I just recently wrote about our visit to Wild Boar Farms and the delightful time we had discovering new varieties of heirloom tomatoes. While we were there, Brad shared some of his heirloom melons (out of this world good) and on Saturday I just picked up some heirloom lemon cucumbers at the Boulder Farmers Market. It’s been amazing discovering all these new varieties of vegetables that are new to me, but obviously have been around quite awhile.

It made me rethink what I plan to grow in the spring. Usually I just pick out some plants from the farmers market to get me started, but I don’t do much research into the actual variety and what they taste like. I mean garden fresh to start is better already. But to imagine I could grow all those heirloom varieties in my own backyard… I learned about seedsavers.org which is a non-profit organization of gardeners dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds. Gardeners share rare seeds with other gardeners to keep heirloom varieties around. Of course, the best way to help is to buy some seeds, grow the plants and give seeds back to the program. As I perused through the site, I was excited to see the garlic page with 18 varieties of garlic…18!! The “Moon & Stars” watermelon also caught my eye, with a dark outer rind covered in small yellow spots (stars) and usually one big yellow spot (moon). If you grow a garden, take a peek and see if any fun varieties grab your attention.

With all the food blogs I read, there are very few that concentrate specifically on artisan food producers. Most food writers like to write about recipes, cookbooks, restaurants, food gadgets, but rarely small producers and their products. I came across this blog Artisan Food Discoveries that shares my same passion for sharing the stories about artisan food producers.

The blog is well-written (nice work Susie!) and full of good content. Definitely at the top of my food reading list. If you like learning more about artisan food producers, I’d recommend you add it to your list too.

So we’re back in Boulder and while I openly admit to how much I love food - 10 days of really good eating can start to weigh you down - umm literally. I’m glad to be back in the “fittest town in America” with world-class athletes around to remind me what I need to be doing to work off the 3 trips I made to Taylor’s (if you’ve been there you’d agree it’s worth it).

As you probably know, Rob and I have been out in the bay area traipsing around San Francisco and Palo Alto and we even made a quick trip up to Napa for a weekend. Between the Copia Food Festival, Oxbow Market, The Ferry Building, Slow Food Nation Farmers Market & Taste Pavilions and then plenty of restaurants crammed in-between…we ate well.

My best spent calories include:

Heirloom Tomato Panzanella (Copia’s Edible Garden Festival - Napa, CA)

I went back for seconds after trying this dish. So good. Of course the key was the fresh heirloom tomatoes. Fortunately for me the farmer who grows the incredible tomatoes was just a few booths down. So Panzanella led to an hour long conversation about tomatoes, which led to an invitation to come check out the farm, which led to a farm visit of eating lots of tomatoes and helping to pack an order for Chez Panisse. There will be more on our fun at the farm soon!

Pica Pica Maize Kitchen - Corn Flatbread (Oxbow Market - Napa, CA)

I enjoyed a corn flatbread ham and jack grilled sandwich, which was great but I was most intrigued by the bread itself. It was sweet corn, soft bread but crisped up nice around the edges. I had never seen anything like it. The cool part is that the bread is gluten-free. Since a gluten-eating gal like myself went crazy about it, I was especially excited for all my gluten-free friends (Andrew, Jan…) about a non-cardboard tasting bread alternative.

Taylors Automatic Refresher - Texas Burger - (Ferry Building - San Francisco, CA)

I think I already let the cat out of the bag that 3 meals during the 10 day trip were consumed at Taylors Automatic Refresher. Usually I get more creative and vary my options, but oh was it good. We tried several things, loved the BLT - but I think my favorite was the Texas Burger, topped with jack cheese, fresh guacamole, salsa, mayo & pickled jalapeños on a toasted egg bun. Gourmet junk-food. Yummo.

We Love Jam - Blenheim Apricot Jam (Slow Food Nation - San Fransisco, CA)

If you’ve been reading the blog for a little while you’re probably now thinking I have some strange fascination with apricot jam, as I seem to talk about it often. Not sure how to explain it except for the fact that it’s a hard product to produce well and for those that do, I like to talk about. This apricot jam is made with Blenheim apricots which actually are considered an endangered variety of apricots - who knew? They started with a small batch (100 jars) from one very old tree and then it made it into Food and Wine mag and had thousands of orders coming to them. So now they are making more jam, which means they are working with farmers to grow more Blenheim apricots. An apricot jam with a cause. I love it.

Hodo Soy Beanery - Satay Soy Noodles (Berkley Farmers Market - Berkley, CA)

Chris Shipley, a mentor for us at TechStars, gave us her list of favorite food products and Hodo Soy Beanery was one of them. In her words, “Let’s just say that this place has me eating soy/tofu products.” Since they only sell their products locally in the Bay area, we were excited to get to try it on this trip. Carolyn, one of the producers, says the key to good tofu is really, really fresh tofu. She let us sample everything and even gave us some Spicy Soy Croquettes (Rob’s favorite) to take home with us. My favorite was the Satay Soy Noodles and was quite impressed the tasty noodles I was munching on were merely tofu that had been pushed through a pasta extruder. She only sells the product locally - so you have to make a visit to the Bay area to get a taste. Absolutely worth it.

Needless to say, we enjoyed our trip and definitely enjoyed the Bay area. It’s filled with foodies that shared our same passion for artisan food.

Today was our first day at Slow Food Nation and it was packed full of food discovery, lots of learning, and plenty of eating. Slow Food is an incredible organization and it was clear how many hours were poured into the event. Major kudos to all of those that helped to make it happen. Our time was spent at the Taste Pavilion, which wasn’t just about tasting (although we did lots of it!). It was all about learning the origins of your food, how it’s made and where it comes from. Of course, everything I believe in when it comes to the food we eat.

Eileen from Ritual Coffee Roasters, the head curator for the Coffee Pavilion said that each producer was hand-selected for being the best in the country. And each Pavilion has their own unique way to show off their specific craft. While all of the displays were fantastic - my favorite was the Pickling Pavilion. Yes, a whole Pavilion dedicated to pickled goods. Canning jars were artistically displayed with the names of pickle producers from across the country stuffed inside each jar. They also suspended all the canning jar lids individually from the ceiling. I can’t imagine how many hands and how many hours it took to hang the lids - but it truly was a sight to see.

While we were at the pickling station, I enjoyed a flight of sauerkraut - yes you read that right (see below!). I’ve never been a fan - but I knew this would be the place to try if there was a chance of finding sauerkraut I liked. The ingredients were simple - only salt, spices and seasonings. When it’s prepared the old fashioned way, it requires no vinegar and no pasteurization. The salt is what makes the “sour” in sauerkraut. And the result? A wonderfully fresh flavor and crisp texture.

My favorite ended up being Three Stone Hearth’s “mid-summer kraut” an artisan sauerkraut infused with lemon and lavender.

Here are some of my other favorite products from our journey around the Taste Pavilion.

Here a barista gives me a lesson on artisan coffee growers and roasters. My favorite was an Ethiopian coffee from Ecco Cafe. It was a sun-dried coffee that was naturally sweet, had great body and blueberry notes.

Those wheels of chocolate in front are called the “ibarra disc” from Taza Chocolate. Taza makes Mexican stone-ground, organic chocolate that is minimally processed and incredibly delicious. These wheels are created with just a few ingredients - cacao, cane sugar and a little cinnamon. The traditional way to enjoy them is to combine with hot milk. According to Alex, one of the founders, it creates some of the finest hot chocolate.

The Olive Oil Pavilion not only had a beautiful display (those bottles wrapped around their entire pavilion), but they had an Extra Virgin California Olive Oil, Sorelle Paradiso that was definitely one of the best I’ve ever tasted. I also learned that 90% of most olive oils you find on the supermarket shelves are rancid - yuck! The worst part is most Americans are most familiar with that flavor and think that’s the norm.

We plan to head back to the Taste Pavilion for more eating on Sunday. Of course, we’ll share our food discoveries here on the blog.

The more and more I eat, the more I am amazed at how much better some food is than others. The right ingredients crafted by skilled artisans creates a class of products that help us to remember what food is supposed to taste like. It reminds me why I am so passionate about creating Foodzie.

Case in point: meet Eileen - the founder of Ritual Coffee, an award-winning artisan coffee roaster in San Francisco. Ritual makes darn good coffee. Good enough to convince a gal (me!) who doesn’t like coffee to come back for a second cup. A second cup of straight black coffee nonetheless - no cream, no sugar and I loved it. I was stunned. (For the record it was their Misty Valley roast from Ethiopia - syrupy sweet and wild with intense ripe berry flavors, dates, figs hints of star anise, and a floral aftertaste.)

After I asked, “But it tastes fruity, kinda sweet - not bitter like every other coffee I’ve tried? How is your coffee so different?” Eileen explained.

First it’s about the beans. Eileen travels around the world searching for farmers who have the highest quality coffee beans. These coffee beans hang on the tree long enough to soak up that wonderful fruit flavor (remember coffee is a fruit!) and picked when the time is right. Eileen explains how they take the beans through the roasting process to enhance coffee’s naturally sweet, fruity flavor.

Coffee is already a delicious, sweet, juicy fruit. It has complex sugars, and exquisite acids that deliver wonderful flavors to our palates. Plucked off its tree, it has a flavor that you may compare to strawberry or watermelon. Our job as coffee roasters is to stand out of the way and let the coffee live up to its full potential. We roast the coffee just enough to caramelize the natural sugars and develop the delicate, bright flavors that the terroir and variety instill in the coffee. We favor vintage Probat coffee roasters made of cast iron with direct flame and we pay assiduous attention to our senses and our few rustic gauges while roasting. We taste our coffee every day. Every day we re-approach roasting as if nothing we know, nothing we have done, means anything.

Bottom line. Ritual rocks and so does Eileen. In fact, Eileen is the head curator for the coffee pavilion at Slow Food Nation this upcoming weekend. Eileen hand-picked the other 10 artisan roasters that will be at the event serving their coffee. We had a blast chatting with her because she is just so passionate about making the absolute best coffee around. Great work Eileen!

Small producers have lots of challenges when it comes to starting and operating their business, just like any other entrepreneur. But one thing that seems particularly hard is finding a good place to actually produce the product. Home kitchens don’t usually fly because they have to pass all kinds of state regulations and inspections and purchasing your own space that’s fully equipped can cost a lot of dough. Community kitchens are an affordable alternative that allows a producer to rent space to produce their product.

La Cocina an “incubator kitchen” in San Francisco goes far and above what most community kitchens offer - which is typically just space and equipment. La Cocina actually has staff on hand that helps teach these small producers about bringing their product to market and offer many different sessions to help their business succeed. Sort of like a mini TechStars for food producers. Here is nice video they put together that explains more in detail, how it all works.

I was excited to see that one of the Slow Dinners that is a part of the Slow Food Nation event, is actually in partnership with La Cocina. I was bummed to find out it was happening on a night that we already had plans.

A collaboration between the Mission’s Delfina Restaurant and La Cocina Community Kitchen, a nonprofit, shared use commercial kitchen and business incubator for low-income entrepreneurs. The evening’s special alla carte menu will feature Italian-inspired dishes from Delfina’s summer repertoire alongside similar, but Latin-inspired dishes created by La Cocina staff. Delfina Restaurant is committed to using only local, sustainable and seasonal market ingredients. A percentage of the evening’s proceeds will be donated to La Cocina.

I hope the La Cocina model spreads to other cities because while I think the kitchen itself is great, the mentorship from other food professionals is really what helps the small producers get their business off the ground.

For producers in cities that don’t yet have their own La Cocina, here is a great blog that maintains a list of commercial and community kitchens available for rent.

Whenever I travel to new places, I like to scout out the local markets to find new artisan products for Foodzie. But when I can’t get out and travel, new product discovery comes from simply piggy-backing on the collective experiences of other foodies.

Brad Feld, one of our mentors at TechStars recently traveled to Alaska and shared a bunch of his Alaskan food finds, which included everything from smoked salmon, to mustards, to jam.

Laurel Durham, an attorney with HRO (one of our sponsors at TechStars) told me about Chugwater Chili, which according to people “in the know” is one of the best products from Wyoming. After some research, I discovered they were featured on Food Networks Food Finds.

We love learning about these interesting products from all over the country. So if you have an artisan product that you’ve found in your travels, please share it with us! Send it to @foodtweets on twitter or add it in the comments below.

We’ve added one more store to our “Sneak Preview” on Foodzie. We are excited to share Boulder Popcorn with you! That’s a picture of us below hanging out with Bill Heuston, the founder of Boulder Popcorn at the Boulder Farmers Market.

Boulder Popcorn has a great story. Bill will tell you that his 10 year-old daughter Cambria came home from school wanting to learn about supply and demand (smart cookie!). So his answer? They started a gourmet popcorn business.

They named the heirloom yellow corn after Cambria (that’s her above with Bill). It’s called Cambria’s Cream and it’s one of my absolute favorites. You’ll find these itty bitty kernels (with no GMOs I might add…) pop up nice and tender and have a naturally buttery flavor. I simply pop them with olive oil and toss with a little sea salt - the rest of the flavor comes naturally from the corn. They also have three other varieties, Ryder’s Red, Kailey’s Kernels, and Mayors Mix.

Typical microwave popcorn is bland and coated with that fake butter flavoring usually leaving you with a “popcorn hangover”. Boulder Popcorn is natural, free of GMOs and totally worthy of downing a whole bowlful. Visit their store and buy yourself a bag or two!

Foodzie will be an online marketplace where you can discover and buy food directly from artisan producers. So we often get asked the question, “Well what exactly is an artisan producer?” I usually have my own answer, but recently I had a conversation with Mark Pastore, owner of Incanto (one of San Francisco’s best Italian restaurants) and Boccalone, an artisan Salumi producer. I loved his explanation of what an artisan producer is and what it means to buy their products, so I thought I would share.

I think artisan food should be about two fundamental things:

1) First and foremost, high-quality, delicious, handcrafted food that carries with it its own particular perspective about what it is. To somewhat oversimplify things, foods that carry these attributes are generally made from extremely high-quality ingredients, in small batches, with a great deal of personal attention from skilled artisans. All of this usually means that these foods cost much more to make than the “comparable” industrially produced foodstuff.

2) Connecting consumers with their food. Where it comes from, who makes it, how it is connected to the world at large.

Kimbal Musk, owner of The Kitchen & founder of Me.dium, is one of our mentors at TechStars. Kimbal has given us a bunch of great recommendations for artisan producers, one of which was Rancho Durazno Peach Preserves. I still have yet to try them, but keep reading - I’ll explain.

On Wednesday I headed over to the Boulder Farmers Market to pick up a jar of the peach preserves to taste. Usually I meander around the market, but this day I was on a mission. In - get peach preserves - and out. Well until the Rancho Durazno lady threw me for a loop. I reached for the peach preserves and said “I’ve heard your peach preserves are the best, I can’t wait to try them.” Preserve Lady, “Actually the apricot is even better.”

In my mind I thought, it might be good but it can’t be better than Harvest Song Apricot Preserves. The current stand-alone apricot preserve champion in my mind.

But then I started to take her more seriously. You see, there were these cute, fresh, sun-kissed little apricots sitting there next to the jam and I recognized them. Just a week or so prior I bought a small bag and they were delicious. As I imagined what those tangy little apricots might taste like packed inside a jar, I realized that there could be better apricot preserves out there and if there were, I had to know about it. So, went in for the peach and out I came with the apricot.

I brought it home and immediately pulled out my Harvest Song to taste them side by side. Although skeptical, I started with the Rancho Durazno and served myself a spoonful.

Reactions: Tangy, just a little sweet - very fresh tasting. Yummy. Thicker in consistency and smaller chunks of apricot, but you still get that delicate fruit and velvety skin in every bite. Good enough to continue eating straight out of the jar.

Ok, Harvest Song next..

Reactions: A little sweeter and absolutely luxurious in texture. The large, delicate slices of apricot in nearly every spoonful allows you to really get that full, rich and tangy flavor. Amazingly, you can still see and taste the soft, velvety skins of the apricots.

Hmm…I liked them both. But I had to select a favorite. Back and forth I went, Rancho Durazno —> Harvest Song —> RD —> HS, until I realized I liked them both… a lot. Maybe I was allowed to have two favorite apricot jams. Both used really good quality apricots, both used minimal sugar, both let the bright, tangy flavor of the apricot shine. Both of them rocked.