by megan@spoon
On Friday, January 13th, our Wild Thimbleberry Jam was named a 2012 Good Food Awards Winner! We spent a gorgeous weekend in San Francisco attending a variety of Good Food Awards events and meeting dedicated food artisans from all over the country. Culinary Director Chris Dettmer proudly accepted the award on behalf of American Spoon on Friday night, and we were inspired by Ruth Reichl’s heartfelt keynote address at the awards ceremony. On Saturday, we set up a small table at the iconic Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and spent the day sharing tastes of our Wild Thimbleberry Jam with hundreds of good-food-loving local and visitors, most of whom had never heard of a wild thimbleberry before. Jars of this quintessentially northern jam made their way home with folks who fell in love with our beguiling wild berry, including Alice Waters herself, who tasted a spoonful and said, “Oh, I have to have it.”
The thimbleberry is a beguilingly tart, aromatic fruit that grows wild in northern climates, thriving in areas with cool summer temperatures. The large, velvety berries have a tangy taste reminiscent of currants and rasperries, with soft seeds that release their nutty flavor when chewed. Wild thimbleberries are beloved by both bears and humans, and for decades, we’ve worked with a handful of families in the Keweenaw Peninsula who beat the bears to the berries for us every year. In our kitchen, we prepare the scarlet berries by hand and carefully preserve them in our copper kettles using twice as much fruit as sugar.
We’re honored to be recognized for our long-standing commitment to capturing the singular flavors of exceptional fruits and for helping to sustain dedicated growers and foragers in rural communities across Northern Michigan. We’re so pleased that we had the opportunity to share our rare wild thimbleberry with such a devoted group of food artisans and aficionados, and we’re proud to be a part of this growing good food community.
Tags: american spoon, good food awards 2012, preserves, wild thimbleberry jam, winner
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by megan@spoon
It smells like chocolate in our kitchen today. Pure whole milk from Shetler Family Dairy is simmering gently in our kettles, and by the end of the day we’ll have filled about 400 jars with our new Chocolate Milk Caramel. It melds the creamy richness of dairy with the intense flavor of bittersweet chocolate and the warm, heady notes of Chinese Five Spice for a thick, chocolaty sauce that’s so special you’ll be tempted to eat it straight from the jar. Look for it online and in our stores next week.
Tags: american spoon, caramel sauce, chocolate caramel
Posted in Blog, In the Production Kitchen | No Comments »
by megan@spoon
We’re delighted to announce that American Spoon has been named a finalist for the second annual Good Food Awards! In a blind tasting, judges (judges like Alice Waters and Ruth Reichl!) selected our Heirloom Tomato Preserves and our Wild Thimbleberry Jam as finalists for this prestigious award honoring sustainability and craftsmanship.
For nearly thirty years, we’ve worked to build direct and personal relationships with independent fruit growers and foragers all over Michigan’s Northern Fruitlands. The Brandywine tomatoes for our coveted Heirloom Tomato Preserves are grown right here by a handful of Northern Michigan family farmers, and every summer we work with local residents of the Keweenaw Peninsula to pick precious wild thimbleberries for our Wild Thimbleberry Jam. Once they’re delivered to our kitchen, we prepare them by hand and carefully preserve them in our copper kettles using twice as much fruit as sugar and a little pure lemon juice.
We’re honored to be recognized for our long-standing commitment to capturing the singular flavors of exceptional fruits and for helping to sustain dedicated growers and foragers in rural communities across Northern Michigan. Our Heirloom Tomato Preserves and our Wild Thimbleberry Jam are exactly what good food is all about.
Winners will be announced on January 13th, 2012 at a ceremony at San Francisco’s iconic Ferry Building. Our supply of Wild Thimbleberry Jam should last until then, but Heirloom Tomato Preserves are already nearly sold out! We’re thrilled to be in such great company, and you can learn more about the awards and see a full list of finalists here.
Tags: american spoon, finalist 2012, good food awards, heirloom tomato preserves, wild thimbleberry jam
Posted in Blog, Inside Spoon | 2 Comments »
by megan@spoon
Peaches arrived late Monday afternoon. 20,500 pounds of them– fragrant, fuzzy and lusciously juicy. We’ll spend the next two weeks hand-peeling and pitting them for our irresistible Red Haven Peach Preserves.
It’s messy and monotonous and completely exhausting, and it’s one of the coolest things we do here at American Spoon. We love peach season.
Tags: american spoon, peach peeling, red haven peach preserves, red haven peaches
Posted in Blog, In the Production Kitchen, Inside Spoon | 2 Comments »
by megan@spoon
Carl and Cornelia Dhaseleer are fixtures at the local farmers’ markets. They farm a beautiful piece of land just south of Charlevoix, and many of the Brandywine tomatoes for our Heirloom Tomato Preserves are delivered to our kitchen by Carl himself. The Dhaseleers are also deeply committed to their community, and they host a series of concerts and events in their century-old barn to foster those community connections.
Last week, Carl and Cornelia invited us to join them for their first-ever farm dinner. Carl set up old wooden tables and chairs in the field beside the barn and Cornelia hung empty jam jars filled with wildflowers from their ancient apple trees.
Chris, our Culinary Director, made a savory potato tart and a fresh pea panzanella with produce he’d picked up from Carl earlier in the day, and we all sat outside in the fading sunlight sipping chilled white wine and enjoying food that had been grown in the fields we could see in the distance.
It was an altogether lovely evening, so lovely that we’ve already begun to plan the next farm dinner with the Dhaseleers. We’ll share details as we finalize them, and we hope you’ll be able to join us there beside the barn in the green shade of the apple trees.
UPDATE 08.04.11:
Join us on Saturday, August 13th for another dinner on the farm. We’ll post the menu a few days before the event once we know what produce will be available, but we’re planning a delicious seasonal meal. We’ll have grilled steak and three accompaniments made with fresh produce from Dhaseleer Farm, followed by dessert made with fresh local fruit and American Spoon Preserves. After dinner, the George Cole Quintet performs its original jazz music in the Dhaseleers’ barn.
Tickets for this event are $40 and will be available starting Friday, August 5th in our Petoskey, Harbor Springs and Charlevoix stores. Space is limited, so don’t wait long.
For more information, please call us at 800-222-5886, ext. 3008. Map and directions here.
Tags: american spoon, black cat concerts, charlevoix michigan, dhaseleer farm, farm dinner
Posted in Blog, Inside Spoon, Up North Vicariously | No Comments »
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