Friday, November 30, 2012

Shop Beta Verde!

Shop Beta Verde products this Holiday season! Check out our Products and Events page for local opportunities to purchase and be sure to e-mail or call us to make an order for delivery or shipping.

Current Price List:

Green Martini Maters: $8
Strawberry-Rosemary Syrup: $8
Jams (8oz): $9
   Choose from: Strawberry Balsamic Black Pepper, Strawberry Lemon Balm, Thyme-ly Strawberry, Blackberry Mint Whiskey, Pear Rosemary, Peach Ginger, Sweet Cherry, Arkansas Black Apple, Ginger, and Chili, Plum Vanilla, Frankly Fab Fig, Blueberry Jalapeno

Tax and Shipping Apply. Product Availability subject to change.



Slow Food Piedmont Seed Swap in Garden and Gun

Slow Food Piedmont's annual Seed Swap is in the upcoming Garden and Gun Magazine (Dec/Jan 2013)! This past year, the Seed Swap was hosted by Old Salem Museum and Gardens and the historical setting and partnership with the Horticulture Department exceeded our expectations. With over 400 people in attendance last year for the swap and potluck, it was a tradition in the making! We are so happy to continue that partnership this year.

This year's Slow Food Piedmont Seed Swap will be Saturday, January 19th, and we look forward to seeing you there with seeds to swap, stories to share, and camaraderie all around! In the meantime, check out the link to Garden and Gun's new issue or pick up your own copy while available!




Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Slow Food USA Q&A with Margaret and Salem Neff

Slow Food USA has begun a monthly blog series featuring Slow Food members and their projects, and we were chosen as the September feature!

We encourage you to check out the blog and become a member of this stellar organization, and here's a sneak peek at the interview by Slow Food staff member, Emily Walsh:

"Symbiosis between a mother and child begins at infancy when the child still depends upon them for survival and it usually starts to taper off as the child becomes more self-sufficient.  But by the time the child reaches adulthood, they and their mother, while still close, are often living separate lives that are independent of one another in many ways. 
I wanted to preface the following transcript with this idea because I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Margaret Norfleet-Neff and Salem Neff, and they truly have one of the most special parent-child relationships I’ve ever encountered.  In addition to sharing the same life passion—enjoying and connecting others with Good, Clean and Fair food—they work together.  And while we all know working with family has a reputation for being a bad idea, this mother-daughter duo seems to know the secret.  Always ready to jump in and help the other finish their sentences, they are seemingly as comfortable challenging the other to think about things differently. 
In addition to their work with the local Slow Food chapter (Slow Food Piedmont Triad), Margaret and Salem own Beta Verde, a local food project that plays a variety of roles in Winston-Salem’s (North Carolina) food and farming community.  From planning farm-to-table events, to partnering on research and the development of new food and agricultural initiatives, to specializing in preservation of the season’s harvest, the project promotes Slow Food and makes more people more aware of the story behind their food.  They’re also market managers for the Old Salem Cobblestone Farmers Market, which U.S. News and World Report recently voted one of America’s 11 best farmers markets."
TWO BETA VERDE RECIPES ARE INCLUDED AT THE END OF THE INTERVIEW, AS WELL AS OUR "TEN WAYS TO USE BETA VERDE JAM". Here are our "TEN WAYS" but there are so many more! Comments welcome on how YOU use BV jams!

TOP 10 WAYS TO USE YOUR BETA VERDE JAM:

1. TOAST/BISCUITS: slather it on with abandon!
2. GRILLED CHEESE: spread it on one side or both of your bread before adding cheese. Blueberry Jalapeno and sharp cheddar is our favorite combination!
3. YOGURT: add a spoonful to your plain yogurt and granola and stir
4. MEATS: add a spoonful to your marinade for pork, beef, or chicken to exert sweetness from the meat or plop it in top of your grilled meat to finish it off
5. SALAD DRESSING: add a spoonful to your basic dressing to create a unique dressing. Strawberry, Balsamic, Black Pepper Jam with a strawberry, walnut, goat cheese salad is delicious!
6. ICE CREAM: Add to your homemade ice cream or top it off at the end
7. GOAT CHEESE/ CREAM CHEESE LOG: Pour on top of the log for a quick appetizer!
8. THUMBPRINT OR LINZER COOKIES: A perfect tea time companion
9. SCONES/MUFFINS: Make your own? Spoon it in your recipe.
10. TRIFLE: mix your jam with fruit and chocolate into this multi-layered delight

Saturday, July 7, 2012

US News and World Report votes Old Salem Cobblestone Farmers Market One of America's Best

Wow! We are so humbled. US News and World Report just voted our 2 month old market one of the 11 BEST farmers markets in America!
It was based on reputation, versatility, online user reviews, and overall atmosphere.


Here is what was written about the market AND BETA VERDE:

Winston-Salem, N.C.

With the tantalizing aroma of freshly picked strawberries and ginger cookies wafting through the air, Cobblestone Market's colorful venue is a treat for the senses. Held at the Old Salem Museum & Gardens in Winston-Salem, N.C., the market boasts a lush setting, backed by ancient Moravian gardens. The gorgeous surroundings not only provide shoppers with a lovely ambience, but also a peek into centuries-old organic gardening practices. Every Saturday from May through November, more than 20 vendors gather in Old Salem to sell their fair-trade products. Health-conscious shoppers will be happy to note the market contains only "pesticide-free" produce.
Don't Miss: Sampling the unique offerings of Beta Verde (a dynamic mother-daughter duo that manages the market). Seasonal favorites include Totally Apricot jam and Summer Solstice Cherry preserves.

For the rest of article, click HERE.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Edible Response to Paperless: Join us on July 26 and July 28


Join us for two Food & Art experiences rarely seen in Winston-Salem. In collaboration with SECCA and Whole Artist, we will be creating the edible responses for the Cocktail at the hidden greenhouse on the grounds of SECCA and an Intimate Dining Experience at Beta Verde with performative responses by artists throughout.

Food & Art Greenhouse Cocktail: In response to Paperless, Whole Artist, Site Specific, cocktail hour features architect Brandon Pass & response fare by Beta Verde
Thursday, July 26 @ 5:30 pm
$35 per person
Join us in the casual company of local architect, Brandon Pass where his practice and his interests in what creates Site Specificity will be explored.  Experience a cohesive studio visit with Pass and mother/daughter duo chefs of Beta Verde, who will present bite-sized fare along with cooling tailor-made cocktail mixers, made especially for YOU.
Where else should we cool our heels and consider forms that make up dwellings, days of paper trails gone past and notions of the digital future, but SECCA’s hidden treasure, the private ghostly green house structure.  This space once housed fashionable cocktails parties that now live on, not on paper, but by word of mouth.  Let’s make new history as we celebrate Pass’ notions of how a site can make for infinite location and possibility.

Cocktail Mixer Teaser: A shrub or a shrub... we have both at Beta Verde, some outside and some percolating inside! Mason jars filled with blackberries and a variety of vinegars, are fermenting in anticipation. The old fashioned 'pick me up' is going rogue as the centerpiece cocktail response to SECCA's paperless exhibit. A shrub is an acidulated beverage made of fruit juice, sugar, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention of refrigeration, a shrub syrup was a means of preserving fruit long past its picking.



Food & Art Dinner Experience: Vicki Fowler’s Whole Artist, “In Consideration of Eating the Tree: An Intimate Dining Experience”
Saturday, July 28 @ 7pm
$75 per person
SECCA invites you to participate in Vicki Fowler’s Whole Artist celebratory eulogy in honor of the Tree’s offspring, PAPER. This intimate performative dining experience includes a five course menu with performative response by arists/ artisans in celebration of SECCA’s current exhibit paperless. Menu provided by Beta Verde.


Our response sans the surprise edibles: We think of the way the tree improves the food that we eat, the plants themselves or the animal’s diet. The tree goes through seasonal changes, from providing pollen to honey bees, to fruiting, to shading more sensitive lettuces or flowers, to the shedding of its leaves to prepare for the next year. The tree- fruit bearing, nut bearing- casts its delicacies downward for our benefit and forest fed swine. The tree- maple- replenishes its inner juices. The tree- poplar- is harvested and implanted for mushrooms and the tree- cedar- protects the mushroom logs from inclement weather and decay. 
We respond strongly to the shadow and metaphor of paper - its beauty in every form and its hand to hand connection, the carrier of words with nature.

Tickets for the Cocktail are available through SECCA (Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art) and the dinner through Whole Artist.

The Old Salem Cobblestone Farmers Market

Come visit us at the Old Salem Cobblestone Farmers Market on Saturdays from 9am-12pm! We are vendors and the market managers and our Saturdays have never been so fulfilling and fun!


This independent market is the first Saturday morning producer's only market in Winston-Salem. All of our farmers grow pesticide free and all of the meat vendors are Animal Welfare Approved. Krankies Coffee sells iced coffee and pour-over coffee and Winston-Salem's first food truck, Joaquin's Curb Cuisine makes locally sourced breakfast items. As the second Cobblestone Farmers Market after the Tuesday Cobblestone Farmers Market, the term "Cobblestone" is officially branded as Winston-Salem's independent producer's only markets where you KNOW you will be buying from the producer and there will be no resale.


Locally Grown News wrote a wonderful article on how the market brings Old Salem full circle since Old Salem had been the center of trade once upon a time.







The Opening Day of the market on May 12th featured a 10-piece Moravian band and the blowing of the conch shell, a Moravian tradition, to announce that the market had opened. Even without the Moravian music, the generous feeling of being in a historic setting in a contemporary yet basic way is ever present. Not to mention that that beautiful, cool and sunny day is fondly remembered now in the early July heat.


Monday, April 16, 2012

Farmers Market season returns!

This year, we are excited to be available every Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday morning through the season around town and at your service! We will be part of three farmers markets in Winston-Salem. They are all producers-only and host the best of the best growers and artisans around the area. No resale is allowed and that is key to maintaining quality control.

Starting this week, we will return to two of these markets and then on May 12th, a new market will be opening: the Old Salem Cobblestone Farmers Market. We will be managing this market, as well as vending. More on that in a later post...


Find us starting tomorrow at:

Cobblestone Farmers Market Downtown
Third Street and Patterson Ave, Winston-Salem, NC
Every Tuesday from 10am-1pm from April 17th, 2012 to November 20th, 2012


and starting this Friday:

Reynolda Village Farmer's Market
Reynolda Village, Winston-Salem, NC
Every Friday from 9am-1pm from April 20th, 2012


and starting Saturday, May 12th:

In Old Salem behind T. Bagge Merchant, at the corner of West St. and Salt St.
Every Saturday from 9am-12pm from May 12th, 2012 to November 17th, 2012