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I’ve got a whole list of reasons why I’ve come to appreciate thrift store shopping:

• I can get kitchen gadgets for cooking for amazing prices. Today, I picked up a hand immersion blender with all it’s attachments, still in the box, for $5.95. Now I’ll be able to puree soups right in the pot.
• When I save large amounts of money on everything from kitchen gadgets to clothes (both my boys got jeans today in great condition for under $5 a piece), I can afford to spend more money on local and organic foods.
• When I buy used, I prevent something new from being created and prevent new resources from being used up.
• Buying from thrift stores usually helps support a good cause. The Red, White & Blue Thrift Stores partner with the Vietnam Veterans of America.
• Expensive items that get rarely used can be found inexpensively at thrift stores. I got my son a pair of LL Bean snow pants today for $$4.95. They look like they’ve never been worn. They may have been worn once or twice, but since kids grow out of things so quickly, things like snow pants rarely get the chance to wear out.

I really liked the Red, White & Blue store. Unlike the Goodwill stores where boys and girls clothing is put together on the same racks, RW&B separates them and sorts by color and item. Even the plus size woman’s clothing is separated from the misses sizes – something that many thrift stores don’t do. The place was clean and didn’t have any overwhelming smells. The one big problem, and this actually is a problem, is that there are no fitting rooms and items can’t be returned. I didn’t buy any clothing for myself because I couldn’t try anything on.

Me (in a pair of sunglasses that are apparently totally wrong for my face) , Lisa and John at the Jersey Fresh Food & Wine Festival.

This past Saturday, armed with my palate, my camera, some cheese and bread, and what equated to a press pass to enter the fair grounds, I hopped into my car and headed to the Jersey Fresh Food & Wine Festival at Heritage Vineyards. This year, I did it right. I let the boys at home (and unfortunately my husband, too, he had other obligations). But don’t worry. I wasn’t alone. I met up with John and Lisa from Eating in South Jersey.

I arrived a little while before my friends so I took a lap around the fair grounds to get the lay of the land. I didn’t count how many wineries were represented, but there were supposed to be 26 of our state’s fine wineries in attendance. If there weren’t that many, it was close to it. There were a few changes from last year. There didn’t seem to be as much for the kids to do. There wasn’t a tent for speakers and seminars. This year the focus was mainly on the wine. There weren’t many Jersey Fresh foods represented – something I think the festival organizers might want to work on for next year. But, there was a lot of New Jersey wine, and let’s face it, that’s what most people were there to experience.

So let’s get on with it. What did I taste this year that impressed?

Debbie from Amalthea Cellars

I hit Amalthea Cellars before John and Lisa arrived because I knew they had recently been to the winery itself. I was taken through a tasting by the energetic and quite knowledgeable Debbie. She introduced me to the Europa IV, a “crazy good” red, and the Rkatsiteli, a crisp, fruity yet slightly smoky white. I went home with a bottle of the Rkatsiteli and served it that night with BBQ chicken – a good match. I didn’t think the Europa IV was a “crazy good” as Debbie, but I did think it was very good. I was more partial to the Europa III that winemaker Lou served to John, Lisa, and me when I stopped back at the table with them.  I also enjoyed Amalthea’s Sauvignon Blanc. It was missing the intense grassiness that some of the local Sauvignon Blanc’s have, and I liked that.

Once John and Lisa arrived, we made camp at a table and pulled out the foods we had brought to pair with the wines as we tasted them. They had stopped at a little cheese shop in Medford called The Carriage Trade Cheese Shoppe that had a selection of New Jersey cheeses as well as some great grilled sandwiches. I brought some cheese I had bought earlier that day at the Collingswood Farmers Market as well as some bread. We had a nice little spread going that we kept running back to with our wine glasses filled with about a 1/2 inch of wine. It was fun.

I usually take tons of photos, but I didn’t take that many at the festival. I did take quite a few notes, though. Here are the other wineries that I visited and their wines that I liked.

Auburn Road in Pilesgrove – Last year after I tasted Auburn Road’s wines I said that I wanted to make a trip to their winery and eatery. I only tasted a couple of their wines this year – it was near the end of the day and I needed to be careful – but I liked their White Bottle and their Pinot Grigio.

Bellview Winery in Landisville – I was surprised that I liked their $9.99 Jersey Devil White. Before I tasted it, I thought it was going to be one of the super sweet, inexpensive wines that people associate with NJ, but it was surprisingly not super sweet. For the price, it would be a fun summer party wine. I also liked their Traminette, a white that was dry and crisp. We also decided to try the Dandelion wine which tasted exactly like you’d think a Dandelion would. I wasn’t particularly fond of it, but it was fun to try.

Chestnut Run offers only four wines. Next year, I'll need to taste all of them.

Chestnut Run Farm in Pilesgrove – Lisa made sure we got to Chestnut Run to have a taste of their Dry Crisp Asian Pear Wine. You usually think of pear wine as a dessert wine, but this isn’t a sweet dessert wine. You can definitely taste the pear in it, but it’s  a nice, crisp white. Another nice surprise of the day.

Coda Rossa in Franklinville – I liked their spicy Chardonnay.

Hawk Haven Vineyards in Rio Grande – Lisa, John, and I wanted to make sure we made it to the tent of this new winery by the shore. We were really impressed with their Merlot (one of the more expensive wines we tasted on Saturday at $34.99 a bottle). I also liked their Cabernet Sauvignon and their Pinot Grigio.

Sharrott Winery in Blue Anchor – Since I was just at Sharrott a couple of months ago, I didn’t do a full tasting. I did take Lisa, John, and Chef E (tell you about her in a minute) over to their tent and had them try the Vidal Blanc that I love so much. Everyone was glad that I did.

It would have been nice to be able to go back on Sunday to get to some of the tents I wasn’t able to on Saturday, but that wasn’t possible.

A few other things worth mentioning.

• I had the pleasure of meeting Chef E of Cook Appeal, Partners in Wine Club, and the recently formed not-for-profit organization WAMPP.
• I mentioned on Tuesday’s blog that the owner of Cape May Winery had mentioned to me that these big wine festivals are becoming places for people to drink instead of places for people to taste. I certainly did notice quite a bit of that at this festival. As the afternoon wore on, it was obvious that some of the festival goers got rowdier and a bit ruder. As I was leaving, there was a group of twenty-somethings basically lying in a row of peach trees barely able to stand up screaming about getting back to their bus (thank goodness they had a bus driver). I suppose this is something I’m going to have to get used to if I continue to go to these festivals, but I will definitely seek out opportunities to attend smaller festivals and individual wineries where tasting is the most important reason for being there.
• There are still plenty of sweet red and white wines as well as super sweet fruit wines being made in New Jersey, and they were well represented at the festival. There are many people that enjoy those wines, and their enjoyment of them helps the wineries turn a profit and allows them to keep working on the wines that barely anyone realizes that New Jersey is beginning to produce – the really great red blends and the crisp, drinkable whites among others. From what I saw at the festival and those that I spoke to, I’m confident that our wines are going to continue to get better and people in the state and around the country will start to think differently of New Jersey’s wines very soon.

I had the privilege a couple of weeks ago of attending the filming of a new television show currently in production.  Taste That Town will celebrate the tastes and sites unique to New Jersey.  The first town that the show chose to “taste” was Cape May, and the cast and crew filmed that day on the Salt Marsh Safari and at Cape May Winery. I wasn’t there for the Salt Marsh Safari, but the whole gang got a lesson on the ecological importance of the marshes. Now that I know about the safari, I hope to get the boys there before the end of summer.

I did join them at the winery, and I got to be a fly on the wall when winemaker Darrn Hesingtonwhile took the hosts on an in depth tour of the 25 acre vineyard and winery in Cape May. He educated the group about the winery that bottles 20,000 gallons of wine a year – that’s 8,600 cases. Fifty percent of the grapes used for their wines are grown in their own vineyards, 40 percent come from other New Jersey growers, and 10 percent comes from out of state.

Winemaker Darren Hesington extracts Syrah from a barrel for us to taste.

We were shown the barrel room and the tank room. I got my first taste of wine directly from the barrel – that was fun. It was Cape May’s Syrah, and it was interesting because all the flavors in the young, barreled wine were very distinct. We then got the chance to taste the Syrah that had been moved to the tanks. This wine had been aging in the tanks for a few months, and it had more balance. Finally, in the tasting room, the bottled Syrah was served. It was the first time I ever tasted a wine in all three stages of production, and it was amazing to experience the changes in a wine as it ages.

We also got to tour the bottling building, which is a small building that used to house the entire winery. Cape May uses an automated bottling and labeling process and still uses traditional cork stoppers. The question of cork vs screw top was brought up. We were told that since consumers like their cork, Cape May will continue to use cork. (I’ve still got George Tabor’s book To Cork or Not to Cork sitting on my night stand that is a very in depth look at the highly debated issue, but I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet.)

Owner, Toby Craig (far right) talks to the hosts of Taste That Town as they are taken through a tasting.

Finally, we were taken to the new tasting room. While the hosts were taken through a full tasting, I had a chance to catch the ear of Cape May Winery’s owner Toby Craig. He has owned the winery since 2002 and has grown the winery a lot since taking over.  We mostly talked about the new tasting room, but when I mentioned that I had tasted all of Cape May’s wines last year at the East Coast Food & Wine Festival, Toby told me something I found interesting.

He said that the East Coast Food & Wine Festival is a smaller festival than many of the Garden State Wine Growers Association Festivals because the larger festivals are becoming a place where many people go to drink, not necessarily to taste. So the East Coast Festival is limited to just a handful of wineries. I had this in mind last weekend when I was at the Jersey Fresh Food & Wine Festival, and I’ll comment on it tomorrow when I tell you all about the festival.

Okay, back to the Cape May Winery. I enjoyed my day at the winery and my backstage peak at both the winery and Taste That Town. I didn’t do the full tasting because it was at the end of the day, and I didn’t think I should go through a tasting and then hop right in my car and jump on the Parkway. Last year, when I did get a chance to taste their wines, I was particularly impressed with their Pinot Grigio, Victorian White, and Cabernet Franc.

The Cape May Winery is open for tastings from noon – 5pm daily with hours extended until 6pm from June – September. They have a beautiful outside deck that overlooks the vineyards. You can take a bottle of wine that you purchase in their store (or just a glass) and your own picnic lunch out to the patio or out on the lawn. They also sell gourmet cheese boxes in case you haven’t packed your own food. Maps are provided for self-guided tours of the vineyards. Tastings are $6 for 6 samples, and you get to keep your wine glass.

My friend Jill - one of the hosts of Taste That Town.

When the first episode of Taste That Town airs, I’ll be sure to inform you so you can get an in depth tour of Cape May Winery, too. Oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that one of the beautiful hosts of Taste That Town is my friend Jill. I want to thank her for helping me hook up with the show’s cast and crew, and I want to thank Ryan Mayfield, executive producer, for inviting me to join them for the day. You can keep up to date with what is going on with production on Taste That Town’s Facebook page.

If you can’t make it to the festival, I thought I’d point you to this piece in this on NJ.com about the Ultimate NJ wine tour. I see a common theme starting to emerge with articles about people discovering the Garden State’s wines. They don’t expect much when they set off to visit our wineries, but end up very impressed.

Gotta run. I’m hitting the farmers market first this morning. Dinner tonight is going to be good. I don’t know what it will be yet, but it will have local foods from the farmers market and a wine I have yet to discover!

I’m taking a little time off next week. I may be back next Friday with more odds and ends, but you won’t hear anything else during the week.

• The New York Times’ Tammy La Gorce headed to South Jersey to attend a dinner on the farm meal at Muth Family Farm in Gloucester County. I love it when the NYT remembers there is a South part of NJ.
• The Great Pennsylvania Wine Toast will take place on August 14. Wineries all across the state will try to break the Guinness World Record for largest wine tasting and raise money for a good cause at the same time. If you’re in PA, stop by one of the wineries on that day and have a glass of wine.
• According to the South Jersey Hot Chefs website, it looks like there is going to be a Feast in the Fields event at Duffields Farm in Sewell on August 14th, but there isn’t any specific info on the website or on Duffield’s website. If I can get more info, I’ll pass it along. Duffields isn’t all that far from Heritage Vineyards where the Jersey Fresh Food & Wine Festival is being held on the 14th and 15th, and I’m thinking that a really fabulous day would be to go to the festival during the day and end the day with a feast in the fields.
• Looks like NJ has five markets in the running to win Americas Favorite Farmers Market. In the small market category, Collingswood is currently at #3, Flemington is at #18, and Burlington County is at #19. In the boutique category, Medford Lakes is currently at #5 and Ringwood is at #19. It’s not too late to vote for your favorite market. Voting continues until August 31.
• Speaking of the Collingswood Farmers Market, this Saturday is Peach Party at the market. Vendors will have special peach items, there will be a drawing for free basket of peaches, and our good friend Chef Mark Smith of The Tortilla Press will host a peach cooking demo with several chefs giving demos throughout the day.
• And if you don’t get enough peaches at the farmers market, you can join Chef Mark at either of his Collingswood or Pennsauken restaurant for Just Peachy – 3 courses that feature dishes made with peaches for just $25 from the 10th-12th.
• I posted about Five ways to preserve the herbs from your garden over at Celebrate Green this week. I know I need to start preserving some of the herbs in in my garden. They’re the only thing producing.

Enjoy your weekend!

I’d love for it to be a casual time where we discuss a book and food news as well as share local wines, beers, and light fare (although I won’t be the local food police and demand everything be local).

I have a copy of The Art of Eating In that I haven’t read yet, so I thought we might start with that, but I’m also open to suggestions. The first meeting would be at a mutually agreed upon public place and we can talk about where we’d like to meet monthly from there on.

When I first mentioned the book club in the spring, I had two people tell me they were definitely interested. I’m looking for others in the South Jersey region that might be interested in joining this book club in September.

Last week, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack made National Farmers Market Week an official US holiday. Unfortunately, that doesn’t translate into any vacation time for farmers or the markets they sell at. Fortunately, it does signify that the government is recognizing the importance of farmers markets for farmers and eaters.

So, how will you celebrate this new national holiday. Here are a few suggestions.

• Make sure you get to a farmers market this week. The New Jersey Department of Agriculture has a complete list of markets in the state.
• If you already plan on going to your regular farmers market this week, perhaps you could make a second visit to one you don’t regularly buy from.
• Plan an entire meal around items you can buy at the farmers market.
• Volunteer at your local market.
• Ask a friend that doesn’t usually attend the farmers market to go with you this week.

Any other suggestions?

Image: Vigorman

• Farm Fresh Collingswood Restaurant Week is still going on through Saturday, July 31.
• Congratulations to Jill McClennen and Stephen Wilson from Vineland’s The Sweet Life Bakery for making Mother Nature Network’s 40 Chefs Under 40 list. The list includes “Forty rising culinary stars, all working to make great sustenance more sustainable.”
• Grab a picnic basket full of local goodies, and head to Clark Park in Philadelphia for Shakespeare in the Park this weekend. They’re performing A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream. The performances start at 7pm and run through Sunday, August 1.
• For my Philly readers: A group in South Philly is looking to put together the South Philly Food Co-op. They are looking for investors, potential future members and volunteers to bolster its various committees.

Enjoy your weekend!