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GOURMET NEWS DECEMBER 2015 www.gourmetnews.com RETAILER NEWS 1 5 BY RICHARD THOMPSON Breweries like Sky River Meadery and Moonlight Meadery are offering new delicious flavors – such as raspberry, blackberry, and even strawberry rhubarb – along with traditional honeyed staples in their dry, sweet and semi-sweet mead lines. "It's coming back as a beverage of choice," says Michael Fairbrother, Founder and Head Mead Maker at Moonlight Meadery and President of American Mead Maker Association. Moonlight Meadery, which opened in 2010 and is based in Londonderry, New Hampshire, offers a line of 70 different products and has seen interest in mead explode over the last year. "Production in the first two years was about 24,000 bottles (2000 cases), but we have done close to seven times as much in the last year alone," says Fairbrother. "Kurt's ApplePie," the meadery's top seller, won the gold metal at the 2013 Mazer Cup International and is made with Sunny Crest Farm apple cider with Madagascar-bour- bon vanilla and Vietnamese cinnamon. Its sweetness is bal- anced by the tartness from the added cinnamon, and the vanilla lightens it up, says Fairbrother. Desire, a sweet mead made with blueberries, black cherries and blackcurrants, is the company's flagship mead and won first place in the New England Regional Homebrew Compe- tition back in 2009. Fling is made with strawberry rhubarb and orange blossom honey and has a light tartness that bal- ances the sweet with strawberry notes. "I suggest to cus- tomers to try it with a goat cheese salad," says Fairbrother. Coffee in Bed, a dessert-style mead with a rich, robust honey-note, was another award winner at the International Mazer Competition that goes well with dark chocolates, tiramisu and German Chocolate cake. Sky River Meadery, a Washington-based meadery found in the Woodinville Winery District, has been open since 1997 and specializes in traditional meads and honey wines. "We only make mead," says Denice Ingalls, President and Wine Maker at Sky River, "We keep it simple and approachable." SOLAS, the meadery's flagship mead, is a tribute to Old World meads, says Ingalls. Using saturated, smokey whiskey barrels from Dry Fly™ Distillery, SOLAS is a very sweet mead that combines honey and wheat whiskey flavors and is definitely an indulgence that should be sipped. The company's 10 different meads – with nine currently available – range from a traditional Brochet mead that has a darker, richer quality – due to the honey being caramelized before fermentation – to the Ginger mead that has a sassy ginger note with a spicy finish. "Our Rose mead is the 'boudoir' wine, luscious and indulgent, and pairs beautifully with meals where there are a lot of pistachios, like Persian and Middle Eastern foods," says Ingalls. GN Mead with Love Imagine a grocery where organic eggs in varying colors arrive directly from the farm, where milk is topped with cream, the greens are bagged by the farmers themselves and the fishmon- ger and butcher cut to-order from whole fish freshly caught and animals raised nearby. With its opening, Standard Foods reinstates the neighbor- hood grocery of generations' past with produce, dairy, meat and seafood sourced directly from small family farms and shelves stocked with flour, chocolate, cheeses, beans and preserves. Standard Foods serves as downtown Raleigh's only grocery, filling a long deserved need for res- idents and visitors alike. "As downtown Raleigh's growth explodes, a grocery is critical to its health and success," explained partner John Holmes, who is not only opening the only grocery in downtown Raleigh, but a locally-sourced grocery championing the rich agriculture and diverse artisanal prod- ucts found across North Carolina, and the South. At the center of this grocery is a farmer with deep rela- tionships and knowledge about North Carolina farming. Holmes tapped Deborah Underwood Brown, owner of High Ground Farm in Harnett County, to be Standard Foods' Farm Liaison. Brown, who will sell pasture raised heritage breed hen eggs, wildflowers and berries to the gro- cery, sources all product for Standard Foods' grocery and is responsible for establishing relationships with multitudes of small farmers and artisans. "It is our responsibility to bring the very best quality food to our customers; to find, encourage, and remove bar- riers of getting products to market from outstanding small farmers," explained Brown, whose work goes far beyond sourcing and merchandising. "We seek out farms using sus- tainable practices in every corner of the state, and are com- mitted to helping create systems and hubs to enable these great farmers get their produce to market". The small farmer is central to every part of Standard Foods: restau- rant, grocery, butchery, and prepared foods. As a result, Standard Foods aims to broaden the market for small growers around the state and offer Raleigh residents the best of what North Carolina has to offer. Century Farm Or- chard's apples – all heirloom varieties native to North Carolina – Ran-Lew's superior farm-bottled milk from cows fed only grass and non-GMO grains – Pine Knot Farm's certified or- ganic produce grown on land in the family for over a hundred years-are just a few examples of Standard Foods' farmers. Standard Foods' revival of the neighborhood grocery will be visible throughout – from produce announcing what's in season in North Carolina to handmade products on the shelves. This month, customers may find several varieties of native heirloom apples, winter squash and sweet potatoes, and a huge selection of greens and herbs, all gathered from Standard Foods' own backyard farm, neighbor- ing Raleigh City Farm, and as many as 50 other small family farms around the state. The whole animal butcher shop led by Steven Goff is also the first of its kind in Raleigh. Goff, who buys directly from farmers, will offer a large selection of sustainably raised meats, including grass-fed beef from Ray Family Farms, Chatham County Rabbits, Border Springs' lamb, Healthy Hen Farms' chicken, Two Pigs Farms' ducks and more. Goff's housemade charcuterie program – available in both retail and restaurant – makes use of the whole animal, from lardo, lamb neck rillettes, pork head cheese, corned beef tongue and rich pates, to coppa, bresaola and country hams hanging in the curing room for the next few months. In addition to pastured meats, seafood will be on display, sourced exclusively from North Carolina's coast, and Standard Foods' shelves will be stocked with hidden local gems – every- thing from locally grown and milled corn and flour to Sorghum Spicebrush Vinegar from Lindera Farm, location specific honey from Just Bee Honey, herbal teas grown in Rougemont, sea salt from the Outer Banks and Farmers' Daughter Preserves made in Chatham County. Southern artisanal products will round out Standard Foods' selection, including Georgia Olive Farm's cold- pressed oil, Poirier's Pure Sugar Cane Syrup and farmstead cheeses from North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. A selection of Chef Scott Crawfords' prepared foods are available by the pound – a reflection of the dishes served in Standard Foods' restaurant. Soups, salads, meat, veg- etable and seafood dishes are available to-go, as well as spe- cial features in the butchers' case, such as roasted suckling pig. Pastry Chef Krystle Swenson offers ice creams and ice cream sandwiches, too. Standard Foods' grocery opens just in time for the holi- days, with extensive side dishes – as well as brined and roasted heritage breed turkeys from Chad Ray Family Farm – available for Thanksgiving pre-order. (Menu options will be posted at www.standard-foods.com.) Christmas and New Year's options will soon follow. Standard Foods' mission is unmistakable – to reintro- duce the food, farmers and artisanal production methods of the region. Thanks to obsessive sourcing from local farms, fisherman and artisans, Standard Foods is sure to become this community's trusted grocery, setting a new standard for real, healthy food in the Piedmont region. GN Standard Foods Raises the Standard in Downtown Raleigh