Your Local Artisans

[BadRabbit]

Artisinal and heritage-style producers seem to be popping up everywhere over recent years in the US and I know everyone here likes to support those kinds of businesses.

So I thought I'd start a thread to consolidate the recommendations. I feel like this will let us take advantage of local knowledge and find some products we might not find otherwise.

For example, I have two really good producers near me that I regularly promote because I really believe in the quality of their products.

Oakview Farms Granary- Fantastic artisinal grits that I think are on par or better than Anson Mills. Their white grits and yellow cornmeal are my favorite products (the cornmeal makes the best cornbread imaginable).

Available online, very limited retail locations and in their "brick & mortar."

http://www.oakviewfarms.com/Default.aspx

Fudge Family Farms pork- AWA certified, outdoor raised pork that is the tastiest I've found in the US. Well marbeled and deep and richly flavored. Until recently he mostly sold to restaurants or in whole hogs direct(I have a friend at a restaurant who would include me on his purchase) but he has begun to sell online now (though he currently only sells chops and sausage online).

http://www.fudgepork.com/

Do you have small producers in your area that produce quality products that you enjoy?

What are their best items?

Are they available online? retail? only direct?

[Genkinaonna]

Willamette Valley Cheese. Amazing! Best havarti ever, although all of their cheeses are good. I usually get it at Whole Foods or the farmers market, but you can order online, at www.wvcheese.com. The horseradish havarti is great on a roast beef sandwich. Also Black Sheep Creamery makes some fresh sheep's milk cheeses that are great, I know some of their aged cheeses won awards at the ACS conference. I get it at a local grocery store (New Seasons), I'm not sure if you can get it online or not. The sundried tomato and basil fresh cheese on some italian bread drizzled with olive oil is pretty much the best lunch you can rustle up in 5 min or less.

I know there are other food groups than the cheese group...I'll have to ponder today, I know there are lots of producers I'm missing.

[Angela Knipple]

There are some great people around Memphis.

This farmer changed our whole outlook on beef. He raises pastured black Angus that are the most flavorful beef I've ever had. And he opens his farm a couple of times a year for a big potluck where he provides the steaks. He ships via FedEx.

Neola Farms

This is our favorite pork producer. He raises Berkshire hogs on a farm in the Ozarks. Not only is the meat delicious, but there's nothing better than going out to his farm. You can just sit in the pasture and be climbed over by baby pigs, and the adults are as friendly as big dogs. He always provides a pig for the Cochon 555 events. He's also branching into lamb. He will ship.

Newman Farm

We're lucky enough to get some really great goat cheese here. These folks built a cheese cave last year, so we're starting to get some wonderful cave-aged products from them along with their original line. They have a cabin on the farm that's great for a weekend away from the city. They ship.

Bonnie Blue

As far as things that are only available locally, we have two wonderful grits and cornmeal producers - Delta Grind and Grit Girl. They both produce a full line of corn products - grits, polenta, cornmeal, masa - and throw in buckwheat flour or blue corn on occasion. We've also got some great bakeries. Cucina Bread makes artisan loaves (our favorite thing is to get her tomato-parmesan focaccia to eat for breakfast at the farmers market), and Big Ono Bake Shop makes sweet Hawaiian breads (their black-pepper-cheddar makes a great steak sandwich). Shoaf's Loaf actually grinds wheat to make bread every day. They make the most amazing ginger snaps. One of the busiest booths at our markets, though, belong to Las Delicias, a Mexican restaurant and tortilleria. They bring the best fresh tortilla chips with fresh guacamole, pico de gallo, salsa, and ceviche.

[jsmeeker]

Lukcy Lala Farms

Luky Lala Farms. Mostly, they are making drinkable yogurts. Tasty stuff. Very local to me. I can get it retail at some area grocery stores.

[BadRabbit]

Belle Chevre is also in Alabama and makes a pretty tasty goat cheese. I've been eating their cheese since they were a pretty small outfit but I'm not sure they still fit into this discussion as they have gotten pretty large.

http://www.bellechevre.com/shop/index.php

[azurite]

River's Edge Chevre http://threeringfarm.com/ Alsea Acres goat cheese http://207.55.114.76/goats/index.html , Walker Farms http://www.walkerfarmssiletz.com/ for eggs, chickens, other types of meat (I think they might be trying to do some sausage too) and there's a local business that sells canned salmon & smoked salmon but I can't remember the name. There's a local seafood restaurant run/started by the daughter of a commercial fisherman (she used to fish too) http://localocean.net/ The restaurant includes a fish/seafood counter if you want to buy local fish/seafood--for a variety of reasons it's not possible to buy everything caught by fishermen operating out of the local harbor(s) directly from the fishermen. You can buy crab and tuna direct, maybe halibut if you get there fast enough (the commercial season is quite short), sometimes salmon.

Not quite so local is Rogue Valley creamery http://www.roguecreamery.com/ probably over 150 miles away. If yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, and kefir & some soy products can be artisanal, then Springfield Creamery (Nancy's yogurt)in the Willamette Valley is http://www.nancysyogurt.com/ I think Nancy's yogurt is available nationally, I know I've seen it in both a supermarket and a health food store on Long Island (NY).

I usually make my own jams, marmalades and fruit butters, but I think there may be a few local people who sell those as well.

At one time, the south & central/north central Oregon coast and inland up to the west side of the coast range, had a number of creameries, i.e, lots of dairy herds because sometimes the soil & often the growing season wasn't good for growing grains or other cash crops (Willamette Valley is better). One of the state parks on the coast was a successful dairy farm for years, I think until WWII. Most of the creameries have disappeared. It's been interesting to see a few of them return (Rogue Valley, Tillamook Dairy Cooperative is still successful and bought the Bandon Creamery--made Bandon cheddar--some years ago) and small goat dairies start & seem to do ok, some of the cheeses have won awards, etc. http://www.nwcheese.com/or.htm Tumalo Farms (in Bend, OR, so not particularly local for me) won some more awards (American Cheese Society) in 2010.

[technophile50]

http://hillsboroughcheese.wordpress.com/buy/

The only one I've had was the Carolina Bleu - I like strong cheeses.

I got it at Weaver Street market; they also carry produce from local farms in season.

Edited April 25, 2011 by technophile50 (log)

[BadRabbit]

I forgot about Conecuh Sausage. It's probably on the edge of this discussion since they aren't a really small operation but I think their Hickory Smoked sausage is the best smoked sausage I've ever had anywhere. Conecuh is available in nearly every grocery store in Alabama but is hard to find elsewhere. I regularly have to send care packages of it to my expat friends in California.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

In my province?

Chocolate de Judith, a mother of chocolate preparation for making proper hot chocolate. This stuff is about as close to the cocoa nibs as you can find without actually buying cocoa nibs; it's made in Ambato according to an ancestral recipe by Judith's family.

Dulce de Guayaba, produced by a number of small artisans in Baños. This is a nice, chewy guava sweet, similar to pate de fruit in texture, which comes in little hand-wrapped blocks or in larger balsa boxes (I prefer the blocks, because you can never get all of the dulce out of the boxes). Again, this is a buy it while you're here kind of thing. Commercial versions exist, but they're inferior to the artisanal ones.

Turron de Nuez, which is honey and walnut torrone, is also available from the Baños artisans. I love this stuff, but it's way easy to OD on it so I don't buy it very often. Like Dulce de Guayaba, it comes in balsa boxes.

Melcocho, a crumbly to chewy panela taffy type thing. Also produced by the artisans in Baños, and this is the only place in the country where you can get it, fresh off the hardwood taffy hooks mounted in the doorframes of the melcocheros.

For all of these, it appears that you have to ask an Ecuadorian resident in the Tungurahua province to ship them to you - they're not commercially available.

In Ambato, there are also artisanal makers of Llapingachos (a type of highland potato pancake served with chanchito horneado), but for those you really must be here, as they don't ship at all.

[Special K]

Beecher's Handmade Cheese in Seattle! (And coming soon in Mthe Flatiron District in Manhattan, I just learned) http://www.beechershandmadecheese.com/ The website has a list of retail outlets and you can order online.

They also run a wonderful "mobile pig" restaurant, Maximus Minimus. You'll have to come here for that, though.

http://www.maximus-minimus.com/