A Good Food Award is a coveted honor among artisanal food makers. Products from 17 New England companies recently received the accolade, including a pate made with wild Cape Cod bluefish smoked over hickory from Boston Fish Co., and Vermont Creamery’s Bonne Bouche, an aged goats’ milk cheese sprinkled with ash. Fennel Seed Toffee by Vermont Amber and Ethiopia Bekele Dukale coffee from Maine roaster Speckled Ax also snagged wins.
The Good Food Awards are a West Coast-based annual competition honoring craft food entrepreneurs who use sustainable practices to create products that stand out in taste and quality. The awards were given out last month at a gala in San Francisco to 193 recipients, chosen from 2,059 entries from around the country.
The judges — cookbook authors, food journalists, chefs, chocolatiers, retailers, and other culinary professionals — select the foods in a blind tasting.
More Bay State winners include Doves & Figs of Arlington for Never Bee Blue, a blueberry fruit and honey sauce; the Kitchen Garden in Sunderland for Sriracha; and Spring Harvest honey from Tewksbury Honey and Wildflower Honey by C & C Orchards in Sunderland. From Vermont, awards went to the Tart Cherry Syrup from Sumptuous Syrups of Vermont in Hardwick; the Green Jam Man in Burlington for Honey Sage Pear Jam; Fat Toad Farm in Brookfield for Goat’s Milk Caramel Vanilla Bean Sauce; and Big Picture Farm in Townshend with Farmstead Chocolate Covered Goat Milk Caramels. Two other Vermont cheeses got the recognition — Bear Hill Sheep, an aged cheese churned by Grafton Village Cheese, and Reading, a semi-soft washed rind cheese, from Farms for City Kids at Spring Brook Farm in Reading. From Maine, Gold Star Honeybees in Waterville got the award for its pure bees’ honeycomb. Portland roaster Bard Coffee won for an Ethiopian coffee from the Hambela estate. The Connecticut coffee roaster Give Coffee in Canton got the honor for Kotowa Geisha Natural, a light-roasted, single-estate coffee from Boquete, Panama. For more information, go to www.goodfoodawards.org.ANN TRIEGER KURLAND
Ann Trieger Kurland can be reached at atrieger@comcast.net.
