Starting in November, the Davidson Farmer’s Market will switch to a bi-weekly schedule. During the colder months of the year, the market will still offer products from more than a dozen farmers, including meats, cheeses, produce, seafood, baked goods, and other items.

Produce selections will likely include arugula, Asian greens, beets, cabbages, carrots, greenhouse tomatoes, lettuces, onions, sweet potatoes, Swiss chard, turnips, winter squash, and possibly greenhouse strawberries.

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Owners Tommy and Anna Barbee with Brent Barbee, right, the farm manager. (Barbee Farms photo)

By CHRISTY SHI

The other night I received a photo from Tommy Barbee, showcasing his supper. “Look at what a farm boy can create,” he said. The picture displayed a bright green salad, replete with cucumbers, tomatoes, and more; all of which he had grown there at Barbee Farms, in Concord.

As a locavore (someone who eats a local diet), this notion of sharing stories about where one’s food came from is the norm.

But this exchange was special. You see, this time last year we weren’t sure Barbee Farms would exist today.

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What was hot at the N.C. State fair this year? Some news outlets would have you think it was the latest deep-fried whatever. But Andrea Weigle of the Raleigh News & Observer reports its actually cheese – North Carolina cheese. “For the first time, the state’s artisan cheese makers have a presence at the fair … (in a) tent, tucked between the Jim Graham Building and the Expo Center.”

LINK: “Cheese artisans wedge their way onto fair scene.”

Chris Phillips of Restaurant X

Restaurant X chef Chris Phillips will be the guest chef at Davidson Farmer’s Market this Saturday. Meanwhile, Brickhouse Tavern owner Nick Lyssikatos tells us to look for a few “tweaks” on his menu. And we have an update on the former Soiree space in Mooresville. Read the full story

Chefs Kris Reid (left) and Vera Samuels.

By JILL STIERLI

One back-to-school project I always remember doing each fall was writing an essay about “how I spent my summer.” With fall finally upon us, I have been reflecting on what I learned this summer volunteering at the Davidson Farmer’s Market chef demonstration tent. I assisted and watched Kris Reid and Vera Samuels, two professional chefs who received their training at Johnson & Wales in Charlotte. If you were lucky enough to catch one of their demos, you also saw firsthand how knowledgeable these chefs are, not only in their craft but also about local foods.

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Apples in the orchard at Altapass, off the Blue Ridge Parkway. (David Boraks/DavidsonNews.net)

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

This time of year always has me longing for a trip to the apple orchard. Saturday afternoon apple-picking outings were a big part of my New England childhood. Our local orchard on a hillside in Middlefield, Conn., had an aging red barn adapted as a retail store for the fall harvest. We’d climb the hillsides in search of Macintoshes, Cortlands, Idareds, Romes and other old varieties – varieties nothing like the grocery store apples whose chief attribute is the ability to last months in a refrigerator.

Last weekend, we drove up to the Blue Ridge Parkway in search of a bit of color and a trunkload of apples from the Orchard at Altapass. Read the full story