cultivating the capital foodshed seasonal | local | sustainable | artisanal
Charcuterie The Cure for What Ails You
Skinny Girl’s Got Nothing on Her PS7’s Gina Chersevani’s Lo-Cal Cocktails
The Inn at Little Washington’s
Patrick O’Connell
and other top local chefs let us peek into their drawers Exclusive !
f l avo r m ag s .c o m
Zen and the Art of Winegrowing by Jim Law
NOV / DEC 2010
Excerpt from Joel’s Salatin’s New Book The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer
cultivating the capital foodshed seasonal | local | sustainable | artisanal
Charcuterie The Cure for WhAT Ails You
skinny Girl’s Got Nothing on her PS7’s Gina Chersevani’s Lo-Cal Cocktails
f l avo r m ag s .c o m
Zen and the Art of Winegrowing by Jim Law
NOV / DEC 2010
The Inn at Little Washington’s
Patrick O’Connell
and other top local chefs let us peek into their drawers ExclusivE !
ExcErpt from JoEl’s salatin’s nEw Book The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer
Cheri & Martin Woodard Fine Country Properties
Rockville • College Park • Alexandria Columbia East • Frederick • Bowie Timonium Coming Soon!
Cheri and Martin Woodard have a passion for marketing fine country properties in Rappahannock County. Buyers and sellers have discovered our talent for finding the perfect match of property and client. Because our outstanding advertising and marketing captures the essence of exceptional properties, we have attracted a wealth of quality buyers. For this reason, many sellers have requested that we handle their properties privately, with no advertising. Contact us for a tour of fine country homes, land and other intriguing properties.
WWW.CHERIWOODARD.COM
CHERI@CHERIWOODARD.COM
Roy Wheeler Realty Co.
Sperryville, VA 22740
540-987-8500
school Belle Meade School provides an environment that encourages confidence, creativity, and responsibility in its students through a program which integrates academic excellence, mentoring, community, and sustainable living. Grades 6 - 12. bellemeadeschool.org • 540-987-8970
EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAM For boys and girls ages two and a half to five Discovery and delight are found in a gentle, supportive, childcentered environment. Enriching activities encourage children to be creative, self-confident learners. Our core belief is respect and confidence within oneself leads to happiness and contentment in the outer world.
farm Belle Meade Farm specializes in pastured livestock raised without hormones or antibiotics, including cows, pigs, chickens, laying hens, and turkeys, as well as organic vegetables. Here at Belle Meade, all of our animal products are free-range and the beef is grass-fed.
bed & Breakfast Our restored Victorian farmhouse is on 138 acres of fields, woods, and streams in a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains. Whole house rentals, group retreats, and longer stays are available. We love it here and think you will too.
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THoRNToN RiVeR GRiLLe & Sperryville Corner Store Gourmet restaurant and market specializing in local produce, meat, beer and wine.
Thornton River Grille www.thortonrivergrille.com 540.987.8790 Tues-Sat: lunch and dinner Sun: brunch and dinner
Sperryville Corner Store 540.987.8185 open daily 3710 Sperryville Pike Sperryville, VA
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Fe aTureS Find the table of contents for Terroir, our drink section, on page 55.
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Capital Charcuterie: Locally Grown & Ground We think the perfect gift is edible, locally made, and available online, so it can be shared with friends and family both near and far. Zora Margolis
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Small Is Okay In this exclusive excerpt from his new book, The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer, Joel Salatin argues that localized, multi-speciated, pasture-based farms can feed the world. Joel Salatin 4
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dePar TmenT S
THE BUTCHER’S BLOCK A
MARKET
BY
RW
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BUTCHER SHOP • WINE SHOP • GOURMET FOOD SHOP
local graZingS
Happenings on the Foodie Front From donuts to chimichurri, from food systems to sous vide, we’ve got news for you. And Green Grazings, too, because it’s not just about food. MELISSA FLYNN
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Flavor caFÉ
Restaurant 3
We are strong supporters of the slow food movement and our shop stocks from local farms such as Martin’s Angus Beef, EcoFriendly Farms, and Chapel Hill Farms.
1600 King Street, Alexandria, VA • 703-894-5253 • www.butchersblockrw.com
This Clarendon restaurant is getting attention for its farm-to-table menu, but the house-made bacon may steal the spotlight. PAMELA HESS
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arTiSanS & enTrePreneurS
High-Tech Production, Timeless Flavors
Local Ingredients. Transformed. occasionscaterers.com 202.546.7400
With two state-of-the-art organic greenhouses, Shenandoah Growers is bringing fresh herbs to the midAtlantic region and demonstrating how to grow commercial quantities of local, organic food efficiently.
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on locaTion
Wintergreen A quick guide to Wintergreen for locavores and “locapours.” JENNIFER CONRAD SEIDEL
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22 Flavor caFÉ
Poppy Hill Tuscan Kitchen Small-town values plus big city experience equals a farmto-table success story for Fredericksburg’s Poppy Hill Tuscan Kitchen. GAYLE PRICE
columnS 44
SeaSonal TaBle
Embracing Winter With Soulful Food These seven recipes bring out winter’s earthy, robust flavors.
40 These Are a Few of Chefs’ Favorite Things None of us needs more kitchen clutter, be we do need tools that make cooking at home more enjoyable and efficient. These farm-to-table chefs weigh in on the best picks. KATIE MCCASKEY & JENNIFER CONRAD SEIDEL
KIRSTEN PARMER
SYLVIE ROWAND
in every iSSue 8 9 50 80
From the Publisher Letters from Readers & Eaters The Guest List Advertiser Directory & Recipe Index
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Photo of desserts at the inn at little Washington taken by molly mcdonald Peterson.
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from the publisher
from readers & eaters
O
K
ne might think January and February are slow months on the local food scene, but I would disagree. I happen to think of the winter months as some of the most productive months in my year. It’s time to plan next season’s garden, enjoy your canned and frozen harvest while remembering the warm summer months, and one of the best times to share a meal with family and friends. Granted, there are fewer fresh fruits and vegetables to be had and many of the farmers markets are closed. But even so, it is a fantastic time to experiment in your own kitchen or even hit some of the hot local-food restaurants and see what creative chefs are cooking up during the less-fertile months. In this issue, we invite you to take a peek into some of the most sought after kitchen drawers in the Capital foodshed (page 40) and to meet some D.C. chefs who are making their charcuterie available through retailers and farmers markets (page 26). We also spent some time with two very different restaurants that are keeping us local all winter long: Poppy Hill in Fredericksburg (page 32) and Restaurant 3 in Arlington (page 18). Many of you may miss our Rebel with a Cause column this issue, but we actually have more of Joel Salatin in this issue, not less— you’ll find an excerpt from his new book on page 36. And we think you’ll get a kick from all the times charcuterie and bacon are mentioned in these pages. See if you can count them! We have a big announcement: Beginning with the next issue, contributor Pam Hess will become our new editor, and Jennifer Conrad Seidel will move to a new position as editor-at-large. Pam is an award-winning career journalist who covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for United Press International and was the intelligence and national security correspondent for the Associated Press from 2007 to 2010. (We hope her new position with Flavor will be slightly less eventful.) She can often be found shopping at the Eastern Market, near her home in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Finally, I would personally like to thank you for the outpouring of support through subscriptions and retail sales of the Nov./Dec. 2010 issue. Our readers continue to inspire all of us here to keep doing what we do and bring you the best stories this foodshed has to offer. Melissa J. Harris
udos on the stellar job with the new local magazine. I just wanted to let you know I am now a buyer of your magazine, in no small part because of your spectacular photography. That cover shot of the veal calf last issue [Aug./Sep. 2010] was a magnificent one. “Had me from hello.” The journalism is indeed good quality, but the photos get your readers’ immediate attention at newsstands—requisite for building your subscriptions! Best regards and best of luck, Barb Kavanagh Woodville, Virginia
MOM’s get a delivery from a local farmer whose products are expensive, small, or not handled with proper refrigeration. I don’t want to put such products up for sale at our stores, as it tarnishes “local” products in general. A local farmer who doesn’t run an efficient operation, hence having to pass along the lack of efficiencies to the consumers in the form of higher prices, needs to look in the mirror before casting blame on external factors. Scott Nash CEO, MOM’s Organic Market
Thank you, Barb. That photo was taken by Molly McDonald Peterson, whose work has graced most of our covers. We completely agree that her photography is spectacular! One of her photos won the Piedmont Environmental Council’s recent photo contest and is featured in the PEC’s 2011 calendar, available with a donation at pecva.org. —the Editor
JOEL SALATIN RESPONDS: Excuse making? Please reread the article, Scott. I’m not making any excuses. All I’m doing is suggesting that just because a restaurant calls itself organic and local does not mean it has a trustworthy business plan or treats its farmers well. I presented the article as simply a fact of life. Too often consumers listen to the buzzwords and assume all is well, and sometimes it is not. And if you’ll check our prices, you’ll notice they are the lowest of similar products in the mid-Atlantic region. This was simply an informational article. The fact that all businesses get taken once in awhile is a fact of life, but it is particularly inappropriate when done by a business that touts itself as taking care of local responsibilities. Too many people fawn over a slick brochure or language without realizing it’s easy to talk but hard to walk. And misperceptions are rampant. As to slick packaging and blemishfree industrial global organic trumping real-life local, I can only respond that this shows incredible snobbishness and lack of understanding about economics, ecology, and local food. This is exactly why industrial global organics can never actually displace industrial global mechanical food. But local could, can, and should.
J
oel Salatin’s column “‘Local’ and ‘Gourmet’ Does Not a Viable Restaurant Make” [in the Nov./Dec. 2010 issue] deserves a response titled, “‘Local’ and ‘Small’ Does Not a Viable Farmer Make”! Mr. Salatin seems to be making a simplistic and oh-so-convenient rationalization that because he has been stiffed by a few customers (three total) who have gone out of business, he is entitled to charge higher prices. I have no respect for this kind of excusemaking. Years ago, organic farmers used to use similar rationalizations when selling poor-quality produce—exclaiming, “You can’t expect great-looking organic produce because we can’t use chemicals like the big conventional farmers can.” Well, big organic farm operations such as Cal Organic and Lady Moon have proven that theory wrong, as have some stellar smaller local operators such as One Straw Farm. While some local farmers offer excellent product at fair prices, I cringe when we at flavormags.com
NOV / DEC 2010
Issue no. 14
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EdIToRIAl AssIsTAnT
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To contribute to this discussion or to see other comments on Joel Salatin’s columns, visit flavormags.com.
Send letters, suggestions, and questions to editor@flavormags.com JAN / FEB 2011
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local grazings
local grazings
a looK aT nova’S Food SySTem
molly mcdonald PeTerSon
HAPPEnInGs
A new report titled, “local food system Assessment for northern Virginia” has been released by FamilyFarmed.org in conjunction with the Wallace Center at Winrock International and funded by the Triskeles Foundation. The purpose of the study—which assesses the feasibility of building a successful aggregation and distribution system in the area around Washington, D.C.—is to offer insight to the business community and to promote the development of a local food system. The report is available online.
on the Foodie Front melissa Flynn
local food system Assessment for northern Virginia www.familyfarmed.org/virginia-food-system-assessment-released
Zee PerFecT SauSage Richmond’s Chris Mattera and Brad Hemp have a long history working in the artisan food business: Mattera is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and studied under a third-generation Tuscan butcher before managing Belmont Butchery for the last four years; Hemp spent the last few years working as a cheesemonger and wine buyer for several area retailers. Together, they formed sausage Craft, combining their talents to create small-batch sausages, terrines, bacons, all-beef hot dogs, and other products to sell wholesale to area restaurants and retailers. Striving to use the best ingredients available, they source locally raised, humanely raised animals and all-natural casings, and everything is free of hormones, antibiotics, and preservatives. sausage Craft (804) 354-0672, sausagecraft.com
HoT daTeS eric Kelley
SeiZe THaT donuT! Matt Rohdie and his wife, Jen Downey, have been making from-scratch organic donuts since 2007, offering their delectable treats to customers in and around Charlottesville. Traveling to local fairs, concerts, and other events in their mobile donut truck, called Gypsy, Rohdie and Downey strive to create a sublime donuteating experience for their customers. The donuts are made with local apple cider, and used frying oil is converted into biofuel. Carpe donut recently expanded to a storefront location in Charlottesville, and the owners are working toward a contract with 26 Whole Foods stores throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Soon, these delicious confections will be available to donut lovers up and down the East Coast. Carpe donut (434) 806-6202, carpedonut.argon.org
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WHo needS grocery SToreS? A new online buyers club is making it easier for those southwest of Richmond to get the freshest and best foods of the region. off the Vine Market, owned by Tess Schaffner, offers local delicacies and food direct from over 100 regional family farms. Sign up for a subscription and a “grab bag” of seasonal items will be put together for you each week, or shop a la carte on the website for items ranging from grass-fed meats, organic produce, eggs, artisan cheeses, and prepared meals. Pick-ups are arranged at specified locations; a delivery service is also available. seasonal Pantry is a D.C.-based business founded by Ali Bagheri and Daniel O’Brien, passionate locavores who want to bring seasonal, artisanal items to the Shaw neighborhood where they reside. Each month a different club is created based on what chef O’Brien finds in season. Past clubs included a soup club, an ice cream club, and a sausage club. About 500 members already participate, picking up orders twice a month at a specified location. The owners are looking for a space to set up a small retail market and sandwich shop.
The Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture (CASA) will hold its 12th-annual future Harvest-CAsA Conference at the Pearlstone Center and Kayam Farm in Reisterstown, Maryland, January 14–15, 2011. This conference is an anticipated yearly event for farmers, foodsystems advocates, agricultural experts, and researchers who seek to learn and share information about sustainability in the Chesapeake watershed. Workshops and speakers will teach effective sustainable farming techniques, how to better market farm products, and how to build your community around a strong local food system. The Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) will hold its 20th-annual farming for the future Conference, February 2–5, 2011 in State College, Pennsylvania. This conference, regarded as the best of its kind on the East Coast, seeks to bring together over 2,000 farmers, students, consumers, environmentalists, and community leaders. Wes Jackson, founder of the Land Institute, an organization devoted to developing stable agriculture, will be a keynote speaker. D.C.’s Field to Fork Network—a group of organizations working in the area to foster regional change in how we approach food—will hold its annual Rooting dC forum on Saturday, February 19, 2011. This free urban-gardening forum seeks to build communities through gardening and greening, share information and resources about gardening, provide opportunity for gardeners to focus on specific areas of interest within the city, create a database of community-based garden projects, and keep gardeners connected.
chef christopher edwards of the restaurant at Patowmack Farm
livin’ la vida loveTTeSville Jason Lage is the award-winning chef behind Market Table Bistro in Lovettesville, Virginia, a new farm-to-table restaurant in the heart of Loudoun County wine country. Originally from Minnesota, Lage has an impressive resume including time at the Lansdowne Resort, D.C.’s Jefferson Hotel, The Oval Room, and Michel Bras, a Michelin three-star restaurant in France. He is joined by business partner Rebecca Dudley, also from the Lansdowne Resort. The restaurant, which is situated in the heart of the agricultural community, aims to form relationships with local farmers and purveyors who supply the restaurant. Lovettsville’s The Restaurant at Patowmack farm was named Culinary Restaurant of the Year at the 2010 Santé Restaurant Awards, the only peer-judged restaurant competition in the country. Patowmack Farm began in 1986 when owners Beverly Morton Billand and Chuck Billand started growing fresh herbs and specialty vegetables. In 1998, the restaurant opened and has since been recognized for its commitment to farm-to-table dining and its elegant and delicious cuisine. Market Table Bistro (540) 822-3008, www.markettablebistro.com The Restaurant at Patowmack farm (540) 822-9017, www. patowmackfarm.com
farming for the future www.pasafarming.org
off the Vine Market 757-879-2242, www.offthevinemarket.com
Rooting dC forum fieldtoforknetwork.org/rootingdc
seasonal Pantry www.seasonalpantry.com
The future Harvest-CAsA Conference www.futureharvestcasa.org
JAN / FEB 2011
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local grazings
local grazings anoTHer Source oF HeaT For THe WinTer monTHS
cHeFS on THe move
chef collin donnelly and sommelier amanda Bertschi of the red Hen
The Red Hen (540) 464-4401, www.redhenlex.com
Kate Collier and Eric Gertner, owners of Feast in Charlottesville, Virginia, have started another business to create and sell Gaucho Green Chimmi-Churri. The recipe, developed by Collier’s father, is based on classic chimichurri—a green sauce usually made of parsley, cilantro, vinegar, and hot peppers, originally used by the gauchos of Latin America to tenderize their beef. Gaucho Green blends organic parsley and cilantro with extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, and a number of other ingredients and spices to create a truly unique take on the classic sauce. It can be used as a marinade, a dipping sauce (just add sour cream), or a condiment. Find Gaucho Green at WilliamsSonoma, Whole Foods Markets, or online. Several years ago, D.C.’s Brennan Proctor was put in charge of making hot wings for a potluck. Disappointed with most of the sauces he tried, Proctor created his own recipe—and his wings were a hit. Friends and colleagues were soon asking him to bottle his delicious hot sauce, and by 2003 he was selling his Uncle Brutha’s Gourmet Hot sauces at Eastern Market. Always made with fresh ingredients— including chilies, garlic, ginger, and various spices— these sauces have no preservatives or artificial ingredients. No. 9 is a zippy verde sauce made with serrano chiles, and No. 10 is a spicy red sauce with a depth and complexity not found in most traditional hot sauces.
fossett’s (434) 979-3440, www.keswick.com
Gaucho Green Chimmi-Churri www.gauchogreen.com
six B urner is k now n for b ein g a g r eat neighborhood restaurant in Richmond’s historic Fan District. Owned by Ry and Beth Marchant, and with chef Philip Denny at the helm, the restaurant prides itself on using seasonal, local ingredients in its menu and having an excellent, yet reasonably priced wine list. Now, Six Burner finds itself at the forefront of a new movement in cooking, becoming the first restaurant in Richmond approved by the state and local health departments to use the sous vide method of cooking. Sous vide is French for “under vacuum” and refers to a method of cooking in which food is sealed in air-tight plastic bags and submerged in warm temperature water to be cooked slowly. This method allows the chef to maintain the integrity of the ingredients, and the slowcooking creates exceptionally tender meat and poultry.
The Barbeque Exchange (540) 832-0227, bbqex.com
Uncle Brutha’s Gourmet Hot sauce (202) 546- 3473, www.unclebrutha.com
six Burner Restaurant and Bar (804) 353-4060, www.sixburner.net
The Red Hen, Lexington, Virginia’s first farm-to-table restaurant, is proud to welcome new executive chef Collin Donnelly and his wife, Amanda Bertschi, an accomplished pastry chef and sommelier. Both are graduates of the New England Culinary Institute, and Donnelly worked most recently at Blackberry Farm, a Relais and Châteaux resort in Walland, Tennessee. The Red Hen has gained praise for showcasing the bounty of local farmers in the Shenandoah region by creating a new menu each day based on what is fresh and in season. The wine list also focuses on vineyards that use organic and biodynamic practices to create “natural wines.” Dean Maupin, previously of the Clifton Inn, has taken the reins as executive chef at fossett’s at Keswick Hall outside Charlottesville. An Albemarle County native, Maupin’s culinary resume includes time at the Greenbrier Hotel, Metropolitan Restaurant in Charlottesville, and Tra Vigne Restaurant in California. Maupin takes over for Craig Hartman, who recently left Fossett’s to open the Barbeque Exchange in downtown Gordonsville, Virginia. Hartman and his wife, Donna, were inspired by pit masters they met over the years to open a real barbeque restaurant of their own. Meats are dry cured with secret-ingredient rubs and then cooked in a specialized wood-burning cooker. Side dishes at the quick-counterstyle joint include freshly baked rolls, homemade baked beans, hushpuppies, housemade pickles, and collard greens.
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For hours, special events & location information, please visit www.stonymangourmetfarmer.com or call 540-860-9090
JAN / FEB 2011
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WonderFul WaTercolorS Artist and botanical illustrator Lara Call Gastinger, a Charlottesville resident, produces detailed images of the natural world—paying particular attention to the small details of plants, from seed pods to roots, leaves, and flowers. Currently the chief illustrator for the Flora of Virginia Project, Gastinger works to create portraits that show plants’ unique attributes and the beauty of the botanical world. Watercolors are for sale or commission, and she is now selling greeting cards with her breathtaking images through her Etsy store.
Home-groWn SHirTS
lara Call Gastinger Botanical Art & Illustration www.etsy.com/people/LaraCallGastinger www.laracallgastinger.com
Taking a cue from the Buy Fresh, Buy Local movement, some art lovers in Charlottesville have created Buy Art, Give Art—a campaign to create awareness about local artists’ work. The campaign points people to directories of local artists and helps promote venues where local art is displayed and sold. Keep an eye open for the Buy Art Give Art logo at stores throughout the area.
Green Label Organic: Sustainable Threads in Floyd, Virginia, was created about five years ago by lifelong environmentalists George and Rain Lipson. Green Label seeks not only to provide top-quality T-shirts, but also to educate the community about organic farming and sustainable business practices. The company offers a colorful collection of 100 percent certified organic cotton T-shirts made in the U.S.A. George, a long-time T-shirt designer, creates each piece to deliver an artful message about supporting the environment, fair-trade practices, or sustainability. The Lipsons donate a portion of their profits to a different charity each month. Products can be found at various Whole Foods Markets, at select apparel retailers throughout Virginia, and online.
Buy Art, Give Art buyartgiveart.com
Green label organic: sustainable Threads (540) 745-6162, www.greenlabel.com
SuPPorT local arTiSTS
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EVERONA DAIRY Aged sheeps milk cheeses Nutty, complex taste
a healthy dose of romance this season... j j Deliciously decadent chocolate, including organic and fair-trade selections j Sensual massage oils j j Natural libido-enhancing supplements j j Earth-friendly Valentine’s Day cards j j Organic and sparkling wine j j j Lavish bath salts, soaps, and lotions j j Romantic aromatherapy candles j Gift Cards available! j
Look for prize-winning Piedmont, Stony Man (like Pecorino) Shanandoah (a Swiss style) Blue Ridge or Skyline (the camembert one with blue outside), and the specialty herb or pepper ones Pride of Bacchus, a wine soaked cheese, ready soon!
Ph: 540-854-4159 Email: everona@husghes
Barracks Rd. Shopping Center M-F 9-8, Sat & Sun 10-6 434-977-1965 www.RebeccasNaturalFood.com
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At Feast, Cheesetique, Kybecca, Whole Foods Vienna and Georgetown, many farmers’ markets, and discerning area restaurants.
JAN / FEB 2011
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flavor café Restaurant 3 was opened by the owners of Whitlows on Wilson, who brought over chef Brian Robinson (opposite, right).
Restaurant 3
Third-generation Washingtonian Brian Robinson has made a menu based on what he wants to eat. Pamela Hess Photos by Molly McDonald Peterson
N
orthern Virginians familiar with the honky-tonk charms of Whitlows on Wilson might be surprised to discover its locavore cousin in Clarendon—Restaurant 3. “We wanted to do something completely different,” said Jonathan Williams, who co-owns Restaurant 3 with his wife and her parents, who bought the original Whitlows in 1971. “This is the other side of the spectrum.” Family Tree Like Restaurant 3’s, chef Brian Robinson’s culinary roots are humble. A third-generation Washingtonian, Robinson’s first professional cooking job was at a suburban pizza place. From there he jumped to D.C.’s Georgia Brown’s, renowned for its modern Southern cuisine. He became the chef at Whitlows— beloved for its live music, cold beer and Sunday brunch—in 1998. When the owners decided to open a third, more upscale restaurant, he started experimenting. Restaurant 3 cures and smokes its own bacon from pork bellies sourced from three local farms. Its oysters—plump and fried crisp with black-eyed pea relish, brightened with lemon balm and pineapple sage grown in chef Robinson’s home garden—are delivered by the oyster farmers themselves. Cherry Glen goat cheese is brought straight into the kitchen every Thursday by the man who makes it. 18
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You Had Me at Bacon Robinson knew he wanted to serve as much food from local sources as possible at the new venture. Restaurants that tout the local provenance of their food can veer dangerously close to elitism, but in Robinson’s hands, it sounds more like populism. “We always wanted to support local, independent businesses because we’re local and independent ourselves,” he said. The menu evolved into what it is—what he and his sous chef Sean Mooney most want to eat and cook, versus what they knew would “sell”—after about a year of being open. Robinson subscribed to two separate farm shares so he could learn what was in season in the area as he began shaping his menu. But the local sourcing, and the switch to house-made bacon, started early, around month two. Bill Jones of Babes in the Woods, a pig farm in Dillwyn, Virginia, called. Would they be interested in buying some of his pork? The yes was instant. “We’ve always been pork centric,” explained Robinson. Although Jones’s small farm couldn’t keep up with Robinson’s need for chops or roast, his “pork belly was less expensive, and he had plenty,” said Robinson. The result is a meaty, salty-sweet marvel. “For three months we JAN / FEB 2011
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flavor café were making bacon and eating it all,” Robinson laughed. “But then we thought, we could use it rather than just eating it!” It will soon be offered satay style on a stick, daubed with his “magic sauce” to satisfy the hordes who saw a Travel Channel feature on his bacon in November and now come in to try it. Diners can also eat it wrapped around roasted pork loin, stuffed into a meat loaf with brie cheese, and as a topping on a beef and andouille sausage burger. They can drink it too: It flavors vodka for a house specialty— a bacon Bloody Mary.
Scallops & Asiago Grits SERVES 4.
3 cups milk 12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) butter, divided 1 cup stone-ground grits 1 teaspoon finely grated Asiago cheese ¼ cup vegetable oil 12 large scallops, muscle removed ¼ cup diced tasso ham ¼ cup diced Roma tomato 3 tablespoons minced garlic ½ cup white wine 1 ½ cups clam juice Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste ½ cup thinly sliced scallions
Sourcing around Restaurant 3’s grits are stone ground and come from Wade’s Mill, in Raphine, Virginia, a small outfit Robinson learned about from a corporate food company’s sales rep. The grits make a nutty, toothsome bed for seared scallops with Asiago cheese and diced tasso ham. Robinson does not yet make his own tasso ham, but he has begun making pancetta and has a leg of prosciutto curing that should be ready in January. On the recommendation of the nearby restaurant Willow, Robinson also buys from Polyface Farms, perhaps Virginia’s best-known family farm and certainly a leader in the local-eating movement. His Sunday suppers almost always feature a protein from Polyface—a deal at $17 a head for a set entrée and three sides, served family style. dreamS and realiTieS But sourcing everything locally isn’t feasible. “In a perfect world, you would do all local. We’re blessed here by a long growing season.
But you can’t just eat greens all winter,” he said with a smile. Co-owner Jonathan Williams acknowledges that the economics of serving local food can be a challenge. “A lot of people say they want an all organic meal but they don’t want to pay an extra two dollars for it,” he said. “But this is not a trend. It’s a movement, and people are coming to expect it.” Williams himself is sold on the farm-totable concept and confesses to fantasies of buying a farm of his own with a restaurant attached to serve what he grows. For now, however, he and Robinson have their hands full figuring out what to do with what each season yields. Autumn is Robinson’s favorite time to cook. Summer produce doesn’t need much from a chef, just a quick turn on the grill or a sprinkle of salt and herbs. Cool-weather crops, though, require a chef’s creativity and the meat needs long, slow braises. And one added bonus—this is when the pigs come in.
Your Original Hunt Country Inn
restaurant 3 2950 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington, VA (703) 524-4440 www.restaurantthree.com Pamela Hess became the editor of Flavor in January 2011. She was the Associated Press’s intelligence and national security correspondent from 2007 to 2010, covering the CIA, intelligence, torture, espionage, and foreign and military policy. Prior to joining AP, she was United Press International’s Pentagon correspondent and a war correspondent.
Whether you are looking for a romantic getaway weekend, an intimate dining experience, or a classic venue for your special event or meeting, our property provides the perfect setting. 2 e a s t w a s h i n g t o n s t r e e t, m i d d l e b u r g , v a 2 0 1 1 7 ( 5 4 0 ) 6 8 7. 6 3 0 1 w w w. r e d f o x . c o m
In a saucepan, bring milk and 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter to a boil. Slowly stir in grits, whisking constantly until they start to thicken. Reduce heat to low and continue to whisk until done, about 15 minutes. Whisk in Asiago cheese a few minutes before grits are finished. In a large skillet (or in two batches using a medium skillet), heat oil over medium heat and sauté scallops until brown on one side, about 2 minutes. Turn scallops and add ham, tomato, and garlic; cook 1 more minute. Remove scallops from the skillet and set aside. Deglaze the skillet with white wine. Add clam juice, reduce heat to medium, and cook until liquid has reduced by one-third. Return scallops to the skillet. Add 4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter and season with salt and pepper. Spoon grits into a bowl and top with scallops, sauce, and scallions.
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Find a recipe for restaurant 3’s bacon-infused vodka, which can be used in Bloody marys, at flavormags.com.
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artisans & entrepreneurs
Shenandoah Growers’ president and CEO Timothy Heydon first joined the company as part of an MBA project while at James Madison University.
High-Tech Production, Timeless Flavors As Shenandoah Growers raises fresh herbs in state-of-the-art greenhouses, it promotes cooking from scratch and creates new jobs. Kirsten Parmer
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Photos by Jill Taylor
ucked against the northernmost foothills of Harrisonburg, Virginia, sits Shenandoah Growers, an organic culinary herb company. Even during these gray winter days, state-of-the-art greenhouses glow and the clean, summery smell of basil hangs thick in the cold air. The artificial sun smiling down on the one-and-a-half acres of fledgling herbs in the largest greenhouse is controlled by a small weather vane perched atop one of the many warehouse buildings on the company’s compound. The instrument’s gadgets measure wind speed, joules of light, and precipitation and feed the information to a central computer. Based on parameters set to optimize growing conditions, the computer is constantly flipping switches to activate vents, turn on furnaces, adjust humidity, and control light exposure. Before fresh herbs became a competitive market—back when barely 1 percent of the population was using fresh herbs in their
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cooking—the founding partners of Shenandoah Growers saw a niche to be filled. With family land and an order from the grocery chain Ukrops, the company launched in 1990. Innovative and Organic After the unexpected death of one of the original founders, the remaining partner visited James Madison University in search of student assistants for a strategic-planning project. Timothy Heydon, who was then an MBA student, signed on and eventually became president and CEO, leading the company in double-digit growth year after year. “What the company needed at the time I started was to distinguish itself from the competition,” says Heydon. “We consulted some of the best minds in the world on organic growing and ultimately brought this greenhouse system to the United States.” The system is the only one of its kind in the country.
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artisans & entrepreneurs In season & fresh from the garden, the farm, the orchard or the woods
This trolley promotes uniform growth by gently touching the plants, and its sticky surface catches any flying insects the intentionally released ladybugs left behind.
noT a Seed WaSTed It starts with an automated seeding line, where pots are dropped into a nursery tray and filled with a proprietary blend of biologically active organic soil. A conveyor belt delivers the pots to the seeder, where a template drops seeds into the soil. The pots are then irrigated and sent to a dark and humid germination chamber. After three to five days, the plants are moved to the main greenhouse, irrigated, and fertilized. Shenandoah Growers creates its own organic
fertilizer in an eco-friendly system for which it has the exclusive U.S. license. Plants take what fertilizer they need out of their growth trough. What remains is drained off, filtered, and reused. Everything stays within the greenhouse. Once a plant is in the greenhouse, automatic harvesters advance the lines of herbs, moving the youngest plants through as the mature ones are harvested at the other end. Shenandoah Growers harvests and starts tens of thousands of plants each day. Trol-
leys with yellow sticky tape and hundreds of rubber fingers take troughs to the end of the line and brush the plants to simulate wind and help create compact, uniform, hearty plants. The trolleys’ sticky front panels catch those bugs not already eaten by intentionally released ladybugs.
LAUGHING DUCK GARDENS & COOKERY
Dinner Parties & Small Events
local TieS The company’s technological innovation and sustainable methods not only create uniform, high-quality plants year round, but also demonstrate one way of growing commercial quantities of fresh, local food. It would take nearly 50 acres of outside land to replicate what these four or five acres of greenhouse space produce—and the greenhouses run year-round. Some product is grown outdoors, however. Of the 54 acres on the property, about 20 are currently in production. Several local organic family farms also grow as much as 25 percent of Shenandoah Growers’ weekly output during the summer. Working with
With the company’s recent expansion it now employs more than 150 people.
Personal Chef Services
the company helps provide farmers with extra income and enables them to diversify their farms.
A Simple Step to Better HeAltH Our unique refining process makes this the purest Rice Bran Oil in the market
STrong groWTH These days, less than 10 percent of consumers use fresh herbs on a regular basis; this rises to 40 percent on special occasions, like Thanksgiving. Even with the opening of a second greenhouse that doubled on-site productivity, Shenandoah Growers, which employs more than 150 people, still has big growth potential for reaching new customers. Because the company is committed to freshness and regional food, it ships only as far as their trucks can drive in a day. That means its products—from chives to edible flowers to arugula—can be found in most supermarket chains throughout the midAtlantic. CEO Heydon and Philip Karp, vice president of sales and marketing, dream of replicating this production model in other locations across the country. “Maybe in 10 years, you’ll see us with a regional center in Indiana or California,” says Karp.
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(Frying, Baking, Salad Dressings, Grilling)
Harrisonburg, VA www.freshherbs.com
To learn about pairing wines with herbs, read sommelier Mary Watson-DeLauder’s “Herbal influences” at flavormags.com.
For store locations visit our website
www.suriny-usa.com
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Kirsten Parmer is a freelance designer and writer and was a contributor to the Shenandoah Valley’s Eightyone Magazine.
Seasonal food is our passion. Sharing it our goal.
540.675.3725 LaughingDuckGardens.com In Washington, VA Serving Rappahannock & Neighboring Counties
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Capital Charcuterie
Locally Grown & Ground If you want to bring locally made charcuterie home, you don’t need to ask for a doggy bag at the restaurant. These chefs-turned-charcutiers have gone retail. Zora margolis Photos by Katharine Hauschka
robert Wiedmaier (left) and chef de cuisine chris Watson
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f you are an American over the age of 35, the closest you probably ever got to charcuterie growing up was Oscar Mayer lunch meat. In those days, Americans may have heard of pâté de foie gras, but they had never tasted it. In France, charcuterie has been considered a culinary art since the 15th century; the word charcuterie is derived from chair cuite, the cooking of meats. It refers to a variety of prepared, cured, and preserved meats and meat products: fresh and smoked sausage and salami, terrine, pâté, rillettes, confit, galantine. As Americans traveled to Europe in greater numbers during the 1970s and 80s, they fell in love with the charcuterie they ate in bistros and took on picnics, and demand for these products increased at home. During the same years, the training of many young American chefs began to include stints in restaurant kitchens in France, and these chefs returned to the states with the skills to make pâté and terrine. So-called house-made charcuterie can be found on menus of restaurants whose chefs obtain whole animals from local farmers and follow the nose-to-tail philosophy, an approach that is popular among locavores. Until recently, however, most charcuterie has been imported from Europe or manufactured by large-scale producers in far-away states. Now, residents of the Capital foodshed don’t have to go to a restaurant to find locally made charcuterie of the highest quality. These D.C.-area chefs are making a wide variety of world-class charcuterie available for retail sale, using sustainably raised, local meat.
Jamie stachowski
Jamie STacHoWSKi STACHOWSKI BRAND CHARCUTERIE Jamie Stachowski grew up in Buffalo, New York, in a large, extended Polish family headed by his grandfather. As a young teen, Stachowski helped his grandfather make kielbasa in batches of up to 150 pounds at a time. Much of the garlicky pork sausage would go to family and friends, to be cooked and eaten fresh. Some was hung up to cure and dry in the cool, humid basement, to be sliced and eaten as a snack when the family gathered. At 15, Stachowski got a part-time job in the kitchen of an ItalianAmerican restaurant and liked it so much that at 16 he quit school
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to work there full-time. He gained more experience working in finedining restaurants in Boston and Martha’s Vineyard. On a lark, he and some chef buddies headed to Los Angeles, where he spent four years working for chefs Joachim Splichal and Patrick Healy, among others, before moving on to New York and Le Perigord. While still in his early twenties, Stachowski was summoned to D.C. by the legendary chef Jean-Louis Palladin, who mentored a whole generation of chefs, many whom are now celebrities (Eric Ripert and Michel Richard among them). For Stachowski, the most valuable of the many benefits garnered at Palladin’s Watergate restaurant was meeting his wife Carolyn, who was working in the front of the house. They’ve been married for 25 years and have a grown son. The Stachowski’s opened Restaurant Kolumbia on K Street in D.C. in 2003. To provide a more varied bar menu and to manage his kitchen’s food costs, Stachowski began making charcuterie. Eventually, Restaurant Kolumbia became well known for its butcher board, a generous array of house-made pâté, terrine, and cooked and cured sausages. When a new landlord bought out the restaurant’s lease in 2007, the restaurant closed. Eventually, Stachowski found a way to do what he loves best: make charcuterie. These days, with his son at his side, he makes pâtés, terrines, and sausages (including kielbasa, of course) two or three days a week in a USDA-inspected butcher shop in Fairfax, Virginia. Stachowski gets his meat from a variety of sources, including Kunstler Pork in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and whole pigs from Papa Weaver’s Pork in Madison County, Virginia. He gets duck from La Bella Farm in New York’s Hudson Valley but is seeking a local producer. He’s about to embark on a major new adventure: traveling around the country with a History Channel film crew and interacting with farmers, ranchers, butchers, and chefs to create a two-hour documentary, Meat America. roBerT Wiedmaier THE BUTCHER’S BLOCK Robert Wiedmaier calls himself “a full-circle chef.” He comes by his old-school philosophy honestly. Raised in Germany by his Belgian father and American mother, he credits his mother for his passion for food. On road trips, they often stopped to dine at a Michelin two-star restaurant, Thermidor, in Hulst, Holland. Wiedmaier’s mother told the restaurant’s chef of her son’s desire to become a chef, and Wiedmaier was soon enrolled in Holland’s Culinary School of Horca. He apprenticed at Thermidor and then worked under famed Brussels chef Eddie Van Maele before coming to the Washington, D.C., area in 1986 to cook in several of the area’s finest French restaurants. European cooking academies and classical restaurant kitchens emphasize chefs’ butchering skills and the breaking down and use of whole animals, Wiedmaier explains, skills that were sorely lacking in American-trained chefs until very recently. Working with whole animals requires time, kitchen space, and trained staff, but the benefits include bones for making stocks, the foundation of soups and sauces; cuts for grilling, roasting, and braising; and plenty of flavorful but less-tender meat to grind with fat and to flavor with aromatics and spices for use in charcuterie.
CREATInG THE PERfECT CHARCUTERIE BoARd For entertaining on a buffet table or for a casual afternoon snack with friends, a well-selected charcuterie board expresses the generosity of the host and makes an immensely satisfying group nosh, accompanied by beer, cocktails, or wine. According to chef and charcutier Jamie Stachowski, these five basic elements make up a complete arrangement of charcuterie. Include something spreadable, such as pâté, terrine, or rillettes. Go rustic with a campagne made of pork, or elegant with venison or quail, or luxuriant with some foie gras, duck, or chicken liver. Rillettes can be made with duck, pork, chicken, or rabbit. Select one or two cured whole-muscle meats, sliced paper thin: prosciutto, speck, bresaola, country ham, or coppa.
In 1999, Wiedmaier opened his first restaurant, Marcel’s, on Pennsylvania Avenue in Northwest D.C., and it has been consistently rated as one of the finest in the region. In 2007, he opened Brasserie Beck near McPherson Square; and soon after came Brabo and Brabo Tasting Room in Old Town Alexandria. At the Butcher’s Block, a retail venue next door to Brabo, Wiedmaier sells fresh sausages like bratwurst, Louisiana-style boudin, pâté de campagne, duck liver parfait and rillettes along with cheeses, wine, and gourmet groceries. He also sells veal stock made inhouse and sausage casings for cooks who want to make their own sausages at home. Charcuterie sold at the Butcher’s Block is made in the Brabo kitchen by three chefs who have been trained by Wiedmaier. Wiedmaier buys 25 Randall Lineback veal calves a year from Chapel Hill Farm in Middleburg, Virginia, to serve in his restaurants and to use in his charcuterie. He buys Martin’s Angus Beef in The Plains, Virginia, pork from Eco-Friendly Foods in Moneta, Virginia, and all of the rabbits that Polyface Farms alum Matt Rales can raise at his of Grassential Farm in Potomac, Maryland.
nathan anda
Offer cured sausage in thin slices or bite-sized chunks: salami like Milanese, Toscana, finocchiona, or Genoa. Also incorporate cooked sausage. Choose a small variety of grilled, sautéed, or roasted sausage served warm for temperature contrast cut into bite-size pieces: andouille, bratwurst, fresh chorizo, merguez, weisswurst, knackwurst; semi-cured Portuguese linguiça, smoked kielbasa. Or serve mortadella or salame cotto cold. Provide a few condiments—whole-grain and Dijon mustards, cornichons or vinegar pickles, pickled vegetables, chutney, mostarda (a sweet-sour fruit- based Italian chutney), confited fruit, Cumberland sauce, saffron mayo, and lemongarlic aioli. And don’t forget plenty of crusty bread, rustic sourdough or baguette, and pumpernickel. Is your mouth watering yet?
naTHan anda RED APRON BUTCHERY Nathan Anda is emblematic of the new generation of American chefs who value craftsmanship. Born in New Hampshire, Anda’s family relocated to Charlottesville, Virginia in 1996. Anda took a job at the Ivy Inn, cooking under chef Angelo Vangelopoulos who then arranged several internships for Anda with chef Todd Gray at Equinox in D.C. The experience of making and tasting charcuterie under the guidance
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Wintergreen Here are tips for finding local food, wine, and beer when you’re hitting the slopes! laura merricKS
of these two veteran chefs convinced Anda that he wanted more formal culinary education—and that he wanted to learn more about the charcutier’s craft. Anda enrolled at the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, Vermont, in 1999. It turned out there were only two to three weeks of charcuterie training during the two-year program, but he learned how to break down animals correctly. The butchery education was particularly useful when—after three years at Equinox—Anda began working with whole animals as head chef at Tallula and EatBar in Arlington in 2004. He furthered his knowledge by participating in a workshop on fermented and cured meat at Iowa State University and by interning at the Fatted Calf in San Francisco. In 2008, Anda’s employers renovated Tallula’s large kitchen area, created a separate workspace, and added a walk-in refrigerator just for Anda’s use—enabling him to transition into full-time charcuterie making under the Red Apron label. All of the meats used in Red Apron products are sustainably and humanely raised at local farms: pork from Eco-Friendly Foods; beef from Roseda Farm in Monkton, Maryland; beef and bison from New Frontier in Madison, Virginia; and veal and goat from Pipe Dreams Farm in Greencastle, Pennsylvania. During the winter holiday season, pâtés and terrines are his most popular products, perfect for entertaining. During the summer? Hot dogs, of course. Bacon is a year-round hit. He also makes sausages and a variety of Italian-style salumi.
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Find a complete charcuterie primer at flavormags.com.
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is the season for snow sports, and if you’re not able to make it to Vail or Park City, you may be trying out Wintergreen, a tad east of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Nelson County, Virginia.
Stachowski Brand charcuterie www.stachowskibrand.com
The Butcher’s Block www.braborestaurant.com
A.M. fog 9264 Critzer’s Shop Rd., Afton, VA (540) 456.7100 www.amfog.net
red apron Butchery www.redapronbutchery.com
devil’s Grill Wintergreen Resort (434) 325-8100 www.wintergreenresort.com
Zora margolis has lived in Washington, D.C., since 1996. She is a frequent contributor to Flavor and co-hosts the farmers market forum on www.donrockwell.com, D.C.’s popular food lovers’ discussion site.
Greenwood Gourmet 6701 Rockfish Gap Tpke., Crozet, VA (540) 456-6431 www.greenwoodgourmet.com Veritas Vineyard & Winery 151 Veritas Ln., Afton, VA (540) 456-8000 www.veritaswines.com
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molly mcdonald PeTerSon
Wild Wolf Brewing Company 2773 Rockfish Valley Hwy., Nellysford, VA (434) 361-0088 www.wildwolfbeer.com
2773A Rock�ish Valley Hwy, Nellysford, VA | 434-361-0088 | www.WildWolfBeer.com
Jennifer conrad Seidel
devils Backbone Brewing company
devils Backbone Brewing Company 200 Mosbys Run, Roseland, VA (434) 361-1001 dbbrewingcompany.com
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on location
Wintergreen Grocers 2184 Rockfish Valley Hwy., Nellysford, VA (434) 361-2077
If you’re looking to grab groceries to cook at your rental, stop at Greenwood Gourmet, just off Interstate 64 at exit 107, A.M. Fog (short for Afton Mountain Farm Market Orchard and Greenhouse) at the intersection of Route 250 and Route 151, or Wintergreen Grocers, just before the turn onto Route 664. These stores stock local and organic produce as well as local dairy and meat products. Greenwood Gourmet has an extensive selection of Virginia wine; A.M. Fog has online ordering, so your groceries are bagged and ready when you arrive; and Wintergreen Grocers carries Trager Brothers locally roasted coffee. At the base of the mountain, you’ll find Wild Wolf Brewing Company, a brewery and home-brew supply store, and the Devils Backbone Brewing Company, which has a full restaurant and live music. These are some of the baker’s dozen of wineries and breweries in Nelson County that have been dubbed “the Red, White and Brew Trail.” Although Veritas Vineyard & Winery is open seven days a week, other wineries may have limited winter hours, so check their websites when you’re planning your trip.
When you’re on the mountain, take a look at the farm-to-table menu at the Devil’s Grill. New executive chef Josh Tomson is sourcing from local farms and artisans, including Shenandoah Growers, Dickie Brothers, Virginia Vinegar Works, Hungry Hill Farm, and Mountain View Farm. The restaurant may also have wine- and beerpairing dinners during your visit. If you plan to do some more exploring in the area, visit www.nelsonscenicloop.com to learn about the Nelson Scenic Loop and download the relevant Buy Fresh, Buy Local directories at buylocalvirginia.org.
veritas vineyard & Winery
To read articles about Blue Mountain Brewery, Devils Backbone Brewing Company, Hill Top Berry Farm and Winery, Virginia Vinegar Works, and Winemaker’s Notes written by winemakers from Veritas Vineyard and Winery and DelFosse vineyards, visit flavormags.com/onlocation.
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flavor café Ingrid and Scott Maher chose to open their restaurant in Fredericksburg because it brought them closer to family and to farmers.
Poppy Hill Tuscan Kitchen Poppy Hill Tuscan Kitchen is the star of Fredericksburg’s farm-to-table revival. Gayle Price Photos by Molly McDonald Peterson
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oppy Hill Tuscan Kitchen can be hard to find. It’s nestled off to the side of Fredericksburg’s William Street and down some stairs. But although it is understated both inside and out, it has a strong local presence and has even garnered national attention. After distinguished restaurant careers in large cities, Ingrid and Scott Maher moved to this historic Virginia city in 2005 to focus on family and start their own business. The move brought them closer to relatives and to local farms and helped them realize their farm-to-table vision. They chose the location because it reminded them of the basement restaurants found in bigger cities like New York. But Poppy Hill, hidden away in a historic downtown area, has anything but a big-city feel. 32
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The Best Ingredients In the beginning, they did a lot of sourcing for their foods online, says Ingrid, who runs the front of the house and selects the wines. Some favorite local farms include nearby Sneads Farm for vegetables, and Croftburn Farm in Culpeper and Mount Vernon Farm in Sperryville for meats; special purveyors also include Ryan Mooney, “the mushroom guy.” Now that Poppy Hill’s reputation has grown, farmers often come to them. While the Mahers have their customary sources for products, they point out that farmers will often show up with just-picked items for Scott, who is the chef. New dishes are often inspired by these items. “Sometimes,” jokes Ingrid, “the universe just aligns properly,” and the items they want or need materialize. But not everything JAN / FEB 2011
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flavor café Mini Mushroom Galettes 1 package puff pastry, thawed Olive oil 1 pound mushrooms, brushed clean and quartered ¼ red onion, sliced Salt and freshly cracked pepper 1 cup balsamic vinegar ¼ cup sugar 1 package of Boursin cheese A couple sprigs of fresh parsley, chopped Lay thawed pastry out on a flat floured surface and cut out biscuit-size rounds. Bake rounds according to package directions. Set aside. Over medium heat, coat a sauté pan with olive oil. Add mushrooms and sauté for 2 minutes. Add onion and cook for another 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside. In a sauce pan over medium-high heat, reduce balsamic vinegar by half and then add sugar. Bring mixture back up to a boil and then take off heat. Let cool slightly. Place baked pastry rounds on a serving dish. Scoop mushroom mixture onto each shell. Top with a dollop of Boursin cheese; drizzle with balsamic reduction and finish with chopped parsley garnish. Serve immediately.
is always available to them, so what then? It’s not just about local ingredients, but also about offering the best ingredients available at the time. For example, Scott makes a house sausage so he has control of the ingredients, flavors, and quality. He has also worked on the house charcuterie creating pâté and duck confit.
of doing business. Scott and Ingrid believe that “sticking to their cause” is the way to go. Their return customers understand quality food can be more expensive and have helped them reach the restaurant’s five-year anniversary. So what does the future hold? “Creative growth,” answers Scott: continuing to branch out creatively, more focus on growing the charcuterie at the restaurant, and more product and selection available to local chefs on the whole. They believe in the next five years more will be understood about the link between a fit, healthy lifestyle and local foods—and they predict that their mission will become more the norm than the exception. Scott shares stories about his grandmother, who made vinaigrette in her home kitchen long before it was in vogue to do so. Now the couple is sharing this family tradition with the future of their family and the locals in Fredericksburg. “Family is still the driver in our decision-making process,” adds the couple, who have small children.
Poppy Hill Tuscan Kitchen 1000 Charles St., Fredericksburg, VA (540) 373-2035 www.ciaopoppyhill.com Gayle Price is an avid cook, eater and food critic. When she’s not out eating, she can be found at home with her daughter, her boyfriend, a house full of pets, and a strong cocktail.
Indulge your Inner Gourmet & Satisfy your Inner Green! Serving the Community since 1975
Enjoy the Finest in Organic Local & Gourmet Products Introducing Fine Wines & Microbrews-Organic Local Kosher, too! Fresh Produce, Pastries & Artisan Breads Daily Imported & Domestic Cheeses & Delicacies Veggie, Vegan, Macro & Gluten-free Specialties Vitamins, Supplements and Herbal Remedies Unique Gifts, Cards, Clothing, Books, CDs and more...
www.bethesdacoop.org 301-320-2530 M-Sat 8:30-9 Sun 8:30-8 l
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6500 Seven Locks Road
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Cabin John, MD 20818
Poppy Hill’s intimate dining room is in the basement of a historical building in downtown Fredericksburg.
Seasonal Inspiration Offering seasonal items keeps prices at market value and new items on the menu. Patrons flock to the restaurant when pumpkin ravioli in a brown butter sauce with sage makes an appearance in the fall. A popular dish with locals, it is now available frozen for carry-out. Sunday-night gravy (which, for the uninitiated, is tomato sauce) made from fresh tomatoes and basil, short ribs, house-made Italian sausage, and meatballs served over Scott’s house-made pasta is also a menu staple. “Farm-to-table is a great match for Italian food,” Scott says. What’s on the menu this winter? “Root vegetable purgatory,” Ingrid teases. In the cold months, Scott creates some warming, savory dishes: veal chops with espresso rub, osso bucco, polenta, and roasted root vegetable lasagna with pumpkin filling are just some of the things you can anticipate seeing on the menu.
Celebrity & Commitment In 2008, the restaurant gained national attention when the Epicurious website (associated with Bon Appétit and Gourmet) included Poppy Hill in its top 10 list of farm-to-table restaurants—an honor that, according to Ingrid, “brought more awareness of farm-totable and sustainable foods” in and around Fredericksburg. It helps customers understand why Poppy Hill’s menu is the way it is and that, in turn, helps the core of their business continue to expand. This commitment has been tested during the recent economic downturn, but the couple resolved to stay true to their philosophy 34
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We Ship Artisan Cheese!
Handcrafted & Selected by the Cowgirls featuring the finest artisan cheeses Visit our cheese shop in Washington, D. C. at 919 F Street NW in Penn Quarter.
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Small is okay Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms proposes an alternative to the Shenandoah Valley’s poultry industry in this exclusive excerpt from his new book. Joel Salatin Photos by Molly McDonald Peterson
B
efore industrialism, farms were localized and seasonal. The ebb and flow of production and activity followed a pattern dictated by local economies, weather, and availability of nearby materials. . . . Compare that to today’s confinement turkey industry, which started just 30 miles north of our farm in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The only reason the industry started there was because an entrepreneur named Charles Wampler began raising turkeys in confinement. Eventually the breeding program at the USDA research farm in Beltsville, Maryland, developed the double-breasted turkey. By that time, the pharmaceutical industry was up and running to supply cheap medications so that the birds could be kept alive in extremely unhealthy and unnatural conditions. The entire industrial food system was only possible because of antibiotics for animals and pesticides for plants. Without those two things, these anti-nature production models would not exist and humans would still be dependent on multi-speciation, intricate relationships, and indigenous conditions. . . . Today, this industry completely dominates the local economy and community to the point that most people believe it is the local economy. But it has a tainted underside that is worth examining. First, it requires hundreds and hundreds of farmers to grow these turkeys. In the wisdom of the business model, as a vertical integrator, the turkey company owns the hatchery, the birds, the feed, the processing, and the marketing. The farmer signs a contract that requires him to supply a house and labor. In many cases, since the farmers don’t have the money to build a $300,000 footballfield-sized house, they mortgage the farm to borrow the house construction money. Often, this is borrowed from the turkey company, thereby giving two income streams to the turkey company: interest on mortgage payments, and turkey sales. This arrangement converts the farmers from autonomous decision makers to a completely dependent class of people—dependent on exports, off-farm inputs, and outsourced decisions. . . . The bottom line is that in my region, to disparage the poultry industry is akin to assaulting America. Good patriots agree: not only is this poultry industry good for our local economy, it is in fact the
foundation of our local economy. And to suggest anything else is to hate your neighborhood. If you suggest we may have been better off without it, you’re in favor of massive unemployment, bread lines, and homelessness. In fact, you’re a lunatic who must be silenced. . . . Nothing about the poultry industry generally and turkey industry particularly, as illustrated by Harrisonburg, is local. Most of the turkeys are not sold in Harrisonburg. Their feed does not come from Harrisonburg. The labor to process them does not come from Harrisonburg. The poop can’t be handled in Harrisonburg. The whole deal, top to bottom, has nothing to do with indigenous resources, markets, or labor. And yet, for all this, farmers are still lining up to borrow money to build poultry houses, viewing industrial poultry as a panacea and an opportunity to hold onto their farms. It pollutes the community, upsets the neighbors, clogs the schools and prisons, and turns farmers into serfs. Amazing. And the industry just keeps on building and growing as if in the perfect world, every square foot of the Valley would be covered with a confinement poultry house and we would become a septic tank instead of just a toilet. . . . Compare all we’ve talked about with the Polyface pastured poultry model. First, it’s seasonal. We aren’t burning propane to keep chicken houses warm. When it’s hard enough keeping all the people warm in a community, isn’t it strange to be keeping chickens warm? We let the season dictate the production time frame. Over the years, many patrons have begged us to raise meat chickens (broilers) through the winter. We have steadfastly refused. First, it would take lots of energy to do so. Second, we want a break. ... But what about off season? That’s what freezers are for. And they are a lot cheaper to run in the winter than in the summer. In areas where the winter would naturally shut down pastured poultry production, the seasonal cold makes storing in freezers quite cheap. As ambient temperatures drop, the energy requirement to maintain freezing temperature is less. A lot less than trying to keep birds warm in the winter. And although the body heat generates significant warmth, the birds must eat extra feed to have enough calories to give off heat. We process right on the farm. No late night interstate travels, JAN / FEB 2011
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spreading feathers all over the countryside. What a strange thing, to process the birds right where they grew up. Shouldn’t they all have to go to a megalithic concrete monument to the stupidity of man in order to be readied for eaters? . . . But doesn’t our system take way more land than the efficiencies of confinement factory houses? Not at all. In our system, the birds are out on grass, dropping their poop and eating grass plus grain. In the confinement houses, their grain has to be produced somewhere and their poop has to go somewhere. Even if our birds didn’t eat any grass and consumed the same amount of grain, the land required to grow the grain would be the same per pound as it is in a confinement house. No land difference there. Everyone needs to understand that radiating out from every single confinement animal operation, whether it be poultry, pork, beef, dairy, or guinea pig, an entire unseen land base supports it. You don’t see the corn fields. You don’t see the corporate offices. You don’t see the manure-hauling trucks and the acres on which the manure is spread. Our pasture-based model actually takes less land than the industrial model. But how can you feed the world? I think we just answered that. The land requirement is actually less. More acute is my presumption that globalist agriculture should simply not be practiced. We would actually have a stronger local economy, a stronger local social structure, a stronger local ecology, if Harrisonburg did not depend on exports to maintain its poultry empire. . . .
Certainly our localized, multi-speciated, pasture-based system requires more farms, more farmers, and more people scattered out across the landscape. But what is wrong with that? I can think of a lot worse situations to find myself in than being cooped up on a farm (no pun intended). I may not make lots of money, but I sure have a great office. Plenty of people cooped up in Dilbert cubicles working as cogs in a multinational corporate machine would give their eye teeth to be stuck on a farm if they felt like they could make a living on it. And that is partly what [my] book is all about. You can make a living on it, but you’ll need to think and act like a lunatic when compared to the presiding paradigms. I think repopulating the countryside with loving stewards is a great aspiration. I think it might even be a good national security policy. So would populating our homes with lovers of domestic culinary arts. What a joy to know that our farm isn’t dependent on foreign currencies and foreign resource streams. That it works right here, or anywhere. That it can empower a Kenyan tribe to feed themselves rather than make them dependent on my anti-community empire. That, folks, is the sheer ecstasy of being a lunatic farmer. Excerpted with permission from The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer, by Joel Salatin. Salatin—an internationally acclaimed farmer, conference speaker, and author—and his family operate Polyface Farms in Augusta County near Staunton, Virginia.
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These Are a Few of Chefs’ Favorite Things
SodaStream Penguin
Katie mccaskey & Jennifer conrad Seidel
Kuhn rikon Pirhana swivel peeler
Did you need ideas for how to spend the gift cards you received over the holidays? Did you make a New Year’s resolution to cook seasonally more often? Are you looking for something to give as a gift to the gourmet in your life? To find the best kitchen tools, gadgets, and appliances, we interviewed local food professionals throughout the Capital food shed. We asked them to name a few of their favorite things. le creuset French oven
Participating Chefs cathal armstrong, Restaurant Eve, Alexandria, VA Jeff Black, Black Restaurant Group, DC marian Burros, Food Writer & Cookbook Author, Bethesda, MD lauren deSantis, Capital Cooking Show, DC mike lund, Chef and Instructor, Staunton, VA Patrick o’connell, The Inn at Little Washington, Washington, VA mike Peterson, Chef and Farmer, Mount Vernon Farm, Sperryville, VA
microplane zester-grater
Tomas rahal, Chef-Owner, Mas, Charlottesville, VA James ricciuti, Chef-Owner, Ricciuti’s, Olney, MD Will richey, Chef-Owner, Revolutionary Soup, Charlottesville, VA donna Sharer, Toliver House, Orange, VA lodge seasoned 8-inch cast iron skillet
vaughn Skaggs, Chef de Cuisine, Market Salamander, Middleburg, VA rebecca Thomas, Chef-Owner, Kybecca, Fredericksburg, VA robert Wiedmaier, Chef-Owner, Brasserie Beck, DC
Around $20 W hen a sked to name a must-have item for under $20, five-star chef Patrick O’Connell chose a silpat silicone baking mat (12 x 16 inches, $28.99). “No kitchen should be without a Silpat. It still surprises me that many people don’t own one. I can’t remember what we did without it.” This choice was seconded by DC chef and restaurant owner Robert Wiedmaier. Another inexpensive but indispensable kitchen tool is a Microplane zester-grater 40
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($12.95), the choice of three chefs surveyed— cooking show host Lauren DeSantis, chef and restaurant owner James Ricciuti, and chefturned-farmer Mike Peterson. Ricciuti says, “The Microplane is great for finishing a dish with citrus, ginger, fresh horseradish, or even hard cheeses.” According to Peterson, “It’s one of the items in my home and professional kitchen that is always out.” Simple, high-quality tools were also on the list: culinary arts instructor and chef Mike Lund shouted-out his Kuhn rikon Pirhana swivel peeler ($8.00)—his is lime green. Tomas Rahal, chef-owner of Mas tapas bar,
called it a tie between a handheld metal citrus squeezer, such as the one made by Acmo ($11.00), and his Kuhn rikon garlic press ($20.00). “Both have served me for many years,” said Rahal, “and seldom need replacement.” Lund also recommended another classic, a lodge seasoned 8-inch cast iron skillet ($16.95), saying he would never cook eggs in anything else. Cathal Armstrong of Restaurant Eve also included this in his list, saying, “Most people don’t have them, but they are the best. It’s the old fashioned way to cook. You never wash it, just wipe it out with water.”
$200ish Products with everyday application won out over unusual specialty items in this price range. These items are sure to see heavy use in any home kitchen. For example, writer Marian Burros has her eye on a sodastream Penguin (starter kit, $199.00), a countertop appliance that transforms tap water into sparkling water or soda—great for personal use or for entertaining. Armstrong concurs: “Santa got one for my son Eamonn. It’s environmentally friendly and gives kids the ‘bubbles’ without the sugar in soda.”
Given this budget, Lund would choose not an appliance or a tool but a used copy of a hardto-find cookbook: Michel Bras’s Essential Cuisine, which runs about $350.00 new. Restaurateur-farmer Will Richey says he “could not live without” his le Creuset french oven (3.5 qt., $255.00). The Capital Cooking Show’s DeSantis shares a similar sentiment, naming the le Creuset castiron buffet casserole (3.5 qt., $270.00) as
her pick in this price range. Wine bar owner Rebecca Thomas also has a pot on her list— a Mami stockpot ($190.00). “Every cook needs a good stock pot,” she says, “and this one will look great on the stove too.” Tapas chef Rahal has a great slow-food pick— a Matfer stainless steel food mill (3 lb./ min., $218.25). “This has been with me for many years and sees extensive service,” he says. “This does all my grinding and purees.”
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Belle Meade Early Childhood Program
For boys and girls ages 2 ½ through kindergarten. Children share discovery and delight in the outdoor natural world of the farm as well as in the classroom in a gentle, supportive, child-centered environment. Through exploration and balance of teacher-guided and self-selected activities we encourage creativity, self-confidence, respect for self and others. Monday & Thursday, 9am to 1pm. Bring lunch, water, and snack. bellemeadeschool.org/earlychildhood school@bellemeadeschool.org 540-987-9748 Teacher - Lynne McBride lynnemcbride@centurylink.net 434-985-6272
Sous vide Supreme
Big dollars When given up to $2,000 to spend, the most popular choice is a professional-grade food processor or mixer. O’Connell raves about the Vitamix Vita-Prep mixer ($560.00), which, he says, “has the ability to transform a soup or sauce, retaining its color and often eliminating the need for straining.” Peterson, who worked in five-star restaurants before becoming a farmer, notes that the Blendtec Total Blender ($599.00) is a great choice for home cooks. Toliver House’s Donna Sharer says a Robot Coupe food processor (base model, $587.00) is well worth the money. Ricciuti’s wish list includes a Cuisinart mixer (without attachments, $299.00). The other popular choice, recommended by both Rahal and Vaughn Skaggs of Market Salamander—is a warm-water circulating bath cooker, such as the sous Vide supreme ($500.00), which cooks vacuum-bagged food slowly and at a low temperature. Skaggs says, “Sous vide cooking extends the cooking process for hours without ruining the food, giving you more control and very tender meat.” Rahal explains that an immersion circulator is especially well-suited for cooking game like quail, partridge, and rabbit. Jeff Black, chef-owner of several DC restaurants, says, “Every chef that sees a Weber ranch Kettle ($1,499.00) asks for one.” This “Weber on steroids,” which has more than 1,000 square inches of cooking area, also meets Burros’s request for a large outdoor grill that takes wood and charcoal. A few chefs dreamed even bigger: Armstrong says that if money were no obstacle, he’d have a Le Conroe custom-built, hand-assembled stove, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Ricciuti asked for a greenhouse to extend his growing season, and Lund voted for a John Boos butcher-block worktable, which can reach $3,000 but, he assures us, is worth every penny because it doubles as a kitchen island and can accommodate a 100-pound pig or your child’s art projects. Katie mccaskey is co-owner of George Bowers Grocery, a specialty grocery in Staunton, VA. Jennifer conrad Seidel is Flavor’s editor.
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Weber ranch Kettle
cuisinart mixer
ENHANCED
You can find the recipe for The Inn at Little Washington’s chocolate crème brûlée (seen on the cover) at flavormags.com.
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seasonal table
emBracing WinTer WiTH SoulFul Food Swiss chard gratin
velvety Butternut apple Soup
Sylvie rowand
J
roasted delicata Purée with roasted garlic
spices. Simple enough for every day cooking, they can be dressed up for special occasions. Measurements can always be altered to your taste, and you should feel free to substitute ingredients to come up with your own version of the dish.
sylvie Rowand of Washington, Virginia, grows, forages, and preserves food; cooks for others; and teaches the pleasure of growing your own food and eating seasonally through workshops and her blog, www.laughingduckgardens.com.
velvety Butternut apple Soup cider-roasted chicken with rosemary rub Spicy roasted irish & Sweet Potato Wedges roasted delicata Purée with roasted garlic Swiss chard gratin
in SeaSon aPPleS • arugula • aSian greenS • BeeTS • Broccoli • BruSSelS SProuTS • caBBage • cardoon • carroTS • cauliFloWer • celery rooT • cilanTro • collardS • dry BeanS • endive • eScarole • garlic • green onionS • JeruSalem arTicHoKe • Kale • leeKS • leTTuce macHe • microgreenS • muSHroomS • onionS • ParSley • ParSniPS • PearS • PoTaToeS • PumPKin • radiccHio • ruTaBaga • SalSiFi ScorZona • SHalloTS • Sorrel • SPinacH • SWeeT PoTaTo • SWiSS cHard • TurniP greenS • TurniPS • WinTer radiSHeS • WinTer SQuaSH
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maple vanilla Bean Baked custard
cider-roasted chicken with rosemary rub
molly m. PeTerSon
ust because the weather is cold doesn’t mean you can’t eat fresh and local. Tomatoes, eggplants, and strawberries may be gone, but greens, tubers, and roots are plentiful. Hardy vegetables can be grown in the mid-Atlantic through the coldest months of the year; this area benefits from abundant sunlight in winter. With area farmers using unheated hoophouses to protect crops from wind and ice, we can enjoy a winter-long supply of just-picked produce. Other seasonal vegetables grown in summer or fall keep well in storage: onions, potatoes, winter squash, and dry beans, to name a few. While local fresh fruit is limited to apples and pears, the variety available is astonishing. Fruit and berries that were dried, frozen, or canned in summer are also an option. Although dairy and egg production decreases on those farms that let their animals slow down naturally—instead of forcing them to produce at artificially high levels—there is cheese, meat, fowl, butter, and lard to be had. And don’t forget all the locally produced flours, jams and pickles! Embrace the earthy and robust flavors of winter. Roast vegetables to aromatic goodness. Braise a chuck roast until it falls apart. Weave fragrant spices into your cooking. Bake a chicken with local cider until its skin turns golden. Make silky or hearty soups. Fill the house with savory smells wafting from the kitchen, and gather friends and family around honest, delicious home-cooked food—for comfort and good cheer. No occasion needed. These seasonal recipes combine winter products with easy-to-find
ginger ice cream with Sautéed asian Pears
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Spicy roasted irish & Sweet Potato Wedges
maple vanilla Bean Baked custard ginger ice cream with Sautéed asian Pears
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seasonal table Velvety Butternut Apple Soup
Salt and pepper to taste
Although very creamy in texture, this velvety soup has no dairy. The secret? Slow-cooked onions, red potatoes, and a very good chicken broth! And for a twist, use apples. There is indeed no reason to reserve apples only for dessert: their mild sweet-tart taste lightens up a savory dish very nicely and brings an additional layer of flavor. To dress the soup up for a special occasion, drizzle a few drops of truffle oil on top of each serving. Inhale. Sip.
Drops of truffle oil or pumpkin-seed oil (optional) for garnish
SERVES 4 AS A LIGHT MAIN DISH, 8 AS AN APPETIZER.
1 medium butternut squash, about 2 pounds, halved lengthwise and seeds removed 2 large yellow onions, sliced 4 tablespoons olive oil 1 piece of ginger, about 1 inch long, peeled and minced 2 medium red potatoes, scrubbed 4 small apples (or 2 large) with a tart undertone, such as Rome or Pink Lady 2 quarts good-quality chicken broth, preferably homemade
Preheat oven to 400 F. Place butternut squash face down in a shallow ovenproof dish with ¼ inch water at the bottom. Bake 20 to 30 minutes, until fairly easily pierced. (It does not have to cook fully as it will cook more with the soup.) Remove from the oven, let cool until you can handle, peel the skin off, and cut in chunks. While the squash is roasting, heat a thickbottom Dutch oven on medium heat, add oil, and then add sliced onions. Lower heat and cook slowly for 20 to 30 minutes—the longer the better—stirring occasionally. (The onions should “sweat”—they should not brown, just become translucent and very limp. If they start to brown, lower the heat more, stir well, and add a little oil if necessary.) Add ginger. Core, seed, and quarter apples and add to onions and ginger. Cut potatoes into small, even-sized chunks and add. Add squash chunks and broth. Increase heat and bring soup to a boil. Lower heat, cover, and simmer until potatoes are very tender, about 20 minutes.
Cool soup and, working in small batches, purée in a blender, processing until smooth. Add additional hot broth or hot water as necessary to help puréeing. Taste, adding salt and pepper as desired. Return to pot and reheat to desired temperature. For a special touch, drizzle with a few drops of pumpkin-seed oil or truffle oil.
SERVES 6.
1 tablespoon oil 1 medium onion, sliced 5-pound roasting chicken, preferably pasture-raised 5 gloves of garlic, peeled and inside green germ removed (if any) 1 tablespoon whole coriander seeds
Cider-Roasted Chicken with Rosemary Rub Since I read Julia Child’s instructions on how to roast a chicken in From Julia Child’s Kitchen well over 15 years ago, I have never looked back. Julia’s formula to roast a 5-pound chicken takes 45 minutes (7 minutes per pound), plus a few extra minutes (including 15 minutes in a hot oven), which always works for me. Spreading an herb-garlic paste under the chicken skin is a great way to add fl avor without fat, while the alcohol in the hard cider helps to brown the skin without butter. Perhaps use one of our local ciders in cooking—and then serve it to drink with the roasted fowl.
2 sprigs of rosemary, leaves stripped from the stems and reserved ½ teaspoon whole peppercorns ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt 6 small, firm, tart apples, such as Granny Smith 1 cup hard cider, at room temperature ½ cup heavy cream (optional, if making gravy) Preheat oven to 425 F. Oil a large ovenproof pan, arrange onion slices at the bottom, and put chicken, breast side up, on top of the onions. In a mortar and pestle, mash garlic, coriander, rosemary, peppercorns, and salt into paste. (If you do not have mortar and pestle, use a blender and add a little oil.) Starting at the cavity, carefully lift the chicken skin
all along the breast and the leg, sliding your fingers between the skin and the meat. Work carefully so you do not tear the skin. (This is much easier to do with a true free-range pastured chicken as the skin is more resilient and elastic than that of a chicken raised in confinement.) Smear the paste between the skin and the meat. Roast chicken for 15 minutes. In the last few minutes of this initial cooking, core and halve the apples. Take chicken out of the oven, gently pour cider over the breast, arrange apples around the chicken, and put it back in the oven. Lower oven temperature to 350 F and bake for another 65 to 75 minutes, until juices run clear or a meat thermometer stuck in the thickest part reads 165 F. Baste the chicken with accumulated pan juices two or three times while it’s cooking. After removing it from the oven, let chicken rest for about 10 minutes under foil before carving. To make gravy, carefully ladle out the accumulated juices from the roasting pan into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, and boil for about 5 minutes or until reduced by half. Add cream, bring to boil again, lower the heat, and simmer 5 minutes, until the sauce coats a spoon.
Spicy Roasted Irish & Sweet Potato Wedges They’ve got the name “potatoes” in common, but they are not even closely related. Potatoes (aka Irish potatoes) originate from the Andes mountains and belong to the nightshade family, along with tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. Sweet potatoes are closely related to morning glories and hail from tropical South America. Both tubers keep well for months, making them a staple of our winter cooking. SERVES 4.
3 tablespoons olive oil ¼ teaspoon ground cumin ¼ teaspoon ground coriander 1 teaspoon paprika ⅛ teaspoon of cayenne powder ½ teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (or ¼ teaspoon dried) 4 medium red-skinned potatoes, washed and eyes removed 4 small sweet potatoes, fairly round and about same size as red-skinned potatoes, washed and eyes removed
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seasonal table Preheat oven to 400 F. Mix oil, spices, and thyme in a roasting pan or rimmed cookie sheet. Peel potatoes if you wish. Pat dry and cut into eight wedges each. Add them to the pan, turning to coat with spices and oil. (If you turn the potatoes by hand, wash your hands well to remove any trace of the cayenne pepper.) Bake 30 to 40 minutes, until crisp and fully cooked, turning occasionally if necessary. Serve hot or warm.
Roasted Delicata Purée with Roasted Garlic Delicata are one of my favorite winter squashes: They are small, typically weighing 1 to 2 pounds each, they cook fast, and they are perfect for small families or for when you just want a little bit of winter squash. Their thin skin is edible, so there is no need to peel them—just wash them well. This recipe works equally well as a side dish or as an unusual, tasty, low-fat dip. Just adjust the quantities down for a dip and sprinkle a few pepitas (roasted and shelled pumpkin seeds) on top. SERVES 4 TO 6.
4 pounds delicata squash, scrubbed well, halved lengthwise, seeds removed 4 tablespoons olive oil 4 plump garlic cloves, unpeeled ¼ teaspoon cumin seeds (optional) ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional) Preheat oven to 400 F. Cut halved, seeded squash in wedges about ¼-inch thick. Spread oil in a rimmed cookie sheet. Toss squash and garlic gloves with oil and spread one layer thick on the cookie sheet. Sprinkle with cumin if using. Bake until squash is tender and starting to brown, about 30 minutes. Let cool slightly until you can handle comfortably. Peel garlic cloves and put in food processor with squash and cayenne (if using); process into a slightly chunky purée. Serve warm as a side dish; serve warm or cold as a dip.
Swiss Chard Gratin I lived in Provence in my late teens and early 20s. There I learned to prepare Swiss chard and other potherbs by parboiling, squeezing the liquid out, and chopping them. They can then be refrigerated or frozen until ready to 48
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use, be it in gratin, strata, stuffing, savory pies, or pasta. Today I even use Swiss chard in fajitas! Of course when you cook greens, their volume diminishes greatly so, no, two bunches of Swiss chard is not too much. If you want to omit the eggs, you can replace the custard with a béchamel sauce using butter, flour, and milk. SERVES 6.
1 tablespoon butter 2 bunches Swiss chard, washed well 3 eggs 1½ cups whole milk ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese ¼ cup bread crumbs A tablespoon of olive oil (optional) Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter a gratin dish and set aside. Prepare a big bowl of ice or cold water. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Drop chard, stems and all, in the boiling water; push chard with a long spoon down under the water. Bring to boil again and boil for 5 minutes. Drain. Dump chard in cold water to cool. Let sit for a minute or so, and drain again. Repeat as necessary until cool enough that you can handle with your hands comfortably. With your hands, squeeze as much liquid out of the chard as you can. Chop roughly and spread in the buttered gratin dish. Mix together eggs and milk; pour over chard. Top with Parmesan and bread crumbs. Drizzle with olive oil if using. Bake until puffy and slightly brown on top, about 30 to 35 minutes.
Preheat oven to 300 F. Bring a few cups of water to boil in a kettle; this will be used to set the custard. Warm milk in a thick-bottom saucepan until there are little bubbles on the edge of the pan (165–180 F). Meanwhile, whisk eggs and sugar in a large bowl. When milk is hot, pour it, very slowly at first, into egg mixture, constantly whisking to avoid cooking the eggs. (Use a hand whisk. An electric whisk will cause the mixture to foam.) Slice vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape off as many of the tiny black seeds inside as you can. Add this to egg-milk mixture. (Reserve vanilla bean for another use, such as flavoring sugar.) Arrange four individual oven-proof custard cups in a large, fairly tall rimmed pan, such as a brownie pan or roasting pan, making sure cups do not touch one another. Divide custard liquid among the cups and transfer the pan with the individual custards to the oven. Carefully pour hot water into the large pan until it reaches half-way up the side of the cups. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the custard is just set. The middle will wiggle slightly but continues to firm as it cools. Remove from oven. Pour 1 tablespoon of syrup on top of each custard. Let cool and served chilled.
Ginger Ice Cream with Sautéed Asian Pears We make ice cream and sorbet all year long using the fruit and herbs seasonally available. In winter, we use spices instead. Philadelphiastyle ice cream is our favorite style to make, as there is no need to cook a custard, and it is a breeze to infuse the cream with all kinds of fl avors. Ginger ice cream is wonderful by itself at the end of a rich meal, or you may pair it with an apple or pear tart for a twist on “a la mode.” Here we pair this Asian-inspired ice cream with sautéed Asian pears. YIELDS ABOUT 1½ QUARTS.
For ice cream 1 knob ginger, about 1 inch long 2 cups half-and-half 1 cup sugar 2 cups heavy or whipping cream 2 tablespoon of finely chopped candied ginger For pears 1 tablespoon butter 1 large Asian pear, peeled, cored, and sliced 1 tablespoon of sugar 1 tablespoon of lemon juice 2 tablespoons water
To prepare ice cream, slice fresh ginger very thinly. In a small saucepan, add to 1 cup halfand-half and heat until small bubbles appear at the edge (175–190 F). Turn heat off. Cover and let steep for 30 minutes. Add sugar and stir to dissolve completely. If necessary, heat the mixture slightly again just until sugar is dissolved. Add remaining cream and half-and-half and then chill (do not use an aluminum pan) for several hours or overnight. Pass mixture through a sieve, pressing hard on ginger to extract as much juice as possible. Process in your ice cream maker following the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer to a freezer-safe container for firming up, mixing in chopped candied ginger as you go. Freeze for at least 2 hours. To prepare fruit, heat a thick-bottom skillet large enough to hold pear slices in one layer. Melt butter in the pan. When butter is foaming, add pear slices, and sauté them about 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until they start to brown. Sprinkle with sugar, immediately add lemon juice and water, lower heat, and simmer 3 to 5 minutes until the sauce is syrupy. Remove from heat. With the pears still warm, fan out a few slices on each dessert plate, arrange one scoop of ice cream on top, and drizzle pear sauce on top. Serves immediately.
Maple Vanilla Bean Baked Custard Nothing can be simpler, and few foods are more comforting, than a good custard. It’s made with only a few ingredients, so get the freshest and best quality you can; it will really make a difference. Be sure to use maple syrup from Virginia’s Highland county, western Maryland, or Pennsylvania. And if you do not have a vanilla bean, replace with one teaspoon of real vanilla extract. SERVES 4.
2 cups whole milk, preferably organic 2 whole large eggs, preferably free-range ⅓ cup sugar, preferably raw 1 vanilla bean 4 tablespoons maple syrup JAN / FEB 2011
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Michel Heitstuman, Stan Feder
Ara Friedman, Jason Scott, Matthew Molli
Erin Hartigan, Amber Pfau, Nycci Nellis
Maddy Beckwith, Derek Brown
Todd Thrasher, Melissa Harris
Star & Neal Wavra
Carlton McCoy, John Wabeck, Rachel Martin, Todd Thrasher, David Hale, Derek Brown
Dwight McNeil, Brian Noyes
Pablo Solanet, Amanda Phillips Manheim, Mike Koch
Paul Stearman
Billy Klein, Alison Reed Deirdre Hamilton, Andrea Northup, Mae Cooper, Anya Legasse
Jeremy Siefert
Polly Wiedmaier, Melissa Harris
Darcy Bacon, Betsey Apple, John Brown
Aaron Weldon, Lindsay Weldon
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FreshFarm Farmland Feast
Dive! Screening and Panel Discussion
Slow Food D.C. Animal Roast
U.S. Capitol Visitor’s Center, Washington, D.C. December 7, 2010
Poste Brasserie, Washington, D.C. November 3, 2010
Photographer: Pam Hess
Photographer: Katharine Hauschka
Filmmaker Jeremy Seifert brought his movie Dive! Living Off America’s Waste to the U.S. Capitol to help bring awareness to the issues of hunger and excess food waste in our country. The film was viewed by politicians and the general public.
Guests at this event were served roasted meats provided by Eco-Friendly Foods and prepared by area chefs. The event was to announce Slow Food DC’s Snail of Approval program identifying “good, clean, and fair food” in local establishments.
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The Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C. November 1, 2010 Photographer: Molly M. Peterson
Sharon Dougherty, Joe Henderson, Reagan Duncan
Noah & Jenny Travers
FreshFarm Market showcased their farmers and producers at this annual f u nd-r ai ser. L o c a l celebr it y chefs prepared a five-course, seasonal dinner— along with local wine pairings from local celebrity sommeliers—for more than 350 guests. JAN / FEB 2011
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guest list
guest list Anthony Chittum, Andrew Bucalich, James Wolfe, William Artley
Brian Klein, Robert Gadsby, Chris Watson, Paul Stearman, Robert Wiedmaier, Marcel Wiedmaier
Marcel’s Full Circle Menu
Vices That Made Virginia: A Benefit
Washington, D.C. November 19, 2010
Woodlawn Plantation, Alexandria, Virginia November 6, 2010
Photographer: Molly M. Peterson Mollie & John Paul Visosky
Robert Wiedmaier gathered his chefs and producers to treat diners to seven spectacular courses at Marcel’s. Local producers and farmers showcased their talents and hard work in the ingredients of the night, from veggies to oysters to rabbit and more.
David & Nycci Nellis
Amber Pfau, Brian MacNair
Robert Wiedmaier, Steve Turnich
Mitch and Emily Rales, Amanda Rales, Matt Rales, Rachel Salatin
This fabulous autumnal feast was prepared by local chefs using local ingredients to celebrate oysters, bourbon, cigars, and more. All proceeds benefited Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Woodlawn, a National Historic Trust Site. Marjorie Tharp, Dennis Tharp
Marcel, Polly & Robert Wiedmaier
Holly & Bill Martin
Photographer: Tony Brown
Tony Barnard, Becky Dormady, Patty Smith, Paul Roberts
Steve Mulligan, Cristina Antelo, Gino Duba
Reagan Duncan, Virginia Norment, Kathryn Somrell
We start with the finest Italian Caputo flour in a hand-thrown artisan crust, top it with the freshest local and imported ingredients, then bake it in a wood-fired oven for a uniquely delicious taste. Wood-fired pizzas are just the beginning. You’ll also enjoy a full menu of inspired salads, sandwiches, and entrés. There’s a lot to get fired up about at Fire Works! • Open from lunch to late night 7 days a week. • Over 150 draft and bottled beers, including a couple of cask-conditioned ales. • A well balanced wine list • Superb specialty cocktails. • Plenty of comfortable seating. • Special diets always accommodated, including our gluten-free pizzas. • Visit our website for menus, entertainment schedules and special events.
AT THE CORNER OF WOOD-FIRED AND CRAFT -BREWED A R C B merican
estaurant,
afé &
ar
2350 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington, VA 22201
703.527.8700
FireWorksPizza.com
FireWorksArl.Flavor.indd 1
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Monticello's only winery to be served in the White House for the Governors Ball!
feATure
62 Something Old, Something New Jefferson Vineyards carries on Thomas Jefferson’s dream of making great wine in Virginia. natalie mesnard
ColuMNs
DePArTMeNTs
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FligHTS
Something to Celebrate in Virginia Sparkling Wine
melissa Flynn
Celebrate this Valentine’s Day and other special occasions with a fabulous Virginia sparkling wine.
drinK SeaSonally
Gina Chersevani of PS7’s
M ONDAY
HOLIDAYS
AND ALL
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AM -6 PM
(434) 984-4272
www.SugarleafVineyards.com 3613 WALNUT BRANCH LANE N O RT H GA R D E N , VA 2 2 9 5 9
Sherri Fickel & Kevin Kraditor
How do you enjoy your cocktail and stick to your New Year’s diet resolution? Ask the Mixtress.
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amanda Page
Choosing the right wine to serve with charcuterie can be challenging, so here are tips for making the best selection.
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imBiBe
Pairing
The Charcuterie Board
The Spirit of Catoctin Creek
Henry reidy
Scott and Becky Harris created Catoctin Creek Distillery to produce small-batch, organic spirits in Loudoun County.
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Blind TaSTing
Happenings in Local Wine, Beer & Spirits
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Virginia has yet to settle on its signature varietals, which means consumers have a chance to taste many different wines and learn what they like best. nate Walsh
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groWing WineS
Zen Winegrowing To make truly great wines, vintners need to learn to trust their intuitions and observations. Jim law
THe gueST liST Photo of anti-ox-a-dent drink taken at P7’s in Washington, d.c. by molly mcdonald Peterson JAN / FEB 2011
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flights neW SToP on THe BreW ridge Trail Wild Wolf Brewing is a new home-brew supply shop and nano-brewery located on the Brew Ridge Trail in Nellysford, Virginia. Visitors can buy refillable growlers of the five beers on tap, including a Hefeweizen, American Amber Ale, and Imperial Stout. Homemade root beer, made with local honey, is also available—and sold in growlers. The shop boasts more than 800 unique items, including ingredients and equipment to make beer, wine, and soda as well as souvenir shirts, hats, and pint glasses. Even if you don’t brew beer or make your own wine, you’ll find many of the ingredients that Wild Wolf Brewing carries are great for baking and for making soups and sauces. Home-brewing demos are also offered in the shop every Saturday at noon.
in local wine, beer & spirits melissa Flynn
a Welcoming glaSS HouSe When Jeff and Michelle Sanders moved to the Charlottesville area in 2006 and discovered the thriving wine industry along the Monticello Wine Trail, they knew a winery was an ideal venue to showcase Jeff’s botanical skills and Michelle’s handcrafted chocolates. They established Glass House Winery in Free Union, where six acres of grapes are currently growing. The entire operation is geothermal, and efforts were taken to allow for natural humidity with little need for heating and cooling. A greenhouse full of tropical fruit, exotic flowers, and other plants is next to the tasting room. The winery offers estate-grown Pinot Gris, Viognier, and Barbera as well as the unique Meglio del Sesso—a chocolate dessert wine. In addition, Glass House offers wines that blend estate grapes with those purchased from nearby wineries. Michelle’s gourmet chocolates are also available to purchase at the winery. Glass House Winery (434) 975-0094, www.glasshousewinery.com
When sunset Hills Vineyard opened about two years ago in Purcellville, Virginia, it quickly established itself as an award-making winery committed to sustainable agriculture and environmental stewardship. Now visitors will fi nd 154 solar panels at the winer y — the largest solar panel installation to date in Loudoun County. Owner Mike Canney says the solar system will produce 50,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each year. The solar panels will work to not only ripen the grapes in the vineyard, but also generate the electrical power needed to run the winery. In addition, Sunset Hills was recently accepted into Virginia Green, a statewide program that seeks to reduce the impact of Virginia’s tourism industry on the environment.
Wild Wolf Brewing Company (434) 361-0088, www.wildwolfbeer.com
JenniFer SeTTo
THey’ve goT THe PoWer
ScoTTiSH-STyle virginia WHiSKey Founded by spirit enthusiasts Brian Gray, Joe Hungate, and Chris Allwood in 2007, the Virginia distillery Company seeks to produce high-quality, small-batch, singlemalt whiskey using traditional Scottish distilling methods. A new 15,000-squarefoot distillery is under construction north of Lovingston, Virginia, and is slated to open sometime next year. Guests will be able to visit the facility, view the distilling process, and taste the whisky. While the single-malt whisky will not be available on the market for a few years—it needs time to age—the company already offers a line of award-winning Eades brand double-malt whiskies, which are available in a number of ABC stores throughout Virginia. Virginia distillery Company (434) 325-1299, www.vadistillery.com
rigHT on TargeT Château Morrisette, an award-winning winery located off the Blue Ridge Parkway in rural Floyd, Virginia, is one of the state’s largest wine producers. Now, some of their wines are available in Target stores throughout Virginia—with plans to expand to North Carolina stores in 2011. Target carries Château Morrisette’s Our Dog Blue, Red Mountain Laurel, Sweet Mountain Laurel, and The Black Dog wines.
sunset Hills Vineyard (540) 882-4560, www.sunsethillsvineyard.com
Fun in FeBruary Two exciting wine events are scheduled for February. At the Virginia Wine showcase (Feb. 12–13, 2011, at the Westfi elds Marriott Washington Dulles), over 300 awardwinning Virginia wines will be available to taste and a variety of culinary seminars will be led by some of the area’s best chefs and sommeliers. At the Virginia Wine Expo (Feb. 25–27, 2011, at the Greater Richmond Convention Center), attendees can taste wines from more than 60 local wineries, attend pairing seminars, and attend the Virginia Governor’s Cup award ceremony.
Château Morrisette (540) 593-2868, www.thedogs.com
Join THe cluB Jefferson Vineyards, the award-winning winery located on Thomas Jefferson’s original vineyard site in Charlottesville, has announced its Wine Connoisseur’s Club. Because most of the wines are very limited in production, membership in the club is limited to 250 members. Each quarterly shipment of three bottles will cost between $55 and $75; the club will feature reserve red wines not generally available to the public, older vintages of Meritage, and some whites as well. The first shipment included the 2009 Chardonnay Reserve, 2006 Meritage, and 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon Vinland Estate.
Virginia Wine showcase www.vawineshowcase.org Virginia Wine Expo www.virginiawineexpo.com
Jefferson Vineyards (434) 977-3042, www.jeffersonvineyards.com Ben HernandeZ
Jason Burrus, head winemaker at Rappahanock Cellars in Huntly, Virginia, has created his own small-batch, private-label wines using grapes from various vineyards throughout Virginia. Anghel Wine is a unique venture, with the idea that while the wine style will remain the same (a red Bordeaux-style blend), the Virginia vineyards from which the fruit is sourced will change every vintage. This flexibility lets Burrus select the best fruit for the wine, refine the style, and offer customers something different every year. For example, grapes for 2008 Anghel—50 percent Cabernet Franc, 50 percent Petit Verdot—were sourced from Willowcroft Farm Vineyards in Loudoun County and Two Principals Vineyard in Fauquier County. The 2009 vintage is 50 percent Merlot and 50 percent Cabernet Sauvignon; the 2010 vintage is 50 percent Merlot and 50 percent Cabernet Franc. Burrus is producing about 100 cases of each Anghel wine.
naTalia BurruS
neW PrivaTe laBel virginia Wine
Anghel Wine www.anghelwine.com
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imbibe
Chuck, Charlotte, and Bill Shelton (L to R) have grown their parents’ retirement orchard into three businesses.
The Spirit of Catoctin Creek Catoctin Creek Distillery is a second-career couple’s dream come true. Melissa Flynn
Photos by Molly McDonald Peterson
S
cott Harris remembers his first experience with spirits at the tender age of five. His family spent part of his childhood living in Germany, where spirits were well-integrated into the culture and large meals were typically followed by a shot of Boonekamp—a bitter liqueur—to help aid digestion. All guests were given this end-of-the-meal digestif, including the children. Thus began Scott’s lifelong fascination with spirits.
Scott and Becky Harris (opposite) send leftover mash to a nearby cattle farm and used barrels to a local brewery.
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Taking the Leap Scott spent 20 years working in the software industry until he found himself burned out and ready for a change. “I was sitting at my computer one day and I thought, ‘I cannot do this for the rest of my life,’” he recalls. Fed up with corporate life, he brought up the idea of starting a distillery to his wife, Becky. “It was definitely Scott’s idea,” she says, “and when he first brought it up, I thought he was crazy.”
Becky suggested that Scott create a business plan for the distillery, believing this would be the end of the idea. To her surprise, after several months of extensive research and fine-tuning, Scott presented a plan. A chemical engineer, Becky had spent the last 10 years raising their children and was ready to get back to work. After reading the plan, she conceded and said, “You know, I think we can do this.” In 2009, Catoctin Creek Distillery was established and became the first legal distillery in Loudoun County—now known for its many wineries—since before Prohibition. The Harrises named the business after a local waterway, which in turn takes its name from the Native American kittoctin, meaning “place of many deer”; Catoctin (kuh-TOCK-tin) is also the name of a valley and a mountain. Creating the Spirit Once they secured a 2,000-square-foot industrial space in downtown JAN / FEB 2011
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TASTING NOTES Mosby’s spirit ($38.90) is a very smooth rye “white whisky,” with floral, cereal, and citrus notes. Awarded a bronze medal in the American Distilling Institute 2010 Whiskey Competition in Louisville, Kentucky, it can be used as a mixer or served on its own. Add a sliver of lemon or orange zest for a refreshing treat. Catoctin Creek’s best seller, Roundstone Rye ($38.90), is an oak-aged rye whiskey with notes of caramel, toffee, oak, and lemon. A rare organic whiskey, it is great on the rocks, neat, or in Manhattans. The Harrises use a secret combination of organic herbs and spices to make Watershed Gin ($38.90), a rye gin with hints of citrus, cinnamon, hay, and juniper. It is delightful in a gin and tonic or blended with your favorite mixer. Pearousia ($42.30) is a collaboration between Fabbioli Cellars and Catoctin Creek—Doug Fabbioli’s pear wine is distilled into brandy and aged in oak. The pear brandy has lovely fresh fruit aromas with notes of sweet caramel and vanilla. Pearousia is an extremely limited release; only 600 bottles were released this season. 60
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Purcellville, the Harrises had the space and equipment to begin making spirits. Despite his meticulous planning, however, Scott says, laughing, “I planned for everything but forgot to order product to run through and test the still.” Frantic, he called his neighbor and winery owner Doug Fabbioli, who promptly brought him 40 gallons of pear wine. “It was gorgeous the first second it came through the still,” Scott says. “It turned into a really neat collaboration with Doug and Fabbioli Cellars.” Pearousia, Catoctin Creek’s first fruit brandy, is the result of this collaboration. The next products they developed were Mosby’s Spirit, a rye white whiskey; Roundstone Rye, an oak-aged rye whiskey; and Watershed Gin, a complex gin made with a blend of herbs and spices. The spirits are smooth, clean, and delicious, and the line-up was quickly offered to the public by Magnolia’s at the Mill, a popular restaurant down the road from the distillery. Other restaurants, including Eventide in Arlington and The Majestic and Restaurant Eve in Old Town Alexandria, soon placed orders as well. The spirits are also available for purchase at ABC liquor stores in Virginia. going green Using local ingredients in the spirits—fruit for brandy comes from Fabbioli Cellars and Tarara Winer y—was just as important to the Harrises as becoming certified organic. “Organic was really important for us, because it’s a truly cleaner spirit,” Scott says. “People are amazed at how smooth and clean our spirits are right off the still. Organic spirits just taste better.” Going one step further, Catoctin Creek also became certified kosher. The owners are also proud of their “recycling” program. The 30-gallon oak casks used to age the whiskey, which by law cannot be used more than once to age spirits, are sent to Mad Fox Brewery in Falls
Church, which uses them to age porter and barrel stout beers. And the spent mash, a by-product of the distilling process, is sent to a local farmer who feeds it to his cows. “It’s free food for the farmer and a nice way for us to deal with the disposal of the spent mash,” says Scott. looKing aHead As a relatively young business, the Harrises like to think of Catoctin Creek as a momand-pop distillery. Becky oversees the dis-
“Organic was really important for us, because it’s a truly cleaner spirit.” Co-owner Scott Harris
tilling operation while Scott markets the brand and distributes the product. Expansion to a larger facility is in the works, and Becky hopes to create more seasonal spirits using interesting, local ingredients. With the spirits established in the D.C. region, the Harrises are looking to move the brand nationwide and to Canada, while still maintaining their high-quality, small-batch roots.
Catoctin Creek Distillery 37251C E. Richardson Ln., Purcellville, VA
Simple.Honest.Unique
Capturing the Essence
lifestyle portraits
(540) 751-8404
www.mJmphotography.biz
www.catoctincreekdistilling.com
melissa Flynn, Flavor’s editorial assistant, gained an appreciation for all things food and beverage while attending culinary school and working for several of the area’s best restaurants and caterers. She is also a food blogger and wine distributor in Northern Virginia.
Join me on .
Virginia/D.C. Molly M. Peterson mJmphotography@hotmail.com
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Something Old, Something New This outstanding mid-sized Charlottesville winery offers quality local wine, tourism, and a stunning view of historic land. natalie mesnard Photos by Laura Merricks
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chad Zakaib, who has been with the vineyard since 2003, hired andy reagan shortly after being named general manager in 2005.
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efferson Vineyards, as you’d expect from its name, is steeped in history. Located just minutes from the grounds of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s celebrated home, the winery represents the fulfillment of a dream that began in 1773, when Jefferson granted 400 acres of rolling farmland to Italian winemaker Fillipo Mazzei. Today, fine Virginia wines made with grapes grown on this original site are making their way into the hands of countless wine lovers, and curious visitors come to appreciate Virginia’s terroir in a tasting room that offers a beautiful view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
HiSTory leSSon Jefferson was excited by the idea of growing grapes in the New World. He has been described by historians at Monticello as America’s “first distinguished viticulturist,” though his new vineyard at Monticello was met with some difficulties: An unexpected frost killed off much of the initial planting, and the American Revolution provided an ongoing distraction. It wasn’t until over 200 years later, in 1981, that the winery was resurrected and transformed into a successful enterprise. The Woodward family, who purchased the property in the 1950s, and Gabrielle Rausse, the Italian viticulturist who has been called the “father of Virginia’s wine industry,” replanted 25 of the original 400 acres. The Woodwards still live on the property today in Fillipo Mazzei’s old home. Jefferson Vineyards’ reputation would not be what it is today without Andy Reagan, head winemaker at the winery since 2005. “We’re trying to realize Jefferson’s dream of making great wine in Virginia,” says Reagan, a down-to-earth wine lover who is eminently
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Jefferson does not use inexpensive concentrates from california but instead supplements its fruit with grapes from growers such as Flippan-Seaman’s Silver creek orchards.
qualified to lead the development of this small winery. He has been making and enjoying wine since he was 15, when he first encountered winemaking in New York’s Hudson Valley. “I spent a summer up there working in the vineyard, helping out in the cellar and the tasting room, doing odds and ends, and really loved it,” Reagan says. “I could never be satisfied sitting in an office just doing the same thing day after day.” After he graduated from high school, Reagan began working in wineries full time, including a two-year stint with the Williamsburg Winery, where he learned about wine production on a larger scale. Now he jokes with his friends that he’s the “next Thomas Jefferson.” Reagan lives right on the winery’s property with his wife, two-tenths of a mile from the tasting room and cellars. And he’s proud of his Southern heritage—he was born in Norfolk—and of Virginia wine. “There are a lot of good Virginia wines,” Reagan says. “Every winery has something that’s made well and tastes really good.” Like many Virginia winemakers, Reagan is making a significant contribution to the state’s wine industry as a whole by putting great vintages on the map.
old SiTe, neW WineS The wine at Jefferson Vineyards is purely a product of Virginia. A majority of the grapes hail from the estate’s vineyards and other vineyards in the Monticello AVA, which covers Albemarle, Orange, Nelson, and Greene counties. The rest are sourced from growers in places such as Augusta, Loudoun, and Westmoreland counties. The winery eschews the use of commercial fruit concentrates from California (which, according to Reagan, are used in blends from some Virginia wineries) in favor of an unadulterated Virginia product. He encourages his growers to “grow the fruit to make better wine,” even if that means a lower yield for a higher price. “I hope that there is some aspect of [each Jefferson] wine that is really beautiful, whether it’s the aroma, the fruit forwardness, a touch of sweetness, smoothness—whatever it is,” says Reagan. Balance is a key factor, as is longevity. When he first started tasting and learning about wine, Reagan visited the fabulously stocked cellars of winery owners he worked for, often sampling vintages that were 30 to 40 years old. Still, Reagan claims his true purpose is to make wine that anyone can enjoy. “My palate has been developed on really good older wines,” Reagan says, but that doesn’t prevent him from enjoying a bottle of rosé in the summer. “If something tastes good to you, just scream about it.”
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“We’re trying to realize Jefferson’s dream of making great wine in Virginia.”
award-winning winemaker andy reagan, a virginia native, insists that wine isn’t just for snobs.
exclusive part of its new wine club. Jefferson Vineyards is just as welcoming to the casual visitor as it is to the connoisseur. “Drinking wine is not a snob thing anymore,” says Reagan. “I mispronounce varieties and winery names all the time. I just want people to know that it’s fun.” And it’s certainly easy to have a good time there. A pleasant seating area just outside the tasting room offers a place to chat, and rolling green hills provide ample grounds for walking and enjoying the gorgeous mountain views. The winery is minutes away from Monticello, Carter Mountain Orchard, and the historic Michie Tavern; driving a few more minutes leads to downtown Charlottesville. It’s a beautiful place to enjoy an afternoon learning about Virginia history and tasting good wine, whether you’re a wine fanatic, a history buff, or just someone looking to spend a relaxing weekend near the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Winemaker Andy Reagan Reagan’s vision has led to accolades for wines such as the 2009 Pinot Gris and 2009 Viognier, whites that performed quite well in 2010 competitions, following trends that say these two grapes may be standouts for Virginia. The 2007 Meritage and the 2009 Chardonnay Reserve were also outstanding. Though wines are primarily available for sale in the tasting room, with some limited distribution in Washington, D.C., and New York City, the winery continues to grow, consistently selling out each year.
Jefferson Vineyards 1353 Thomas Jefferson Pkwy., Charlottesville, VA
THe WHole eXPerience Weddings and festivals are not held at Jefferson Vineyards— allowing the winery’s limited staff to focus on making the greatest wines possible—but the winery hosts plenty of events: Plans are in the works for future wine parties, special tastings, classes on wine blending, and a multi-course gourmet dinner paired with a barrel tasting. The winery has also been keeping a selection of unreleased reserve wines from 2007 and 2008, with plans to make them an
(434) 977-3042 www.jeffersonvineyards.com
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To see andy reagan’s installment of winemaker’s notes or to read about the winegrowers who supply Jefferson vineyards, visit flavormags.com.
Tastings of Charlottesville
“The Wine and Food Lover’s Ultimate Destination”
natalie mesnard farms, cooks, and writes in Richmond. She works for Amy’s Garden, an organic farm, and Savor Café, a small restaurant that sources ingredients locally, and strives to learn as much as possible about every aspect of food.
VIRGINIA WINE SHOWCASE February 12~13 Westfields Dulles Marriott
SAVE $10
per ticket online with coupon code
FLAV29
THE ULTIMATE VALENTINE WINE GETAWAY
TASTE OVER 300 AWARD-WINNING VIRGINIA WINES ENJOY CULINARY SEMINARS
Lunch Tue-Sat: 11:30 –2:30 Dinner Thur-Sat: 6-9
434-293-3663
www.TastingsOfCville.com 502 E. Market St. Charlottesville,VA 22902
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LED BY THE REGIONS BEST CHEFS AND SOMMELIERS
WIN 42” TVs
Tickets and accommodations now available at
www.VAwineshowcase.org
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loca-pour
Gina Chersevani of PS7’s
Drink Local... Experience Virtually!
D.C.’s popular mixtress creates irresistible low-calorie cocktails.
Join us... Online: www.tarara.com Facebook: TararaWinery Twitter: @Tarara Winery
Amanda Page Photos by Molly McDonald Peterson
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i n a C her s eva n i g r ew u p i n the kitchens of New York and was exposed to local and fresh ingredients, by her father, at a young age. This helped whet her appetite for a career in the food and beverage world. After obtaining her B.A. in psychology and fine arts from the University of Maryland, Chersevani landed her first martini-making gig at Penang in D.C. She quickly became well known in the district’s beverage community for her imaginative cocktail menus. She began consulting and helped design other beverage programs in the area, including those for 15 Ria and the Poste Moderne Brasserie. In 2006, Chersevani was hired as the master mixologist for Penn Quarter’s Rasika. Here, she began experimenting with exotic ingredients such as saffron, cloves, and lotus. In 2008, Chersevani ventured out of the district to become the “bar chef” for the Neighborhood Restaurant Group. While at the group’s main gastropub EatBar and its upscale restaurant Tallula, she earned numerous awards including Absolut Vodka’s Best Martini competition in 2008; her creations were also named the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington’s Official RAMMY Cocktail of 2008 and 2009. Chersevani—who was dubbed “the mixtress” by Mark Kuller, proprietor of Proof—can now be found shaking things up at PS7’s near Chinatown. She has teamed up with PS7’s chef-owner, Peter Smith, since 2009. Not only do they share an 68
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Tasting Room Open Daily 13648 Tarara Lane - Leesburg, VA 20176 703.771.7100
Curried Away
Anti-Ox-A-Dent
Chili Flip
1 ½ ounces Bluecoat gin
Makes approximately 6 nonalcoholic drinks. To make alcoholic, add 1½ ounces vodka per cocktail. It will still be “lo-cal”!
1 ½ ounces Stoli White Pomegranik vodka infused with Kashmiri chiles
2 ounces coconut water 1 smidgen (really) of red Thai curry 1 ounce fresh lime juice
1 ½ ounces lemon juice ½ ounce egg white 2 spritzes Angostura orange bitters
1 ounce sugar-free simple syrup (2 parts water to 1 part Splenda)
2 cups fresh cranberries
2 bar spoons of hibiscus tea
6 to 8 medium-size pears
1 ounce sugar-free simple syrup (2 parts water to 1 part Splenda)
1 sprig mint or rosemary for garnish
1 cup quince simple syrup (recipe online) Additional fresh cranberries for garnish
In a shaker ¾ filled with ice, combine gin, coconut water, curry, lime juice, and simple syrup. Shake until cold, and strain over a rock glass filled with ice. Garnish with sprig of mint or rosemary.
enthusiasm for local, seasonal ingredients, but they both have a flare for creating exciting food and beverage combinations. Ignoring the traditional notions of food and wine pairings, they’ve launched a food and cocktail pairing menu that is anything but traditional. One of Chersevani’s favorite undertakings in her current position, she says, is “creating this new movement of food and cocktail pairings, while collaborating with chef Smith.” In October of 2010, Chersevani received
In a juice extractor, process cranberries and whole pears. Double strain the juice through a fine mesh strainer. (It is important to remove the cranberry seeds.) Combine the strained cranberry-pear juice and quince syrup in a pitcher. To serve, pour over ice and garnish with fresh cranberries.
the coveted Star Chefs Rising Star award, presented by the online magazine Star Chefs. You can ask her about this prestigious award while sampling some of her latest “lo-cal” cocktails (a nod to “local” food), which have 100 or fewer calories. Chersevani loves to use local and seasonal ingredients—such as cranberries and quince in the winter— whenever possible, which cut back on calories, but definitely not flavor, in her drinks. So now you can drink fresh and local, all while watching your waistline.
In a shaker ¾ filled with ice, combine vodka, lemon juice, and egg white, and shake until frothy. Strain into a coupe glass. Spritz bitters across the top of the cocktail, layer the hibiscus tea on top, and swirl together to form a design.
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Find a recipe for chersevani’s cranberry-pomegranate ant-eye-oxa-dent cocktail at flavormags.com.
PS7’s 777 I St. NW, Washington, D.C. (202) 742-8550 www.ps7restaurant.com
amanda Page is a professional chef, wine expert, and world traveler. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York, she currently teaches food and wine classes at Culinaerie in D.C. and is the retail manager of Screwtop Wine Bar in Arlington, Virginia.
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winemaker’s notes
Nate Walsh Consumers should embrace this phase in the life of Virginia wine, in which almost anything goes. Nate Walsh Photos by Molly McDonald Peterson
Nate Walsh “stumbled” into the world of winemaking when he took a summer job at Horton Vineyards in Gordonsville, Virginia. He was already a passionate homebrewer and gardener, and working at the winery quickly became his chosen career. After three years at Horton, he was hooked on the business and traveled to the vineyards of Oregon and New Zealand to further hone his winemaking skills. Two years ago, he became the head winemaker at Sunset Hills Vineyard in Purcellville, Virginia. At the ripe age of 28, Walsh is already making a name for himself and his award-winning Virginia wines.
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i nema kers a re bori ng pa r t y guests—especially Virginia winemakers, and especially when they’re talking about Virginia wine. Besides not liking your beer, one is sure to challenge another within five minutes: “So, what are the best grapes for winemaking in Virginia? What are the grapes that are going to ‘put Virginia on the map?’” After that, there will be no dancing. The ice will melt, the shrimp will thaw, the celery will wilt, and the toilet will clog. But the winemakers will pay no heed. After that, they will spend the evening blathering about soil types, vine vigor, and barrel toast. This is not a new debate. Many feel that in order for Virginia’s wineries to be marketed as a world-class winemaking community,we must have an “image” or a type of wine to associate ourselves with—a focus. Napa and Bordeaux have Cabernet. Oregon has Pinot Noir. Argentina has Malbec. This is not simply a matter of choosing something that sells and making more of it. It is a long-term, trial-and-error process of weeding out what doesn’t work in the vine-
yard, doing more of what does, and always being open to experimentation and innovation. This process has been going on for centuries, in all winegrowing regions, and there is no way to simply bypass it and get on with the selling. Winegrowers must do the legwork; and by its nature, this legwork takes time. There is certainly no consensus among winemakers and winery owners as to what the “proper” Virginia wine is. I won’t propose one here, nor do I think there is just one answer. Generally, though, you see a strong varietal push toward Viognier and Cabernet Franc, or Chardonnay and Merlot, and wonderful stirrings of Norton, Petit Verdot, and so many others. There are brilliant red blends being made under the label Meritage or under proprietary names, and we cannot ignore that scores of Virginia wines being sold are sweet, or off-dry, or blended with other fruits. The large variety of wines produced in Virginia would fill pages and pages on a fascinating wine list. Many wines produced in Virginia, such as Norton or varietal Petit Verdot,
are hardly available anywhere else in the world. So here’s my observation: This diversity in wine styles is absolutely wonderful. It’s fantastic. You have so much to choose from, and, if you’re interested, you have the opportunity to learn a bit not only about diverse styles of wine, but also about what kind of wine you like. We certainly can’t make every type of wine in Virginia, but much of what we can’t make has already been accepted. There will be no great Virginia Pinot Noir. Riesling and Gewurztraminer will remain in the province of the dedicated few. Now we’re just playing around with what we can, and what we should, be producing. Need your light red? Try our lightly macerated Cab Franc. Craving a bit more oompf? Try this new Cab Sauv clone or a Syrah from a great year. Want a Sauternes look-alike? We do wonders with late-harvest Vidal. Trying to tickle your inner wine geek? Take a stab at Petit Manseng, Tannat, or Fer Servadou. Enjoy Rhône blends? Done. Raspberry Malbec? Yes. Sparkling Shiraz? I’m sure we’ll have it soon. I would not describe all of these wines as good. Some are misguided or roughly produced, but most of them are good, some are fascinating, and some are great. They are certainly not all for everyone, but I guess that’s kind of the point. I’ve worked in winegrowing regions where if you walked through hundreds and hundreds of acres, you would only ever see one varietal. “Would you like a Pinot, or a Pinot with a bit of Pinot?” “Do you have a Malbec?” “No, but may I recommend a Pinot?” Such a concentrated, focused, and intent effort is wonderful, and I look forward to the day when we get there or when we become a bit more tightly focused. In the meantime, I’m quite content to enjoy our journey. I encourage people to take advantage of the ambition and experimentation occurring in Virginia vineyards and wineries. There are some very interesting wines being produced here. As time passes, winegrowers will hone in more and more on the grapes and production techniques that provide the most consistent, highest quality wines; Virginia’s long list of wine styles will shrink as the wines get better and better. Undoubtedly, we will lose some of the more obscure wines being made now, so stop and enjoy this awkward stage of youth while you can. I await the point when, for example, Virginia is making Viognier celebrated throughout the world, but I will grant you this: If you don’t like Viognier, you’re going to be wondering what’s going on in the party down the hall.
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Plan your wine weekend at
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blind tasting
Something to Celebrate in Virginia Sparkling Wine
Virginia does not produce many sparkling wines, but half of those tasted showed well.
Bring Virginia’s best sparkling wine to your next celebration. Sherri Fickel & Kevin Kraditor
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hampagne, Cava, Spumante, Sekt, Prosecco, sparkling—call it what it is, or what you want, bubbly wine makes you think of celebrating: a special night with a loved one, a life change, or just a weekend morning, with orange juice if you like. Those bubbles lift spirits and make you feel pampered. So what about the bubbles? They are the first impression that a sparkling wine makes, and they are also the first detail the tasters noted with the eight Virginia sparkling wines available for this blind tasting. Often referred to by terms such as the mousse or the bead, the bubbles varied in size and consistency and were described as “round,” “squishy,” “flat,” “fine,” “tiny,” “voluminous,” or “fat.” Even the type of glass can affect the bubbles; flutes were used in this tasting. All other aspects of a wine—such as the nose, palate, finish, color, and mouthfeel—apply to a sparkling wine also. Sparkling wines, unless noted as a vintage or a varietal, can be made from blends of several grape varieties, multiple vineyards, and with several years’ production of grapes. Only wine from the Champagne region of France is Champagne; other countries have their own names for this beverage, as noted above. Getting the Bubbles in the Bottle Other regions imitate Champagne in their sparkling production, using the same grapes (generally Chardonnay and Pinot Noir) and production methods. It is through a secondary fermentation that the bubbles are usually created, and this is done several ways. The traditional method (or méthode champenoise) was developed in France and is widely used in the U.S. The wine goes through primary fermentation and is then put into bottles for secondary fermentation. The bubbles are developed in the bottle, where the wine remains in contact with the lees (the sediment created during fermentation as the yeast precipitates to the bottom of the bottle). The lees are removed from the bottle during a process known as disgorging, after which a small amount of sugar is added (known as the dosage). The bottles are then corked. The transfer process follows the same procedure as the traditional method up to the point of bottling. The secondary fermentation is in bottles, but then the wine is transferred into tanks and filtered. The filtered wine is then transferred under pressure into a new set of bottles. The Charmat process is the method used to make Prosecco, among other sparklings. Secondary fermentation happens in large tanks instead of individual bottles, then the wine is transferred under pressure into bottles. In the inexpensive gas-injection method, carbon dioxide is added to the wine. 72
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Virginia’s Approaches Brut is the driest form of sparkling, and most of the Virginia wines tasted were labeled as Brut. The grape varieties were not consistently noted. Virginia does not produce many sparkling wines, but half of those tasted showed well to the tasting panel, which comprised wine professionals who taste, buy, and sell wines from all over the world. Price was not considered during the tasting, though the prices are usually in the range of $28 to $35. The Barboursville Brut, which made a strong showing, is the least expensive, at $17.99 per bottle; the Thibaut-Janisson Virginia Fizz is about $20 in stores. The Winners There was a discussion among the tasters about the traits that distinguished the wines, but did not necessarily make one better than the other. Did you want to have a celebratory start to the evening with a sparkling as aperitif, or were you serving it all night during a party with nibbles, or looking for the perfect accompaniment to caviar? As one taster said of the not-yet-identified wines, “[Barboursville] is lovely as a little aperitif, and then I am done, but [Veritas] is a great wine for walking around the room, chatting, and having a few glasses throughout the night.” Veritas Scintilla ($30) is a classic in the Champagne style with a nice bead and lots of bubbles. Toasty and bright with apple and lemon on the palate, it was creamy but had a dry finish, leaving no overt fruit. Barboursville Brut ($17.99) has peach blossom, floral, and cinnamon on the nose, with yeasty bread and apple on the mid-palate, and is well-balanced with a long finish. It was noted for being comprehensive and together. King Family Brut ($29.95) is effervescent, with apple on the nose, a yeastier palate, and a long finish showing orange. It was one of the more complex wines and was well-balanced. Kluge 2007 SP ($28) was the only vintage wine tasted. Its bubbles could have been stronger, but it had a great mouthfeel and a pleasant chalkiness. It did not have a long finish but was pleasing. Thibaut-Janisson Virginia Fizz ($20) had a fine bead and was soft on the palate with minerality on the finish.
Sherri Fickel and Kevin Kraditor are proprietors of Hopkins Ordinary Bed and Breakfast in Sperryville. Kevin has worked in the wine industry for the past eight years, buying and selling wine, advising businesses on their wine purchases, and hosting wine-and-food pairing discussions. Sherri worked as a reporter for newspapers in the Midwest, where she grew up on a family farm.
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Zen Winegrowing The best winegrowers are guided by a subjective palate, not scientific protocol. Jim Law
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his quote from Andre Ostertag of Alsace greets me at my desk every morning: “When scientific knowledge and technology are limited, our senses of observation, intuition, and sensitivity, all of which make up our subjective thought processes, are heightened.” It serves as a reminder, or perhaps a validation, of why I love what I do. Ostertag gives me the confidence to reject convention and go with my gut.
Observation-Based Farming American society completed its transition from agrarian to industrial several generations ago. In doing so, we lost a very important ancestral connection to intuitive farming. We are attempting to replace intuition with numbers, formulas, and science. This is somewhat successful where the crop is a commodity, the scale is large, and the inputs (weather and water control) are predictable. Grape growers in the Central Valley of California are very successful at this modern approach; winegrowers on the East Coast are much less so. A grapegrower is a conventional farmer whose job is to increase yields and decrease costs. A winegrower, however, is a farmer who has an emotional attachment to the vines and to the resulting wines. Seemingly irrational management decisions produce wines with personality and a sense of place. In the vineyard I embrace what I refer to as “observation-based, reactionary viticulture.” Each growing season is analogous to a classic, epic feature film running in slow motion. As it unfolds, I have no idea how 74
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it will end. Like most Piedmont winegrowers, I did not grow up amongst the vines, so I have had to put quite a lot of effort into interpreting the vines’ signals. I observe the timing of the season: running late, precocious, or right on time. This will clue me into what to expect in the fall and how I might adjust the crop load or sun penetration into the canopy. Leaf size, color, and health, shoot tip growth, internode length, cluster size and compactness— these change every year. The decisions I make in response to those cues from the vineyard create wines distinctive to a particular time and place. Society’s need to classify, identify, and justify has lead to a certain branding of agricultural practices. The terms organic, biodynamic, and sustainable have good traction in the marketplace. In order to prevent fraud, organizations have developed rules and regulations for growers who would like to be certified in one of these practices— practices that used to simply be referred to as “good farming practices.” My fear is that we are becoming more concerned about following the rules than about making independent, subjective decisions that are best for our land and our crops.
Molly McDonald Peterson
growing wines
there now exists a kind of alchemy of transforming ordinary grapes into grand cru classé wines. Acid, tannin, color, and concentrates are only a phone call away. The effort is focused in the cellar rather than the vineyard. Fortunately, there are many exceptions to industrial winemaking. I have found that the winemakers I admire most all have one thing in common: Their primary winemaking tool is a good, experienced palate. Just like a professional athlete, a palatebased winemaker spends years training and learning from experienced mentors. They stay “in shape” by tasting at every opportunity—taking notes, spitting, discussing. The struggle between technology and intuition is by no means new, nor is it restricted to farming and winemaking. It’s about individual comfort levels and satisfaction. As we age, we are by nature less enthusiastic about embracing new technology or information streams. Too much noise makes it hard to hear the music. I’ve al-
ways admired the Amish, who as a society decided that life was just fine at a certain place and chose to not accept any more noise and clutter. That sentiment is echoed in this Zen story: “A brash young man watched a sage drawing water from the village well. Slowly, hand over hand, the old man pulled up the wooden bucket of water. After some time the young man left and returned with a pulley. He excitedly explained how to use it and how easy it would be to draw water by cranking the handle. The old man refused: ‘Were I to use a device like this, my mind would congratulate itself on being so clever, and then I would quit putting my heart and whole body into my work. My work would become joyless. And how, then, do you think the water would taste?’”
My fear is that we are becoming more concerned about following the rules than about making independent, subjective decisions that are best for our
Winemaker Jim Law is the owner and winegrower of Linden Vineyards in Fauquier County.
land and our crops.
Palate-Based Winemaking Most modern wines have become very good, very correct, and very boring. They often lack personality—of place and of an individual. Today’s winemakers think JAN / FEB 2011
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pairing
new years resolutions
The Charcuterie Board We love the richness of charcuterie, but which wines stand up to it?
Shop local
I will support local businesses and purchase local products
Henry Reidy
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hen I was first approached to write an article about pairing charcuterie with wine, my reaction was, “Sure, that’s easy.” But I soon realized a formidable task was at hand. Charcuterie refers to a broad spectrum of meat products including cured and uncured sausages, cured hams such as prosciutto and Serrano, and terrines and pâtés of every description. What do these seemingly different foods have in common? The answer is fat and salt—ingredients that are condemned by the medical community, television health pundits, and diet-conscious eaters everywhere. Yet these are the components that give flavor, texture, and richness to charcuterie.
a Good Wine Any good wine must have two crucial elements in order to be good: ripe fruit flavor and acid. The general wine-drinking public often confuses the descriptions “fruity” and “sweet,” but they are in no way the same. Fruitiness refers to the ripeness of the grapes. Sweetness and the opposite quality, dryness, refer to the residual sugars in the wine. A wine with no residual sugar is referred to as “dry.” Wine with small amounts of residual sugar can range from “offdry” or “semi-dry” to very sweet dessert-type wines. Even completely dry wines must have ripe fruity flavors or they wouldn’t be any good. Acid is what gives wine structure and balance. Without enough acid, wine is said to be “flabby” or “fat.” Wines that are high in acidity tend to be “lean” or “austere.” This is key to our pairings: We must find wines with enough acid to cut through and hold up to the fattiness of our charcuterie.
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eat healthy
the terroir Now that we have determined the profile of our wine, we need to talk about grapes. Generally speaking, grapes grown in cooler climates are higher in acidity than those grown in warmer climates. Some grapes favor long growing seasons; others prefer shorter, cooler growing conditions. The longer, warmer growing season allows grapes such as Cabernet, Merlot, and Shiraz to reach maximum ripeness with higher sugar levels and lower acidity. This is why places like California’s Napa Valley, Australia, and Bordeaux are planted mostly in these varieties. Other dry varieties such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Riesling are planted in locations with cooler climates like Burgundy, Oregon’s Willamette Valley, and California’s Sonoma Valley. These cooler climates allow the grapes to develop slowly with lower sugar levels and higher and brighter acidity—just what we are looking for! Leaner, more austere cool-climate wines will help balance the saltiness of our charcuterie. Virginia winemakers are challenged by the region’s high humidity and shorter growing season. Grape varieties and careful vineyard management are key. Viognier, Riesling, and Cabernet Franc seem to fare the best here. Vineyard managers who are diligent in protecting their fruit from mold and mildew can, and do, produce delicious, high-quality wines—some of which pair well with charcuterie.
We must find wines with enough acid to cut through and hold up to the fattiness of our charcuterie.
the menu With all this in mind, here are some of my favorite charcuterie and wine pairings. Prosciutto di Parma, or Serrano, is a salted, slightly sweet and rich cured ham with a delicate buttery quality. This would pair beautifully with a brut sparkling wine. Codorníu Brut Pinot Noir Cava NV ($12.99) is a 100 percent sparkling Pinot Noir from Spain with enough richness to hold up to the meat’s buttery texture and fine bubbles to accentuate its delicate flavor. Barboursville Brut NV ($17.99), which is creamy and luscious on the palate with a dry finish, is a great local choice. Salami such as sopresatta, coppa, or other dry-cured sausages is characterized by its luscious mouthfeel and sweet sublime saltiness. France’s famed, bone-dry Trimbach 2008 Riesling Alsace ($19.99) cuts the richness and adds layers of fruit to complement the salami’s fattiness. Perfumed flowers in the nose with distinct ginger and lime notes make Virginia’s Pearmund Cellars 2009 Riesling ($19.99) another good pairing for salami. Pâté de foie gras is the ultimate in the art of charcuterie. The king of pâtés, foie gras is French for “fat liver” and is made from the livers of specially fattened geese or ducks. It’s so rich and sublime that only the greatest of wines can stand up to its majesty. The classic wine pairing is Sauternes. Made only in the best vintages, this beautifully sweet yet structured wine shows its greatness here. Using Sémillon grapes dried on the vine and infected with “noble rot,” vineyards in this region produce only a small amount each year, if at all. This rare breed combines intense sweetness with high-toned acidity. Those looking to pair a local wine with foie gras should consider Pearmund Cellars 2009 Viognier ($21.99), which has bright tropical fruit notes and a long, rich finish. Confit and rillettes are made in a two-step process: They’re cured briefly under salt to draw out excess moisture and then slow-cooked while fully submerged in fat. Best-known examples include duck confit and pork rillettes. This is where a light-bodied yet well-structured Pinot Noir comes into play, perhaps Evesham Wood 2009 Pinot Noir ($24.99) from the Willamette Valley—a delightfully elegant wine, but lean with beautiful acidity to balance the fatty deliciousness of charcuterie. Well Hung Vineyards 2009 Cabernet Franc ($19.99)—a medium-bodied red with hints of pepper and spice—is my recommended Virginia wine pairing for this style of charcuterie.
charcuterie humane veal pastured pork grass-fed beef free range poultry housemade sausage artisan cheese wine& beer ......and more
I promise to eat more healthful, sustainably raised food
LEARN NEW THINGS
I’ll ask about what I eat— where is it from? Who raised it?
BUY AT BELMONT BUTCHERY So I know my butcher cares!
Henry reidy is the owner of Richmond’s oldest wine shop, Strawberry Street Vineyard, located in the heart of Richmond’s Fan neighborhood.
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guest list
guest list Olvia C. Demetriou, Christy Schlesinger
Julia Walter, Frederik De Pue, Maeva Michiels, Robert Matic
Boffi Harvest Dinner Boffi Showroom, Washington, D.C. November 10, 2010 Photographer: Catianne Tijerina Two dozen top architects and designers gathered at the new Boffi showroom for a four-course dinner prepared by chef Frederik De Pue of Smith Commons. During dinner, guests enjoyed wines by Boxwood Winery, Tarara Winery, and Jefferson Vineyards. Frederik De Pue, Christy Schlesinger, Frank Schlesinger
Jennifer Motruk Loy, Chef Frederik De Pue, Miles Gray
Melissa Staten
Kristi & Alden Croxton, Becca & Milla Croxton
Brianna Saby
Oyster Roast at Cardinal Point Vineyard & Winery Afton, Virginia November 13–14, 2010 Photographer: Andrea Hubbell
Frank Babb Randolph, Melissa Harris, Christian Zapatka
Travis Croxton, Ryan Croxton
Susan & Tim Gorman
Cardinal Point Vineyard and Winery hosted its 7th-annual Oyster Roast in November. Local Rappahannock River Oysters were on hand, as was four-time World Shucking Champion Deborah Pratt.
Patrick O’Connell, Tom Calhoun, Bruce Neal
Kevin Adams, Bob Lander, Marti Cannon-Lander, Martha Bogle Susan Sherman, Donna Bedwell, Kevin Adams, Paula Amt
“Our Heritage, Our Park” Art Opening and Silent Auction Washington, Virginia November 21, 2010 Photos courtesy of Shenandoah National Park To celebrate the Shenandoah National Park’s 75th anniversary, The Inn at Little Washington hosted an art opening for watercolor i st Kevi n H. Ada m s a nd a silent auction gala. Guests were treated to Calhoun ham, Rappahannock River Oysters, Barboursville wines, and many other treats. 78
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advertiser directory & recipe index AdV E R TI sE R dIRECToRy American Flatbread, 80 Arganica Farm Club, 39 Barboursville Vineyards, 71 Belle Meade Farm, School& B&B, 2 Belle Meade Child Program, 42 Belmont Butchery, 77 Bethesda Co-Op, 35 The Big Bad Woof, 47 Bread & Brew, 15 Butcher’s Block Market, 6 Cardinal Point Winery, 79 Carter & Spence, 38 Catoctin Creek Distilling Company, 69 Central Coffee Roasters, 4 Cowgirl Creamery, 35 DelFosse Vineyards & Winery, 73 Everona Dairy, 14 Ferguson Charlottesville, 43 Firefly Farms, 39 Fleurir Chocolates, 49 Fountain Hall Bed & Breakfast, 49 FreshFarm Market, 21
George Bowers Grocery, 46 The Happy Cook, 42 Harrisonburg Farmer’s Market, 47 Hopkins Ordinary, 48 Iron Bridge Wine Company, 66 Jefferson Vineyards, 54 Joshua Wilton House, 47 Laughing Duck Gardens & Cookery, 25 Mas, 57 MJM Photography, 61 Mom’s Organic Market, inside front cover Mona Lisa Pasta, 14 Narmada Winery, 77 Occasions Caterers, 6 Paul Harris Tree Services, 15 Pride of the Plains, 12 R.H. Ballard, 49 Real Estate III/Better Homes & Gardens, 8 Rebecca’s Natural Food, 14 Red Fox Inn, 21 Route 11 Potato Chips, back cover Roy Wheeler Realty, 1
Shenandoah Growers, 3 Stonyman Gourmet, 13 Sugarleaf Vineyards, 54 Sunset Hills Vineyard, 73 Suriny Bran Oil, 24 Tarara Winery, 69 Tastings, 67 Thibaut-Janisson, 65 Thornton River Grille, 4 Toigo Orchard, 13 Toliver House, 9 Trickling Springs Creamery, 38 Tuscarora Organic Growers Co-op, 15 Tuskies, 53 Veritas Winery, 75 Virginia Wine Expo, 71 Virginia Wine Showcase, 67 WMRA-NPR, 12 Wasmund’s Whiskey, inside back cover Wild Wolf Brewing Company, 30 The Wine Kitchen, 61 Zynodoa, 65
RECIPE In d E X Wood-Fired Pizza
CHoColATE CRÈME BRÛlÉE The Inn at Little Washington
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page 48
CIdER-RoAsTEd CHICKEn WITH RosEMARy RUB
sCAlloPs & AsIAGo GRITs
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GInGER ICE CREAM WITH sAUTÉEd AsIAn PEARs
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MAPlE VAnIllA BEAn BAKEd CUsTARd
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MInI MUsHRooM GAlETTEs Poppy Hill Tuscan Kitchen
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CURRIEd AWAy
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Gina Chersevani, PS7’s
CHIlI flIP
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Restaurant 3
AnTI-oX-A-dEnT
Restaurant 3
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RoAsTEd dElICATA PURÉE WITH RoAsTEd GARlIC
Gina Chersevani, PS7’s
taste
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