Culinary Exchange - Day Three

pig at the farm

Today began with an early morning breakfast at a local bakery, owned by the instructor of our sugar workshop yesterday. Breakfast was an impressive array of muffins, cakes, squares, croissants, and biscuits, along with quiche, hard-boiled eggs, cold meats, fresh fruit, yogurt and granola, and orange juice.

baby goats

On to a farm that raises sheep, chickens, and pigs. Everything about this farm is how you would want it - small-scale, free-range, organic, happy animals. It is obvious the farm owners really do care about their animals and have done a lot of research and trial and error to use the best possible techniques with the well-being of the animals as their primary concern. Right down to choosing to drive a little extra distance in order to take the animals to a better butchery. The sheep are transferred to a new pasture daily, the chickens are never fed grain, and the pigs are free to roam around the woods and mud and into their little hut.

vineyard

From there we went to vineyard #1 for lunch, wine tastings, and a tour of the kitchen. Lunch was fishcakes paired with a chardonnay, and a main course of confit chicken leg and breast, fresh summer vegetables, mint pea puree, quinoa sunflower seed pilaf, and jus paired with a rose, and a cake doughnut with ginger honey ice cream, blueberry compote, and lemon anglaise served with a sweet dessert Riesling. 

On to vineyard #2 for a tour of the facilitates.
On to vineyard #3 for a tour and a VIP tasting session.
Explored the small town square of shops for an hour.

fish cake

On to vineyard #4 for dinner and wine. Dinner was all family style, beginning with appetizers of polenta fries, risotto balls, focaccia bread, octopus salad, and a charcuterie boards. This was followed by pizzas of various flavors, then a dessert of little churros, chocolate coffee cream, lemon curd, fresh berries, and ice cream.

chicken plate

doughnut dessert

VIP wine tasting

rows upon rows of grapes