On Saturday, September 16th, Enjoy an organic farm to table feast alongside the sounds of acclaimed jazz musicians from The Mike Casey Trio at Waldingfield Farm in Washington CT.
Visit a beautiful organic farm hidden in the Litchfield Hills for a fine seasonal dinner all sourced locally. Guests will enjoy an Autumn sunset and a fine dinner in celebration organic farming in Connecticut!
4 PM Refreshments & Farm Tour 5 PM Cocktails & 1st Course 6 PM The Mike Casey Trio Followed by Dinner & Dessert
Yes, we can squeeze the peaches before we buy them in the supermarket and cherry-pick the basket we like at the farmer’s market, but there is nothing more satisfying than standing under a a tree limb full of ripe peaches. There is a tangible joy in choosing one, reaching up to feel the soft fuzz against the firm fruit and inhaling it’s perfume as you gently twist it from its stem. This was our experience yesterday and not one person in our party of 8 put their first picked peach in a bag. Bishop’s Orchards in Guilford can offer you this experience 4 times over, as their orchards are currently yielding peaches, pears and raspberries. Bishop’s is a straight shot up Rt. 95N(exit 57; take a right) and the 45 drive is well worth it.
For Bob Kunkel, the Co-owner of Harbor Harvest in Norwalk, CT, he is a true mariner whose blood is part saltwater and whose first love is the sea. With forty years in the restaurant business and a background in ship builders, Harbor Harvest is a market with a vision like no other. Mr. Kunkel does not settle for anything but fabulous which means all his products are locally sourced and of the highest quality. He makes a point that sustainability and being environmentally conscious is paramount to a healthy community and the world which has to lead to some epic initiatives.
The Black Rock Farmers' Market is back, Saturdays, June 10 -October 7th 9am to 1pm at 481 Brewster Street in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport CT. The season will kick off during Black Rock Day Weekend, an event that serves as a community initiative to promote projects that enhance the quality of life for residents and business in the area.
BRFM is a producer-only market featuring locally farmed vegetables, fruit, cheese, eggs (with a real life rooster), bread, meats, jams pickles and so much more. Their local artisan selection varies from vintage finds to natural beauty care products. Market visitors have the opportunity to start their day with a 10:30AM yoga class in the field and enjoy their weekly produce shopping accompanied by live local musicians.
Mark your calendars for opening day of the Westport Farmers’ Market, Thursday, May 18th, from 10 to 2 at 50 Imperial Avenue. (View the complete market vendor list below.)
Chefs from area restaurants will return this year to provide a source of inspiration to area shoppers. Each week they will create easy, healthful, delicious meals using fresh, local products found at the market. These seasonal recipes and others from top chefs throughout the area will be distributed each week at the market and available on the WFM website.
Farmers’ markets in Fairfield County, CT will begin opening in May and early June and we will update the listings below (from 2016) with 2017 information as it becomes available. Here are the markets updated so far via our friends at Fairfield Green Food Guide.
New Canaan opened April 22
Shelton opens May 6
Norwalk Rainbow Plaza opens May 17
Westport opens May 18
Greenwich @ Arch & Horseneck Streets opens on May 20
Fairfield’s downtown market that launched last year opens June 11
We felt this list of farmers' markets was pretty spot on. Check out Best of Connecticut's list of the 10 Best Farmers' Markets in CT.
Connecticut has organized its best local offerings into “trails” that visitors can easily follow to enjoy the best of the best. One such trail is the Farmers Markets of Connecticut trail, which highlights local markets across the state. At each market, you’ll find freshly picked local produce, delicious baked goods, coffee roasted in Connecticut, and other products to allow you to prepare the freshest most delicious locally-sourced meal for you and your family.
If Middletown had a taste, it would be Jerry’s Pizza. And if Jerry’s has a signature dish, it is undoubtedly the locally famous white Sicilian pizza. Nothing speaks to the Italian — and specifically Sicilian — identity of the city like this dish. The intense flavor of the pizza is no joke: you either love it or hate it, and those who love it, really, really love it. So much so, in fact, that you have to plan your day around it. The specially made dough for the white Sicilian takes roughly two hours to rise properly. The pizzeria has been around since 1968, when it was opened by Jerry Schiano, an Italian immigrant from Naples. Though Jerry is now retired, his daughter Carmela Lockwood operates the restaurant, and says the recipe comes from her grandmother, who used to make the dish back in Italy. (Her family is not Sicilian, but the style of thick dough is distinctively from the island.)
With cooler weather around the corner and Rosh Hashanah just past, it’s time to reach for your honey pot. If your summer was full of honey-themed cocktails and BBQ’s, it’s quite possibly still on the kitchen counter but if you enjoy honey “only in my tea when I’m not feeling well” it might be in the darkest corner of your cupboard most likely crystallized. No, it is not spoiled and you don’t have to throw it out. Right now, honey is having a moment as the next artisanal food superstar. Partly because bees are disappearing – you’ve heard about colony collapse sparking a beekeeping craze and partly because honey is believed by many to relieve symptoms of colds and seasonally allergies.
Honey is the only food made by an insect that humans consume and although it was found in the tombs of the Pharaohs, honey can last forever if stored properly – in a cool, dry place, yet it will loose its delicate flavors and health benefits over time. Most people think that honey is honey is honey but it’s not. I’m going to help demystify the flavorful world of honey so that you can be an informed honey connoisseur and navigate your way around the delicious and diverse world of natures oldest and only raw sweetener.
Autumn is here and Connecticut Farms have delicious seasonal produce ready to be harvested! Last week, CTBites told you where you can pick your own apples. While apples are delicious, pumpkins truly epitomize the fall. From jack-o-lanterns to pies to pumpkin flavored everything, the gourd has many uses. Here are 12 places that offer pick your own pumpkins! Be sure to call ahead to confirm availability.
Harris Hill Farm, New Milford: On weekends during the month of October, Harris Hill Farm in New Milford opens the farm and its pick-your-own pumpkin patch to the community.
Castle Hill Farm, Newtown: Castle Hill Farm in Newtown has a 4 acre pumpkin patch. They also have hay rides and a corn maze.
Lyman Orchards, Middlefield: Lyman Orchards in Middlefield has a 24 hour hotline so that you can get updates on the crops and conditions.
Bishop's Orchards, Guilford: Great picking of all kinds at Bishop's + a corn Maze on the weekends from 10-5.
Holmberg Orchards, Gales Ferry: Pumpkins are in season from September-October at Holmberg Orchards in Gales Ferry. On weekends, enjoy a corn maze, tractor rides, cider donuts, and a wine
Lloyd Allen’s Double L Market in Westport is celebrating its 20th year. The market, now in its third location near Hillspoint Road, is the “original” farmstand. Described as “eclectic” it has weathered every storm and outlasted the competition thanks to a very dedicated group of followers. “When you’ve done this for as long as I have you get to know a lot of people and what they want. We want to be able to offer the best!” Allen told me.
“We were a farmstand and farmers market long before anyone else - before it became a thing. We were wild, and on the side of the road, in the open air and having lots of fun doing it.” Although Allen and his staff are no longer on the side of the road, and are now in an enclosed air-conditioned corner store, a little bit of that wildness still remains. “We are still having a great time,” he added. “You meet people who are passionate on both sides of the market - the growers are passionate about producing the best and our consumers are passionate to find and eat the best.”
Bold…intense…complex…flavors, these are the words that best describe the menu that Master Chef Prasad Chirnomula is serving at his latest restaurant, INDIA, in New Canaan. Chef Prasad is no stranger to New Canaan, or Connecticut. As the owner/chef of the highly successfully Thali restaurants, he announced several months ago that he was closing his flagship restaurant in New Canaan, desirous of opening a smaller, more intimate, restaurant in town. The interior of INDIA does just that, with a relaxed, sensual feel accentuated with flowing silk curtains engulfing many of the tables.
Chef Prasad invited CTbites to enjoy traditional cuisine from various regions of India, as well as sample many of his creative and inventive renditions from across southeast Asia and Africa. During the visit, this gregarious Master Chef joined us to explain the history, the composition, his vision for the dish as well as the numerous ingredients that were required to meet his high standards. His exuberance was evident in every description, and it translated into each of his creations. After close to twenty different dishes, my appreciation for his talent and the Indian heritage was significantly elevated, this was a culinary adventure. I was also pleasantly surprised when he told us that most are gluten-free, Indian recipes do not thicken sauces with gluten.
“The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, dear,” my maternal grandmother told me over and over again when I was growing up in the Midwest. Grandma, may she rest in peace, always had berry patches in her backyard for pies to please the most hard-hearted male guest, but if she could have seen the scale and abundance of Connecticut berry farms, she would probably, as we used to say, have fainted dead away. Prairies are not made for berries; woodlands are. Since it’s true that the way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach, too, I’ve developed a passion for the annual ritual of visiting local pick-your-own farms for strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries.
The argument for going to pick-your-own farms, when one has the time, is unassailable. It does not get more local than this, unless, like my Grandma, you want to grow your own (another unassailable idea but beyond the scope of this article). Berries in season are at their peak of freshness and nadir of price, and one also has the satisfaction of knowing that one is supporting farmers in one’s community.
Founded by John and Lynn Holbrook, Holbrook Farm in Bethel has been family run and operated for the past 40 years. The farm is small by most people’s standards. Although it is situated on 12 acres only two are used for production. From these two acres yield an abundance of produce. While not certified organic, the land is clean of pesticides and herbicides, using plants that attract beneficial insects. Weeds have a special place in the ecological mix as well.
Last week I took a trip up to the farm to meet with Jess Wong, the new manager who gave me a tour of the property. Wong was brought on to manage the property and grow the farm to a new level of productivity. A Skidmore graduate, she dabbled in marketing for a while before realizing that she missed being outdoors and working with her hands. Wong started volunteering at the farm assisting the former manager, handling minor projects and social media
Last December John told her that he wanted to retire and asked if she would run the farm and the market. Wong was elated. She had big plans for the farm which included a new greenhouse and renovating the store. But greenhouses are expensive. Enter Tony Pham and Richard Reyes of Mecha Noodle Bar, and Mezon, and their new program, Eat Justice, a movement of restaurants on a mission to transform taste and tradition to pride and progress.
“That’s it,” I overheard a man say with a smile, holding his takeout order as he joked about having come in four days in a row. The word is out downtown...Pho 170, M’town’s newest/latest, is busy. The service is friendly and attentive, showing this new kid on the block is already in the groove, cranking out fresh and delicious dishes—both Vietnamese and Thai.
It’s not been quite three weeks since Viengthong Charonesuk opened the doors to her newest restaurant. And, unlike so many other spots when they first get started, everything’s well under control. Even on a night when they were one person short on the waitstaff, they pulled everything off without a hitch. Vieng hails most recently from Bann Thai in Cheshire, and she’s run restaurants in other locations across the state as well. Little things, like making sure you have extra plates when you share a dish, aren’t overlooked. And it’s always a nice touch when your water glass is refilled before you even need to ask.
It's that time of year again. Sign up for Ambler Farms immensely popular, Maple Syrup Tap-a-Tree program.Sign up quickly...these classes fill up fast.
Learn the science and history of maple syruping by being a hands-on part of the process at Ambler Farm in Wilton.
Training Sessions:Saturday, February 6th at 10am or 1pm Learn the science and history of maple syruping by being a hands-on part of the process. There will be two training sessions offered (February 6th at 10am or 1pm); only ONE session is required for training. On that day, participants will choose a tree and hang their bucket that will collect sap. Ambler Farm will send regular updates on the running of the sap so families can come to the Farm to collect sap from their trees. Sap will be boiled down in the Farm’s sugar shack and each family will go home with their very own bottle of Ambler Farm maple syrup.
Tickets have gone on sale for the Dinners At The Farm 2016 season!
At Dinners At The Farm, each evening begins at 6:00pm, dinner served at 7:00pm. Tickets are per person and are $125 (Wednesdays, Thursdays & Sundays), $150 (Fridays and Saturdays).Upon arrival, guests are greeted with an orchard fruit cocktail and passed hors d’oeuvre and then proceed onto a lively tour of the farm with our warm and engaging farm hosts. Following the tour, guests are seated beneath a tent at long candle-lit tables with white porcelain settings where they will savor course after course of freshly cooked food with ingredients just picked from the fields outside the tent. Guests will break bread and raise a glass with the farmers, fishermen, and others who make up Connecticut’s vibrant agricultural community.
Our 2016 season marks 10 years of hosting our celebrated open-air dinners in the fields of Connecticut farms for delightful and delicious evenings of locally grown food, wine, and conviviality. Dates and additional information here.
With the holiday season fast approaching, Stuart Family Farm can supply your family and friends with some of the highest quality, best tasting, most humanely raised meat products found anywhere. Located on the Litchfield/Fairfield County border in picturesque Bridgewater, CT, the Stuart Family raises 100% grass fed/finished beef, pastured pork, and pastured poultry.
Stuart Family Farm is an environmentally friendly farm, utilizing organic fertilizer on all pastures and hay fields and is free of all herbicides and pesticides. The cow herd is pasture rotated throughout the grazing season and is fed hay that is grown exclusively on the farm during the winter months. The farm became certified Animal Welfare Approved in 2008 and is audited annually to maintain active certification. AWA is a food label for meat products that come from farm animals raised according to the highest animal welfare and environmental standards.
The dream began in a sandbox…..where five year old Geoff Lazlo planted his first garden.
Since then, he has tended, harvested, and cooked with the likes of Alice Waters at Chez Panisse, Michael Anthony at Gramercy Tavern, Dan Barber at Stone Barns, and Bill Taibe at The Whelk.
“What a pedigree!” we said to Lazlo, now the Managing Partner and Executive Chef of the newly opened Mill Street Table and Bar in Greenwich. “Your takeaway?”
"That a seasonal cook has to react like a top athlete," he told us. “Fresh ingredients are in constant motion. Early asparagus is very different than late asparagus, so you're always adjusting to a fast, ever changing game."
Geoff's garden isn't Madison Square, but his own herb and vegetable plots at Greenwich Community Gardens, and, of course, Back 40 Farm. That’s the family acreage in Washington Depot run by his partners at Mill Street, Bill and Leslie King, who head up the organic-centric Back 40 Group.
What Lazlo doesn't pick from there, he sources locally: whether it be oysters farmed off the Greenwich shore, milk, cream and butter churned atArethusa Dairy Farm in Litchfield, even Byram River Rum, distilled down the road in Post Chester. Mill Street represents the fulfilment of Geoff’s dream to establish his own place, an “American Restaurant,” celebrating family, community and local bounty.
Tickets have gone on sale for the Dinners At The Farm 2016 season!
