Date Night: Pizza under the stars at Heritage Prairie Farm

Most Tuesdays, Go West Young Mom brings you details on an “Easy Outing” you can do with your children. But occasionally, we want to bring you some unique ideas for a night out with your hubby or girlfriends – both important aspects of any sane mom’s life! The inaugural installment of this series would be great for either.

Diners enjoy pizzas at Heritage Prairie Farm. Photos by Tara Burghart.Heritage Prairie Farm is located in La Fox on Brundige Road, just off Route 38, about 2 miles west of Randall Road. It’s a really interesting place, now in its third year of what it calls “four-season growing.” The farm uses moveable greenhouses, crop rotation and succession plantings to grow crops almost year-round.

Heritage Prairie has regular farm dinners, sells honeyonline and in its farm store, and is currently selling shares for the 2011 season of its Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.

But I visited the farm to check out the pizzas – artisanal pizzas, cooked on a wood-fired earth oven. They are offered only on Wednesday nights, from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. You can place an order for pick-up, but the real draw would be to enjoy your pie while relaxing with a friend or your husband at a table on the farm’s beautiful grounds. Note that there is no indoor seating.

The pizzas are individually sized, and the night I was there, there were four varieties, ranging in price from $9 (a Margherita pizza) to $12 (a “savory” pizza with olive oil, roasted garlic, roasted red peppers, cremini mushrooms, four cheese blend and pepperoni.) You can purchase wine and beer by the glass, or bring your own.

A Margherita pizza.I tried a “traditional” pizza, with sauce, roasted red peppers, monterey jack, sausage and feta, and it was indeed delicious, as was the tomato salad I purchased for $3. If you want to check out what types of pizzas are being offered, you can call ahead to 630-443-8253.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, it wasn’t really a date night for me. I went with a bunch of girlfriends, our toddlers and a couple of our husbands. At first, it was a great spot to let our kids have a bit of freedom, running the grounds. But it took at least 45 minutes for our pizza to arrive after we ordered it, and by that time, it was getting dark, and keeping my curious munchkin out of the greenhouses – and from running pell mell into a fence or into a hole – had gotten tiring.

But if I had been sitting down, underneath the trees decorated with twinkling white lights, and enjoying good conversation and a glass of wine .. well, that would have been quite a different experience!

The farm plans to offer the pizza nights four more Wednesdays this fall – so that would take them through Nov. 3. And if you don’t make it this fall, the farm was quite busy the evening I was there, so I’m sure you’ll get a chance when warmer weather returns.

Do you have an idea for a unique date night or girl’s night out? I’d love to hear about it! Write me ateditor@gowestyoungmom.com.