Good Foods Awards Press Release
Old Friends Farm’s Ginger Syrup takes home a National Good Food Award!
On January 19th, 2018, Old Friends Farm, a small, diversified Organic farm in Amherst, MA, was awarded a Good Food Award for their Organic Ginger Syrup. At the awards ceremony in San Francisco, following the keynote speech from Madhur Jaffery, farm co-owner Missy Bahret accepted the winning medal from restaurateur and food activist Alice Waters. Chosen from over 2000 entries from all over the country, receiving a Good Food Award is a true honor. Now in its eighth year, the Good Food Awards is an event where the nation’s leading artisanal food producers, chefs, grocers, and journalists gather to host an annual awards ceremony. These prestigious awards are granted to foods and drinks that embody deliciousness, authenticity, and responsibility. Winning products must be exceptionally tasty, as well as be committed to sustainability, social good, and integrity. According to the Awards, the producers these winning products represent are ‘pushing the envelope’ in both craftsmanship and sustainability, thus bettering the nation’s food system.
When Old Friends Farm started growing Organic ginger and turmeric, they pioneered the local Zingiber (Zingiberaceae is the botanic family in which both culinary ginger and turmeric are classified) revolution! At the time, cultivation of these tropical rhizomes in the Northeast was unheard of. This was a great opportunity for the farm to think out-of-the-box, or rather – out-of-the-climate – and focus on bringing a new family of crops to the region. Over the years, the farm increased its zingiber production, offering gorgeous fresh baby ginger and turmeric to customers throughout the Pioneer Valley, Southern Vermont, Boston and NYC areas and beyond. In 2014, Old Friends Farm started experimenting with making specialty products from their crops, and introduced Ginger Syrup.
Old Friends Farm’s Ginger Syrup is small-batch-crafted by the farmers themselves in Greenfield MA using only 3 ingredients: Organic ginger grown on their farm, Organic lemon juice, and Organic cane sugar. It can be added to seltzer for a home-made ginger ale, drizzled over most any dessert, pancakes or waffles, and used as an ingredient in salad dressing, marinades, elixirs, and cocktails (with or without alcohol). Their ginger syrup is wonderfully delicious – warm, aromatic, spicy and sweet – a true reflection of the bright sunshine and long days of the growing season. Old Friends Farm Ginger Syrup represents all the hard work, innovation, and joy, which has brought their farm to where it is today.
Old Friends Farm is nationally well known for starting the ginger/turmeric-growing trend, as well as their reputation for creating a fantastic place to work. Old Friends runs their farm with the core values of Integrity, Harmony, Balance, and Fun. Their full line-up of magical, Northeast-grown ginger and turmeric-based elixirs also includes: Turmeric Honey, Elderberry Turmeric Honey, and Ginger Honey, and can be found online at www.oldfriendsfarm.com, at their farmers’ markets, and in select New England stores.