Big news for a local baker whose career CTbites has followed from the very beginning. Westport basedNOTHIN’ BUT Premium Snack Bars have just announced that they have created a specialty blend granola bar for Le Pain Quotidien, an international chain of bakery cafes. Several months ago Nothin' But CEO, Steven Laitmon, and Jerri Graham, the founder and creator of the company, approached Le Pain with the idea of making a proprietary blended granola bar. Receptive about a Premium Snack Bar that could capture their commitment to excellence, the team at Le Pain readily agreed. Back home in Westport, Jerri and Steven set to work and started the process of crafting various combinations until they achieved what they felt was perfection.
Fall is here and Walter Stewart's Market, a fixture in downtown New Canaan since 1907, is celebrating the season with great products for your whole family. For those who haven’t shopped this local gem, take a a trip down the aisles of Walter Stewart’s Market, where you’ll find an amazing array of local, seasonal and specialty items...not to mention the Stewart’s wine shop. Finally one stop shopping.
How better to enjoy in these crisp Fall months, than with local apple and apple cider from Lyman Orchards in Middlefield CT or the exceptionally delicious Cider donuts from Blue Jay Orchards in Bethel.
With summer in full swing there are even more reasons to shop Walter Stewart's Market, a fixture in downtown New Canaan since 1907. This family run grocer features not only outstanding customer service and a great selection of everyday needs for your family, but also local producers and hard to find specialty goods in every aisle.
Can't get to the farmers' market? Browse through Walter Stewart's produce section where local CT farmers from Wagner Farm in East Windsor, Millstone Farm in Wilton, and Dzen Farm in South Windsor, are delivering the very best of the CT harvest. What's in season right now? Here is the lineup: corn, yellow and green squash, green beans, blueberries, apricots, sugar plums, and green cabbage. Beautiful beefsteak tomatoes will be coming soon.
The second annual Dine with Design will happen June 9, 2012, on the magnificent and incomparable grounds of Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan. With the tremendous success of prior year’s food presentations, the afternoon will again feature incredible tasting menus designedand prepared by some of the most renowned and respected chefs in America. Several of the chefs are featured in Darryl Estrine and Kelly Kochendorfer’s cookbook, Harvest to Heat and this year’s day and evening lineup will create one of the most delicious culinary experiences of the season.
The participating chefs include three locals, Jeremy McMillan from The Farmhouse Restaurant at The Bedford Post Inn, Frederic Kieffer from Artisan in Southport, and Tim LaBant from The Schoolhouse at Cannondale in Wilton; two chefs from Cambridge, MA, Tony Maws from Craigie on Main and Ana Sortun from Oleana; plus Missy Robbins from A Voce in New York City and Gabriel Rucker from Le Pigeon in Portland, OR. The last two of the featured chefs, Missy Robbins and Gabriel Rucker present two vastly different paths up the culinary ladder and as well as approaches in their current restaurants.
Cookies are, by definition, hard to resist. Fairfield resident Michelle Jaffee has made resistance even more difficult with her new line of cookies, Sweet & Simple, adorable in their individual cellophane wrappers, brown and white labels and retro daisy logo. What’s more, the label proclaims, they’re “baked with love.”
We at CTBites like to support the local, entrepreneurial spirit. (Plus – let’s face it -- we don’t hate eating cookies.) So we set out to sample the sweets.
Wakeman Town Farm is giving local backyard chicken fans something to cluck about! Announcing the First Annual Wakeman Town Farm Chicken Coop Tour, in which local chicken coop owners in Westport and lower Weston will open their unique henhouses to the public.
Wakeman Town Farm threw down the gauntlet to local chicken-keeping aficionados. We asked: Who wants bragging rights for building the Hautest Henhouse...the Cadillac of Chicken Shacks...the Coop De Ville? The result is Wakeman Town Farm's First Annual Chicken Coop Tour, Saturday, May 5 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., a fun-filled afternoon touring approximately 15 chicken coops in Westport and Weston and enjoying a casual After-Tour Sundae back at the farm, with ice cream generously provided by The Farmer's Cow!
Millstone Farm has just announced a few more workshops going on at their beautiful 75-acre working farm in Wilton, CT. For those unfamiliar with Millstone, heir focus is on rebuilding our food community through small scale agriculture, educational activities, and events. Millstone raises pastured heirloom breed sheep, pigs, and poultry, and grow vegetables for their CSA, local chefs, and family owned markets. They do wonderful events and workshops with top chefs and guest speakers. Here is the spring lineup including "Backyard Composting" and "Foraging & Cooking with Wild Edibles."
Training dates: Saturday, February 11th from 11am - noon and Sunday, February 12th from 12:30 - 1:30pm.
In this extremely popular program, your family will learn the science and history of maple syruping by being a hands-on part of the process. You will choose a tree at the Farm and hang your bucket that will collect sap. We will boil down the sap in our sugar shack and send each family home with their very own bottle of Ambler Farm maple syrup. Enrollment Limited: This program sold out quickly in previous years so please do not wait to sign up. The number of trees at the Farm is limited, so we are unable to accommodate late requests or wait lists. Classes are $60 per family if members, $65 for non member family. Register here + more information.
Middlebrook Maple Syrup Program
This 6 week program runs from early February through mid-March. Students in grades 6-8 will meet after school on Thursdays until 4:10. They will tap over 50 trees
Cato Corner Farm in Colchester, Connecticut produces a dozen styles of hand-made farmhouse cheeses from milk produced by their pasture-fed, hormone- and antibiotic-free Jersey cows. Elizabeth MacAlister, owner of the farm since 1979, began making cheeses in 1997. Her son Mark Gilman joined the operation in 1999 and is the head cheese maker.
They make cheeses four days a week at Cato Corner; Dianna Sadowski works as a cheese maker one of those days. She wears a white hair bonnet, long white lab jacket and knee-high shiny white rubber boots when she works, an outfit that underscores her role as scientist in the cheese making process. While touring the operation’s underground cheese cave–which was pungently acrid from thousands of wheels of cheese ripening–she described that cheese makers must understand microbiology, pH values, bacteria and ammoniating. “But, you have to use your senses, too,” she said. “You can smell when a culture changes. That’s an art.”
Liz Rueven is a CTbites contributor and the founder of a new blog, Kosher Like Me.
The Stand Juice Company opened a second location in Fairfield , CT five weeks ago and they are rockin’ already. Carissa Dellicicchi and Mike Hrizdo, the dynamic husband and wife duo behind the Stand in Norwalk (opened in 2006), complement each other perfectly.
Carissa is the cook and creative force and Mike is the organizer and funny man. They first met in Miami at a raw foods market and bonded over their love for organic vegetarian eats and their passion for exploring the connection between better eating and healing the body.
The Darien Farmers' Market opens in May and runs into November, offering a wide variety of seasonal edibles. The market appears Wednesdays on Mechanic St., tucked between the Darien firehouse on the Post Rd. and the Goodwives shopping center. Berries and seedlings start off the year when a trip to the market requires outerwear, and week by week, the cornucopia fills to overflowing with tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, celeriac, kohlrabi, meats, cheeses, baked goods and brussels sprouts - still on the stalk and looking like some type of Aztec war club - by the time jackets are again required pre-dining wear.
Prepare to get sticky at Ambler Farm's Honey Bee Jamboree, September 17, 2011 10:00 am - 3:00 pm. This event is being presented by the Backyard Beekkeepers Association with a bevy of family friendly activities include hive observation, honey tasting, honey extracting, candle roll ing, honey ice cream making, face painting, children's activities, bee products and more. All of these bee encounters will be led by the master beekeepers of the Backyard Beekeeper Association.
The past few years have seen a spike in the amount and popularity of Farmers’ Markets, and the New Canaan Farmers' Market is no exception. Every Saturday morning from May through November vendors and townspeople crowd into (and around) the Municipal Parking Lot across from the town library. They come here to shop for local produce, pick up breakfast or lunch, and mingle with family, friends, acquaintances and strangers. The market is still small compared to others in the area, but the number of vendors and buzz around it is on the rise as more and more people seek quality, fresh food and want to know where it comes from.
As the July sun softened beneath the vineyard, diners gathered in Simsbury on Thursday night to enjoy another Chef to Farm dinner atRosedale Farms, in partnership with Max Restaurant Group. Now in its third season, Chef Scott Miller and the Max Chef to Farm team will delight diners with a truly local menu for another six Thursday evenings through October. View photo gallery here.
Each three-hour feast begins with a wine tasting reception featuring Rosedale wines. After the reception, stroll through the vineyard or take a hayride to an elegant tent filled with lights and music, set peacefully between the vineyard and the cornstalks. Past events have featured Bombster Bros. seafood from Stonington, pork belly from Rowland Farms in Oxford, and vegetables sourced right from Rosedale Farm. Guests enjoy four- to six- courses of local, seasonal ingredients, designed to highlight the best available that day.
Artisan, a "farm to table New England-inspired" restaurant opens tonight, July 13, 2011 at the Delamar Hotel in Southport, CT.
“We wanted Artisan to feel comfortable, as if you have been invited to enjoy a weekend in the country,” says Chef Kieffer, a native of Paris and resident of Fairfield County. “And we want the food to match the feel of the restaurant; a place that is casual and very comfortable yet that also reflects quality and excellence.”
Previewing the space during an opening party is a biased occasion, admittedly, but it’s also one of the best ways to understand intentions as well as gauge reactions. Dining experience non-withstanding, mission accomplished Artisan.
The Westport Farmers’ Market opened today with a celebratory vibe as late spring temps finally pushed into the low 80’s and bright sun pushed through the early morning fog. More than 30 vendors set up under their tents, arranging heaping towers of local produce and lovingly prepared food product as shoppers streamed in to resume their Thursday routines of shopping, eating, and shmoozing at this one stop al fresco mecca. Westport’s market, winner of BEST FARMERS’ MARKET for the third consecutive year in the annual BEST OF THE GOLD COAST AWARDS, has embarked on its sixth season with stricter guidelines imposed on market vendors. Lori Cochran Dougall, Market Manager, has developed 12 guidelines that must be met by both farmers and small food producers. These guidelines are accepted by all vendors and make the mission of this market clear: all edibles must be local, sustainable and healthy. What does this mean for shoppers?
Enjoy a bit of the Berkshires in our own backyard at the "Sunset Picnic on the Hill" @ Ambler Farm. Spread out your picnic blanket on the hill a la Tanglewood or join your friends under the tent for farm-fresh fare and live music as the sun sets over Ambler Farm.
The evening will kick off with a champagne greeting complemented by local artisanal food prepared by A Delicious Affair and homemade desserts. Celebrate our local harvest with the tasty menu below.
Woodsy, flowery and herbal scents wafted towards the entrance of AROGYA as I sought shelter from the cold drizzle of the damp, spring day. Part tea boutique, part apothecary, AROGYA is committed to providing the ultimate tea drinking experience to novice and devoted tea connoisseurs alike. There were two contemporary glass teapots filled with steaming liquid on the reception desk. I made a bee line for the golden hued warmth, placed both hands around the handsome ceramic cup that was offered to me and inhaled the deep, earthy flavor of Pu-erh. The knowledgeable and friendly woman behind the counter explained that I was drinking organic Yunnan Pu-erh tea leaves combined with organic ginger. She proclaimed it to be the perfect warming anecdote to the chilly damp day. She was correct.
