Brambles, Markets, Beer

Virginia Craft Beer Month | Natl. Farmers Market Week | Cool down with a cocktail

Aug 11, 2023

Do you ever feel catapulted through a season? That’s how summer has felt here at Edible Blue Ridge. There’s so much abundance and I often feel overwhelmed yet ever grateful for it. From trying to stay ahead of the weeds and the voles that keep eating our ripening tomatoes in the garden, to editing our fall issue (out in just a matter of weeks!), to processing said tomatoes, to trying to schedule berry-picking adventures, to interviewing producers… the summer has sped along.

Here we are, two weeks into August, the most abundant season for produce in Virginia. How fitting then, that this week is National Farmers Market Week. Tomorrow, head to your local market and support the producers who work tirelessly to feed us. If you’re near Roanoke, think about spicing it up and attend Pepper Palooza at the LEAP Grandin Market. Vendors will bring the heat with hot honey, jalapeño popper pizza, peppers in all shades and you can even test your heat tolerance by signing up for a hot pepper-eating contest.

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Thanks for reading, happy eating, and enjoy your weekend,

Lisa - Publisher & Editor

Virginia Craft Beer Month

Speaking of abundance, it’s craft beer month here in Virginia! The brewing industry has flourished these last two decades and with over 200 breweries across the state, it’s no wonder we’ve become known as a destination for beer-seeking enthusiasts.

🍻Want to raise the bar and learn more about VA craft breweries?

Check out our interviews with four brewers in the region:

Blindhouse Beer Company - Roanoke

Heliotrope - Lexington

WildManDan Brewery - Afton

Great Valley Farm Brewery & Winery - Natural Bridge

EVENTS

Have an event you’d like us to share? Email: info@edibleblueridge.com

8.11-8.20 Staunton Music Festival - Staunton
8.12 Pepper Palooza - Roanoke
8.13 Poetry Night at Sage Bird Ciderworks - Harrisonburg
8.18 Virginia Oyster & Wine Celebration - Charlottesville
8.18 Spikenard Farm-to-Table Dinner - Floyd
8.19 Botetourt Honey Festival - Buchanan
8.19 Croquet for a Cure at Castle Hill Cider - Keswick
8.25 Veritas Supper Series - Afton

MORE TO CHEW ON

🐟 What is the real price of canned tuna? - Civil Eats reports 🐟

Helping young minds understand the connection between healthy soil and healthy living 🌱 - 4theSoil Podcast

A recipe for the southern staple, 🍠 Sweet Potato Bread - from EATER

WHAT WE’RE DRINKING: Thyme to Bramble

Though we love them in pie and served alongside ice cream, we were stoked when Vitae Spirits shared this blackberry bramble recipe with us. Rum and spiced syrup add a subtle warmth which rounds out this refreshing cocktail. Served over crushed ice it makes for a soothing sipper as you soak in a summer evening.

INGREDIENTS

Cocktail

1 1/2 ounces Vitae Spirits golden rum

1/2 ounces lemon juice

1/2 ounces spiced simple syrup*

2 sprigs thyme

Hefty bar-spoon of blackberry preserves

Blackberries for garnish

*Spiced Simple Syrup

½ cup sugar

1 cup water

1 vanilla bean, halved

2 sticks cinnamon

10 whole cloves

For the syrup

Add sugar and water to a pot over medium high heat and bring to a simmer. Add halved vanilla bean, cinnamon, and cloves. Bring to a boil, turn off heat and let sit until cooled to room temperature. Strain out solids and keep syrup refrigerated in a mason jar for up to 1 month.

For the Cocktail

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake until chilled. Pour all contents, including ice, into a rocks glass, and add fresh blackberry to garnish.

Recipe provided by Vitae Spirits, Charlottesville

POEM OF THE WEEK

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

Blackberry-Picking
BY SEAMUS HEANEY
for Philip Hobsbaum

Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
We trekked and picked until the cans were full,
Until the tinkling bottom had been covered
With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.

We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.

from Poetry Foundation

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