Tasting a sense of place in French chèvre: Salad with Baked Goat Cheese

Disks of Crottin, a classic French goat cheese, are baked on buttery toasts, then placed atop a simple salad of mixed greens and Dijon mustard vinaigrette to produce a classic bistro dish. Recipe below.

Traditional French salad with Crottin de Chavignol

Terroir, the idea that a “sense of place” flavors agricultural products, is most closely associated with wines. But increasingly, the term is being used with coffee, tea, chocolate, hops and, germane to this story, cheese.

We were recently asked to sample a number of French chèvres, cheeses made from goat’s milk, each produced in a different region. They beautifully illustrated for us just how deeply place is ingrained into French agriculture. And how complex the notion of terroir can be. Continue reading “Tasting a sense of place in French chèvre: Salad with Baked Goat Cheese”

Sierra Nevada brews Estate Homegrown Ale from the ground up

The subject of my latest USA Character Approved Blog post is a beer that borrows a page the winemaking playbook.

sierra-nevada-estate

For years, beer marketers have tried to tell us water made the difference. Pure Rocky Mountain spring water. Artesian wells. Now one brewery is betting the difference is in the dirt. Pioneering California microbrewery Sierra Nevada has apparently learned a thing or two from all its winery neighbors. They’ve introduced Estate Homegrown Ale, brewed from organic hops and barley grown on the grounds of their brewery. Continue reading “Sierra Nevada brews Estate Homegrown Ale from the ground up”