Sheep's Milk Cheese

Last week's wine tasting hosted by Rob Ramsey of Stonehaus Winery was so well received that we've decided to make it a regular event at the Inn. During the wine tasting I realized what our next topic on "Our Table" should be. The cheese board, a staple around the Lodge before dinner, featured a nice selection of Tennessee sheep's milk cheese and was a big hit! Since I love cheese, we keep a wide variety of it in house but were showcasing some of Tennessee's finest to compliment our Tennessee wine. This cheese was a new discovery for me in 2009, but from the reaction of our guests, it will be around for the long haul.

Locust Grove Farm is responsible for this collection of fine cheese. They make five different kinds, including two "reserve" cheeses that have been aged at least six months. All of their cheese is handmade from raw sheep's milk collected on their own farm. They use old fashioned techniques and only the basic ingredients. This is cheese that tastes the way nature intended it to.

Locust Grove Farm's cheese has circulated its way through our entire menu - from the cheese board to salads to even grits. I recommend taking a look at their website to learn more and order some for your home. Keep an eye out for it here at the Inn this weekend and beyond!

Welcome to Our Table

Hello, I am Jason Evans, Executive Chef at Evins Mill. We created this blog to give our guests more incite into the food that they enjoy at the Inn and how it ended up on their table. We will focus on something new each week as well as post updates on the progress of the Inn's own garden.

In the quest to offer the best product possible, we are focusing more than ever on local, green, organic and sustainably farmed food and will highlight these foods and the fine folks who produce them. Whenever possible, we will pass along contact information should you want to use these products at home.

We seriously consider what we serve at Evins Mill and hope this blog will be a fun and informative way to share those considerations with you.

Winter Garden & Stonehaus Wine Tasting

With winter in full swing, the garden to the naked eye is looking pretty bleak. It only takes a rare January day above freezing though to stir thoughts of seeds, weeds, and with vines ripened, the heirloom tomatoes we will serve at the Inn this summer. This is the time for planning and preparing. What will we grow, how to grow it better and what will we do with it when it is ready are just some of the thoughts wondering around in my fleece hat, covered head this week.

Since our guests need more to chew on than my garden dreaming, we have a fun indoor evening planned with one of our Tennessee purveyors Friday night. Rob Ramsey with Stonehaus Winery in Crossville will host a tasting of their most popular and award-winning wines before dinner. We are even getting to taste a Merlot that is still in the barrel phase and not yet bottled, a rare treat. Rob is an expert at explaining wines, their flavors and the process that goes into making them. Stonehaus Winery is a long standing, Tennessee, family run business and we are proud to keep a few of their wines on our menu. It is a must to stop by the winery for a tour and tasting to see the combination of expertise and love that goes into making these Tennessee wines.

We look forward to seeing you at the Mill. It is back to the kitchen for me. Time to stop dreaming of the garden and get to work on our wine tasting dinner!