Sunday News: Drink local? The Cider Project is your cup of tea

Join Providence Farms community potluck Saturday, Kith & Kin for gluten-free

The Cider Project owners Katie Campos, left, and her wife Erin Chapman.

If you savor local flavor in general, or dry cider specifically, The Cider Project ought to be your cup of tea.

Dry cider made from apples grown within 15 miles of Buffalo, Cider Project was born when a Buffalo girl had to stop drinking beer.

Now the only place to get it is Groundwork Market Garden during Tuesday market days. Alongside a wood-fired beehive oven turning out Neapolitan-style pizzas to order, Cider Project’s tap wagon pours glasses of dry 6.5 percent alcohol cider that is 100 percent local for $7. Can four-packs are $16.

On the other side of the farm, Tuesday market day includes fruit and vegetables grown by Groundwork and other local farmers. Amid Concord grapes, fresh vegetables, and people picking up their farm subscription bags, people are picking up some local flavor. Follow Groundwork Market Garden’s Facebook page to see what’s fresh each week.

To make cider, Campos first learned chainsaw.

Katie Campos loved beer until celiac made it off-limits. She turned to hard cider, but what she could get was unbearably sweet. So Campos decided to make her own.

A Nichols graduate who’s now executive director of the Ralph Wilson Park Conservancy, Campos apprenticed with Rachel Fitz, a college friend who co-launched ANXO, a District of Columbia cidery. During her pandemic hiatus, Campos apprenticed with Fitz, learning how to make long-fermented dry cider. Campos eventually earned certification as a pommelier, a cider sommelier.

Another hiatus project Campos led was clearing underbrush from two apple orchards left to nature. Campos and a hardy crew of volunteers lopped and chainsawed until the trees had room to breathe, necessary for the best yield. “I spent days out there just pulling back grapevines, raspberry bushes, and trees,” said Campos, who learned to use a chainsaw. “We uncovered this incredible 150 year old orchard.”

The first batch, produced with Clarksburg Cider, taught Campos and her wife and business partner Erin Chapman lots about the cider business. This release, Campos said, aged in French oak barrels that previously held bourbon or red wine, is their best cider yet.

The Cider Project, Tuesdays at Groundwork Market Garden, 52 Leslie St., 4 p.m.-7 p.m.

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Avocado toast, arugula, quinoa-pepita maple brittle, Mojo Market.

REVIEW: After lunch at Mojo Market, the Village of Kenmore envy landed hard. Housemade bread, local produce, salads and sandwiches made with care, and real table service. Why has the 14217 zip code become the 90210 of Buffalo sensation seekers? The only problem with the spiffy lunch-and-shopping spot is that the secret is out. If the tables are filled at lunch, Mojo’s takeout window makes grab-and-go even easier. (Coming Wednesday, for patrons.)

Join Providence Farms’ “Table of Conversation” Saturday in Orchard Park.

HARVEST & GRATITUDE POTLUCK

In Orchard Park, the Providence Farm Collective invites everyone to the “table of conversations” Sept. 27, to get something to eat and join in the community supper.

“Providence Farms market manager Hamadi Ali named the midday meal we share at the farm during the growing season Meza Ya Simulizi, Swahili for table of conversations,” said executive director Kristin Heltmann-Weiss.

Usually it’s just the farmers, Buffalo immigrants who grow much of their family’s food. This Saturday’s is to “reflect on this year’s harvest and express gratitude for the hands that planted, tended, and harvested our crops. Participants are welcome to bring a favorite potluck harvest dish and a serving spoon to share.”

Table of conversations has become a Providence Farms tradition, she said. “The idea is we are all different, but in coming together to share a meal at the farm, we build connections over our love of farming, food, and family.”

ASK THE CRITIC

Q: Any chance you could suggest gluten-free restaurants sometime? We already go to Bloomfield’s in Depew/Lancaster.

– Tracy, via Facebook messenger

A: Happy to. The top gluten-free restaurant in Western New York is Kith & Kin Bakeshop & Bistro, 5850 S. Transit Road, Lockport.

Because it’s the only one with a complete menu that’s gluten-free from the ground up. They do breakfast, bakery, even a full bar, all gluten-free. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, takeout, frozen pizza crusts. The owners had gluten-free children, and the rest is history.

One more: In addition to making what I think are the best fries around, Frank Gourmet Hot Dogs is excellent on gluten-free issues. Gluten-free buns and fryer. Their Lenten fish fry comes in gluten-free and is so popular you have to pick a time slot online.

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