We’ve been traveling a bunch lately en route to discover great food for Foodzie. We’ve been working really hard, but we have to admit sampling food all day hasn’t been what you’d call “hard work.” In January, we made the trip to San Diego for the Winter Fancy Food Show and found some really cool things like White Jasmine Sparkling Tea, Sea Salt Caramels and zesty BBQ sauce.
In early March, we headed for the Rockies to discover Boulder, CO. Talk about a great food town - we had no idea we’d stumble upon so many tasty things and cool people. We personally had the chance to tour Haystack Goat Dairy and meet all the happy goats that produce the milk for their award-winning cheeses. Check out our recent blog post that includes a video from our visit on the farm! And just to name a few of the other Boulder folks we met with great taste - two gals who make delicious organic cookie dough, a tea company with luscious, aromatic tea blends and a lady who crafts the perfect light and crispy granola.
And if you think we couldn’t have eaten any more after all that…we did! In fact, lots more in Los Angeles, CA. A few days were spent in Anaheim at the Expo West Natural Product show where we met a producer who makes a butternut squash-stuffed vegan roast that would put most pork roasts to shame! We also came across artisanal preserves from Berkley that are still made on the stove-top and exquisite varietal honey.
So are you hungry yet…? Good news is the launch of Foodzie is getting closer and closer and we just can’t wait to share what we’ve been working on with you. Be sure to let us know about any food producers you’d love to see on Foodzie and we’ll do everything we can to make them a part of our community.
Imagine spending 20-25 hours a week standing in a pungent temperature controlled room of cheese (a scent that probably doesn’t dissipate after a hot shower), handling every single wheel to ensure each is coated with the right kind of bacteria and aged to perfection. Talk about passion, right? That’s how some of the artisan cheese makers at Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy spend their days, one of only 200 farmstead artisan cheese makers nationwide.
With just the right blend of goat milk from their 120+ happy goats that live on the farm and a lot of love and dedication, Haystack Dairy has built a reputation of producing exceptional goat cheeses. They’ve won countless awards from the American Cheese Society and have had several write-ups in Food and Wine Magazine. If you’re local to Boulder you can buy their cheeses at the farm or at the Boulder County Farmers Market. For the long distance cheese-lover, a few of their offerings are available at Whole Foods nationwide.
With a great recommendation from some fellow chowhounds, we took a tour of their farm (which they offer every Tues and Sat from 12-2) and had a chance to meet the cheese makers themselves. We couldn’t get over how good the cheese was but we were also quite smitten with all the cute little goats! We loved the Queso de Mano, a nutty, sharp cheese made there on the farm.
The dairy is a little gem nestled right in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and definitely worth a visit if you are in the Boulder area. Check out some of the highlights from our visit!
It was definitely a learning process, but the final product was awesome. Even still - we will be outsourcing this job from now on. If you are lucky enough to get a shirt from the hand-screened run, you have a shirt that contains a lot of Foodzie love.
In honor of International Women’s Day today, I thought I’d highlight a stand out female entrepreneur doing great things in the food world. Sarah Endline is looking to change the world one “peace” of cacao at a time with her ultra hip company Sweet Riot. Check out her mission!
Sarah loves protecting the environment too and promotes clever ways to reuse your Sweet Riot tin once the chocolate has been devoured. I took their suggestion and now use mine to store change for parking meters and tolls, so the super-cute tin (designed by Patty, artist #5) won’t end up in a landfill. Thanks Sarah for doing great things.
The NASFT is offering discounted rates on booth spaces to make it possible (finally!!) for small food producers to attend their shows and get lots of great exposure. They’re launching their new program at the Global Food and Style Expo in Chicago in April. From what I’ve heard there is still space available, so if you’re a small food producer, check out more of the details to see if it makes sense for you.
The Foodzie team will be there, so let us know if you plan to attend. We would love to get a chance to visit your booth!
Thanks to a team of great people (way to go Maren!) who pushed to make this a reality.
I am a sucker for sweet stuff so I was quite excited about my most recent discovery. The Greensboro Curb Market is full of all kinds of goodies and I seem to discover new things every week. This past week it was Two Sisters Toffee, made by you guessed it, two sisters - Jenny and Joan. Their toffee is everything you want it to be… buttery, crunchy, but not too tough to bite and it’s topped with a layer of dark chocolate and teeny, tiny pecan pieces. They had been making their fabulous toffee for friends and family and everyone always went crazy about it. Enough friends encouraged them to start selling the toffee, so they did! I’ve found that some of the best artisan foods we’ve discovered get started this way. Their product is just so good that the people who are receiving it as gifts want a way to buy the product after their supply has run out. Speaking of running out - last week my box ran out in 3 days. This week I bought another (yes it’s that good!) and I hope to savor it a little slower so it will last me the full week. Will you be able to buy this tasty toffee on Foodzie? Maybe! You’ll have to wait and see.
