicken hash; Bermuda rockfish with strawberry fruit salsa; jasmine rice and smoked chicken livers and roast tomatoes. There were also smoked maple flavoured sausages, kielbasa, chirico and a carving station, plus lots of baked goods for after breakfast.

One diner?s reaction when sampling his wife?s gratin potatoes was simply ?wow!?. Then there was a nasty tussle.

The waiters were in good spirits despite having to go back and forth between the vines with coffee. Their white shirts were stained yellow from rubbing against the tomato vines. It was a good thing the service was good, because this was the only Culinary Arts Festival event where the audience could really throw rotten tomatoes when things weren?t going so well.

There was a place reserved for the star of the show, Tom Wadson. He tried to sit down quietly, but someone in the back kept shouting ?Hey Tom! Heyyy... Tommm...? until everyone was looking at him.

He blushed bright red and finally said with a smile, ?Yes, Tom would be me.?

While most people left for the Culinary Arts Festival proper at the Botanical Gardens around 11.45 the loud crowd in the back lingered, shouting repeatedly, ?One more mimosa for the road?.

One eater (gorger) described this set-up as ?weird but fun?.

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