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The first annual CT Cheese & Wine Festival is being held today from 11-5 at Hopkins Vineyard in New Preston. The event is co-hosted by Hopkins Vineyard and Artisan Food Store of Southbury and is a family-friendly celebration of artisanal food products including award-winning cheeses and wines from CT.

Come for a Taste of Local Flavors

Guests can taste artisan farmstead cheeses from Beltane Farm, Cato Corner Farm, Ladies of Levita Road Farm, and Woodbridge Farm and meet the farmers and cheese makers. Artisan farmstead cheese is made in small batches, by hand, and each cheese reflects the style and skill of the cheese maker. Farmstead cheeses are unique in that they are made exclusively from the milk from the farm.

Connecticut cheese are very high quality and are made in a wide range of styles. Goat’s milk cheeses from Beltane Farm and raw cow’s milk cheeses from Cato Corner Farm illustrate just how diverse Connecticut’s cheeses are.

Beltane Farm’s award-winning creamy and mild fresh goat’s milk cheese (chevre) is pasteurized and comes plain or rolled in a variety of fresh and dry herbs.  It’s wonderful just spread on a cracker or artisan bread, but add some local artisan honey, some seasonal fruit, and sparkling wine from Hopkins Vineyard, and you’ve created a beautiful and festive beginning or ending course to a meal fit for a special occasion or the holidays.

Today at the festival, guests can learn firsthand from Certified Sommelier Sally Camm of Artisan Food Store of Southbury how to pair wine and cheese. Plus award winning chef Arik Bensimon of Napa & Co. in Stamford and chef Dan Kardos of Harvest Supper in New Canaan will be teaching guests how to prepare appetizers using the artisan foods available for sampling and sale at the event.

Beltane Farm also makes a Danse de la Lune (moon dance), a French style, soft-ripened goat’s milk cheese that’s hand-shaped to resemble a moon. It’s dense and creamy with complex flavors and pairs well with fine wines.

Mark Gilman, the cheese maker from Cato Corner Farm, crafts unique, world class raw cow’s milk cheeses on his family-owned farm in Colchester. Saveur Magazine and Slow Food USA named their Hooligan a top American cheese and it won a gold medal from Gallo Family Vineyard. These are true artisan farmstead cheeses, made by hand from raw milk from their cows that are pasture-raised without growth hormones, sub-therapeutic antibiotics, or animal-based feeds. Raw milk cheeses must be aged for a minimum of two months by law and some are aged many more, all the while being cared for in their underground cave until they reach peak flavor.

Hooligan is Cato Corner Farm’s signature “stinky” cheese. This ripe washed-rind cheese has a soft creamy interior and is delicious at room temperature or  melted in a sandwich. Try pairing this cheese with Tulip Polar honey from Red Bee Honey.

Bridgid’s Abbey is Cato Corner Farm’s best selling cheese, probably because its rich and buttery taste plus smooth and creamy consistency appeal to just about every palate. This is a versatile cheese that can be enjoyed any time of day. Try Bridgid’s Abbey as a snack or appetizer paired with raspberry or blueberry honey form Red Bee Honey, in a sandwich, or melted over your favorite vegetable.

These cheeses and artisan foods can be purchased at the event, ordered from Artisan Made’s online store or purchased at their Artisan Food Store in Southbury. They are also available at farmers’ markets, fine cheese shops like Fairfield Cheese Company in Fairfield and Caseus in New Haven. Fine boutique wines from Hopkins Vineyard, Jones Winery and Walker Road Vineyard have won local, regional and national wine awards and are delicious paired with the cheeses or enjoyed with a meal. These wines can be purchased at the event, directly from the vineyards, and at fine wine stores.

The Connecticut Cheese & Wine Festival 2010 is co-hosted by Hopkins Vineyard and Artisan Food Store of Southbury, CT and tickets are $10. This event is one day only - Saturday October 16, 2010 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Hopkins Vineyard, 25 Hopkins Rd in New Preston, CT. Bring the whole family to sample over 60 different cheeses, local wines, plus specialty foods  including jams, honeys, maple syrups and baked goods. Bring the kids to not only enjoy the food, but also face painting, hay rides and live music. Please call Artisan Food Store at 203-262-9390 for more information.

The first annual Connecticut Cheese & Wine Festival 2010 is a celebration of artisanal handcrafted cheeses and wines, small farms and small batch producers of all natural specialty foods at Hopkins Vineyard, 25 Hopkins Rd in New Preston, CT on Saturday October 16, 2010 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Co-hosted by Hopkins Vineyard and Artisan Food Store of Southbury, CT this event will feature locally made award winning farmstead and artisanal cheeses from Cato Corner Farm, Beltane Farm, Ladies of Levita Road Farm, Artisan Food Store and handcrafted boutique wines from Hopkins Vineyard, Jones Winery and Walker Road Vineyard and specialty foods from small farms and artisan food producers in Connecticut and the Northeast US including single-nectar source honeys from Red Bee Honey.

Guests will have the opportunity to sample a wide variety of cheeses, wines, all natural handcrafted breads, chocolates, jams, produce, flavored butters, sauces, honey, maple syrup and more. Meet cheese makers, wine makers, beekeepers, bakers, farmers and small batch artisan food producers while tasting their regionally distinctive food and beverage creations.

Set on the northern shore of Lake Waramaug, Hopkins Vineyard, a family-owned Connecticut Century Farm, proudly maintains a tradition of making fine wines. In 1979, the first vines were planted and the 19th century barn was converted into a state-of-the-art winery. For over 30 years Hopkins Vineyard has been engaged in the art and craft of winemaking. Today the vineyard handcrafts 11 different varieties of award winning wines.

There will be fun activities scheduled throughout the day including cooking demos by top Connecticut chefs, face painting, hay rides and live music. Great fun for the whole family!

Event takes place under tent so bring the whole family-come rain or shine!

Please call Artisan Food Store at 203 262-9390 for more information. Price: $10.00

The first annual Connecticut Cheese & Wine Festival 2010 is a celebration of artisanal handcrafted cheeses and wines, small farms and small batch producers of all natural specialty foods at Hopkins Vineyard, 25 Hopkins Rd in New Preston, CT on Saturday October 16, 2010 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Co-hosted by Hopkins Vineyard and Artisan Food Store of Southbury, CT this event will feature locally made award winning farmstead and artisanal cheeses from Cato Corner Farm, Beltane Farm, Ladies of Levita Road Farm, Artisan Food Store and handcrafted boutique wines from Hopkins Vineyard, Jones Winery and Walker Road Vineyard and specialty foods from small farms and artisan food producers in Connecticut and the Northeast US. Guests will have the opportunity to sample a wide variety of cheeses, wines, all natural handcrafted breads, chocolates, jams, produce, flavored butters, sauces, honey, maple syrup and more. Meet cheese makers, wine makers, bakers, farmers and small batch artisan food producers while tasting their regionally distinctive food and beverage creations.

Set on the northern shore of Lake Waramaug, Hopkins Vineyard, a family-owned Connecticut Century Farm, proudly maintains a tradition of making fine wines. In 1979, the first vines were planted and the 19th century barn was converted into a state-of-the-art winery. For over 30 years Hopkins Vineyard has been engaged in the art and craft of winemaking. Today the vineyard handcrafts 11 different varieties of award winning wines.

There will be fun activities scheduled throughout the day including cooking demos by top Connecticut chefs, face painting, hay rides and live music. Great fun for the whole family!

Event takes place under tent so bring the whole family-come rain or shine!

Please call Artisan Food Store at 203 262-9390 for more information. Price: $10.00

Support small farms and local small batch producers while enjoying the best in locally produced foods and beverages at the first annual Connecticut Cheese & Wine Festival at Hopkins Vineyard.

Analiese Paik, Founder of the Fairfield Green Food Guide,

Presented Green Food Resolutions for the New Year

On News Ch. 8′s Good Morning CT

with Chris Velardi at 7:45 am on Sunday, January 10, 2010

Click here to watch the video and comment

Resolution #1

Recycle your #5 containers. Most eco-conscious consumers have already sworn off bottled water, wouldn’t be caught shopping without a reusable bag, and are in the habit of recycling their metal, plastic and glass containers. But #5 containers, which are used to package foods like yogurt, hummus and cottage cheese, are not recycled by many municipalities.  Whole Foods Markets collects #5 containers in their stores for recycling into new consumer products under their Gimme 5 program. So save your #5 containers and recycle them at the store instead of letting them end up in a landfill. If you don’t live near a Whole Foods Market, you can ship them directly to the recycling center.

Resolution #2

Don’t buy more than you’re going to cook. Stop buying fruits and vegetables in bulk if you frequently find them in your refrigerator or on your counter going bad. We think we’re doing right by our family by saving money from buying in quantity, but throwing out food is just wasteful. To avoid spoiled leftovers, portion and freeze food that will not be eaten in the next few days.

Resolution #3

Make your own vegetable stock with vegetable trimmings. Save vegetable ends, peelings and trimmings to make homemade vegetable stock.  Simply add raw vegetable trimmings to a container as your create them, and keep it refrigerated or frozen until you’ve accumulated enough to make a vegetable stock of your own. Vegetable stock is easily prepared in 45 minutes, is more delicious than store bought, and provides you with a great start to a soup, sauce, gravy, braise, rice pilaf or risotto. Celery (stem and leaf), carrots, onions (peel too), leeks, parsley stems, turnips, garlic and mushrooms make great stocks.

Resolution #4

Compost your unusable vegetables and fruits, coffee grounds, tea bags and egg shells. Get yourself a compost pail, line it with a BioBag (fully compostable and biodegradable), and accumulate your raw food waste for use in a composter. Many people have a composter in the backyard, but new composters in the form of small electronic kitchen appliances allow you to compost right in your own home without the use of soil, leaves and worms. The Wall Street Journal did a nice review of home composters recently and the bottom line is it’s never been easier or more convenient to compost at home. Important note: food waste that winds up in landfills is trapped in an anaerobic environment where it is unable to decompose and return nutrients to the soil.

Resolution #5

Choose post consumer recycled napkins, paper towels, and aluminum foil and biodegradable kitchen garbage bags. There’s a double bonus to using post consumer recycled products. Recycled content means the waste that would have wound up in our landfills (or incinerated) is now being repurposed into a consumer product. As a bonus, fewer trees need to be cut down and less of our precious natural resources like aluminum are required to make additional product.

Resolution #6

Choose glass containers to safely store and reheat leftovers and make ahead foods. By avoiding the purchase of storage containers made from petroleum-based plastics, we achieve the twin goals of safely storing our food and avoiding a product made from a non-renewable resource which requires a lot of energy to refine and when burned, emits CO₂, the most prominent greenhouse gas in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Resolution #7

Allocate at least 10 percent of your food budget to locally grown and made foods. Shop the farmers’ markets, ctffe.com, and independent and specialty stores which support local vendors. Buy your wines directly from the wineries or a wine merchant that carries local wines.

Shop the Winter Farmers’ Markets on Saturdays from 10-2

1) Fairfield at the Fairfield Theater Company on Sanford Street

Beltane Farms (Lebanon) makes artisanal, farmstead goat’s milk cheeses. The chevre is their fresh goat cheese and it is sold plain or dressed in fresh herbs.

Video from opening day at the farmers’ market is available for viewing on YouTube: Beltane Farms and Starlight Gardens.

2) Norwalk at 61-65 Wall Street (across from the Garden Cinemas)

Greenscapes (Danbury) carries fresh produce and a wide variety of pantry staples including jams, jellies, and honey.

Shop CT Farm Fresh Express

This online retailer of exclusively CT-grown and made foods provides the convenience of online ordering with home delivery each Friday. www.ctffe.com. Choose from CT grown fruits and vegetables, grass fed meat, cheeses, dairy products, bread and other baked goods, and a wide variety of organic products. Urban Oaks(New Britain) organic braising greens were featured on the show.

Local Beverages

1.       The Farmer’s Cow milk is produced by a group of 6 family-owned dairy farms and is free of added growth hormones. The cows eat grass and corn grown on the farms. The milk has a very fresh and rich flavor not only due to the grass, but also the fact that it’s traditionally rather than ultra-pasteurized. The Farmer’s Cow products are widely available in supermarkets and specialty stores. Visit their site for a complete listing.

2.       Twelve, a sophisticated, non-alcoholic beverage made by a Fairfield, CT company. This all natural, no sugar added, lightly carbonated drink is sophisticated, festive, and food-friendly. Created by the legendary chefs David Burke and Alfred Portale, it is now made by a company headquartered in Fairfield which outsources production to a winery in Ohio. The clever and catchy name is derived from the 12 hours which span the drink’s recommended consumption time – from noon to midnight. The base is white grape juice to which organic teas, herbs, spices and citrus essence is added, along with a light carbonation. Twelve makes a great base for mixed drinks too -try vodka or dark rum. You can find Twelve at Whole Foods Market, Palmer’s Market in Darien, and Balducci’s in Westport.

3.       Hopkins Vineyard’s (New Preston) fine sparkling wines made using the same methods and grapes (Chardonnay and Pinot Noir) that are used to make Champagne. Multi award winning wines in both American and International competitions. A 30-year-old winery on a 200+ year-old family farm.

4.       CT Valley Winery’s (New Hartford) Black Bear (a port-style wine) and Black Tie Cabernet Franc, an elegant and sophisticated red table wine. Jason Ferraro and his father are the team that run this CT winery that was voted Best Small Winery and won ten medals in the 2009 Big E Northeast Gold Wine Competition. The Black Tie is their most awarded wine.

Local Artisan/Specialty Foods

1.       Sankow’s Beaver Brook Farm’s (Lyme) premium ice cream (Lyme) (Walter Stewart’s)

2.        Bear Pond Farm’s (Glastonbury) line of nut-free pestos made with organic basil and non-GMO canola oil. (Walter Stewart’s, Whole Foods Markets and )and new line of Skinny Dips – Greek style yogurt based dips are made from grass fed dairy and organic herbs. Choose from Kalamata Olive, Blue Cheese and Dill-Chive.*

Please visit www.fairfieldgreenfoodguide.com for continued support in your New Year’s Green Food Resolutions. Happy New Year!

*Samples of the new product line (Greek style yogurt based dips) were provided by the company.

The 2010 Guide to a Locally Sourced Thanksgiving Feast is now available here.
This morning I had the great pleasure of  appearing on News Channel 8′s Good Morning Connecticut with Chris Velardi. I’m so happy for the opportunity to spread the word about the wonderful food being grown and made by our farmers and help you find it! Please find a list and links to what I talked about with Chris on this morning’s show below. To watch the Ch. 8 video from this morning, click here.

A Local and Sustainable Thanksgiving

• Local and sustainably-raised turkeys
  • Local vs. store bought

The turkeys shown were a USDA Certified Organic Black Spanish (a Heritage breed) turkey from Old Maids Farm in S. Glastonbury, CT and Whole Foods Market private label all natural free-range turkey from Jaindl Farms in PA (the same one that supplies the White House).

o   How to order a CT-raised turkey

• Connecticut Farm Fresh Express (CTFFE), the online retailer of exclusively CT Grown foods, is offering fresh turkeys from Ekonk Hill Farm and frozen turkeys from USDA Certified Organic Old Maid’s Farm for special order and home delivery. Please follow the ordering instructions on this link.

o   A guide to buying all natural, free-range, organic and kosher turkeys in Fairfield County

• Turkey Tasting Event
  • Whole Foods Market Westport Holiday Turkey Tasting and Sustainable Discussion, Friday, November 13 from 4-7 pm
• Connecticut’s Fall Bounty – Seasonal fruits and vegetables and where to buy them
  • Farmers’ Markets still open for the season

• Darien
• Greenwich
• New Canaan
• Westport, both locations
• Stratford
• Branchville
• Fairfield at the FTC beginning Dec. 5

o   CT Farm Fresh Express, the online retailer of exclusively CT Grown foods, delivers to your doorstep.

• Restaurant-made local, organic vegetarian Thanksgiving side dishes
  • Health in a Hurry Organic Vegetarian Cuisine to Go
    • Green Bean Casserole, Roasted Vegetable Platter, Potato Tartlettes, and Stuffed pumpkins
    

    Health in a Hurry's Organic, Vegetarian Thanksgiving Side Dishes

• Select wines from the CT Wine Trail, available at Harry’s Wine & Liquor and other fine wine shops

• Sharpe Hill Vineyard’s Ballet of Angels
• Hopkins Vineyard’s Cabernet Franc
• Westford Hill Distillers’ fruit brandies, available at Harry’s and other fine wine shops
  • Fruit eaux-de-vie (fruit brandies) Poire Prisonierre
  

  From left: Sharpe Hill Vineyard's Ballet of Angels, Hopkins Vineyard's Cabernet Franc, Westford Hill Distillers' Poire Prisionniere and four eaux de vie (fresh fruit brandies). Courtsey of Harry's Wine & Spirits, Southport, CT.

Looking forward to seeing you again in December!