Look yummy, don’t they?I have seen a lot of unusual menu inspirations in my day. Movies, music, the hyper-regional cuisines of entire countries most people couldn’t pick out on a map. I remember one done entirely based on films that cooks love (Big Night, Apocalypse Now, Goodfellas and such) which sold out fast and almost entirely on the strength of the “Timpano for Louis Prima” being prepared by the kitchen; another one showcasing only food that could be gotten within a few square blocks of the Malay and Indonesian quarter in Singapore; another that was due to be set entirely to the music of the Grateful Dead with the chef working in a show kitchen, to the music, in the middle of the dining room.Thankfully, that last one never made its debut. Someone talked the chef in question down at the last minute. And I wish someone had done the same for me when I decided one night to do an event dinner made up completely of traditional Irish specialties. In Florida. In August.But of all the unusual menus I have seen, the new one that’ll be taking center stage at The Herbfarm starting February 19 has got to be in the top 10 of strangeness. Called “A Taste of Trees,” it’ll be exploring “the largely invisible and overlooked role trees play in offering us both food and flavors. Guests will delight to a range of seafood, fowl, and meat that have been cooked, smoked, or seasoned with different woods. In addition, dishes will be flavored with the fruits, seeds, nuts, flowers, leaves, needles, berries, sap, and bark from many kinds of local trees.”Yeah, I just had to find out more about this.I put in a call to The Herbfarm (14590 NE 145th Street in Woodinville) this afternoon, looking for chef and culinary director Keith Luce–hoping to ask him just what he was thinking. Luce wasn’t available though, and I got handed off to The Herbfarm’s “Big Cheese,” (and owner, along with her husband, Ron Zimmerman) Carrie Van Dyck who was more than able to lay out the details of precisely how a menu like this comes together.”This time of year,” she said, “there’s not much else growing.” But the trees? They’re always there. And the nine course menu that The Herbfarm is planning is one that takes advantage of all that the trees have to offer.”We’ll take things from the trees,” Van Dyck explained. “Like apples and quince. We’ll use items that grow around trees.” Oregon truffles and other mushrooms were what she came up with. The kitchen will also be using Madrona bark for tea, Douglas Fir needles for sorbet, edible cottonwood buds, birch and maple syrup. “There’ll be a course using wood-conditioned Belgian ale,” she said. “We’ll smoke things. We’ll skewer things on trees so they flavor from the inside out.”According to Van Dyck, this is the third tree-centric menu that The Herbfarm has mounted among their ever-changing list of seasonal, garden-driven and esoteric boards. And while it might seem strange on the surface (I’ve worked in a lot of cities as a cook and a writer and I’ve never seen anything quite like it), she expects it to do well during the three weeks it’ll be available. In other words, if you’re interested, you might want to check out The Herbfarm’s website and make your reservations now. Prices range between $179 and $189 per person for the nine course/six wine dinner and you should expect the full meal to take about four-and-a-half hours.