Good Food Awards 2016

Graham Klee Wiles-Pearson with Alice Waters

This past weekend we had the honor of receiving a Good Food Awards 2016 medal for our Blackstrap vinegar. It was an inspiring experience to be in the company of Slow Food founder, Carlo Petrini, chef and farm-to-table activist, Alice Waters, philanthropist and sustainability activist, Nell Newman, and so many others who we admire. This year there were 1927 entrants from 33 states with 176 winners in 13 categories. Winners were determined through blind tastings by a panel of over 200 industry experts. You can see the full list of winners here.

US! (Cherie and Graham Klee Wiles-Pearson)

While we are incredibly proud of the recognition of our work and methods, this weekend's events left us more with a sense of profound necessity for the adoption of sustainable and humanitarian practices. Carlo Petrini's words at the awards ceremony emphasized the significance of community and of understanding the value of what we have as opposed to what we want. It is the individual that has the power to promote positive change by embracing such change in their own life.

During Sunday's Marketplace our vinegar table was accidentally placed among the honey vendors. We found this to be a lucky privilege as we were able to spend some time getting to know these amazing keepers of bees. What impressed us the most was that their primary focus was to educate others on the importance of bees in agriculture, and on sustainable bee-keeping methods. The award-winning honey was just a happy byproduct.

Meeting distributors and retailers at Saturday's Mercantile

Over this next year we hope to be able to expand the production of Spoiled Rotten Vinegar and our beloved urban farm, Potager Cottage. We want our business to grow but our focus on learning and promoting sustainable living practices has become primary. We will be sharing our journey with you along the way on this blog as well as on our Potager Cottage blog and on Facebook (here and here). We hope you will follow along and spread the word!