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Cooking with David Dadekian on The Rhode Show at Blackbird Farm

by David Dadekian December 2, 2012

written by David Dadekian

The Rhode Show Search for a Star Finalist Tashanea Whitlow with David Dadekian

Each year The Rhode Show runs a “Search for a Star” competition to see who will be a host of the show for the following year. Out of countless video entries and live auditions, online voters choose 20 semi-finalists and then another round of online voting produces the top 5 finalists for the position. Tashanea Whitlow is one of those finalists and a few weeks ago she contacted Eat Drink RI for her competition assignment “Eating Well.”

Whitlow and her videographer came to Blackbird Farm where Eat Drink RI‘s David Dadekian showed them around the barn with Farm owner Ann Marie Bouthillette. After capturing some video of the pedigreed Black Angus cattle and American Heritage Berkshire pigs, Dadekian took Whitlow into the farmhouse kitchen where he prepared Steak Fajitas as a demonstration of a quick and easy dinner.

Below is the “Eating Well” segment with Dadekian. You can watch Whitlow’s “Search for a Star” videos on the WPRI site, and cast your vote for her to be the next Rhode Show Star.

Eating Well: Tashanea Whitlow’s story

December 2, 2012 0 comment

farms news

Wright’s Dairy Farm has been named Rhode Island’s 2011 Outstanding Dairy Farm of the Year

by David Dadekian August 4, 2011

written by David Dadekian

Wright's Dairy Farm & Bakery

The RI Department of Environmental Management released the following press release announcing that the Rhode Island Green Pastures Committee has chosen Wright’s Dairy Farm in North Smithfield as the Outstanding Dairy Farm of the Year.

The Department of Environmental Management announces that Wright’s Dairy Farm, Inc. of North Smithfield has been named Rhode Island’s 2011 Outstanding Dairy Farm of the Year by the Rhode Island Green Pastures Committee. Winning dairy farmers from each New England state will be honored at an awards banquet in September at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, MA.
Wright’s Dairy is a fifth-generation family dairy farm that keeps the family tradition of producing quality dairy and bakery products alive every day. There are 10 immediate family members involved in the day-to-day operations, and they make a conscious choice each day to get along and work together for the good of the business. Fifty full and part-time employees work with the family members to accomplish the many varied tasks necessary to run the operation.
The farm’s 140 cows are milked twice daily in a new, double milking parlor that was acquired in 2009. All cows on the farm, starting with the calves to the milkers, have diets balanced by a nutritionist. They utilize high-quality forages to form the base of the rations and then complement these feeds with a balanced mixture of grains, vitamins, and minerals. Wright’s Dairy recently received a Vermont DHIA award for consistently producing high-quality milk. This year, the farm has started to see the results of a new breeding program. The heifers are calving in under 24 months of age, and peak milk has risen.
Wright’s Dairy is an institution for many Rhode Islanders. Customers who visited the dairy farm as children now bring their own children to buy milk and bakery items, and watch through the viewing window as the cows are milked. Milk is processed and sold on site. Milk travels via stainless steel pipeline from the milking barn to the dairy plant where it is pasteurized, homogenized, and bottled for sale in the farm’s retail store. Wright’s Dairy has also begun making its own ice cream, from the base to the finished product, using nothing but the finest ingredients. Beginning this month, quarts will be available for sale in the farm’s retail store. The farm has also partnered with an artisan cheese plant in Vermont to produce cheddar cheese curd and aged cheddar, which will also be available for purchase in the retail store.
Wright’s Dairy Farm uses the farm’s milk for puddings and custards and its heavy cream to make many real whipped cream cakes, pies and pastries. The bakery also produced a full line of muffins, cookies, brownies, chocolates and custom-decorated special occasion cakes.
The Outstanding Dairy Farm of the Year award is sponsored by the New England Green Pastures Committee, made up of agricultural interests such as state and federal agricultural offices and farm organizations. Rhode Island’s Green Pastures Committee is coordinated by DEM’s Division of Agriculture, with members including the RI Dairy Farmers Cooperative, the RI Farm Bureau, the RI Farm Service Agency and the Agri-Mark Cooperative.

August 4, 2011 0 comment

chefs & restaurants farms news

The Blackbird steak sandwich at Tini in Providence, RI

by David Dadekian February 19, 2010

written by David Dadekian

Tini's "The Blackbird" in its purist form—sans catsup

Chef Darius Salko at Tini restaurant in Providence has created a new menu item named after the farm in Smithfield that he sources the beef from. In Chef Salko’s words, “‘The Blackbird’ is Blackbird Farm beef shaved thin and piled high on a soft roll with onions and homemade catsup.”

I got a chance to try the sandwich two ways when I photographed it. I love Blackbird Farm’s beef (I work with the farm often), and Salko uses roast cuts that he chills just enough so that he can slice the meat ultra-thin, then he sautés it with onions and serves in on a warm buttered soft roll, which adds some great flavor. After trying it without catsup I asked Salko to add some and when I saw the amount of catsup on the sandwich I did think for a moment that it might be overwhelming, but it wasn’t in the least. Salko makes the catsup from scratch and the slightly sweet condiment perfectly complements the saltiness in the steak and onions. I also really loved the steak sandwich with the carrots/cumin side as well. Comments from other diners trying the sandwich were all overwhelmingly positive. Everyone at Tini during lunch on Thursday said we could happily eat three or four of the sandwiches.

The point of naming the sandwich “The Blackbird” is to raise awareness of the local beef—100% pedigreed Angus beef—in the sandwich. It’s one thing to list local sources on your menu or in individual dish descriptions, but Chef Salko wanted to put the name of the farm front and center for diners to see. Ann Marie Bouthillette was very excited to have her farm’s name so prominent on Tini’s menu. “The Blackbird” is on both the lunch and dinner menus so head on over to Washington St. in Providence and try it out.