This week I am the featured blogger for Concentrate Magazine. I am glad to be a part of the magazine and I hope that I add to it.
Blog
~Aren
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The Home Grown Festival
Yesterday I was a volunteer at the Home Grown Festival at Community High School in downtown Ann Arbor. When I called up Jason, the volunteer coordinator, I asked him if I could be involved with food. He asked me if I would be willing to help Chef Seccia of The Henry Ford Museum. I responded with a "hard yes".
I arrived at the festival as the rain poured down. I headed to the Chef demo tent and introduced myself to Chef Seccia. Luckily he had prepped everything already, leaving time to visit The Ann Arbor Farmers' Market. The market had the most bountiful display I have seen all year. Every stand was piled high with even more colorful looking produce -- due to the rain. I wish I had my camera with me -- it was truly beautiful. As Chef Seccia was running around, I had to get my weekly supply of concord grapes. I don't know the name of the farm, but the stand is located over by the entrance to Sparrow Market/Sweet Waters. The grapes are in season for about one month. This is the second week they were at the market. They are by far the best grape I have ever ate. They are sweet, tart, juicy, crisp all at the same time. Chef Seccia suggested I make grape jam with them. I will work on that next week.
After we got back to the festival, Chef Seccia prepared a Squash Bisque and an apple Chutney. He runs the Squash bisque at his restaurant regularly. All of the ingredients for the Chef demo during the festival were donated from Plum Market. Over all the festival was a great success. The Ann Arbor News ran an article in the Sunday, September 14th newspaper on the festival and they said that 1,500 people attended. For the first year out, that is decent enough. Also, I was featured in the article as well. http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2008/09/rain_cant_dampen_homegrown_fes.html They interviewed me about helping Chef Seccia and I threw in what I did over the summer. The only mistake in the article was that I couldn't find milled flour. I did find sources of milled flour, Jenning's Brothers Flour and Westwinf Milling Co. Other then that the article was great.
On a side note I want to apologize for not updating this blog more frequently. Between school starting up and my new job, I have been quite busy. My new job is at The Black Pearl Seafood and Martini bar on Main Street next to Starbucks in downtown A2. I am going to be working behind the bar. Our opening day is this Wednesday, the 17th. See you there!
~Aren
I arrived at the festival as the rain poured down. I headed to the Chef demo tent and introduced myself to Chef Seccia. Luckily he had prepped everything already, leaving time to visit The Ann Arbor Farmers' Market. The market had the most bountiful display I have seen all year. Every stand was piled high with even more colorful looking produce -- due to the rain. I wish I had my camera with me -- it was truly beautiful. As Chef Seccia was running around, I had to get my weekly supply of concord grapes. I don't know the name of the farm, but the stand is located over by the entrance to Sparrow Market/Sweet Waters. The grapes are in season for about one month. This is the second week they were at the market. They are by far the best grape I have ever ate. They are sweet, tart, juicy, crisp all at the same time. Chef Seccia suggested I make grape jam with them. I will work on that next week.
After we got back to the festival, Chef Seccia prepared a Squash Bisque and an apple Chutney. He runs the Squash bisque at his restaurant regularly. All of the ingredients for the Chef demo during the festival were donated from Plum Market. Over all the festival was a great success. The Ann Arbor News ran an article in the Sunday, September 14th newspaper on the festival and they said that 1,500 people attended. For the first year out, that is decent enough. Also, I was featured in the article as well. http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2008/09/rain_cant_dampen_homegrown_fes.html They interviewed me about helping Chef Seccia and I threw in what I did over the summer. The only mistake in the article was that I couldn't find milled flour. I did find sources of milled flour, Jenning's Brothers Flour and Westwinf Milling Co. Other then that the article was great.
On a side note I want to apologize for not updating this blog more frequently. Between school starting up and my new job, I have been quite busy. My new job is at The Black Pearl Seafood and Martini bar on Main Street next to Starbucks in downtown A2. I am going to be working behind the bar. Our opening day is this Wednesday, the 17th. See you there!
~Aren
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