Last Thursday marked the opening weekend of Dinners at the Farm's 2011 season. This year, Jonothan Rapp of River Tavern Restaurant and his team of top notch chefs will park their big red truck at two farms; Barberry Hill Farm in Madison, CT and White Gate Farm in Old Lyme. Dinners at the Farm started in 2007, long before "farm to table" fare became mainstream, and they continue to delight guests with exceptional menus, farm tours, and insight into the life of a farmer in CT. View the Photo Gallery here.
"Dinners at the Farm is a series of benefit dinners celebrating Connecticut's local farms, food and community as a way to generate awareness of the importance and vitality of our local farming community and the delicious, wholesome and abundant food it provides us. Recreating a sense of connection to farming, cooking and eating is what Dinners at the Farm is all about." --Dinners at the Farm
A portion of every dinner goes to the non-for-profit community benefiting organizations such as Connecticut Farmland Trust, Slow Food Connecticut, CitySeed, Shoreline Soup Kitchen and Pantries, and Working Lands Alliance.
Pizza is easy to love. Who doesn’t relish gooey mounds of cheese over even the most basic sauces and crusts? But for diners concerned with their health, it is no secret that most pizza is loaded with fat and sodium. For those with gluten allergies or intolerance, pizza parlor pizza is off limits.
SAVOR PIZZA in Norwalk is a dream come true for pizza lovers with gluten sensitivities and diners who are mindful of eating lower fat, less salt and organic ingredients. For those with gluten intolerance, it may become your go-to spot for take out pizza, the meal you thought you would never be able to eat again.
I’m not much for New Year's Resolutions, but I do know that by making small changes, we can impact our health, the planet and the way we raise our kids. Something as small as where you buy your food can be one of those changes, so I was eager to check out Graze, a local farm-to-fridge online grocery delivery service “on a mission to bring fresh, wholesome and sustainably produced foods directly from small local family farms in Vermont to your front door.” Graze sells pasture-raised beef, just-picked local organic produce in season, award-winning artisanal cheeses and even home-cooked meals.
After a long weekend, capped off by a nasty blizzard, my supplies of fresh milk, eggs, fresh cider, meat and other staples have dwindled down to nil, and our fridge is pitifully bare. Normally, at this juncture, I’m faced with the quandary: Do I bundle up, shovel out and brave the unplowed back roads so that I can then fight the crowds at Whole Foods or Stew’s? Not anymore, thanks to Graze (grazedelivered.com).
Yoga devotees and newcomers alike celebrated when KaiaYoga, a complete wellness center, opened in Westport in June of this year. An offer to explore the new center with a deal called “30 days for $30”, enticed 2500 new students of all ages to take classes and explore this new studio. With 10,000 square feet and two thoughtfully designed levels, this location offers a large selection of yoga classes and wellness services for all members of the community. Now members and non-members alike can rejoice again. Husband and wife duo Stan Woodman and Gina Norman have finally opened KaiaCafe, an organic juice bar that offers a carefully edited selection of salads and wraps, in addition to freshly squeezed juices, boosts, smoothies and remedies. Over 20 organic teas are offered by the cup or pot, as are coffee, espresso and capuccino with any kind of milk you can imagine.
Sustainable, seasonal, local, organic, and green might be popular phrases these days among the media and the masses, but to those who truly care about where their food comes from, whether they contain pesticides and want to support their communities, these are very powerful words indeed. By buying locally, seasonally and organically, the consumer never has to worry about food recalls. More importantly, the consumers know not only where their food comes from, but get to know their farmers by name. These are the people who also truly care about the future of their children and of children for generations to come… These are the people who truly care about preserving the world around them.
Patti Popp of Sport Hill Farm is just this type of person.
Save the Date. Join CT National Organic Farming Organization to celebrate the 10th annual TASTE! ORGANIC CT 2010 on September 19th at Manchester Community College from 10 am to 4pm.
Experience the only LOCAL & ORGANIC festival in Connecticut offering a farmer's market, fresh prepared food, live music, sustainable vendors, artisans, free workshops and free kids activities!
Head Chef, John Turenne is busily sourcing the finest and freshest ingredients from Connecticut Farms to be on the event's menu. Three local celebrity chefs are designing recipes that will showcase our local and organic food. Chef John Turenne, fresh from his recent TV stint with “The Naked Chef” Jamie Oliver, will be cooking and running the NOFA Food Booth show.
You've waited all Winter. You've been patient. You've eaten produce flown in from countries far away, and had daydreams involving fresh blueberries. But now, your wait is over. It's time to rejoice with fresh local farm fare. The Farmers Markets are back in session!
Throughout the season, we will bring you coverage from Farmers Markets around Fairfield County, but we wanted to make you aware of an exciting culinary opportunity that can only be found at The Westport Farmers Market this Summer. Under the new leadership of "market master" Lori Cochran Dougall, this year's great roundup of 30 farms and vendors will be accompanied by a weekly "Guest Chef," and wait till you see the lineup. Mark your calendars people. I don't know about you, but some of my favorite chefs in Fairfield County are on this list. Don't miss your chance to meet and greet the people who make your mouth water.
The Westport Farmers Market will be held every Thursday from 10-2 at the Imperial Avenue Parking Lot adjacent to the Women’s Club through mid November. For more information about opening dates and vendors at the Farmers Markets near you, check out The Fairfield Green Food Guide.
Read on for the complete Guest Chef Program Schedule:
On Monday night, I joined the 1,900 person throng that descended on the new Whole Foods store in Darien for a "Sneak Peak Party." My two boys and I were treated to dozens of tastings, all from local vendors, that spanned the perimeter of the store, from appetizers to desserts.
First up was raw oysters, handed over by Captain Northrop, a local aquaculture farmer who informed us that the shellfish were pulled from the water in Westport just an hour-and-a-half ago. They were large, fresh and worthy of any reputable raw bar. Other raw offerings at the store include clams and other oysters, plus tuna, salmon, eel and shrimp sashimi.
We sampled sashimi tuna steak, served Tataki syle with Whole Food's wasabi aioli
One of the easiest ways to make Earth Day every day is to green your kitchen. Here are some delicious and fun ways to reduce your family's "foodprint" while eating well. You can also view some of Analiese's tips on this Channel 8 news segment.
1. Buy locally grown food from a farmers' market and learn to cook with the seasons.
Michel Nischan's (of The Dressing Room) latest cookbook is perfect for anyone looking for inspirational ways to cook with the seasons
If you discover sweet potatoes and spinach in your fudge brownies at Green Gourmet to Go don't be surprised. OK, you can keep that a secret from your kids because the veggies are not detectable in these moist, chocolatey bites or in the Blondies with a sweet potato base. The chocolate (anti oxidants a plenty!) masks the veggies and you will be better off for having added a few more to your daily intake. My fave desserts were the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and the almond oaties. They tasted most like what I would expect (read: crave) from a cookie. Imagine eating your veggies in your dessert! I didn't mean to jump to the end first but I was so enthralled by the ingredients list that I did exactly that!
Linda Soper-Kolton has been open in Black Rock for only 5 weeks but she is well on her way to establishing herself as a resource for healthy meals and nutrient dense foods.
Walking up to The newFilling Station Co. in New Canaan last weekend, you would have thought they were giving away free food. Lines of families snaked through the tight burger joint, all eager to sample the long awaited kid and price-friendly fare. But the huddled masses were not just here for a bargain priced burger. The Filling Station, with it's retro-modern street appeal, has a value proposition that is hard to beat for consumers who care about the food they eat. Everything served at The Filling Station is organic, grass-fed, antibiotic and hormone free. Let me tell you, devouring hamburgers, dogs, and shakes has never felt so right. For some parents (myself included), this is the holy-grail and reason enough to travel for a fun for the whole family meal, but I needed to sample the goods before I was sold. With the prospect of comparing these grass-fed burgers to those of the competition, we entered en masse with a party of 6.
It’s way too soon to change the name to Green Rock, but Black Rock is getting greener. Green Gourmet To Go, offering local, organic vegetarian and vegan meals, will open on Fairfield Avenue in April (yes I know the photo says March, but dates slip). The attractive little storefront, with its soothing celedon walls and coppery silk curtains will offer healthy and environmentally conscious hot and cold lunches and dinners.
Chef-Owner Linda Soper-Kolton was a lifelong food lover and dedicated home cook before she decided to attend the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City. The recent NGI graduate is inspired. She wants makes to make eating healthy meals easy and approachable.
“I’ll serve burritos, but healthy burritos,” she said in a recent interview. Think burritos filled with sweet potatoes, kale, black beans and grains. Her Dixie burger is made from black-eyed peas and sweet potatoes and served with chipotle sauce. Her hummus and avocado wrap gets punch and crunch from shiitake “bacon” crisps.
Sarah Galluzzo waits with great anticipation for the ground to thaw and the spring to arrive in CT. OK, we are all yearning for spring.... but her product depends on it! GourMom's USDA certified organic salsa and simmer sauce is her scrumptious creation. She is committed to using LOCAL and CERTIFIED ORGANIC ingredients for this chunky, choc full o'flavor salsa. As a salsa enthusiast, I was enthralled by her story and her product. We chatted at the Pantry in Fairfield, one of her retail outlets, and she explained about the launching of this super local, super delicious product. Her excitement was contagious as she shared her story.
In 2008 Galuzzo decided to get serious about selling her salsa and test the market. She had been dubbed "GourMom" by friends and family
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a means for consumers to buy a share in a farm's seasonal production directly from the farmer. Consumers benefit from buying local, farm fresh, high quality produce at an attractive price and farmers benefit from pre-selling the harvest. It’s a clear win-win. CSA members typically pick up their weekly shares at the farm or a location in their community, but a new CSA option is delivered to your door! Community pick up locations generally involve a small volunteer commitment, perhaps two hours per season, during which the site is readied and broken down for weekly share distribution. CSA membership is not for everyone because in such a partnership arrangement, the consumer shares both the bounty of the farm's harvest and some of the risks inherent in farming.
We have lost so much farmland in Connecticut that less than one percent of our residents earn a living by farming. Eat well, support your local farmer and do your bit to preserve farmland by buying a CSA share in one of our precious organic or IPM (Integrated Pest Management)farms.
Back in January I announced that it was CSA registration month and shared that two organic farms were expanding and had opened their lists to new CSA families: Sport Hill Farm in Easton and The Hickories in Ridgefield. The CSAs from these two farms quickly sold out. The good news is that there are still a few CSAs open for new subscribers, but you should act quickly if you want to secure a share.
Last week, Analiese Paik, Editor of the Fairfield Green Food Guide, walked the CTbites staff through a sustainable dark chocolate tasting. We managed to consume (in very small pieces) 21 different varieties of chocolate...it was a very productive morning. Here's what you should buy for your loved one...
If someone had told me there were more than 20 different companies that made premium, organic and fair trade chocolate bars, I might have doubted the veracity of that statement. But there I was in Whole Foods Market in Westport, in chocolate heaven, scrutinizing the sustainable labeling on beautifully wrapped bars of Dagoba, Equal Exchange, Newman's Own Organic, Kallari, Divine and 15 more chocolate companies, each just begging to be chosen for the sustainable chocolate tasting I was holding with the help of CT Bites. I couldn't choose; they all had to come home. It was only fair.
We found this little info morsel over at The Fairfield Green Food Guide. All of you aspiring branding gurus, young and old...get to work.
The Farmer’s Cow is holding an Ice Cream Naming Contest for their 10 new flavors starting February 1 so start thinking of names! For those unfamiliar with this local brand, The Farmer’s Cow is a cooperative of six family-owned CT farms that supplies milk to retailers throughout Connecticut and parts of New York and Massachusetts.
Contest Rules:
You may enter up to 10 names, one per flavor, making sure that the names reflect something about farming and the benefits of local agriculture. Entries will be accepted online from 12:01 a.m. February 1, 2010. through midnight on February 14, 2010.
Ice cream flavors are: Vanilla, Chocolate, Mint Chocolate Chip, Strawberry. Cookies & Cream, Black Rasberry, Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter Cup, Cherry Vanilla, and Coffee.
One lucky entrant will receive a summer’s supply of ice cream from Memorial Day 2010 until Labor Day 2010.
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