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This limited edition collection of artisanal and earth-friendly foods will inspire your cooking and delight your guests at holiday gatherings. It is the perfect gift for anyone who loves food. Explore delicious, hand-selected and unique products featuring heritage ingredients from the Slow Food USA's Ark of Taste.
*denotes Ark of Taste Ingredient
The Gravenstein Apple has played an important role in the history and culture of California’s western Sonoma Valley since the 1900s. By 1945 when plantings peaked, over 14,000 acres of the area were covered with Gravenstein apple trees. Unfortunately there are far fewer today with thousands of acres being replanted with grape vines.
The fruit has long been sought after by chefs for its elegant balance of sweet and tart flavors and its crisp flesh. It also makes the best cider around. Katz Farm takes this hard cider made from late ripening Gravenstein apples when the sugars are high, and then carefully and slowly convert the cider into vinegar using the traditional Orleans method. The result is a pleasant, traditional elixir, redolent of baked apples, honey and sweet spice balanced with a solid backbone of acidity.
The slow, handcrafted Orleans method originated 200 years ago in France. Unlike most modern vinegar making, which is based on rapid, forced fermentation, and flushing the wine with oxygen, the Orleans technique requires the vinegar to age for ten months in small French Oak barrels. As a consequence of this extensive process, very little commercial production of the vinegar exists in the US.
Albert Katz has been a passionate advocate of Slow Food for many decades. After serving locally sourced seasonal cuisine at his restaurant for a decade, Albert was inspired to start a new journey. He became one of the founding members of the California Olive Oil Council in 1993 and turned his attention to creating world class olive oil in Northern California. Their focus on sustainability and seasonal local produce led them to produce award winning Orleans method vinegar in an historic stone Carriage House on our Rock Hill Ranch.
Kim and Albert remain committed to continuing their support and participation in the evolving sustainable food movement and as individual growers to the continued good stewardship of the land they farm.
This complex vinegar elevates everything from salads to sauces. The delicate balance of fruit and acid pairs well with olive oils in addition to hazelnut oil for salads. Using it to deglaze a pan with pork, chicken or duck fat makes a scrumptious pan sauce. You can also use a dash in a cocktail to provide acidity in place of lemon or lime.
Braised Pork Loin with Leeks and Katz Gravenstein Apple Cider Vinegar
Recipe from Kartz Farm
A boneless center cut of pork loin is very versatile. Try to buy one that is either already trimmed of most of the fat or ask your butcher to do it for you (nicely!). We think the Sautéed Apples in Gravenstein Cider Vinegar and Honey recipe makes a delicious accompaniment for this dish.
Heat the olive oil in a heavy ovenproof pan with lid that will hold pork roast over moderate heat until hot but not smoking.
Lightly salt and pepper pork and place fat side down in pan for 3 minutes until nicely browned. Repeat on other side. Set pork on plate and put aside.
Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of fat and return to low heat. Add leeks and sauté until softened. Add wine, vinegar, stock, fennel, nutmeg and sage and bring to a boil.
Add pork back to the pan with juices, with a dash of salt and pepper, cover pan and set in oven until cooked internally to 150 degrees, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Place pork on cutting board and cover with foil Set pan over medium high heat, add honey and reduce juices to a nice pan sauce consistency, add apples.
Adjust seasoning. Slice pork into thin slices, spoon the apples on top and serve!
With its rich, mouthwatering broth and show stopping flavor, Sea Island Red Peas are an integral part of Gullah cuisine and dishes like Hoppin’ John and Reezy Peezy. Brought to America in the 1700s by enslaved people these heirloom field peas are native to Sub-Saharan Africa.
Sea Island Red Pea production was abandoned along with rice during the depression, but collections of feral peas and a few stalwart gardeners and seedsmen saved them from extinction and make possible the rare enjoyment of these foods today. Sea Island Peas were the lynchpin of Antebellum sustainable rice farming rotation to improve the soil and still perform that purpose with on-farm soil management today in the Carolina Lowcountry.
Greg Johnsman is passionate about preserving traditional Southern foodways on the South Carolina Sea Islands. He and his wife Betsy farm and mill heirloom ingredients at Marsh Hen Mill on Edisto Island, where Betsy's family has farmed for generations. In addition to Sea Island Red Peas, Greg grows Carolina Gold Rice and Jimmy Red Corn on their Sea Island farm and mills the finest cornmeal and grits around on his ancient milling equipment from the 1940s.
Sea Island Red Peas are the original ingredient used in Hoppin' John and after exploring many recipes for this dish, the Gullah recipe by chef BJ Dennis is our favorite. Click here to view the video.
This very simple dish lets the flavor of these amazing heirloom field peas shine.
Ingredients
1 cup Sea Island red peas
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced celery (reserve celery leaves)
1 cup diced carrot
2 sprigs of thyme
3 cups chicken (or veg) stock
2 Bay Leaves
Salt and Pepper to taste.
Serve with Carolina Gold Rice and a good southern hot sauce like Red Clay Original Hot Sauce.
In a thick bottom pot sauté the onion, celery and carrot until tender. Add stock, thyme and bay leaves. Rinse the red peas well and add to the pot. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes until tender. Remove the thyme stem and bay leaves, top with chopped celery leaves and serve with Carolina Gold Rice and hot sauce.
Pastificio Boulder is a craft pasta company primarily working with heirloom wheat including the Ark of Taste Turkey Hard Red Wheat brought to the US in the 1800s. Pastifico sources unique varieties of organic wheat as locally as possible and collaborates with small Boulder farmers to grow them. The majority of their flour is freshly milled in house. They add Eldorado Springs artesian water to the whole grain flour and semolina flour and craft the pastas using artisanal, Italian techniques. The pastas are extruded in small batches, through bronze dies, then dried slowly (36-48 hours) at slow temperature. The ingredients and processes allow Pastifico to create pastas bursting with flavor, that are nutritionally superior, have the right, smooth texture and are more digestible. Our packaging is also as sustainable as possible, meaning that they are plastic-free, fully recyclable, and compostable.
Growing up in Brazil, Claudia Bouvier was always surrounded by incredible artisanal foods—and her large Italian family. After moving to the US for her career as a Civil Engineer and Interior Designer, she often dreamed about the fresh pastas of her childhood and the memories of her travels in Italy. While working in New York City, she met Ted Steen, the owner and head brewer at Bank Street Brewing Co. in Stamford, CT. Together, the couple relocated to Boulder, Colorado: a city with a deep appreciation for local food and an engaged population of environmental activists.< It was at CU Boulder, while Claudia was pursuing her Masters in Engineering, that the business plan for Pastificio Boulder started to take shape. Joining Catalyze, CU’s incubator program, Claudia began to apply entrepreneurship and innovation concepts to artisanal, health-minded food production. Meanwhile, Ted was increasingly engaged in the realm of sustainability and the impact of an industrial food system on both people and the planet. In particular, he began researching how ingredients grown and processed in a more natural, unadulterated state could counteract both environmental issues and growing health concerns, like gluten sensitivity. Together, Ted and Claudia began to investigate the benefits of heirloom and ancient varieties of wheat - from their digestibility and nutritional benefits, to their wide range of earthy, sweet and nutty flavors.
When they committed to launching Pastificio Boulder in 2018, neither Claudia nor Ted knew how fast it would grow. Yet by reimagining a pantry staple, they have joined an influential community of entrepreneurs and activists seeking to eliminate the negative nutritional and environmental impacts of our mass-produced food system. Along the way, they’ve partnered with like-minded farmers committed to growing organic, heirloom grains. They’ve milled their own fresh flour, and experimented with numerous small-scale pasta production and drying techniques. Most importantly, they’ve discovered that making nutrient-dense artisanal pasta—much like slow-fermented bread or natural wine—is a process that can’t be automated. From the protein content of each season’s wheat, to the ever-changing humidity of their production kitchen, each box of Pastifico Boulder dried pastas is attentively crafted by human hands to nourish your friends and family.
Hand crafted on a small family goat farm in Colorado, this decadent caramel is the perfect compliment to everything from coffee to pecan pie. Table Mountain farms uses only local and fair trade ingredients in addition to goat’s milk from their own regenerative farm to make this award winning caramel sauce.
Table Mountain Farm is a small family farm in Longmont, Colorado. They focus on providing the highest quality of care to our animals while using the best land practices to regenerate our soil and capture as much carbon as we’re able. Inside and outside of the jar, everything is sustainably sourced with fair trade ingredients purchased in Colorado to promote other small businesses and do our part for the environment.
Amanda grew up in Manhattan and devoted her career to non-profit management, working around the globe. It all changed when she began working with dairy farmers in Nicaragua and Kenya who lived off their land, providing food for their families and community. What started as 4 chickens in the family's backyard in South Boulder has become 12 acres in South West Longmont.
If you can manage to keep from eating the entire jar with a spoon as soon as it's open you can also enjoy it in coffee, drizzled on ice cream, coffee cake, or brownies, dip apples in it, and our personal favorite, pour it over pecan pie.
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