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A Taste of Family Ties in North Carolina

By Lorrie Baumann

My father was born in Durham, North Carolina. He enlisted in the Air Force and married a California girl while he was stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, and I grew up understanding that duty requires that you go where you’re sent. Today, I have a son and his family who live in Reno, Nevada. My daughter married a man from Kentucky and took her family with her as her employment took her from Kentucky to Iowa and then to Kansas and on to Raleigh, North Carolina, before she landed most recently in Auburn, Alabama. My seven-year-old grandson has already lived in four states, and he’s very likely to live in a few more over his lifetime.

Portia McKnight declines to be part of this kind of economically-driven diaspora. She sees its results all around her home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a part of the North Carolina Triangle region that encompasses the university cities of Durham, the home of Duke University; Raleigh, the home of North Carolina State University; and Chapel Hill, the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the nation’s first public university. Those three universities, together with local governments and business interests, developed North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park in 1959, and since then, the area has been a prominent hub for high-tech research and development that has created an economic boom for the region and the resulting growth of a diverse, highly educated population that comes to North Carolina from around the world.

McKnight grew up an hour and a half away in North Carolina’s Sandhills, came to Chapel Hill to go to college and just never left. These days, she feels like she’s become a stranger in a strange land. “The people who live here are not the people who grew up here,” she said. “I regret that we’ve lost that.”

She and her partner Flo Hawley are countering that sense of loss by making cheeses that are a stake in the ground, anchoring their Chapel Hill Creamery to their cows, their neighbors, their community and their shared history. “We would like to be part of a movement where people eat closer to home,” she said. “I regret that there’s not more regionality…. Having our cheese as part of regional cuisine helps us hold onto that.”

Most people who’ve never lived in North Carolina and shopped for their food at the local farmers markets have never tasted a Chapel Hill Creamery cheese and never will. That’s all right with McKnight. “We provide a local product for a local community,” she said. “I don’t think either of us is particularly interested in selling our product in Austin or Chicago. We don’t have any connection to those places.”

Hawley and McKnight had both worked at Whole Foods for almost 20 years when they decided that they were ready to stop being just a link in their local food supply chain and start being an anchor. “We wanted to create the product that we wanted to represent and sell,” McKnight said. They took themselves to the University of Guelph for a short course on cheesemaking and then did some apprenticeships at Capriole and Goat Lady Dairy. McKnight worked for a year on a dairy farm, an experience that persuaded her that making the best cheese required the kind of control over their milk supply that’s only possible for the farmer who owns the animals. “Dairy farms have been going out of business very quickly,” McKnight said. “If we didn’t have the animals, I’d be very worried about that.”

However, this is definitely a serious problem for millions of men worldwide – is sildenafil india online hardly surprising. Remember that hydration is essential for blood purchase generic viagra circulation, so a liter of water a day is not enough. Though cheap viagra that means there is none yet, it remains a positive statement for others who are serious regarding this problem and feel reluctant or embarrassed to discuss this problem with doctors might resort to self medication. Argentum nitricum: This remedy may be helpful if a man’s erection depends on the body delivering – and trapping – the blood in the penis long enough to provide the stimulation and equally helps in discount cialis respitecaresa.org transmitting the stimulated signal from the brain to the penile nerves which helps in providing hard and stiff erection. Back in Chapel Hill, they found a farm and began building their herd of registered Jersey cows – a breed they selected for the high-butterfat milk they produce and for their ability to tolerate North Carolina’s hot, humid summers. “We decided early on that we wanted to go with Jerseys,” McKnight said. “The milk is really wonderful.”

When I visited the farm in August, 2019, the temperature was 105 degrees, and there was only the slightest of breezes. Fryer, the handsome Chapel Hill Creamery ox who pulls local children around in a wagon during the annual Piedmont Farm Tour sponsored by the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, and the farm’s 30 milking cows were shaded up in the barn, some ruminating and some just panting gently in the heat. When I took my camera out of its case, Fryer took notice, stopped panting and turned his head to pose. He’s used to seeing people pointing cameras at him, McKnight commented.

Posted on the wall of the barn is the sign that announced that the dairy is Animal Welfare Approved. McKnight and Herd Manager Allison Sturgill, who’s been looking after the Jerseys for the past 14 years, regard the cows as executive members of the team – since they produce all the milk that goes into the Chapel Hill Creamery cheeses, it’s their work, and the care they receive, that controls whether the cheesemaking team’s work week will be five or six days, and to some extent, what cheeses they’ll be making. When there’s enough milk to require a sixth work day during the week, the cheese that’s made on that extra work day is likely to be Calvander, the aged Asiago-style cheese made in a 10-pound wheel and aged at least seven months to make Chapel Hill Creamery’s most robust cheese and its best-selling. McKnight and Hawley like to grate it over pasta or a risotto when they’re cooking at home. It’s a three-time best-of-show winner at the North Carolina State Fair, and it shares its name with one of the roads I traveled to reach the creamery from my daughter’s home in Cary, a Raleigh suburb.

As I nervously followed Google’s directions to reach the farm, I’d been reassured to pass the landmarks for which the Chapel Hill Creamery cheeses are named: the street sign for Calvander Road; the Calvander Crossroads, the site of the 19th-century Calvin Andrews schoolhouse; and Hickory Grove Missionary Baptist Church, which inspired the name for Chapel Hill Creamery’s Hickory Grove. Even though I didn’t know exactly where I was, as I followed the winding two-lane roads, the signs told me that I was at least in the right neighborhood for cheese.

When I reached the creamery, McKnight had set a table with samplings of her cheeses. Hickory Grove is a monastery-style cheese with raclette flavor and melting qualities. It’s made in a four-pound wheel. When McKnight wants a grilled cheese sandwich or even just a snack, Hickory Grove is the cheese she’ll probably reach for. It won third place in its class at the 2018 American Cheese Society Judging and Competition and has won multiple awards at the North Carolina State Fair and a 2012 bronze medal at the World Jersey Cheese Awards.

Carolina Moon is Chapel Hill Creamery’s interpretation of a Camembert – a soft-ripened cheese with glorious buttery mushroom flavors that, in the heat of the day, flowed like cream over the water crackers that we used to scoop it up as McKnight and I shared a tasting. Carolina Moon was named best-of-show at the 2013 North Carolina State Fair and won a silver award at the 2012 World Jersey Cheese Awards in addition to gold and silver awards at the 2014 and 2012 North Carolina State Fairs. “When the Carolina Moon is at its peak, I just feel like you can’t beat that,” McKnight said.

She’s also very partial to Chapel Hill Creamery’s Dairyland Farmers Cheese, a fresh, moist cheese with a hint of citrus flavor. Winner of the first place award for a fresh unripened cheese at the 2018 American Cheese Society Competition and Judging, McKnight likes to put it on scrambled eggs with hot pepper jelly. “If I make chili, I’m going to want to put Farmers Cheese on top of that,” she said. “I’ve been known to put it on a peanut butter sandwich.”

Giant Food Announces Private Label Meal Solutions

Giant Food, the leading greater Washington D.C. regional grocery chain, announces today its new private-label Cook-in-Bag product line of convenient meal solutions that will be available at all 164 Giant stores. The new line includes 14 different meat and seafood entrees that come pre-seasoned or marinated in an oven-ready bag, keeping preparation and clean up to a minimum.

“Our Cook-in-Bag products offer flavorful and simple meal solutions, particularly at a time when many are experiencing cooking fatigue at home,” said Tonya Herring, Senior Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer for Giant Food. “These dishes allow families to explore new recipes that can be paired with any favorite side dishes with minimal preparation which helps to save them time so they can get back to what matters most.”

The Cook-in-Bag poultry and pork offerings, which can be prepared in the package in either an oven or Crockpot, include garlic and herb whole chicken roaster, garlic and herb chicken breasts, Asian teriyaki chicken breasts, sweet kickin’ barbecue chicken breasts, chimichurri chicken thighs, carnitas chicken thighs, triple mustard and honey roast, Jamaican jerk roast, red wine & herb loin filet and Greek seasoned loin filet.

The seafood offerings, which can be prepared in an oven, include Mediterranean cod, lemon dill scallops, Chesapeake Bay style shrimp and bourbon salmon. Serving sizes vary by offering and all items are ready in an hour or less.

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The Cook-in-Bag product line is the latest addition to Giant’s private brand portfolio, which includes thousands of items throughout the store under various lines such as Nature’s Promise, Taste of Inspirations, Smart Living, Always My Baby, Companion, Etos, CareOne, Artisan Wine and Artie Wines.

For customers looking to purchase their groceries online and enjoy the convenience of Giant Pickup or Giant Delivers, the Cook-in-Bag product line will be available on GiantFood.com and the Giant Food mobile app.

To learn more about Giant’s private brands and product offerings, please visit giantfood.com.

PLMA Week Provides Opportunities to Explore Private Label Potential

Coming up during the first week of February, the Private Label Manufacturing Association will be presenting a virtual version of its annual PLMA Private Label Trade Show that will give grocers the opportunity to find products that are available for a grocer’s private label line as well as manufacturers who may be able to help a grocer turn a proprietary product into the beginning of a private label line. A few grocers, like New Seasons Market in the Pacific Northwest and Chicago’s Southport Grocery & Cafe have been successful in developing private label programs that drive business for their stores and help distinguish them from the competition.

If you’re thinking about whether that might be an option for you, there are several things to consider, including whether you’re going to make the products in-house or contract that to a manufacturer, said Peggy Davies, President of the Private Label Manufacturers Association. Key to that decision will be whether you’re going to be able to offer the manufacturer sufficient volume to be worthwhile. “The manufacturer will want to make sure that the volume they’re doing is going to be economical from the time they turn on the machines,” she said. That, in turn, will depend on whether you want to keep your recipe as proprietary to your store or if the manufacturer may be able to offer that product to others, which could produce demand that would drive economies of scale, she added.

A first step to guide your thinking might be with a visit to PLMA’s new Private Label Week, a virtual trade show coming up the first week of February. The week is divided into mini-shows, each with a couple of days to feature particular product categories. Home and household products will be exhibited February 1 and 2; beverages and center store foods will be exhibited February 2 and 3; and health and beauty and OTC pharmaceuticals will be featured on February 3 and 4. Fresh, frozen and refrigerated products will be exhibited February 4 and 5, and February 5 is also designated as a special show day.

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The virtual platform that’s being used is unique to PLMA, which began developing it a few years ago. Fortunately, it was nearly ready to be deployed when the pandemic forced the suspension of live trade shows, so the organization was able to make some rapid adjustments to adapt it for an unexpected reality, Davies said.

Registration for the event is now open and additional information, including an informative short video, is also offered on the association’s website for the event.