Local Foods Archives | Page 7 of 16

Beer Cheese Tomato Soup Recipe

August 2, 2012

When it comes to soup, tomato is my favorite. Before your mind jumps to visions of cans and concentrates, allow me to explain. Homemade tomato soup with fresh spices, splashes of balsamic vinegar and wines, and olive oil is what I’m talking about. I love it straight with basil, but sometimes I like to get fancy.

Enter beer cheese.

Okay, so maybe it’s not fancy, but it is a Kentucky staple. There is even a festival at which I had the opportunity to judge the competition last year. If you are unfamiliar, there are as many recipes as people who love it. But to simplify, it is cheddar and beer turned cheese spread. I’ve grown to love it, and I can no longer imagine a tailgate at a football game or at the horse track without it.

So when I was thinking about tomato soup for this round of the Tomato Love Recipe Exchange, I first considered beer. Then I considered cheddar. Then, well, why not?

This recipe experiment is a winner. The mild tang of beer and the sharpness of cheddar pop with the sweet tomatoes. I may no longer be able to have tomato soup without beer cheese!

Beer Cheese Tomato Soup Recipe

2015-06-30 09:00:37

Makes: 4-6 servings

Write a review

Save Recipe

Basic Beer Cheese

4 oz. block of sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon hot sauce (I used sriracha)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup beer (any variety, I like to use lagers)

Tomato Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
¼ cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
4 lbs. tomatoes, cored and chopped
2 tablespoons dried basil
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions

To make the beer cheese, to a small food processor add the cheddar cheese, 2 tablespoons of onion, 1 clove garlic, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Pulse for 10 to 15 second intervals until the ingredients are blended. Pour in the beer and continue to pulse until it reaches a spreadable consistency. Set aside.
To make the soup, in a 4 to 5-quart soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high. Add the 1/4 cup of onion and 3 garlic cloves. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until the onions soften. Add the tomatoes. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring often, for about 15 minutes.
Once the tomatoes begin to break down, remove the pot from the heat. Use an immersion blender (or transfer in batches to a blender) to puree until smooth.
Stir in the basil, sugar, salt, red pepper and black pepper. Return to the heat and simmer 2-3 minutes. Stir in the beer cheese. Serve warm.

By Lori Rice

Fake Food Free https://www.fakefoodfree.com/

Thanks for reading! All images and content are the property of Fake Food Free unless otherwise stated. Please do not republish full recipes and images without written permission. What is okay? Feel free to Pin images, share links to my posts or share the photo in a round up post with the title of this recipe and a link back to the post. Confused about copyright and food blogs? Here is some helpful information on Recipe Attribution. If you want to use a photo or full recipe, just ask. I’m sure we can work something out.

Kentucky Road Trip: The Bluebird in Stanford, KY

July 24, 2012

When we moved to rural Kentucky many of our friends thought we were crazy. Why would we move ourselves 40 minutes outside of the city; 40 minutes away from convenience and access?

Lexington is wonderful, but we’d spent our time there. And after moving back from Brazil, honestly, I had changed. I didn’t care so much about things like going to Target once a week, or having easy access to take out.

Fortunately, looking back there is no way I would change our decision. Of course, there is our garden, and the silence of the weekend morning, but more importantly we have explored a side of Kentucky that we never would have otherwise.

And we have found some amazing things along the way.

Our most recent exploration? The Bluebird in Stanford, KY.

A small cafe serving gourmet food made with local ingredients such as pastured eggs and meats? A cozy, modern breakfast and lunch spot on a quaint small-town main street that uses the modern technology of an iPhone to take your order and an iPad to check out?

Yes, and yes.

I was blown away by the Bluebird. I don’t mean to say the food I have enjoyed in smaller towns isn’t tasty, but I wasn’t expecting such an outstanding experience from quality of the food, to creativity of the menu, to friendliness of the staff.

It’s less than an hour drive from where we live, and we set out for breakfast a few weekends ago after our Saturday morning run. I had checked out the menu online so I already knew what I was getting – the Breakfast Fries.

Brilliant, right? I mean, home fries are breakfast food, why not take the potato in the form of a French fry and cover it with all kinds of breakfast goodies. And they did just that with bacon, green peppers, onions, tomatoes, scallions, eggs and smoked Gouda sauce. It tasted every bit as good as it sounds.

We split that, and my husband ordered a biscuit with gravy. It’s standard around here, although this version was anything but, with a light, fluffy homemade biscuit and savory sausage gravy.

Thanks to the Bluebird I also discovered a new (to me) small batch, hand-roasted coffee in Kentucky – Baxter’s Coffee in Somerset, KY. You know I’m a bit of a coffee snob, and I am always surprised how delicious a locally roasted coffee can be. We enjoyed it so much my husband picked up a bag on his most recent visit. (Yes, he’s already been back!)

If you find yourself traveling through the Bluegrass state, put the small town of Stanford and the Bluebird on your agenda. It surpassed our former favorites even among the delicious foods in Lexington. My thanks to Chef Bill Hawkins for bringing wonderful locally sourced food to unexpected places.

Bluebird

202 W. Main Street

Stanford, KY. 40484

Mon-Sat 7am-4pm

Facebook

Salad with Grilled Zucchini and Blackberry Balsamic Dressing Recipe

July 7, 2012

If you’ve spent any time at all near a summer squash plant, you know how it goes. One minute you see a tiny little zucchini growing; a day later you have a squash as big as your arm.

Those huge zucchinis always went into bread at our house so I made some zucchini muffins last week. Unfortunately, that only used up ½ of the monster. Instead of more baked goods, I decided to take the rest to the grill for zucchini steaks.

With summer zucchini always comes blackberries so a blackberry dressing sounded perfect. This dressing drizzled on a salad with a couple zucchini steaks and few extras made a great summer meal.

Salad with Grilled Zucchini and Blackberry Balsamic Dressing

Makes: 4 servings

What you’ll need:

Zucchini Steaks
8 – 1 ½ inch thick slices zucchini
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Blackberry Balsamic Dressing
½ cup blackberries, defrosted if frozen
5 fresh rosemary leaves
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoons sugar
¼ teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoons black pepper

Salad
8 cups greens (I used romaine, cabbage and spinach)
4 oz. blue cheese, crumbled
4 tablespoons sunflower seeds

How to make it:

Place the zucchini slices in a shallow dish and drizzle with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Coat each piece and set aside to marinade while you prepare the dressing and salad.
In a small food processor, combine all of the dressing ingredients and pulse until it is smooth. If using fresh berries you may need to add 1-2 tablespoons of water. Makes about ½ cup of dressing. Set aside.
Prepare four plates with 2 cups of greens, 1 ounce of blue cheese and 1 tablespoon of sunflower seeds. Set aside.

Preheat the grill or a grill pan on the stove. Place the zucchini slices on the grill and cook on medium-high for 3 to 4 minutes on each side.

Place two zucchini steaks on each salad and drizzle with dressing.

Thanks for reading! All images and content are the property of Fake Food Free and Lori Rice unless otherwise stated. Please do not republish full recipes and images without written permission. What is okay? Feel free to Pin images, share links to my posts or share the photo in a round up post with the title of this recipe and a link back to the post. Confused about copyright and food blogs? Here is some helpful information on Recipe Attribution. If you want to use a photo or full recipe, just ask. I’m sure we can work something out.

Blue and White Potato Gnocchi with Fresh Red Tomato Sauce Recipe

July 2, 2012

This homemade potato gnocchi with fresh tomato sauce is made with blue and white potatoes for a patriotic 4th of July meal!

Blue and White Potato Gnocchi with Fresh Red Tomato Sauce Recipe | Fake Food Free

As I’ve shared before, this year our garden produced an abundance of Adirondack Blue potatoes. I can’t get enough of them! They are such a fun ingredient to experiment with in the kitchen. As you can imagine, with blue potatoes on hand, I thought it appropriate to create some type of patriotic dish for the 4^th of July holiday.

Yes, I know they look purple, but bear with me here. It has been a long time since I’ve made gnocchi, but that was the first thing that came to mind when I wanted to get creative with the blue potatoes. Paired with the white potatoes my parents brought me from their garden last weekend, and a few surprise tomatoes that arrived in the garden, I had the makings of a red, white and blue creation. Even if the blue potatoes came out a wee bit purple in the end.

Gnocchi is more of a comfort dish; one that doesn’t sound all that appealing in record high temperatures. For that reason, I kept the tomato sauce raw and fresh. The basil gives the dish a refreshing quality that makes it perfectly acceptable for summer.

Blue and White Potato Gnocchi with Fresh Red Tomato Sauce

2015-07-01 11:01:44

Makes: 4 to 6 servings

Write a review

Save Recipe

Fresh Red Tomato Sauce

4 medium tomatoes, cored and diced
¼ large white onion, minced
20 – 30 fresh basil leaves, chopped
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish

Potato Gnocchi

1 lb. blue potatoes, baked
1 lb. white potatoes, baked
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried parsley
Olive oil

Instructions

Fill a large soup pot with water, about ¾ of the way full. Bring to a boil as you make the tomato sauce.
In a bowl, combine the tomato, onion and basil. Add the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and Parmesan. Toss to mix the ingredients and set aside.
Place the flesh of the white potatoes and the blue potatoes in separate medium-sized bowls. Mash the potatoes until smooth and no clumps are present. Often gnocchi calls for sending the potatoes through a potato ricer. I don't have one, so I do my best to mash the potatoes well with a hand-held masher or a fork. If you have a potato ricer, feel free to use it.
Next, add ½ cup flour to each bowl of potatoes. Then add ½ teaspoon of salt to each, and a ½ teaspoon of parsley. First take the blue potato mixture and combine the flour and potato by hand. Once it holds together, turn out onto the counter and knead as you would bread dough, until a smooth ball is formed.
Roll the potato dough into a thin log. You may need to do this in 2 to 3 batches. Use a knife or dough cutter to cut the log into small ¼ inch pieces. You can leave the pieces as they are, or roll them gently with a fork to create ridges. Place the gnocchi on a plate or baking sheet.
Set aside the blue potato gnocchi and repeat the process with the white potato gnocchi.
Prepare a place for the cooked gnocchi by drizzling about 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium-sized bowl.
Once the water comes to a boil, sprinkle in some salt, about a 1/2 teaspoon. Add the blue potato gnocchi to the boiling water in 3 separate batches. Allow it to boil until it floats, about 45 to 60 seconds. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon and place it in the bowl with olive oil. Repeat with the remaining blue potato gnocchi and then the white potato gnocchi. Toss the cooked gnocchi gently in the the olive oil.
Divide the gnocchi into 4 to 6 portions. Top with the fresh tomato sauce, and garnish with freshly grated Parmesan.

By Lori Rice

Fake Food Free https://www.fakefoodfree.com/

Happy 4^th of July to all my readers in the U.S!

Gardens, Markets and Pure Beef

June 3, 2012

Happy June!

I was not a fan of summer until I started gardening and exploring Farmer’s Markets. Now summer rates as high on my list as autumn, at least until we get to the hot and humid Augusts we often experience in Kentucky. Until then I will be enjoying all the things of the season.

I thought I’d use this post to spread some of the beauty of June through garden and market photos, and to reveal the winner of the Pure Beef cookbook!

Our garden is coming along nicely except for the extra bugs that are around due to the mild winter. The Roma tomatoes are just now beginning to turn pink on their way to red. The blue potatoes are blooming, and although I’m sad that the strawberries are done, we have picked a few blueberries, and raspberries aren’t far behind!

Roma on its way to red!

Eggplant blooms

Blue potato blooms

Blackberries-to-be

Raspberries

Guard Pug – every garden should have one.

I stopped by our small (but sufficient) Farmer’s Market this weekend for onions and tomatoes. Some of our farmer’s here grow tomatoes in high tunnels so there are already some heirlooms ripe and ready.

All of this produce will go perfectly with some Pure Beef. By random draw, the winner of the cookbook is LouAnn at Oyster Food and Culture! Congratulations!

I’ve been reading LouAnn’s blog for a few years now, and had the opportunity to meet up with her for lunch a few years back when I was visiting California. Do stop by and check out her blog. It is full of so much information on food and culture. I learn something new with each post!

Thank you for your comments! I hope you’ll consider getting your own copy of Pure Beef. I’ve been enjoying it so much.

Pure Beef: Tamarind Beef Satay

May 24, 2012

I first made this delicious beef satay recipe back in 2012. Every summer it continues to be a great go-to meal or snack when we fire up the grill for some outdoor cooking.

Grilled Tamarind Beef Satay Recipe | Fake Food Free

The email subject read, “As far from fake beef as one can get.”

That was enough to spark my curiosity.

Before I opened it I wasn’t aware of the cookbook that awaited me, of the story that would later have me nodding my head, or the fact that it would be so educational that my husband would hijack it for a day and read the first 70 pages.

Pure Beef: An Essential Guide to Artisan Meat with Recipes for Every Cut

The title says a lot, but it does not say it all. I’ve found this cookbook to serve as a novel as I have read through Lynne Curry’s story. Lynne is a former vegetarian who now finds herself in Oregon’s Wallowa Valley enjoying what I can only imagine is one of the most beautiful places on earth with some of the best food.

I live in central Kentucky and it’s pretty beautiful here, too. As I write this I just happen to have a chorus of cows singing from the farm behind our house, but I’ve been to Oregon and I love it. This can be considered – how I related to this book #1.

Number 2, is the story of how a vegetarian came to enjoy the flavor of grassfed beef, culturally, nutritionally, and ethically. To paraphrase roughly, the moment was during her international travels in Guatemala when she was graciously offered grassfed beef as a gesture of hospitality.

Tamarind Beef Satay recipe from the Cookbook Pure Beef

While I have never been a vegetarian, I fully believe that culture and respect for the people of that culture should override what we will and will not eat. I’ve tried many things, and maybe one day I will be put in a position where I just can’t stomach it, but as of now this is my view. It was a view that I felt I shared with the author as I read, making this book even more meaningful.

I was never all that crazy about beef until I enjoyed the local grassfed beef of the Bluegrass. This opportunity occurred only about 2 years ago when we returned to the States. Now it is the only beef I will buy. There are many reasons for this, and I will let you read through these when you get your copy of Pure Beef. Considering my background, nutrition is one reason.

As I moved past the why of the book, I got to the how. How to cut beef, how to buy it, how to cook it. I still have a lot more to read, but this is as much a resource for my library as a cookbook.

Then you get to the recipes. There truly is a recipe for every cut, and an endless amount of tips on how to cook it all. Coffee Bean-Chile Rubbed Sirloin Roast, Boneless Oxtail and Buckwehat Crepe Purses, and Baked Argentinian Empanadas to name a few.

There are side dishes and condiments galore as well, with and without beef, such as Roasted Corn Salsa, Butternut Squash Bread Pudding, and Lemony Chard Bundles. There are also variations on recipes such as the gluten-free meat loaf.

There were too many great recipes to choose from, so I had to use a bit of a spin-the-bottle approach to select one. I landed on Tamarind Beef Satay.

We picked up a tri tip from our local grassfed beef source, Marksbury Farm Market. It worked beautifully and all the credit has to go to my husband. One tip he picked up from the book was to freeze the meat for about 20 minutes before slicing it thinly for the beef satay. He sliced, I mixed the marinade.

This recipe is simple and the beef satay cooked up on the grill quickly. The sweet and tart flavors of the tamarind, honey and fish sauce go so well together. Next time I’ll probably add just a little more chile sauce because we are spicy food fans. We served up the satay with grilled corn and a green salad. Easy and delicious!

Tamarind Beef Satay

Recipe reprinted with permission from Pure Beef © 2012 by Lynne Curry, Running
Press, a member of the Perseus Book Group.

From the book:

Tamarind is an intoxicating sour and sweet fruit from Indonesia where satay is the go-to snack on a stick. It is incredible with beef, so I created a tamarind marinade that lacquers thin beef strips to grill or broil. Satay makes a wonderful appetizer; to fill it out for a main dish, I accompany it with another Indonesian favorite, a fruit salad called Rujak, which has as many renditions as pasta salad does in this country. My version is a beautiful chopped salad of cucumbers, jicama, pineapple, and mango that’s crunchy, juicy, sweet, and tart. Served along with Sticky Rice or steamed rice, it turns satay into a tantalizing meal, just the thing to wake up your taste buds in the middle of winter.

Makes 4 servings as a main dish; 8 as an appetizer

3 tablespoons tamarind paste*
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon fish sauce

1/2 teaspoon chile sauce, such as sambal oelek
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted dry roasted peanuts
1 to 1 1/2 pounds top sirloin steak, sliced into 1/4-inch thick strips

Mix the tamarind paste, honey, fish sauce, chile sauce, and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Pound the peanuts in a mortar and pestle or in a heavy-duty plastic bag with a rolling pin to the texture of fine breadcrumbs and stir into the tamarind sauce. Put the beef strips in the bowl, toss to coat, and marinate for about 15 minutes at room temperature.

Preheat a charcoal or gas grill for high heat (425°F to 475°F), scraping the grate clean and oiling it lightly, or preheat the broiler. Thread the slices onto wooden or metal skewers, stitching the beef on and then stretching it along the skewer so that it looks like a miniature banner. Thread any short strips onto the same skewer.

Grill or broil the skewers for 1 to 2 minutes per side and serve the satay warm or at room temperature.

*Note: Tamarind is available from Asian grocery markets in several different forms. Tamarind paste is the easiest form that can be used straight from the jar. If your tamarind is labeled concentrate, use only 1 tablespoon and mix it with 2 tablespoons water. If you have a block of tamarind, chop about 1/2 cup of it, use a fork to mash it with 6 tablespoons of boiling water, and let it soften for about 5 minutes. Use a fine-meshed strainer to extract 3 tablespoons of pulp, pressing on the mixture firmly with a spoon.

Disclosure: A copy of this cookbook was sent to me for review purposes. I was not required to post about it and received no compensation for doing so.

Strawberry Recipes

May 15, 2012

A past recap of some of my favorite strawberry recipes on Fake Food Free! As I read this, updating this post comes at a good time! Three years later I’m upgrading to another new camera in a few weeks!

You don’t know how dependent you are on something until it breaks down. For most people this is associated with a car or a washing machine, but for the past week and half, for me, it’s been my camera. I didn’t realize that it was possible to miss a camera, but I do now. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen something I want to photograph and then feel cranky when I remember I can’t do so.

Oh, and did I mention I have also realized how much of a photo snob I am now? I could, of course, use the point and shoot, but then I think – nah, it won’t give me the right depth of field or color. Yeah, it’s that bad.

The camera drama started a little over two weeks ago when my Canon Rebel Xsi body died. I made the decision to upgrade to the 60D so quickly, and the trade in went so smoothly that there was barely a hiccup in my posting. Then I started having problems with the autofocus with the new camera. I called Canon for tech help, and back went the camera for an exchange.

Now it’s been a week, and I’m still waiting…

Instead of keeping these pages blank for too long I thought I would recap some of my favorite recipes from the archives. Our strawberry season is coming to a close, but I know for many it is just starting. So here are a few ways we’ve used strawberries around the Fake Food Free kitchen.

Favorite Strawberry Recipes from Fake Food Free

Strawberry Pecan Pancakes

Whole Grain Rhubarb Waffles with Strawberry Butter

Strawberry Rhubarb Bread

Spring Garden Cobb Salad

Easy Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream

Strawberry Rosemary Shortbread

Strawberry-Lime Salsa with Homemade Flour Tortillas

May 7, 2012

It’s strawberry season! For the second year in a row we’ve been blessed with plants that keep on giving. For the past two weeks we’ve been getting one or more boxes of berries like this almost everyday.

Kentucky Garden Strawberries and a Strawberry-Lime Salsa Recipe | Fake Food Free

While I may get overwhelmed with herbs and peppers throughout the summer, that never happens with strawberries. Any that aren’t going in my mouth are going in the freezer!

It’s difficult to eat them any way but straight out of the box, but I’ve managed to create a few things that aren’t berries in a bowl or berries in oatmeal. One is this salsa.

I’ve always liked a little fruit in my salsa, but I was introduced to strawberry salsa last year through a recipe program with the Kentucky Proud local food project we have here and Cooperative Extension.

I wasn’t sure how I’d like strawberries and tomatoes together, but one bite and I was sold. It’s so good.

This is my take on strawberry salsa. I decided to serve it up with some mini flour tortillas. I have been hooked on these tortillas from the Homesick Texan. I’ve made corn tortillas, but I just made these flour tortillas for the first time a couple weeks ago and I’ve made them two more times since! This time I made them much smaller to create an appetizer-sized serving plate for the salsa.

Strawberry-Lime Salsa with Flour Tortillas

Makes: 24 bite-size snacks

Ingredients

4 Roma tomatoes, de-seeded and chopped

1 cup diced strawberries

3 green onions, whites and greens sliced

¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Juice and zest of one lime

½ to 1 teaspoon fine ground sea salt

Plain Greek yogurt or sour cream for serving (optional)

Prep

Combine the tomatoes, strawberries and onions in a bowl. Add the cilantro, lime juice and lime zest. Stir to combine all ingredients. Stir in the salt to taste. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.

You can find the flour tortilla recipe at the Homesick Texan. When you are ready to cut the dough, cut it into 24 small pieces and follow the instructions provided there. Be sure to roll it very thin. It will puff up during cooking.

To serve, top each tortilla with a tablespoon of salsa. Garnish each with a ½ teaspoon of yogurt or sour cream, if using. Serve right away.

Broccoli and Pastured Bratwurst over Pumpkin Quinoa

March 23, 2012

Quick and easy. That’s the motto for cooking around here right now. It’s not that I don’t want to cook. Well, okay, maybe just a tiny bit. I’m going through that seasonal transition thing when, despite a love of cooking, you still need a break.

That aside, it is more that other things are taking up my time. Fun things like this:

Gardening season has arrived, and we are prepped and ready to go. So far kale, Brussels sprouts, arugula, and radishes have been planted. The strawberries are blooming, and asparagus is popping up.

Longer days mean I’d rather be outside than in the kitchen, but that will soon change when the plants start producing.

For now, it’s quick and easy.

My husband picked up some smoked local, pastured bratwurst from Marksbury Farm Market. There is something I like about broccoli and sausage together so I combined the two once again. We are still on a mission to clean out the pantry, and I found some quinoa hidden behind the rice. I promise I try to keep it organized, but grains have tendency to get lost in there.

The quinoa needed a little something. I had frozen a small amount of leftover pumpkin that I roasted with rosemary over the winter, so that got stirred in. The result was a bowl that balanced comfort food with spring vegetables and grilling season!

Broccoli and Pastured Bratwurst over Pumpkin Quinoa

1 tbsp olive oil

½ large onion, sliced

4 cups broccoli florets

3 smoked bratwursts, sliced

Salt and black pepper to taste

1 cup quinoa, cooked

¾ cup pumpkin puree

Salt to taste

In a large skillet or wok, heat the oil over medium-high. Add the onions and cook until almost translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Add the broccoli, and continue to cook until it reaches your desired doneness. That’s about 5 minutes for me. Add the bratwursts and cook about 1 minute longer, just to heat the sausage through. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Stir the pumpkin into the hot quinoa. Salt to taste. Place the quinoa on a plate or in a bowl, and top with the broccoli and sliced brats. Serves 4.

Kentucky Maple Syrup

March 10, 2012

My interest in maple syrup started in my high school anthropology class when we watched a lengthy, black and white, film documentary about maple syrup production in the northeast U.S. I’m not sure why I thought the production was reserved only to that area and Canada. We have plenty of maple trees around.

Apparently people here have been thinking the same thing. Over the past few years, Kentucky maple syrup has been stocking shelves of local food markets right next to sorghum and honey.

This morning we headed out the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, a historic attraction in nearby Harrodsburg, Kentucky. What is a tourist attraction today was a site where the Shaker community once lived. Roads and buildings have been preserved and turned into education centers, shops, and museums.

Animals are kept on site and represent specialty breeds owned by the Shakers. Milking Shorthorn Cattle are one example, and we were told this trip that with over 300 head, the Shakers once owned the largest herd in the US.

There is an inn on site as well as a restaurant, and that is the reason we made the visit this weekend. The special Maple Syrup Breakfast to be exact. We were able to dine on a breakfast buffet of pancakes, cornmeal cakes, bacon, sausage, and fried apples. Served alongside was maple syrup made on site. After breakfast, it was time to learn about the syrup making process.

Trees were tapped all along the paths within the village. According to our guide, sugar maples and black maples make the best syrup, and those were the trees we saw strapped with buckets.

I’m sure you’ve heard that it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup. This means that the sap is about 3-5% sugar. Weather plays a role in yield and in sugar content. Ideal temperature is 40 F degree days and 20 F degree nights, and we haven’t had many of those in Kentucky this winter.