The Gourmez

In October, I spent 2 weeks visiting my mother and stepfather in the hills of Tieton, WA. We spent a lot of time in nearby Yakima, took car rides through the mountain passes, walked the vineyard- and orchard-lined streets of Tieton, and checked out Ellensburg. This central region of Washington is absolutely gorgeous, and I [...]

The Sustainable Classroom: Wine and Cheese The trio of organizers for my final session at the Sustainable Classroom, a day of intensive discussion and tasting of sustainable foods at TerraVITA 2012, knew their crowd. They knew we were seasoned foodies; the concept of pairing cheese and wine was not revolutionary to us, though it will [...]

The Sustainable Classroom #3: The Cultivation and Culinary Possibilities of Figs  For my third session at the Sustainable Classroom as part of my bloggers’ free pass to TerraVITA 2012, I chose to take a class on figs and wine pairings. My reasoning was simple. I adore figs. I adore wine. I often think of figs [...]

Coffee Cupping at Larry’s Beans 1507 Gavin Street, Raleigh When I accepted an invitation to check out the first coffee cupping at the Larry’s Beans roastery, I had no idea that the roastery is literally a Willy Wonka house in the middle of an industrial block of downtown Raleigh. No really, that’s Larry of Larry’s [...]

It was a whirlwind day on the media farm tour, but our last stop still arrived sooner than expected. I may have been lulled into laziness by the delicious food at Boxcarr, the previous stop. Coon Rock Farm was our final destination, and it’s owned by Richard Holcomb and Jamie DeMent. The farm is organic, [...]

Boxcarr Farms is both a farm and a food truck that uses ingredients from that farm. The farm can be found in Cedar Grove, NC, and the food truck visits Fullsteam Brewery every other Thursday night and 3 Cups every other Friday night. I’ve reviewed the food truck before, and I was thoroughly impressed — [...]

After learning about different methods for processing coffee beans and getting our buzz on at Joe Van Gogh’s coffee roastery, the TerraVITA 2012 Media Farm Tour group headed on to the next stop in our jam-packed day. That stop was Whitted Bowers Farm in Cedar Grove, NC. It’s owned by Rob Bowers and Cheri Whitted [...]

Time for more on the TerraVITA 2012 Media Farm Tour! After taking a fast, furious, and intriguing tour of the redesigned Southern Season, our group of food-loving media members hustled into our complimentary shuttle, provided by Performance Subaru, to make the journey out into the wilderness for our next stop. Okay, the wilderness was a [...]

Hello fellow food and travel lovers, I’m back! It’s been a few weeks without updates on the Gourmez, but I’m sure you managed to entertain yourselves with all those other awesome food bloggers in the Triangle or elsewhere on the Interwebs. I had a good trip to Washington, and I do have some photo blogs [...]

This is the third and final set of panoramas from my California trip in mid-July. The first was views of Los Angeles from the Hollywood Hills and the Getty. The second was Yosemite Part 1, with images of the meadows, Bridal Veil Falls, and Vernal Falls. This final part covers the multitudes of panoramas I [...]