Collaborative Genius

Farmers, chefs and brewers feed off one another to create local specialties

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Ginger Ales

“I am; no, I am,” says Bill Cox when asked if he — or, to be more specific, his baby Hawaiian white ginger — was the secret ingredient in the international success of Hardywood Park Craft Brewery’s Gingerbread Stout. “I created the idea and product,” Cox says. “They did the magic.”

Cox and his wife, India, own and operate Casselmonte Farm, a 112-acre property in Powhatan. In 2011, before Hardywood even opened, the Coxes heard that founders Eric McKay and Patrick Murtaugh were on the hunt for local products to use in their beers. Cox, fresh off his first ginger crop yield, walked into Hardywood and pronounced unapologetically that his ginger was something they’d be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.

“That day, we tasted slivers of his fresh ginger and listened as he went into great detail on how the ginger was grown, why he is partial to that type of ginger, and all of the subtle flavor and aroma nuances we could expect,” Murtaugh says.

A couple weeks later, Cox got a phone call — Hardywood was on board.

The brewery uses 1,000 pounds of Casselmonte’s ginger every year for the beer that earned a perfect score from Beer Advocate magazine.

Pick a Pepper

Autumn Campbell grows a plethora of crops for restaurants at Tomten Farm, her 2.5-acre plot in Prince Edward County: suyo long cucumbers, a sweeter, gnarly looking Asian cuke for Metzger Bar & Butchery; Italian Romano beans, the flat cousin to the string bean, for Mamma ’Zu; and Seyrek, a bright-green, mild pepper common in Turkish cuisine, for Sub Rosa Bakery.

Campbell also works closely with Caleb Shriver, executive chef of Dutch & Co. Once a year in late winter, early spring, Shriver sits down with Tomten and discusses crops for the upcoming season. “It gives them an idea of what we want and amounts of products that we will be able to use, and it gets us brainstorming on dishes to create,” says Shriver, who uses Tomten’s poblano peppers for his almond-crusted chile relleno stuffed with duck picadillo. The poblanos are picked specifically for the dish when they are 4 to 5 inches in length.

Shriver also requests fig leaves from Tomten, which he uses one of three ways: dehydrated and made into a powder for seasoning; brined and used in place of grape or banana leaves; or steeped to make tea or flavored broths. 

Curly Corbacis

Mung bean shoots, broccoli spigarrelli and hoja santa are just a few of the provocative items that Powhatan’s Manakintowne Specialty Growers has stayed busy cultivating for chefs in the Richmond region, including Julie Heins, executive chef of Secco Wine Bar.  

“We get great suggestions of what to grow from our customers,” says Jo Pendergraph of Manakintowne. Including the sweet Italian frying pepper Jimmy Nardello, which Heins discovered in California and asked Manakintowne to grow. Or the Corbaci pepper, a long, slender pepper that sprouts in sexy spirals. The heirloom seeds for the Corbaci traveled almost 6,000 miles from Turkey to Manakintowne before ending up in the hands of Heins and on the plates of diners. Even though the pepper appears hot, it bursts with a rich, sweet flavor that Heins typically uses in seasonal specials.  

“To add something random to what [Manakintowne already grows] is just a testament to what type of people they are,” Heins says.

British Roasties

Dominic Carpin of delli Carpini Farm, a 12-acre farm in Beaverdam specializing in rare leafy greens and rare colorful potatoes, is a quirky one-man-show farmer. He works closely with David Crabtree-Logan at The Broken Tulip Social Eatery to incorporate items into their changing menu.

“David at Broken Tulip has been more of the type to exchange and collaborate with me,” Carpin says. “He’s actually very knowledgeable.”

Crabtree-Logan introduced Carpini to a variety of potatoes he’d never heard of — the Highland Red and Golden Jersey, typically grown in the U.K. — and Carpin got to growing them.

The Broken Tulip also requests items from Carpin’s foraging adventures, such as elderflower and black raspberries.

A Hybrid Pig

If you know Joe Sparatta of Heritage, you know he takes charcuterie pretty damn seriously. And if you know Clay Trainum, founder of Autumn Olive Farms, you know he’s the man to see about a pig.

“We worked together to find a product that was specific for my kitchen and purpose,” Sparatta says.

Pictures were sent, pig logistics were discussed, fat content was assessed, and three years went by.  

The end result was the Berkabaw, a mix between a Berkshire, a juicy, black-and-white pig heavily marbled with fat, and an Ossabaw, a Spanish pig packed with fatty acids and oleic acid, which is also found in olives.

“Nobody in the world has ever done that,” Trainum says. “It was a pig developed based on direct input from chefs.”