Local Table - A Guide To Food And Farming In Middle Tennessee

Support Local This Holiday

December 1st, 2011

I can’t believe it – but our very first Holiday Bazaar is this Sat., Dec. 3rd at the Nashville Farmers Market from 5:30 – 8:30 PM. It’s designed to showcase many of the vendors in our recently released Holiday Gift Guide to encourage folks to think local this holiday season!

This Saturday’s event will feature local foods – both whole and artisan prepared, bakers, cheese, beverages, sauces, preserves and artisan craft folks. We’ll also have some of our favorite community groups on hand if you’re interested in investing not just in stuff, but in your community.

Make your holiday gift giving personal and unique. You’ll be the star this holiday gift time for stepping away from the mall and finding something uniquely special for your family and friends. It’s also the perfect place to find the perfect thoughtful item for a hostess gift.

In addition to gift items, there will be beverages to keep you warm and others to make you fuzzy! Our friends at Louisiana Seafood will also be offering an oyster bar at the new Grow Local Kitchen!

Come celebrate with us this Saturday!

If you’re not able to come see us this Saturday and haven’t had a chance to see our new Holiday Gift Guide, check out the pdf of the full issue on the cover of www.localtable.net.

Tags: Angelight Candles, Bathtub Gin, Dan's Gourmet, Delvin Farms, Further Foods, Grow Local Kitchen, Hog Heaven, Juice, Land Trust for Tennessee, Local Table, Louisiana Seafood, Nashville Farmers Market, Perl Catering, Provence, Randy's Cheezecake, Silk Creme, Sweet Stash, Tamale Pot, Thistle Farms, Twin Forks Artisan Bread, Walnut Hills Farm, WCTE
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First ever Local Table Holiday Guide

November 16th, 2011

I’m so excited to let everyone know about our first ever Local Table Holiday Guide – it’s a gift catalog of local vendors selling items for the holidays. We have so many talented, passionate and creative individuals and families doing such wonderful work in our area. We’ve got farmers who do value added products such as soaps, body care items, CSA gift certificates, artisan producers creating cheese, sausages, coffees, sauces, preserves, and much more. And, if you need some help with your holiday meals, there are bread makers, bakers and cooks galore to help you serve the best holiday meal ever. Some of our most unique and quality crafts folks are also included. Please support our local vendors and consider making your holiday gift giving a local thing!

Too much stuff in the world, think about giving to two of our favorite community organizations, WCTE-TV and The Land Trust for Tennessee. Both groups working to help preserve our farmland and support our local farmers. A small gift to The Land Trust will help keep our state ‘green’.

Also, don’t forget the good works and beautiful products from Thistle Farms – one of Nashville’s most successful community organizations.

The new Local Table Holiday Gift Guide has been made possible with help from the Nashville Farmers Market and in conjunction with the guide, we’re going to do a Holiday Bazaar on Sat, Dec. 3rd at the Market. It will be from 5:30 – 8:30 and include Holiday Guide vendors and Markethouse favorites. It will be similar to a Night Market with wine, beer, music and more! I know it’s a busy time of the year, but mark this one on your calendar for a great night of local food and gifts!

And, it wouldn’t be Local Table without a guide to seasonal farms – so it can only mean Christmas trees! Make a trip to a local Christmas tree farm for not only your tree, but all your holiday greenery and many farms also carry ornaments and other decorating items.

It’s a great start to the Holiday season and I hope you’ll Give, Live, Love Local!

Tags: and the Bead goes on, Angel Radiance, Bartholomew Farms, Bathtub Gin, bbq sauce, BCGC Franklin Farmers Market, Bonjo Java, candles, cheese, Dan's Gourmet Spot, Delvin Farms, Dozen, Fido, Flash Point Candle, Girlz Rock, Gourmet Pasture Beef, Grow Local Kitchen, Hendersonville Produce, Hog Heaven, homemade sausage, homemade soaps, JD Country Milk, Jewelweed, Juice Nashville, Kennys Farmhouse Cheese, Land Trust for Tennessee, Local Table Holiday Gift Guide, Local Table Magazine, Lotus Leaf, Louisiana Seafood, Ms. Cock-A-Doodle, Nashville Farmers Market, Nashville Originals, Perl Catering, Provence, Randy's Famous Cheesecake, Silk Body Creme, specialty cooking sauces, Sweet 16 Bakery, Tennessee Gourmet, The Tamale Pot, Thistle Farms, Twin Forks Artisan Bread, Walnut Hills Farm, WCTE
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The Real Price of Cheese

August 12th, 2011

It’s been a crazy summer and going by way too fast. My kitchen table is covered in tomatoes, I’ve got a pot of cucumbers to pickle, the fridge is overflowing with squash and I’m getting ready to make another batch of goat milk cheese. Summer abundance!

Three years ago I took a cheese making class from Paula Butler at Standing Stone Nubians and got so excited that I decided I was going to make my own cheese. However, goat’s milk is not easy to come by and so I was going to have to get some dairy goats. The following spring, I got two Nubian does, Jane and Lizzie, from Bonnie Blue Farms and two Saanen bucks (to become wethers), Willie and Charlie, to be their mates. They were all bottle fed and I fell in love. Sweet, gentle and filled with joy – many a day when I needed a break from the desk, I’d just go watch them playing in the pasture. This was easy!

But, it was time to get milk, so we brought Dexter, the buck, home to visit last fall and we got three adorable babies this past spring. However, this is pretty much where the fun stopped – it was time to milk! Jane and Lizzy would have no part of it. It was a nightmare and the thought of going out to the barn to milk was not a happy expectation. Jane and Lizzie are what is termed ‘kicky milkers’ and for the first few months of the summer, I was covered in bruises. I didn’t even care about the milk and just gave it to the dogs and the chickens.

Eventually I started keeping the milk and it turned out to be pretty delicious. Hmmm. Maybe this cheese thing would work out after all. Then a month or so, I went to All Seasons Garden Supply to buy the enzymes and cultures I needed to get started. My first batch was chevre and I couldn’t believe it – it was astonishingly good. Then I made feta – another success. It only took two years of prep and around $2000 of expense!

All I can say is that when you visit your local farmers market and would really like to buy some locally made goat or milk cheese, but it seems just a tad to expensive. It isn’t – it’s worth every penny! It truly is an artisan, homemade product and we’re so lucky to have such wonderful dairies in our area who do this every day.

Www.standingstonenubians.com
www.bonniebluefarm.com
www.noble-springs.com
www.kennyscheese.com

www.allseasonsnashville.com

Tags: Bonnie Blue Farms, cheesemaking, farmers markets, local cheese, Noble Springs Dairy, Standing Stone Nubians
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Flowers Blooming in the Weeds

April 12th, 2011

It has been a hectic spring – I’m behind on delivering magazines, getting my garden planted, I have to file for a tax extension, and am just getting started on the summer issue. My first baby goats are due in two weeks, chicks are arriving this week, the barn cat has been sick and my little dog Pickles has been poorly – and I’m working hard to do a good job for my publicity clients.

This past weekend, I put it all aside and went outside. I dug, I hoed, raked, weeded and even planted potatoes. It was hot and even a bit humid. It was amazing. Earlier in the week, my new copy editor had come by for a meeting and commented that my flower borders looked like they had been weeded and said she was enjoying her flowers blooming in the weeds. I worked non stop all weekend and never got very far down the ‘to do’ list – but I enjoyed the flowers in the weeds. I could hear turkeys gobbling up on the hillside, the first hummingbird of the season showed up at the feeder I’d only just hung (how long had she been waiting?) and then last evening the sound of the first whippoorwills bounced around in the woods. Maybe because of last year’s flooding, this year’s wildflowers are spectacular and every time I can go for a walk, the under scape along the lane changes it’s colors.

It’s a lesson to be learned. It’s time to get back outside and enjoy our amazing spring. Spring plant and herb sales are happening all throughout Middle Tennessee (check out events on www.localtable.net), many farmers markets are opening this month with bright and shiny leafy greens, onions and most exciting – strawberries are back (check out our list of strawberry patches in the Spring issue).

Do yourself a favor and head outside and find yourself some fresh air and fresh food!

Rhubarb poking through the straw

Stumpy enjoying the creek

Tags: Fido, Provence
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Celebrating the Homemade and Homegrown at Nashville Night Market

February 6th, 2011

I recently experienced a one of a kind evening in Nashville. It was the January edition of the Nashville Farmers Market Friday Night Market – I was blown away. It’s the middle of winter and a night time farmers market featuring produce, meat producers, fresh from the farm milk and butter, cheeses and a vast array of homemade cookies, cupcakes, pies, breads, candy, crawfish pies, live plants and healthy dog biscuits. Not only was there an interesting mix of food vendors, but most of the Markethouse restaurants were open and the place was packed! Some of the best from the flea market side were also intermingled between the food purveyors. Seating was at capacity – there was live music and wine to keep it festive. From 6 PM through closing at 8, the house was a lively, Friday night social scene. It really is a fun place to be – friends were hooking up for dinner and shopping, families were spending an evening together and everyone was partaking of Nashville’s very own local food producers. Due to the weather, the event was held inside, but as the weather warms, plans are for the market to extend outside to the pavilions. The mind boggles when I think of what it will be like when our season kicks into gear and we’ve got a wide array of fruit and produce to go along with the homemade items. The only farmer with produce was the Delvin family with fresh greens and winter squashes, but by April, I’m sure the Delvins’ will be joined by dozens of other local farmers.

Do yourself a favor and head to the Night Market this coming season – it is the place to be!

Tags: bbq sauce, Bonjo Java, candles, Hog Heaven, Land Trust for Tennessee, specialty cooking sauces, Sweet 16 Bakery, WCTE
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Publisher’s Blog

Support Local This Holiday

First ever Local Table Holiday Guide

The Real Price of Cheese

Flowers Blooming in the Weeds

Celebrating the Homemade and Homegrown at Nashville Night Market

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