My Food and Drink Blog

Posts Tagged ‘festivals’

Winter cress is an excellent pot herb that can be picked and eating from different generations. Winter cress is commonly found in fields, gardens and near waste grounds (don’t pick the ones that grow ON the waste). Although mistakenly being referred to as winter cress, they start their life in late summer, grow in fall and winter and is ready for picking and eating come March. The plant itself is bitter, but you can harvest it as early as Fall or by mixing the mature leaves with younger greens to counter balance the bitter taste.

Water cress, sounding the same like the winter cress, are aquatic plants floating around the ponds, creeks and cold springs in local areas. They have bright green leaves that are small, smooth and neatly arranged on long, slender stalks.

Best eaten at around April to June, these delightful greens have an irresistible pungent smell (a little odor too) that goes great with almost all salads and for accompanying and garnishing meat dishes. Water cress is very rich in Vitamin C, and is often used for supplementing. It is also a rich source of calcium, iron, phosphate and Vitamin A.

Wild lettuce, as the name says, is common around the lowland parts of pastures, cleared woodlands and along the rich soil deposits of streams and rivers. It is more related to the dandelion however, and wild lettuce is best eaten during the months of March up until the first week of April. Eat it sooner than that and the plant will become bitter and virtually inedible by taste standard.

The lettuce is identified by its light green leaves, smooth and lobed. Break the stem off, and an milky-something sap is issued from the wound. Wild lettuce is mixed with other greens or can be eaten raw and served in a salad made of other lettuce species.

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A gathering wont be that satisfying without a glass of wine. Studies show that a glass of wine can improve and enlightens a person’s present mood. Wines have a number of uses. It is used as an inviting and alcoholic drink or beverage to add to the fun among parties. It is also used in kitchens as a secret chef’s touch and flavor enhancer to a culinary creation. Wines are sometimes also use as a first aid in the form of an antiseptic. It is some times used to dress up a wound because of its alcohol content. It is also believed that a glass of red wine a day can help cure heart disease.

Wine is generally from the extracts of fresh grapes that are fermented by yeast. The process involves fermentation by breaking down the sugar levels (glucose) of the fruit resulting to its alcoholic content. Wines are typically stored in wood barrels that are manufactured and prepared well to avoid leaks. Barrels are stored in cellars for years. The longer the wine has been fermented, the better and more expensive it can be.

The art of wine Tasting is the act of tasting wine to determine its composition, quality and character. Wine tasting is primarily done in order to characterize or classify a wine. Wines are tasted in terms of the 5S: swirl, see, sip, sniff, and savor . Swirl attributes to the consistency of the wine. See attributes to its color. The wine is usually placed on a white background for the taster to see the color carefully. Sip attributes to the wines taste. Sniff attributes to its smell or aroma while Savor attributes to its aftertaste.

There are other varieties of wine like the rice wine which is a starch based variety. Almost any kind of fruit in season can be used to make wine, not just grapes. Wine tasters usually taste up to 22 types of wine at one time to escape from its intoxicating effects. Some wine tasters usually spit the wine after tasting it through the use of a spittoon.

A Wine Tasting event will be held in Corballis, Oregon. Anyone who would want to attend is invited to witness this event.

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Cheese, as hardy and tough as it seems to be, is still food. It is delicate. It needs its own space, and it needs its own ways of caring for it, storing it and serving it. From when the cheese is delivered to the shop for display and service, the customer should know proper choosing and handling of cheese to promote storage longevity and maximum preservation of taste, nutrients, consistency, aroma and overall appearance.

When choosing cheese from a store, always look for one thing first before even considering to select that particular wheel, or block, or even a slice of cheese. Look for the Wisconsin Cheese ID. Wisconsin Cheese quality assurance only stamps the WCID to cheeses that have passed their requirements and their rigorous tests to assure you that you get the best of the best quality cheeses the state has to offer. The eye can be a good judge too. Make sure that when selecting cheese, it should look fresh, clean and as much as possible, have little cracks. Cracks are a sign that the cheese has been exposed too long in the air (dried out) and indicates the gradual loss of cheesy freshness.

There are the three C’s when it comes to handling cheese that has been bought and brought home. Clean, Cover, and Cold. Clean: make sure that the cheese is wrapped well and kept away from other foods, especially aromatic ones like onions, apples, dried fish, etc. Cheese, like a sponge, is very absorbent with other food’s smells and this may influence your taste if you eat the cheese (half of eating cheese is through aroma).

Cover: make sure to keep cheese away from as much air exposure as possible. Cheese turns hard and rancid if left out in the open too much. Hard cheeses like Parmesan and Mozzarella, should be kept in plastic wrap at all times to prevent drying out. Soft cheeses, in air-tight plastic containers for longer shelf life and smoother texture, as compared to leaving it out. Store in cool places as well, to discourage bacterial growth. Semi-hard cheese would depend but will go well with parchment or even with its original wrapping.

Finally, cold: if planning to refrigerate cheese (though not strongly encouraged), keep temperatures between 34 to 38 degrees Fahrenheit. Cheeses really don’t do well with too much coldness.

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Wild ginseng grows well in West Virginia. If you’re a local in the area, I’m sure that you aren’t ignorant of this fact, since American wild ginseng has been sought out so much it is in the brink of endangerment. Wild American ginseng is highly valued, and has contributed a great deal to the state’s economy. Efforts to cultivate it included simulating wild conditions and having it grow in a wild, untrained environment. But nowadays, cultivation is being an option that is being sought out. Ginseng is actually a very sensitive plant that requires care and nourishment, even the wild ones.

Ginseng, since history, has been long used as a medicinal plant, an herb. Some believe that the root has antidepressant properties, increases immunity, and restores vigor to both physical, mental, and even sexual aspects. Ginseng is said to be an aphrodisiac. Although the prized root certainly seems overrated, it is definitely overpriced for a good reason.

For one, look for ginseng in areas with little to no rocks. Ginseng is very delicate, and the rocks usually would impede plant, or root growth. Some indicator plants that tell you ginseng grows around this area are ferns, spleen wort, other wild ginger, and snake root.

Trees are a bad area for ginseng to grow. Forests, oak for example, will have large leaves that will prevent light and water from reaching the ginseng. However, there are trees that benefit the ginseng. Poplar and walnut are two of these trees, and you can find a healthy batch in these types of woods.

Things to look out for are also, moist soil (not wet), a shady area (shaded by canopy trees) and away from animal life. Deers, turkey and some livestock are common ginseng enemies.

Be careful though. Security is a big issue. Although wild ginseng is indeed wild, some humans can claim ownership to these patches. Make sure that no one owns it, as ginseng wars can be violent. Do it discreetly, or better yet, plant your own patches of ginseng. Guard it with your being.

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The taste you obtain from the wines depend on four basic components found in all wines: the taste from the juice, the tannin from the skin, seeds and the barrel used for aging the wine, alcohol from fermentation, and the acidity of aging. Good wine requires the presence of all four and the delicate balance between them to be of equal and unopposed proportion. Aging usually softens the impact of tannin. Acidity calms down with age, as acids break down over time. Alcohol levels stay the same throughout the whole life of the wine. Knowledge on how these factors affect one another will help you determine the grade, quality and real taste of the wine. Some lesser known taste descriptions wine tasters use are minerality, asparagus and earthiness.

Here are some of the common tastes that most of the wine tasters report with each type of wine. The growing region, harvesting time, and production all have impact on the tastes and feeling of the wine.

Cabernet wine has a registered taste made of usually green spices, cherry, black fruits, and black currant. Merlot has a floral sense to it, with green spices, red and black fruits (or a combination therein) and plum for flavor. Zinfandel wines often has black fruits and spices (called briaries in other dialects).

Syrah/Shiraz uses black fruits and spices too, most often the peppers. Pinot Noir, a good variety, has red fruits, flowers and herbs as a bouquet. Chardonnay in the cooler climates, are aged with tropical fruits. Citrus and melon are used for those in the warmer regions. Malolactic fermentation makes Chardonnay lose its green apple flavor and takes on a feeling something akin to ‘creme’.

Note that malolactic fermentation causes white wines to adopt a creamy and sometimes buttery taste. Oak barrels used for aging some wines give the wine a nutty and vanilla-ish flavor.

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Oregon has a good base in making wine, recognized by most of the country for its top quality wines, comparable to the quality of most French wines. Oregon has different regions divided and separated by soil quality, amount of sunlight received and the climate of the region. Additional areas cling at the borders of Oregon and Washington/Idaho. Wine making has been a very important part of the pioneer life, as it is the only source of alcohol and inebriation during those lonely times.

There are around 303 wineries in Oregon, all boasting unique tasting wines and a tourism industry worth your money. Much of the tours focus in the wineries themselves and private tasting rooms around Yamhill Valley, near southwest of Portland City. The state produces five distinct varieties that are nationally recognized: Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Merlot, and Riesling.

Others that are lesser known but are still significantly produced are Cabernet Sauvingnon, Gewurtraminer, Muller-Thurgau, Pinot blanc, Sauvignon blanc, Semillon and Syrah. Lesser known wines produced in small quantities are Zinfandel, Viognier, Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Petite Syrah, Nebbiolo, Muscat, Malbec, MArechal Foch, Grenache, Gamay Noir, Dolcetto, Arneis, Baco noir, Cabernet franc, and Chenin blanc.

Pinot noir is wine made with the red wine grape species Vitis vinifera. Otherwise known as Pinot noir grapes. Pinot and noir means ‘pine’ and ‘black’ respectiviely, and indeed, it is compacted like the nuts of a pine cone and the blackest of black grapes. Pinot noir grapes grow best in the cooler regions of Oregon, but the grape is more profilic in the Burgundy grapevines of France.

The grapes of Pinot noir variety produce some of the most excellent wines, though it is hard to cultivate and maintain. Pinot noir fetches a high price in the market, with Robert Parker, an expert in wine remarks “When it’s great, Pinot noir produces the most complex, hedonistic, and remarkably thrilling red wine in the world…”

To be continued…

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The process is rigorous and tiring. At least forty liters of sap is required to make a liter of syrup. Mature trees can produce about forty liters of sap during the one and a half month of sugaring. Trees should at least be forty years old to qualify tapping. If the tree is larger, it may be tapped at both sides for efficiency.

When the sap is collected, it is boiled to the right consistency with extreme accuracy. Miss the 1333 kg/m3 mark, and you will spoil the syrup. Too low, and it will not be sweet enough, too high, and you will have maple sugar crystal. Once the process is done, it is filtered off and bottled while hot.

New technology (actually it is thirty years old), prompted most producers to try using reverse osmosis in removing water before boiling the sap into syrup. The use of this process removes at least three quarters of the original water from the sap, reducing the time needed to expose the syrup to high temperatures and the energy needed to boil the water off.

Another product of boiling the sap is maple sugar, a hard type of candy sold in blocks, resulting when the sap is boiled to a level higher than that required for maple syrup. Other styles and level of boiling can also produce products like maple cream and maple butter, both widely used and eaten with bread.

The prices of maple syrup can be a fickle thing. Prices are determined by the availability of sap and syrup, the grade of the syrup, and the resources needed to transport and market them. These past three years, the market saw an enormous rate of rising due to poor sap flow, inhospitable weather conditions and unstable supplies (Quebec, having been the supplier of most major demands, is slowly depleting its own supplies).

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By the way, the shop should have a good reputation. Shops should know how to properly display and store their cheeses, and know when to dispose of bad stocks. The WCID could only take you as far as the shop, where the cheese is subject to the keeper’s mercy. Check the sell by and use by dates for when to use the cheese. Clerks should have at least the fundamental knowledge in storing cheese. Ask them how best to store the cheese you choose to buy. Packaged cheese are okay, but fresh cut cheeses need extra care. Whether parchment, wax paper, or plastic wrap; it depends on what type of fresh cheese you buy.

Cutting cheese is the same as carving turkey. It requires a bit of technique as well, and some proper ways of doing so. A chef’s knife would be the next best thing if you do not have a cheese knife, Make sure to cut the cheese first before removing the protective wax or rind from it.

Cheese will cut well when chilled, but some cheeses relent better at room temperature. If mold is present in the surface of the cheese, cut the affected area out plus 1/4 of an inch to 1/2 of the slice. Use as soon as possible.

If you are considering on freezing your cheese for future use, it is okay, but discouraged to do so. Cheese that has been frozen is best left as an ingredient for other dishes, rather than as a snack, or a sandwich filling. Firm and hard cheeses are okay to be frozen, but soft cheeses are a no-go. Soft cheeses undergo dramatic change when frozen. It is best to eat soft cheeses upon purchase and within the ‘to-use’ time period.

When freezing hard cheese, do not forget to label when it was frozen and what type of cheese is it. Frozen cheese, whether hard or otherwise will change, so do not be surprised. Cheese will crumble easily; the soft variety might separate slightly into some of its components, but nevertheless, the nutrition provided is stoically the same.

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A year after, most cheese makers from other states and other countries had adopted Wisconsin as their new home. This continuous supply of man power, both in physical labor, experience and innovation, had kept the Wisconsin cheese industry continuing strong. Most of these men were Europeans, some French and most were cheese makers by trade. Their work ethics, determination, ambition, love for cheese, family secrets and recipes, unique tastes and techniques all fused and combined with those of the Wisconsin cheese makers, making some of the world’s finest and celebrated cheeses of our time.

Swiss cheese makers had created the first batches of Swiss cheeses in Wisconsin. Italians made with flavor and depth, bringing in recipes of Gorgonzola, Mozzarella and that of Provolone. The English folks gave Cheddar, a robust flavored cheese. The Dutch contributed the recipes for Edam Cheese and Gouda. The French, Camembert and Brie, equally soft cheeses. Brick cheese and Colby cheese were some of the original cheeses created by the Wisconsin folk.

At present, from the original less than three thousand factories, the number was somewhat fluctuating with the combining and splitting of companies of different cheese makers. The dairy farms, however, was a different story. Milk will always have a strong base in Wisconsin, and thanks to milk, the cheese industry will stay strong.

At least fifteen thousand dairy farms exist today, providing the core ingredient for cheese-making. Dairy farms, maintained with milk by one million two hundred thousand strong cows, produce an average eighteen thousand pounds of quality milk. A lot of these are used for cheese making as well, approximately 90 percent of the value, with over one hundred fifteen plants processing and manufacturing cheese at a commercial level.

Wisconsin also strives to maintain and uphold this tradition, employing universities to teach cheese making courses, as well as cheese making licenses. At least over two billion pounds of cheese are produced per year, supplying America’s demand for quality cheese.

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Wisconsin is known for its world-renowned art in cheese production. Cheese, being one of the greater things in life, and probably the next best thing to sliced bread (forgive me for the pun). Wisconsin has have had at least over more than 160 years in cheese making history, and within those time, had developed the craft into an art and an esteemed profession. With the evolution of time and the progress of technology, the state has developed over six hundred new varieties, tastes and styles of cheeses.

Wisconsin, in the olden times, was a stage set for dairy making. The last Ice Age had left lush grazing fields for cows and other fodder creatures to graze on. The fresh grass, good sun, and the cool climate produced large volumes of fresh, delicious milk. Wisconsin is said to adapt the title as the nation’s ‘heartland’ because of this image.

Crops of wheat, hops, and other grains supplemented the state’s development and economy; but milk was still closest to the heart. The cows produced milk in abundance that most farmers were at a worry on what to do, since milk did not do well with preservation methods back then.

To preserve milk, they decided to employ cheese-making as an option. From selling perishable milk, to long-lasting, more profitable cheese; this was the start of the small-scale invasion of cheese makers. Other than milk preservation, large-scale and commercial production was really out of the question for the simple dairy farmers of Wisconsin.

It was in 1921 that Wisconsin, after so many years of trial and error, of development and failures, of recipes shared and handed down from generation to generation; the state was the first one to establish a grading system for cheeses. Grades that were based according to the type, variety, and quality of the cheese. Quality assurance had secured Wisconsin a spot in the cheese market of the United States by then, the state having at least almost three thousand commercial cheese factories by that time.

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