Summer brings an overflowing harvest from the garden, warm summer nights and misty mornings, perfect for ripening fresh grapes on the vine and early morning strolls through our kitchen garden.
As summer draws to an end, we celebrate the season’s flavors and colors, and most significantly, the ability to pick fresh produce directly from our kitchen garden. Here on the farm we cultivate our own organic herbs and have even expanded to include sprouting beets, lemons and our very own tomatoes.
Charlottesville thrives on local food production programs. At Pippin Hill, we champion the same values with a food philosophy focusing on local, sustainable produce. So local, and so sustainable, we find it right out front in our own kitchen garden.
This food philosophy determines our food sourcing and unique Vineyard-to-table cuisine and menu design.
In fact, “Our biggest point of differentiation from other Virginia wineries is building on the connection between food and wines,”
Pippin Hill Proprietor, Dean Andrews notes,
“Our ketchup is made from tomatoes smoked over wood chips and Pippin Hill grape vines. We’ll dry the trimmings and use them to smoke the tomatoes to create our very own grape vine smoked ketchup.
It is this trademark Vineyard-to-table philosophy that characterizes Pippin Hill, with a natural link to our vineyard with an original ‘locavore’ focus.”
Our food philosophy doesn’t stop at the tasting room door. Allie Redshaw, Sous Chef at Pippin Hill and lead culinary instructor for our Cooking School designs each menu to highlight our own ingredients that showcase the natural link to the vineyard and kitchen garden.
In an intimate, hands on setting, guests prepare entrées that feature fresh, local, and sustainable ingredients that are the cornerstone of every dish we produce.
Allie’s cooking classes are hands-on, engaging and highly interactive. She shares,
“For me, the highlight of every cooking class is venturing on a field trip to our kitchen garden to pick tomatoes, smell sage and snip lavender. There’s something about stepping on the soil and getting your hands dirty, that makes the meal that much better.”
Collage photo on left by OMG Yum Food Blog
fifth photo by Eric Kelley Photography
seventh photo by Jen Fariello Photography