Mon 21 Sep 2009 10:11 pm
Got a taste for lamb? We’ve got a pair of tickets to give away to the Oct. 25 American Lamb Jam, a gathering of 15 chefs and 15 wineries pairing “creative preparations of lusty lamb dishes” with award-winning wines. The roster includes Buty, DeLille Cellars, McCrea Cellars, ART, Flying Fish, Lola, and more.
The restaurants didn’t simultaneously go nuts for lamb, of course. It’s part of the American Lamb Board’s Seattle blitz, a determined campaign to get people eating and talking about what’s been described as an underappreciated meat. I feel like I’ve appreciated it quite a bit around town, but it does strike me that while plenty of small Washington farms raise lamb, we don’t hear about them the way we know about, say, Billy’s tomatoes or Skagit River’s beef and pork.
So, want to win a pair of tickets to a night of lamb-centric wining and dining? Leave a comment here telling me what other foods grown or raised in Washington deserve more attention. We’ll close comments at midnight PST on Oct. 2, and use a random number generator to pick a winner.
45 Responses to “ “Lamb Jam” Ticket Giveaway ”
Trackbacks & Pingbacks:
-
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Family Friendly Food and jzs. jzs said: RT @RebekahDenn: Giving away a pair of tickets to the Lamb Jam dinner! http://bit.ly/2JjLUd [...]
1. Huckleberries! These are new to me (only 8 years in WA…). I can swear that the shortcake at Poppy was swimming in in huckleberries and blueberries and not blackberries was written in the menu. (But, I might be wrong, ahem)
2. I got to try Sea Breeze Farm’s raw milk. Rich, fresh, grass-fed cows, AND expires after a week just like milk is supposed to be!
3. Also, I like Taylor Shellfish’s raw oysters.
Flour - I’ve been loving the Shepards Bush from Stone Buhr for over a year now.
Honey - there is some great local honey, no need to buy the imported stuff.
Wine!
There’s lots of great Washington wine, including some from grapes grown on the west side of the state.
Penn Cove mussels are the best on earth as far as I’m concerned.
Smelts! Kelso is the smelt capital of the world. Delicious marinated and served cold.
Golden Glen Creamery Butter
Made at a family dairy in the Skagit Valley. No fancy packaging, just a great pure butter taste. I have been known to eat slivers of it straight from the tub.
The chicken from Rickman Gulch Farm is amazing. I’m not sure if Ben’s permanently stopped making the drive across the mountains or not, but the chicken from there is amazingly tender and tasty. (I hope he’ll resume the trek to at least one of Seattle’s farmer’s markets at some point…)
Western Washington wine. No one knows we even have it.
Washington Cheese! Small, artisan cheese makers are my favorite part of Washington local food.
I am pretty new to WA, so I’m only beginning to learn about these local foods. I’ve been hearing a lot about the apples, but haven’t sampled any yet. What I do know about is Walla Walla Sweets (that’s where I live) but I don’t think they’re overlooked. Can’t wait to delve in deeper and find out more about local foods, so all of these recommendations are great! And a lamb fest would be another excellent introduction.
I’ve only been in Washington 3 years now, but I’m impressed by the local honey, it’s wonderful! Also, excited by all the berries that grow in abundance. In Hawaii I’d pay $8 for a little container of raspberries.
Rosemary! The herb grows in such abundance here, all over the city streets even, and it seems I rarely see it utilized in restaurant foods. Goes well with lamb too - rosemary crusted lamb, yum!
Clams are an under appreciated local food, overshadowed by mussels, imo. The clams we dug as kids, right off the beach on Whidbey Island, are as good, if not better, than any mussels.
Ozette potatoes - we LOVE THEM!! Best taters ever.
Love reading the comments thus far.
Some interesting ones I wouldn’t have thought of.
But I’ll go with beef, out of personal experience. I love the half head I get from my rancher every year.
Peaches and potatoes! You always hear about Washington apples, but the peaches are pretty great. And who needs Idaho potatoes when we have so many here :)
Washington Dungeness crab! East Coasters talk so much about their crab but I think our Dungeness is the best!
Fresh morel and chanterelle mushrooms from the Blue Mountains near Walla Walla. Step-dad foraged these every year, enough to freeze and eat for months. Lucky me!
Good lord, figs!
Up in Ballard they grow in sidewalk gardens all over the place, and when in season they are all over the farmer’s markets and locally-sourced grocery stores.
Peaches. Apples and cherries get all the attention, but oh, the peaches! OK, and the apricots are pretty spectacular, too.
Artisan cheese is really good, and i think that it really isn’t known outside the area? You hear about California a lot, but some of the Washington cheeses are very good.
I agree that we have the most fabulous, juicy, peaches here!
Eastern Washington lentils! And the green tea being grown in Skagit County by Sakuma Brothers.
Goat deserves more attention. Quilceda farms at the Ballard farmers market sells delicious, lean chops. They also have some nice rich, raw goat milk.
Washington strawberries. Smaller than their California counterparts, but more flavorful.
Actually, just reading the comments points out a lot of WA foods I don’t know that much about. I’d say most fish is under appreciated since salmon gets all the play.
The sweet and sour cherries! They’re like the different sides of a delicious coin.
Flour from Shepards Bush/Stone Buhr. It is truly amazing, I did side by side tests of this flour with imported ones for pizza, and this is much better. Someone told me because the flour is local, we can get it fresh and as a result it is more “alive”. This was a new concept to me, so I tested it extensively by now and can confirm that it makes a real difference to use Stone Buhr flour. Unfortunately it seems that most of WA flour is shipped abroad and we often use flour from other states. This should be changed - and change here should be quiet easy since all the production and market channels are already in place
I agree on promoting the Dungeness crab. Having grown up in Virginia eating bussels of blue tips, Dungeness are hands-down superior in flavor and ease of eating!
I’d like to put in a vote for buffalo grapes — perhaps not in the commercial grocery arena, but in the backyard garden arena. I love concord grapes, but they don’t grow in this climate. But we planted a buffalo grape vine three years ago, and this year we harvested our first bunches — very tasty! And just great to know that our family can have fruit for a month right out of the backyard. More folks should give their own vines a try!
Honey, blueberries, and oysters. Oh and cured meats - do those count?
Cherries. I was surprised at the many varieties I found at the local farmers’ market. And mushrooms. My Eastern European friends are agog at the availability of mushrooms in wooded areas near town and surprised that most people just don’t go and pick their own.
Cheeses! There are a lot of really good cheese-making places around; from the large, mainstream ones (like Beecher’s), to places like Golden Glen that sell at farmer’s markets, all are amazing.
If you want something more directly raised or grown, I’d say eggs. I admit I haven’t found the best ones yet, but I had an absolutely amazing local egg at The Herbfarm, and I want to find some place that sells really rich, bright yolk eggs.
What about WA beers? WA represented at this year’s GABF - especially Congrats to Chuckanut Brewery for a big win! Can’t wait to get a few pints myself.
Why mess with perfection? Lamb, in all of its forms, is the perfect northwest celebration! We would be remiss to try to find a substitute, therefore I say “Let there be lamb!” :o)
I say there’s too many things to mention, but the sweet (and hot) pepper selection from the East of the mountains is amazing!
So many good suggestions so far. But I’ll go with prune plums.
My backyard has two varieties of green prune plums, and a nearby neighbor has yet a third variety of green plums. All prunes grow so well in the Seattle area, and many trees don’t get well picked, it is a shame. I think the flavor and texture is far superior to the round, non-prune variety the stores stock from California.
Mache! Had it the first time a couple of years ago through Willie Greens’ winter farmshare. Substitute for salad greens, with a lovely, light but distinct flavor. Quite the staple for salads, according to a friend in Burgundy, but practically unheard of here.
Do we have a local tomato fest?
Cheese from local creameries can be wonderful. Twin Oaks in Centralia/Chehalis, Mt. Townsend, are unique and delicious.
Grapes … particularly when processed and placed into wine bottles. Still an underrated region, at least amongst the general public.
I’ll agree with Italian Prune Plums. I’d never seen them till I got here and so amazing.
currants, all colors. I can’t get enough and they seem to be around for such a short time.
Thank you for all your comments! Contest is over and our random number generator at random.org says… 21. Kirsten, please send me your email address at rebekahdenn@gmail.com, and I’ll hook you up with the tickets!