FOOD- DISH- "Villain" at PVCC: More veggies by subscription
You know Charlottesville is on the worldwide wine map when the town draws one of the world's leading wine expertsa controversial one at that!
On Sunday, June 4, Piedmont Virginia Community College hosts an evening with world famous (some might say infamous) winemaker Michel Rolland. Rolland's Bordeaux-based consulting practice has over 100 clients in 12 countries, including Charlottesville's own Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard, and he is considered by many to be one of the most influential people in the wine world.
In a recent documentary, Mondovino, a critical look at the wine world that the New York Times called "a passionate defense of the individuality of small wine producers in a standardized world," Rolland is portrayed as a kind of villain, a fat-cat advocate of the globalization of wines who blames the proliferation of small producers for the flood of bad wines.
The film caused quite a stir in the wine world (it was shown at the Cannes Film Festival) for its expos of the conflict between small producers who advocate diversity and the big corporate producers who want more control over taste.
Rolland himself has publicly called the filmmaker a liar, and has even accused him of altering the sound of his laugh in the film, which according to a journalist for Le Monde, makes him sound like Mephistopheles. Likewise, the filmmaker has criticized the corporate wine world for being "mafia-like" and "ruled by secrecy and snobbery."
Anyway, for local wine junkies, it should be interesting to hear the larger-than-life Frenchman's take on new trends in the biz. And you might even get to hear him laugh!
More fresh farm produce!
It seems like every time Dish writes about a local farm with a subscription produce service, another one pops out of the pea patch. In the past, we've looked at Dave Matthews' Best of What's Around Farm and Ploughshares Farmin Louisa and their subscription programs. More recently we reported on Horse and Buggy Produce's subscription service in coordination with the Shenandoah Valley's Mennonite community.
Fortunately, more is better when it comes to farm subscription services. That's because the farms can offer only a limited number of subscriptions. The more farms, the more likely reader are to get a spot. That's why Dish is happy to add The Farm at Red Hill to the growing list of area farms offering fresh produce.
Located about eight miles south of town in the North Garden/Red Hill area, this family-run farm is in its first year of operation in the Community Supported Agriculture program. Unlike some other farms, Red Hill has several greenhouses in addition to its gardens, which allows them to offer a full menu of vegetables year 'round. They also offer hand-gathered eggs from their free-roaming chickens.
"We already have numerous varieties of squash, zucchini and beans in our hot houses and will continue to plant different varieties of familiar favorites to keep people interested in fresh vegetables year round," says Wendy Harrison, who operates the farm with her husband, Richard, and their two children, Ryan and Rachel. "At Red Hill you won't get just 20 pounds of zucchini because that's what was ripe that week."
According to Harrison, they've been harvesting tomatoes and red and yellow peppers for months now, along with a varieties of greens, from red lettuce to spinach to three varieties of Asian greens, as wellas herbs and radishes.
For more information about the Farm at Red Hill's CSA program, call Richard and Wendy Harrison at 979-4693. The Harrisons are at the Charlottesville City Market on Saturdays, where they sell what's left after their CSA subscriptions are filled.
In the documentary, Mondovino, laughing wine expert Michel Rolland recommends micro-oxygenation to many of his clients.
From Mondovino#