Journey to Becoming a Beer Connoisseur

Anyone who has ever been out with me and watched me order a drink will tell you that there was a time when I only ordered a mild mixed drink or one of the standard beers found in eateries across the country.  However, lately I have found myself more and more curious about the beer movement in Texas that seems to incase more than Shiner Bock or Lone Star, but a wider, more varied pallet of flavors that include agave nectar, honey, apples, citrus, chocolate, and pecans. I have seen and continue to see the types expand as well; everything from wheat Belgian styled beers to personal IPA’s to stouts that can run against some the oldest most renowned brands out there. Is it any wonder though? Texas is BIG and so are the legacies that reside here. The rich ethnic diversity makes beer and its production a natural thing to happen, almost as natural as raising cattle for big juicy steak (which goes great with a red Texas lager like the one by Pedernales Brewing’s, Lobo). After all, Texas prides itself on being unique and what is coming out of local breweries is that and then some. 

In my journey to understand and build my taste for flavor profiles, I have found that personally I do not care for heavy malts like the ones in stouts but I also do not care for the hoppy bite of some of the paler or blonde ales. My beers of choice usually are lagers which for me are rich but also refreshing and are a great middle ground because they go with most foods. Just like wines, examining, tasting, asking advice of a knowledgeable beer professional and looking for a profile that not only will go well with certain foods or personal tastes can be challenging since so many breweries are now putting their spins on time honored recipes. However, if trying new things is not an issue, the choices can be easy and finding that beer that is similar to one’s favorite from Germany or even an American standard can be a pleasant surprise.

Below is a list of some of the beers I have tried and a short description of the flavor notes as well as recommended pairings. Try one, or all, or even some I have yet to; the choices are almost as endless as the Texas sky!

·        Lobo’s Red Texas Lager by Pedernales Brewing, Fredericksburg, Texas: Yellow verging on red in color, This flavor profile consists of light airy crisp citrus notes, followed by sweet grassy, fruity undertones from the malt to help ease the bite of the hops and  citrus. Can appear dense when pouring but overall refreshing. Goes great with Steak, cat-fish and sea food.

·        Prickly Pear by Shiner Bock, Spoetzl Brewery, Shiner, Texas: Yellow to green in color, pear comes through first and then the citrus hops and the malt taste evens out the flavors. Refreshing, seasonal beer would go great with lighter summer fare such as salads and grilled seafood as well as lightly fried items like onion rings.

·        Blood and Honey by Revolver Brewery, Granbury, Texas: Thick yellow pour with hints of allspice and blood orange zest sweetened slightly by honey. A surprisingly light beer despite the honey notes with the spices. Would pair well with Bbq-ed, grilled or smoked meats fresh off a Texas pit.

·        Rio Blanco by Real Ale Brewing Company, Blanco, Texas: A buttery English style, unfiltered pale ale with soft grassy notes, which ends refreshingly with a crisp citrus undertone. Would pair well with heavier dinner fare like roast beef or bison burgers or a rich cheese platter.

·        Longhorn Blonde- Hill Country Golden Ale, Bull Creek Brewing, Liberty Hill, Texas:  Coming on board recently, this ale is mildly malty, with a gentle hop aroma making it a smooth and delicate ale. Would fair great with pork, chicken, shrimp, salads, or light cheese platter featuring goat cheese and fruit. 

The variety of beer at the Monument Market is wide and detailed. Samplings of these and many more items happen often and anyone is welcome to join us. To find out what a fun time we are having, visit our Facebook page, check the board in the Monument Café,  or stop in anytime, any day from 8am-8pm and pick up an events calendar or sign up for emails from us. Hope to see you soon! Thanks for reading!

A 50 year decline in the nutrient value of our food

This month's Mother Earth News reports that the conventionally grown vegetables we eat today are less rich in protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin, and vitamin C than they were 50 years ago. This report is based on the research of UT's Dr Donal Davis.

Since Davis' research was published in 2004, other studies have shown that modern varieties of wheat are half as rich in protein as varieties grown 100 years ago, heirloom cornmeal is significantly richer in a wide range of nutrients than modern varieties, and commonly grown varieties of broccoli in 1950 contained 13g of calcium, where the common super market varieties today contain only 4.4 g of calcium! This is a travesty! Links between dietary nutrient deficiencies and cancer are well documented.

Chart reprinted from Mother Earth News

On the UT website, Davis explains the reason behind this devaluation. “We conclude that the most likely explanation was changes in cultivated varieties used today compared to 50 years ago,” Davis said. “During those 50 years, there have been intensive efforts to breed new varieties that have greater yield, or resistance to pests, or adaptability to different climates. But the dominant effort is for higher yields. Emerging evidence suggests that when you select for yield, crops grow bigger and faster, but they don’t necessarily have the ability to make or uptake nutrients at the same, faster rate.”

Another reason resides in the soil. The application of nitrogen fertilizer causes plants to grow quickly and increase yields, but they tend to absorb more water and have less nutrient density. Your vegetables are only as nutritious as the soil is healthy! Sustainable and organic farming focuses on building a balanced soil holistically, allowing the plants that grow in these healthy environments to absorb more nutrients. A review of 97 independent studies published in 2008 shows that food grown on nurtured soils in organic systems today are as much as 25% more nutrient dense than conventional crops.

These studies give us yet another reason to choose heirlooms vegetables (rather than modern varieties) that have grown on soils that have been cared for. This is one of the many reasons we here at the Monument Market are commited to bringing you local, organic products. Here you can be sure to please your body and your taste buds!

Local Food Creates Jobs

On this gloriously rainy day I came across a recently released USDA report that looks at trends in locally marketed food. The report talks a lot about the demographics of farmers selling local food and where these farms tend to be, but one of the most interesting factoids it contains is this:

Fruit and vegetable farms with local food sales employed 61,000 workers in 2008, or 13 full time employees per million dollars of sales, while fruit and vegetable farms not engaged in local food sales employed only 3 full time employees per million dollars of sales.

As Mother Jones' Tom Philpott puts it, "In other words, a dollar you spend at the farmers market supports four times as many workers as a dollar spent at the supermarket."

Everytime you choose to shop at the Monument Market, you can be sure your food dollars are going to create jobs right here at home!

Eat Local & Seasonal!

Yard Long Bean & Flower

One of the unique characteristics of the Monument Market is that we carry all local seasonal items. This means that everything is super fresh but that there will be many items that are only available at certain times of the year. Since we are not flying in apples from New Zealand or berries from Chile, we have to rely on the unique gifts that each season brings us. There’s no “jetlagged” food here!

We are lucky in Texas to be able to grow food year round. There are two natural lulls in the harvest in August/September, due to the heat, and in January/February, due to the cold. These slow periods might leave us with a few less choices, but they are short in comparison to the long winter that much of the country must wait through before they see fresh local produce again. 

You can break up most veggies into cool season lovers and warm season lovers. Generally leaves and roots are cool season lovers. This includes lettuce, spinach kale, cabbage, carrots, beets, radishes, and broccoli & cauliflower (which are really immature flowers).  Fruits, pods, and seeds are usually warm season lovers, such as tomatoes, beans, eggplant, okra, peppers and melons. There are a couple that defy this simplistic separation - sweet potatoes are a root that relishes the heat, and peas are a seed and pod that really prefer the cool, but most veggies follow the rule.

a super Armenian Cucumber!

Right now and into November is one of the most delicious times of year in Central Texas as it is still warm enough for the fruiting crops like cucumbers and okra, but cool enough to start seeing kale and bok choy and other yummy greens.

Why Eat Locally & Seasonally -

As soon as a vegetable or fruit is picked, it’s nutrients begin to break down. The sooner you can get a veggie from the soil to your plate, the more nutritious, not to mention delicious it will be.

It is more delicious, because it came fresh from your neighbors garden. Most grocery store food was bred to stand up to shipping abuse and to store well, not for flavor. Real food might not last as long on a truck, but it sure tastes better.

Local food is traceable to its source. This is important for food safety reasons. You can trust that the farmer is taking the correct precautions to avoid any food safety risks when you know that this is the same food she feeds her child and that his business relies on your satisfaction and good health. Most food safety scares happen when food from all over the world is streamed together, quickly spreading what may have been a minor problem and making it very difficult to isolate the disease origin.

Local food, especially when grown organically, has a much lower carbon footprint than food shipped from across the world. (More about Organic Food in a post coming soon...)







Secrets to eating seasonally:
Let your meal planning be inspired by what you find at the market or from your local farmer, rather than heading to the store with a specific recipe in mind.



Use our Harvest Calendar chart to get an idea of what veggies will be in season at the same time when planning recipes or flipping through cookbooks.



Get ideas from farmers and market managers for their favorite seasonal dishes. You’ll often find that those who love to grow food also love to cook and eat it!



Preserve the harvest! Freezing, drying and canning are great ways to have your favorite flavors even when they are not in season. I'll be teaching a "Preserving the Harvest" Class the last Saturday in October at 10:30am...



Here are some wonderful cookbooks that focus on seasonal cooking, but you may have to tweek some of the recipes to get them to fit our unique Texas seasons :



Local flavors : cooking and eating from America's farmers' markets  1st ed.
 Madison, Deborah.
Eating local : the cookbook inspired by America's farmers
 Fletcher, Janet Kessel.
Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen
  Anna Lappé & Bryant Terry
Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables
 John Peterson, Angelic Organics
The harvest eating cookbook : more than 200 recipes for cooking with seasonal local ingredients
 Snow, Keith.
Cooking in the moment : a year of seasonal recipes  
 Reusing, Andrea.