West Wind Farms

When we began shifting our menu to feature primarily local, organic and sustainable ingredients, it was not clear to me on how many levels this was the right direction to move. It is easy to say we want to help the local farmers and producers, supply our guests with healthier options and take a little better care of our planet. Those are pretty obvious, but it has been so much more beneficial to me as a chef than I could have imagined. Getting to meet and know the wonderful folks that have a passion for producing these "clean" ingredients is a breath of fresh air professionally and personally. Knowing the story of a food when it enters my kitchen causes me to slow down and take that into consideration when preparing it. I want to make sure all that passion it took to make the ingredient does not stop with me.

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We began highlighting some of our local partners last year and will continue that this year. There are several new ones that we are very excited about. West Wind Farms has been supplying us with a nice variety of products since last December. Everything from pork loins and tenderloins, whole chickens and breasts, summer sausage and butter. They have a lot more we have not even tried yet! In addition to the excellent quality, this variety has been what I am so excited about. It is helpful to be able to source several of our menu options from one place. In moving to cleaner and greener food, it takes me a great deal more time ordering everything we need and making sure we have a steady supply.
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West Wind Farms is located near Deer Lodge, Tennessee. While that may not be close to very many folks, it is the perfect place to raise the certified organic meats and poultry that they are so good at. They have all the delivery and pick up information on their website, as well as who they are and the food philosophy that you get in every bite. They can also be found, as most these days, on Facebook and Twitter too. If you still have not tasted the difference in small farm versus who knows where that came from, then give these guys a try - or come see us!

Evins Mill Garden Review 2010

Burr! It is that time of year again. Why does Winter seem to wrap us so snugly into a time of reflection? The combination of another year coming to a close, the shortage of daylight, the cold temperatures and the absence of color (100% chance of gray, as my wife likes to refer to TN winter) seem to work together and naturally put us in the frame of mind to look back. The gardener in me uses this time to start making a plan for the next growing season, which is really not as far away as it may seem watching the snow fall. A big part of making that plan is looking back at the past year and determining what worked and what definitely did not.

As part of my planning, I thought it might be fun to share a few numbers with you to show what we grew, how much, and what it ended up getting used for. Makes me feel warmer just writing it all down!

• cucumbers...165lb, lots of pickles, salads, gazpacho
• tomatoes, ripe...182lb, green salads, salsa, sauces, gazpacho
• tomatoes, green...89lb, fried green tomatoes
• tomatoes, grape...65 pints, green salads, pasta salads
• mixed greens...53lb, green salads, soups (arugula, mustard)
• green onion...11 bunches, garnish
• blackberries...7lb, cobblers
• apples...107lb, baked apples, chutney, salads
• peppers...15lb, salads, omelets, baked beans
• watermelons...20 each, breakfast fruit, green salads
• butternut squash...36lb, soups
• pears...18lb, green salads

After writing it down, it is easy to see that tomatoes, cucumbers and salad greens were our big crops. It seems that we can utilize those no matter the quanity coming in. The homemade pickles ended up being the crowd favorite this year thanks to a bumper crop of cucumbers. The apples were a nice surprise since we do not get a reliable crop of those every year. As for next year, I will plan on sticking with our big producers, but try a few new veggies and fruit on a smaller scale like heirloom melons, green beans, and a surprise or two. Once I get into the seed ordering there is no telling what I will end up with.

In the four years we have grown the Evins Mill garden, it has been more successful every year, and we are planning on that to continue. It is very satisfying for me to be able to grow some of the food that ends up on your plate, on our table! I look forward to seeing you at the Inn this year.

Vanilla

I will be the first to admit that until a year or so ago, I never gave much thought to what kind of vanilla extract I used. Then I met the attractive bottle pictured above. It was given as a sample from one of our food purveyors when I started asking about Tennessee products they carried. Of course, Madagascar vanilla beans are not being cultivated here locally, but it is produced and sold by Bell Buckle Company Store. They are, as you might guess, located in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, but have products available at several Nashville area stores and also online.

It only took a couple of recipes of substituting to know this would be the only vanilla we would use going forward. It adds such a rich, true vanilla flavor to anything you desire, but without overpowering. This is the real deal, no sugar added, no syrups, just vanilla beans, alcohol, and water. Do not let the "Bourbon" scare you; it will not make everything you bake taste like the bottom of a bottle of Kentucky's finest.

We are no longer using the small attractive bottles anymore, we have moved on to the half gallon size! If you love to bake, give this vanilla a try next time you run out. I think you will appreciate the difference, I sure did. Next time you give us a visit, see if you can taste that little something extra in our desserts, french toast, and whipped cream. Vanilla may be a small piece of the puzzle, but starting with only the best ingredients is key in how we create a meal you can remember until your next visit.

Summer Garden Spa

Gone are the nice cool mornings I mentioned back in the spring. They seem like dreams I might of been having before I woke up this summer, predawn morning to venture out into the garden. Muggy, no breeze, it feels like a dirty, dark sauna out here. I wonder if there is a market for summer garden, spa treatment?

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Despite the heat and rather dry conditions this year, we have had a productive summer season. The first round of organic tomatoes were smaller and less numerous than last year but were plentiful enough to keep up with demand at the Inn. We do have another round of tomato plants beginning to make little green fruits, but they are in need of some moisture. Being planted later, they did not get much of an opportunity to establish their roots before the heat really set in. Butternut squash is doing well and will be ready for some warming soups this Fall. We will also have several watermelons to serve on our fruit platters at breakfast in the near future. Bell peppers, pumpkins, and apple gourds are still holding serve, but are not going to amount to much without a break from the intense heat and lack of rain. The Indian corn seems to be the favorite of the varmints, and has mainly served the purpose of distracting them away from the other vegetables, at least for now. Speaking of varmints, what does one do with a skunk caught in a live trap? Hmm, just wondering.

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Of all the veggies, I have enjoyed our cucumbers the most this summer. We have been utilizing these by making lots of pickles. Bread and butter, sweet gherkins, and dill have all turned out great. The bread and butter recipe has been the most popular with guests though. I am including the recipe for those on our cuisine blog.

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So keep an eye out for pickles and other home grown items on our menus in the coming weeks and months. We will also be planting a fall crop of organic salad greens toward the end of the month, and turnips for roasting this winter. Of course, the Dekalb County farmer's market has been there for us all summer and more than made up for my shortcomings in the garden. Stop and see them on the courthouse lawn every Saturday morning. I might see you there if I am not in my garden spa.

This Little Piggy Went to Evins Mill

In our latest attempt to find our flavors locally, it became very clear, very fast that there is something special about Benton's bacon. The unusually thick slices have a wonderful smoky scent even before cooking or opening the package! Once it started cooking, the aroma filled the kitchen like our regular bacon never did. The taste - well, it brought to mind that old saying about "slapping your mama." I do not recommend it, but the bacon is that good. Cured with brown sugar and salt, the bacon is very smokey and is a much thicker cut than you may be used to. When cooked properly though, it has a wonderfully tender bite.

On top of taste and texture, the fact that this quality ingredient is produced by a Tennessee, family-owned business sold me. We are very excited to switch to Benton's Bacon! This is the part where we give high fives around the kitchen since we get to enjoy it too. Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams is located in Madisonville, Tennessee but ships their hams and bacon all over the country. They have earned quite the reputation. Once we started searching for Tennessee-bred bacon it was impossible to ignore all the praise Benton's receives from publications nationwide. So I had to see for myself, and yes, they lived up to everything I had read and more. This is the kind of ingredient that gets me excited about cooking. The possibilities are endless with this smoky beauty.

Enough musing about our new bacon, come try it for yourself. You are sure to see it at breakfast, wrapped around our thick cut pork chop and probably with a few other goodies along the way. To get your fix when not at the Inn, check out Benton's website for ordering information. This little piggy went to Evins Mill...and was eaten all up!

Twilight Zone

I savor those mornings when I'm able to work in our garden before the sun rises, and love watching the light slowly brighten and reveal the rows of plants and their new growth or fruit. There is a heavy, cool layer of dew giving everything a fresh, wet paint appearance. The morning is quiet save for a pesky mosquito buzzing in my ear and the morning birds singing their song. The loose dirt in my hands is still warm from the day before in contrast to the cool morning air. The minutes seem to pass more slowly before the sun finally breaks the horizon, but once it does, the temperature rapidly rises, reminding me of another reason for rising so early. With the sun shining, the bees busy themselves pollinating our garden.

The Evins Mill garden is having a productive year thus far. The salad greens are still coming in, and as long as the heat is not too intense, should continue do do so through the end of June. Our tomato plants appear healthy and are beginning to feature small yellow blooms. Just this week new comers are poking through the soil. Cucumbers, green beans, yellow squash, zucchini, Indian corn and water melons all germinated within a week of their planting and appear happy so far. I still have gourd, pumpkin and butternut squash seed to plant in another week - and hopefully seeds for a few pepper plants as well. The garden will keep me more than busy when I am not cooking! As there are so many delicious things to grow, I find it hard to know when enough is enough. Maybe when my wife and children stop helping - they are making a "chef scarecrow" even as I type.

I love creating and cooking healthy and good tasting food for our guests...and rising before the sun does so I can grow the produce that makes that homegrown cuisine available in the first place. We hope you will join us soon to enjoy our fresh produce inspired meals!

Tennessee Strawberries Are Here!

One taste of a locally grown, Tennessee strawberry freshly picked from the vine in May reminds us we have been eating cardboard cutouts of strawberries shipped across the country for the previous eleven months. While we sometimes forget that strawberries are not supposed to be hollow in the middle, our own beautiful berries wakes us from our complacency. They may not have the "super size" look but are equally red and more than make up for their smaller size with superior flavor.

Strawberry farms are so common throughout the state that nearly every Tennessean is within a half hour drive of a little piece of berry heaven. Most of these farms are set up so you can pick your own and save a little money, while some will pick them to save you time. I prefer the latter as it leaves me more time to create with them! As with any berry, strawberries are of course highly perishable but can be frozen in a variety of ways for use during winter when you get the craving for a taste of Tennessee spring. Your farm of choice will be happy to give you some freezing tips.

We will be using these berries in abundance in the coming weeks here at the Inn. We had a strawberry extravaganza for our Mother's Day brunch, strawberry meringues this past weekend and have a strawberry cobbler in mind for the days ahead. We are buying them in bulk, using what we can fresh, then freezing or making sauce out of what remains. It is very satisfying to know we are doing our part to support these local farms so that the fruits of their labor will remain available to us in the future. I would be disappointed to see even a single berry rot on the vine because we chose to buy the cardboard ones. Besides, those will be around the rest of the year.

We are using a couple of farms. Amazing Acres in White County and Food From God Farm in Dekalb County have both been a pleasure to work with and would love to see you too. Before you visit, make sure to contact the farm beforehand to verify their hours of operation and inventory. You probably have at least two more weeks to take advantage of the season, so don't wait too long and enjoy them while they last!