Last week I was fortunate enough to attend a reception for the Fort Barnard Community Garden in Arlington Virginia. The garden works to contribute fresh produce to the Arlington Food Assistance Center, which helps needy families in the county. They have dedicate a plot to growing produce specifically for the center. Gardeners are also participating in the Plant a Row program, where they set aside a portion of there plot and grow seeds provided by the center. In total, the Fort Barnard garden donated over 700 pounds of fresh produce. This is a very important contribution because the Assistance Center mostly receives canned and packaged food and the fresh vegetables help provide a more balanced diet. Even cooler still, they have 3 beehives in their garden. I am jealous!

Allison Kindler discussing the garden

The Fort Barnard Garden was being recognized through the Giving Through Growing program from Woodbridge wines by Robert Mondavi. The program is run in partnership with the American Community Gardening Association and looks raise awareness and interest in gardening. As part of the program they are highlighting Community Garden Hereos and Allison Kindler, the chief gardener at Fort Barnard, was chosen as one of four being recognized across the country. As part of the recognition, Woodbridge is providing funding to improve the garden. It is being used to create raised beds, which make it easier to practice “square foot” gardening, and also purchase compost tumblers, making it a little easier to compost gardening waste. While Allison was identified as the spokesperson, it was clear that there was a real community around their garden and many people had contributed to make it the amazing place it was.

Quite the spread!

Build your own Crepe

The reception featured vegetables from served up as crudite along with a nice selection cheese and delicious cured meats. It was held at the Zola Wine Kitchen, which if you haven’t been is a great place to grab lunch. They have a rotating lunch special and a variety of sandwiches. For the reception they also have a “Build Your Own Crepe” station where you got to choose various savory items to add to your crepe. I had flashbacks to the make your own omelet bar they had in college… ahh the memories! This was all accompanied by wine of course.

Candice explaining the Giving Through Growing program

Candice Kumai is the “Ambassador” for the Giving Through Growing program. She was on the first season of Top Chef and currently has own show and just released her own cookbook. In addition to learning more about the Fort Barnard garden and the Program, I also learned that I probably don’t have what it takes to be on TV. Candice was amazing personable, relatable and fun, and made it seem like she had known everyone forever. She was also amazingly good at remembering names, something I am incapable of. I think I will stick with the blogging since it requires little social interaction. There are a number of her recipes up on the Giving Through Growing website, along with write-ups of the other Garden Heroes.

Yea Wine!

The crew from Fort Barnard

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If people go and put fish on their pizza, it it usually anchovies. However, my favorite fishy pizza topping is Bottarga. It is cured fish roe, made by taking the roe pouch from tuna or grey mullet and preserved by curing it in salt for a couple of weeks. When cured, it forms a hard log which can be shaved on top of pasta or pizza, or served thinly sliced as an appetizer.

I came across two different producers offering it at the Fancy Food Show. Trikalinos, from Greece, offers traditionally prepared grey mullet, packed in beeswax. It is distributed in the US by the Rogers Collection. It is not cheap though, a 1/2 pound stick is over $100. Luckily it keeps forever and a little bit goes a long way. Still, that is a lot of money for what was traditional a peasant food. Bottarga is traditional Mediterranean ingredient and I also found a producer in the Italian pavilion. Su Tianu Sardu is located in Sardinia and produces both mullet and yellowfin tuna Bottarga. They offer it in both preserved blocks and pre-ground jars, which is a little more convenient. While their prices are much more reasonable, the unfortunately do not ship to the US. Luckily Amazon carries Sardinian Bottarga, is there anything they don’t have?

Bottarga Di Muggine (Grey Mullet Roe) From Cabras, Sardinia

Of course if you are feeling bold, you could always try making it yourself. In the US you can try making it with Shad Roe which is available seasonally.

If you are just looking to give it a try, head over to Pizzeria Paradiso in DC and order a Bottarga Pizza. It has Tomato, Egg, Garlic, Parsley, Parmesan, Bottarga on it and is baked in their super hot oven so that the egg in the center sets, but the yolk is still runny. It is utterly delicious.

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One of the best surprise at the Fancy Food Show was to find Derek Brown mixing drinks in the Mexico pavilion. Derek is genius behind the Columbia Room and one of the best bartenders in DC if not America. He was putting together cocktails to showcase Tequila and Mezcal, and of course doing a little innovation.

I tried the Mezcal Watermelon Punch he was mixing up. It perfectly balanced the sweetness of the watermelon juice with the smokiness of the mezcal and the heat of the pepper. This was my first time trying mezcal and I am impressed. Mezcal has the bad rep of being the liquor with the worm in it (most likely a marketing ploy in the 40′s). Good tequila and mezcal are both made with 100% agave, however in mezcal the agave hearts are smoked and the liquor is only refined once. This makes mezcal a little rougher, but its got character and clearly in right hands makes a mean cocktail.

So how do you know if you are getting a good mezcal? Well, I have never bought a bottle, so don’t ask me for recommendations. Luckily there are some things you can look for. First, make sure it is made with 100% Agave. Second, make sure it is made in Mexico and has a CRT number. This means it meets all the guidelines to be a traditional mezcal. If you find both of these, you should have a pretty good mezcal. Now you must choose between Blanca, which is aged for only a couple months after distillation, Resposado, which is aged for 2 – 9 months in oak barrels and Añejo, which is aged a minimum of 12 months.

Derek was nice enough to send me the recipe for the Mezcal Watermelon Punch he was making. Fun trivia, a Tincture is an extract made by putting something in a high proof alcohol. Another fun fact; the Tasmanian Pepper, also known as the mountain pepper, is native to Australia and has a strong peppery flavor. While it is fun to make fancy cocktails at home, it is even more fun to have someone make them for you, other wise you end up lots of random bottles. Ask me about my Stinging Nettle Infused Vodka. If you do give it try, let me know how the punch turns out!

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One of the more interesting parts about the Fancy Food Show ( I swear I almost done with posts on it ), was getting to meet the people behind different brands. It is even more finding out that products you like have a genuine heritage instead of being some corporate creation.

I was really excited to come across the Bar Harbor Foods booth at the show. I have been getting their canned fish from Whole Foods, mostly because it is delicious, but also because I really liked the packaging; it looks simple, clean and honest. Maine has a long tradition of packing sardines and other fish, but as tuna fish became popular Maine’s canneries began closing. Most of the large canneries have closed which is why it is great to see Bar Harbor taking a fresh approach to this product space.

I met the company’s owner, Mike Cote, at the booth. He had most of his career working for large food specialty companies and wanted to start his own. In 2003 he bought the 86 year old East Machias Canning Company and transformed it into Bar Harbor Foods. It is a small company, I think he said they have less than 20 people. His experience in industry shows though, the branding is very well done and it seems like a much larger company.

They are coming out with a new product which looks like it could be a little different and fun, Smoke Sardines in Maple Syrup. They suggested actually having them at breakfast instead of bacon or sausage. It sounds a little crazy, but I think it could actually work. They are a little sweet and a little salty, but not too much and the sardines don’t have an overpowering fishy taste. Next time I am at Whole Foods, I am going to pick up a can and give it a try. It would definitely be a lot more healthy.

There is something reassuring about getting to meet the people that make what you eat, especially when they are great people like the folks at Bar Harbor. If you see a can of their fish on the store shelf, give it a try. Canned seafood that is sustainably harvested are better for the environment and sardines and other “oily” fish have a lot of health benefits. Most importantly, it can be really tasty. They also make authentic chowders and beans, which I am going to keep an eye out for.

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If you haven’t guessed, we are big fan of cheese and one of the first cheese makers we visited in person was Grafton Village Cheese. They had traditionally produced aged cheddar cheese and their distribution had been constantly improving. It used to be that we could only find them when we went back home to Massachusetts. These days though, you can find almost their entire line in the Whole Foods in DC and even sometimes at Safeway.

Out of all of the producers at the Fancy Food Show, I was most excited to see Grafton Village. They had teased on their Facebook page that their new head Cheesemaker was going to be at the show. Dane Huber had recently joined the crew and is in charge of putting together a new line of cave aged cheese. These cheese are not only a change in style from their traditional (and excellent) cheddar, but also a change in type of cheese. Some of the new cheeses are made with sheeps’ milk instead of cows’ milk.

There were 3 cheese at the show to try from the new Grafton Cave Aged Line:

• Vermont Leyden
• Vermont Barn Dance
• Vermont Truffled Bismark

I think my favorite was the Leyden, which is made with a mix of Sheeps’ and Cows’ milk. The cheeses in this line are going to be made in small batches, so you will probably only find them in the higher end shops. They are also not going to be cheap. I think they will probably be in the high end range, $15 – $20. However, the nice thing about good cheese is that it packs so much flavor that you don’t need a lot of it.

Grafton has also redesigned their packaging for the cheddars. The older cheddars (3 & 4 year) are going to be sold under the Tavern Select line. They are finally making enough of them too, so they should have a wider distribution. This is good news because I haven’t seen any 3 year Cheddar down in DC for a while. The cheesemakers are also signing the packaged wedges, which is a nice touch. The other cheeses have also had their packaging spruced up too.

I am really excited about these changes. I think the new design better reflects the high quality cheese they make. Not only do they make great cheese, but they are a great group of people. It was a lot of fun to hang around the booth with them… and sample cheese. Hopefully the new cave aged cheese line will be in stores soon. Let me know if you spot it anywhere. I just hope that the prices stay the same. I am hooked on the 2-year cheddar, at $10 a pound it is a very affordable luxury.

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