Pickled treats from Happy Girl Kitchen
The first annual Good Food Awards, for tasty and sustainable products, were announced last month; several Northern California producers including ones from Santa Cruz received honors. Awards were given out in categories including pickles and preserves at an Alice Waters-hosted ceremony in San Francisco.
Preserve winners included Apricot Chili Jam from Big Sur-based Happy Girl Kitchen, which makes a huge variety of yummy organic jams and pickles. You can buy this jam online as part of the “Sweet California” package which also features strawberry jam and orange marmalade. In Santa Cruz, Happy Girl products are sold at Food Bin or through Santa Cruz Local Foods. Located elsewhere? Find out which farmers markets and shops Happy Girl products are available at the “where to buy” section of Happy Girl’s site. Happy Girl also offers workshops throughout the Bay Area; these are endorsed by Sunset Magazine, as I mentioned in my article last March.
Santa Cruz-based Plumline also won in the preserve category for its Damson Plum Jam. Plumline is a line of jams, preserves, compotes, and sauces from Heidi Schlecht, former owner of Santa Cruz’s River Café and Cheese Shop and current partner in Feel Good Foods Catering. Discover how to purchase jams including a “jam share” option ($120) where you get one jam a month for 13 months with varieties like award-winning Damson Plum plus quince, tomato chili, and pear rosemary conserve.
Good Food Award pickle winners included Arame & Ginger Sauerkraut Salad from the Ceres Community Project in Sebastopol. Ceres helps teens learn about preparing and eating healthy foods while simultaneously providing organic meals to people battling cancer. Read more about the award-winning salad, including sauerkraut’s health benefits, here.
A collaboration of food producers, farmers, food journalists and independent grocers organized by Seedling Projects created the Good Food Awards, which celebrate “tasty, authentic and responsibly produced” products and honor “outstanding American food producers and the farmers who provide their ingredients.” From 780 entries, 130 finalists were named, and there were 71 total prizes in seven categories from several US regions. The categories were beer, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, coffee, pickles and preserves.
Peruse the list of other winners including ones in beer, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, and coffee. Coffee winners included Kemgin, an Ethiopian varietal from Oakland’s Blue Bottle Coffee. Learn about Kemgin and order here
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