Savoring Kentucky » Markets

Good Foods Market Thrives and Satisfies

Rona — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:55:39 +0000

How good it is, Good Foods Market & Café, aka “the Coop,” and how good that it thrives and grows and evolves with our community. What began in 1972 as a wise way for a few families to buy healthy foods — mostly grains as I recall, and some cheeses — today serves thousands in our region in hundreds of ways.

Recently our family celebrated a sizable, happy wedding. More than 100 people came from out of town.

Looking back, I realized how central the Coop had been in making people happy and comfortable. Some portions of the wedding party ate meals there. Snacks for the bride and groom’s long wedding day and weekend came from Good Foods. New reusable bags of fresh fruit and Kentucky goodies greeted some out-of-town guests. An array of Good Foods’ cold teas, juices, and lemonades refreshed family members waiting for the ceremony to begin. Special Good Foods items like avocados and fresh cilantro boosted large family dinners to celebration status.

Reflecting on my household’s deep reliance on the Coop over more than 30 years gives me an opportunity to notice all I take for granted:

Readily available special foods for specific diets: vegan, low-carb, low sodium, raw, vegetarian, macrobiotic, and more
Supplements that offer healing and relief for a multitude of conditions, and wise staff members who help without giving inappropriate advice
Kentucky-grown premium meats and some seafoods, eggs, cheeses, vegetables, fruits, canned goods, books, greeting cards, and even a few body care products
Extensive organic stock, including some fabric items and, I just learned, organic root beer
A busy café that makes it easy to eat more vegetables and fruits, and offers ways to experiment with foods few of us try at home, like wheat grass juice and vegan pastries
A long-term commitment to education, including a steady catalogue of classes and an intriguing recent film series. Coming up next: Dirt, on July 27 at the Downtown Public Library
An elected board that works both smart and hard for the organization’s long term stability and future, and has invested heavily and consistently in improving its own effectiveness
A permanent commitment to cooperative principles and democratic decision-making

That’s a weighty list. The thing that draws me to the Coop several times a month, though, is likely to be a longing for something on the shelves: Kenny’s Farmhouse Aged Cheddar, or some of the signature lightly sautéed kale on the hot buffet.

For current Savoring Kentucky email subscribers: Please go directly to the post to comment and share information about Good Foods and its offerings, or other topics of interest to Savoring Kentucky readers.

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The world is coming to visit central Kentucky this year for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. To help our visitors know more about Kentucky’s food and food ways, Savoring Kentucky is rolling out 116 Savory Kentucky Bites, one for each of the 100 days before WEG begins, and 16 for the days during WEG, September 25 – October 10. Today’s Savory Bite is number 40.

W+M’s Friday Wine Tasting and Cook Out

Rona — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 01:18:23 +0000

Under a rainbow sky, down streets that look relieved by a fine rain after days of too much heat…

…through a beautiful downtown street that looks like this…

…to the photogenic W+M Wine and Market at the corner of Second and Jefferson…

…where the art looks like this…

…and the crowd looks like this…

…I join the Friday evening wine tasting: A 2008 Oregon Blue Pirate Pinot Noir.

Every Friday from 5:00 – 8:00 PM, W+M offers at least one wine, often two. Proprietor Krim Broughalem relies on his cosmopolitan palate and commitment to sustainability when he chooses the wines. A crowd gathers, some sipping and opining occurs, and I always learn a little something.

Recently W+M began cooking out each Friday, featuring food in styles of exotic places like Cuba (tonight). Here’s the description:

Traditional Cuban sandwich: Stone Cross Farm Pork Loin, Ham, Swiss Cheese, Mustard, Pickle, and Butter
Local Roasted Corn on the Cob
Wild Blackberry Sorbet

In past weeks, the inspiration for the cook out came from Malaysia, Milwaukee, Korea, Rio Grande, Greece and North Carolina. See if you can guess which location goes with this menu:

Smoked Stone Cross Farm Bratwurst, finished in beer, onions and pepper on a Sunrise Bakery baguette
Rhubarb Ice Cream

W+M continues to find ways to attract and please us. The lunch sandwiches have a loyal following, and the affordable wines, even more so.

Those of us who live within walking distance may have noticed and appreciated W+M first (see here, and here, and here) but now a lot of people know, thanks to Food & Wine magazine, which recently included W+M in its top five listing of natural wine markets. I’ll see you there some Friday – though I can’t promise a repeat on the rainbow.

For current Savoring Kentucky email subscribers: Please go directly to the post to comment and share information about W+M, Krim Broughalem, biodynamic wines, international cook outs, downtown groceries or other topics of interest to Savoring Kentucky readers.

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This is Savory Kentucky Bite number 24 of 116 Savory Bites created in honor of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

Kentucky Growers Offer Us Food Adventures

Rona — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:50:02 +0000

[Show as slideshow]

Today’s pre-WEG Savory Bite comes on Father’s Day. My own father, Lisle V. Roberts, loved vegetable gardening and loved food. He ate adventurously. Each year he and Mother selected plants and foods new to them to try in their large garden. Dad also delighted in finding something new or rare at the grocery store of fruit market in Monticello, Kentucky, seven miles from their farm.

One favorite memory: Dad standing in his corn rows, eating a freshly pulled ear of corn, humming just a little bit.

Yesterday’s Lexington Farmers Market brought Dad to mind. Our growers keep expanding our palates and our plates. Beautiful and unusual foods caught my attention at many different stands. Some foods are old, and not typically commercial, like Cleary Hill Farm’s ground cherries (buttery-sweet-tart, by the way). Some are new to Kentucky tables, like Elmwood Stock Farm’s organic fava beans and brilliant edible flowers. Some are exotic, like Blue Moon’s lush Kentucky-grown oyster mushrooms.

We are fortunate to have such a wide range of locally grown foods. Kentucky’s growing powers are great. Dad appreciated that all his life, and he would have been tickled by the breadth of new foods our growers offer.

Note to email subscribers: The photo gallery that tops this post may not show correctly — or at all — inside your email inbox. If you do not see the photos, go to the post on Savoring Kentucky.

This is Savory Kentucky Bite number 5 of 116 Savory Bites created in honor of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

Lexington Farmers Market at the 5/3 Pavilion

Rona — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 01:20:06 +0000

Email subscribers: See this post’s 72-second video here.

The Saturday Lexington Farmers Market is our ur-Market, a magnetic destination for thousands of us each weekend during the growing season. Until recently, rain on Saturday morning could put a lethal hole in growers’ wallets, because we all stayed home. Now that the Saturday Market location includes a large, lovely, covered Pavilion*, more of us brave the rain and shop anyway. This represents progress for our treasured growers and for our own health and well-being.

* Technically, the Pavilion is the “Fifth Third Bank Pavilion at Cheapside Park.” Fifth Third Bank invested $750,000 in the structure, and for that, we offer an extra-large Savoring Kentucky Thank You to community-minded Fifth Third Bank.

This is Savory Kentucky Bite number 4 of 116 Savory Bites created in honor of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

Lexington Farmers’ Market Moves Halfway Into the Pavilion

Rona — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 01:30:57 +0000

On Saturdays, the Lexington (KY) Farmers’ Market will use the newly built pavilion that runs between Short and Main Streets, replacing Cheapside Park. On April 17, growers and customers moved into half the pavilion. I like the feeling of the Market in the pavilion so much more than I expected. I made a small slideshow/video about the new place, and what one could buy at the Market on its second Saturday of the 2010 growing season. Email subscribers: watch the video here.

At Last! Lexington Farmers Market Opens for 2010

Rona — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 02:17:41 +0000

It was hard to wait. Hard imagining the growers might be anxious about the failure to complete the Market’s new location on time. Hard to do without the eggs/greens/potatoes/conversations even the slender winter market provided until three weeks ago.

But it was easy to get up early and watch the 2010 Lexington Farmers Market set up in temporary spaces on Short and Upper Streets. It was easy to find beautiful food. Easy to find laughter and conversation. Easy to feel a debt of gratitude to the growers who got up at 2:30 this morning to make their way to the center of Lexington and set up truckloads of tables, tents, equipment, and products for sale.

Easy to enjoy a beautiful salad this evening, made from fresh Elmwood Stock Farm greens and Cleary Hill Farm baby radishes. That was the easiest of all.

It’s Easy to Love Louisville

Rona — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:38:49 +0000

It’s easy to see red when you visit the joyous 21C Museum Hotel, recently chosen by Condé Nast readers as the Number One Hotel In These United States. The Hotel’s hot red limo, covered with glass beads, helped me remember what’s great about the color red. Human-sized red penguins seem to have the run of the place, inside and out. And though Wildcat Blue is a fine color, I like Louisville so much, and always have, that I like Cardinal Red just fine, too.

Louisville chefs and eaters led most of the rest of the state in championing fine locally grown foods. Louisville policy makers, investors, and residents have a lot to teach us in central Kentucky about protecting and showcasing our historic assets, as Lexington Herald-Leader writer and blogger Tom Eblen pointed out in a fine story today.

And here’s something else to love: Louisville’s Grasshoppers Distribution has created a new type of Winter CSA (subscription for local food). Thanks to a tip from a Savoring Kentucky friend for this news from Grasshoppers:

We all know how hard it is to find local food during the winter months when the farmer’s markets around town are very limited. This year we decided to try and make it a little easier on folks and offer a Winter CSA program that runs from December 1 – March 1. This is the first year that Grasshoppers’ will be offering CSA shares throughout the winter. The shares are a little different so please read the application carefully, it is attached above. We think that a lot of folks will enjoy The Winter Staples Share, which offers a 1/2 gallon glass bottle of locally produced milk from JD’s Country Milk, one carton of local farm fresh eggs from Chelsey’s Eggs, 3-4 locally grown seasonal produce items from a variety of producer, and each month you will receive 1 bottle of maple syrup from Leane and Michael’s Sugarbush in Southern Indiana, a jar of local honey from Harry C. Jones in Crestwood, one pound of local gourmet mushrooms from Sheltowee farms in Bath County, and one jar of local sorghum from Country Rock Sorghum in Woodford County (one of these items is included in the Winter Staples Share every week). We will have more details and pictures up on the website shortly.

I hope this new enterprise soars for Grasshoppers, and inspires similar offerings across the state.

I am excited about all the ways Louisville visionaries and entrepreneurs are leading Kentucky forward, supporting our health, our love of good food, our priceless farms, and our spirits’ love of beauty, verve, and reflection. We are lucky to have Louisville be part of all of us.

Go see 21C and its singularly delightful collection of objects and experiences. You will laugh, think, reflect, appreciate, and be glad to be alive. Then go visit Proof on Main, the 21C restaurant, to enjoy fine Kentucky foods in a beautiful setting. In fact, Proof’s windows look out on the lively section of Louisville’s West Main Street that Tom Eblen describes so well in his story.

It’s all Kentucky, and it’s all fine.

Col. Newsom’s Ham Goes Bilingual

Rona — Thu, 21 May 2009 02:28:23 +0000

The best ham in Kentucky — Col. Newsom’s Aged Country Ham — recently joined the best dry-aged hams in the world in a Spanish museum dedicated to air cured hams. Nancy Newsom Mahaffey cures, smokes, and ages hams in Princeton, Kentucky, keeping to the processes her grandfather used when he founded the business in 1917.

Nancy recently wrote Mark Williams, leader of Slow Food Bluegrass , to tell him of this latest honor. Nancy said, “Colonel Newsoms Aged Hams was invited to the 5th World Congress of Dry Cured hams held in Aracena, Spain. The Congress was held May 6th thru the 8th. They placed our ham in their Jamon Museum and it
was on national television in Spain. I was so honored. This is the first time that an American ham has been asked to be a part of their Congress.”

Savoring Kentucky congratulates Nancy and all who work with her. We thank Nancy for maintaining this demanding art that produces ham fit for the most distinguished table.

Progress, Infinitesimal, But Still…

Rona — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:05:36 +0000

Slow, slow progress. Much scratching of the head. Why isn’t website work guided in sensible steps, as cooking is guided by cookbooks (when they are good cookbooks)? Or why didn’t I learn web design and image management and cascading style sheets as a five year old — watching my elders make beautiful, meaningful web pages without breaking a sweat — just as I first learned cooking?

I’m trying to make friends with style sheets and style sheet editors. I’m trying and discarding image editing and web editing tools. I’m keeping my old trusted web host, domain registrar and blog engine. I’m launching a new theme. I’m keeping some plugins and widgets, even as I download, activate, deactivate, and occasionally reactivate some new ones.

Had I read this paragraph four years ago I would have looked for a dictionary. Probably online already – but something to help translate.

That gives me hope that shortly I will be able to write or speak sentences that include stuff like this:

“.clearfix:after { content: “.”; display: block; height: 0; clear: both; visibility: hidden; }”

and I’ll know what I’m talking about. Already I glimpse meaning in

“#header-image {overflow: hidden; margin; 0 0 -20px 0; }”

just a suspicion of meaning, but still – progress.

Where Mac’s Rooster Is – There’s the Market

Rona — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 21:29:40 +0000

The Lexington Farmers Market opened outdoors for the 2009 season today. (More photos here.) I had wondered what it would be like to be downtown at the Market, but not on Vine Street. Nevermind all that wondering. Mac Stone of Elmwood Stock Farm put his rooster in the proper place at the end of the Elmwood table, and I knew I was at home. The Market is in session, and the farmers and producers brought more good-looking plants and foods than I could have imagined. Some of what I saw:
Bedding plants (tomatoes, herbs, flowers)
Beef from nose to tail
Breads – baguettes, batards, cinnamon rolls, croissants, levains, muffins, sweet loaves
Butter |
Cheeses from cows, especially the wonderful Kenny’s Country Cheese
Cheeses from goats – fresh and spreadable (Bleugrass), aged and packed with flavor (Sapori d’Italia)| Chocolates (Viburnum Valley Farm Confections)
Eggs (brown, beautiful, bountiful)
Green garlic (lots!)
Herbs as plants, herbs for tonight’s dinner
Honey
Lilies
Onions (slim greens/candy types)
Parsnips
Pork (bacon, shoulder, loin roast, tenderloin, ground, chops, sausages, more)
Radishes – black and serious-looking
Sorghum
Spinach – Bordeaux and whatever the non-Bordeaux regular type is called
Squashes – beautiful butternut and kabocha types, still
Sweet potatoes

And Master Gardeners giving away Mesclun seed packs and newsletters, and smoking barbeque…All we need now are the musicians, and I expect them as soon as the weather permits.

See my small gallery of opening day photos of the creatures, comestibles, and the comely.