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Friday, October 30, 2009

Hudson Valley Wine & Cheese Tasting, Aroma Thyme Bistro


Hudson Valley Wine & Cheese Event

It is $25 per person for wine tasting, cheese & seasonal bites

Sunday, Nov 1st at 5pm

RSVP 845 647 3000

The Cheese guys:

Twin Maple Farms, Matt the owner & cheese maker will be here

Sprout Creek

Coach Farm

Old Chatam Sheepherding

Great Hills Blue

Harpersfield Cheese

Adirondack Cheese

Nettle Meadow

Hawthorn Valley

These are the amazing award winning cheeses that we will have. If you love one or more we will have them available for take home.

Wines

Whitecliff Vineyard

Yancey from Whitecliff will be pouring her award winning wines.

Whitecliff Vineyard sits on 70 acres opposite the Shawangunk Mountain chain located west of the Hudson River (near New Paltz) and 80 miles north of New York City. It is one of ten wineries of the famed Shawangunk Wine Trail and is following in the tradition of French Huguenot settlers who brought wine making to this scenic valley over three centuries ago.

Today, we're using the latest techniques in vineyard management and enology to bring the best in European wine grape varieties back to this historic area. Whitecliff is working with European vinifera varietals such as Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc and Riesling, and quality hybrids like Seyval Blanc and Vignoles, including a significant planting of Pinot Noir. And we are pioneering use of Gamay Noir grape in the Hudson Valley for a Beaujolais Villages and a true Beaujolais-style Nouveau.

2008 AWOSTING WHITE

Light, clean, fruity and refreshing with plenty of peach in the aroma. Awosting is a blend of Seyval Blanc and Vignoles grapes. This is the taste of the Hudson Valley!...and it won a Gold medal and best in class from the Hudson Valley Wine Competition

2007 RESERVE CHARDONNAY

Barrel fermentation in American Oak developed complex flavors and a beautiful balance between oak and fruit, including melon, pear, vanilla and tropical fruit notes

2007 RIDGEWINE RED A 5 grape blend with an earthy aroma and a color like black velvet. Light bodied with soft, chewy tannins in the finish.

Suggested foods to accompany this wine: barbecue or pasta

2007 MERLOT Rich, complex flavors make this is a beautiful New York Merlot. It offers black cherry and anise, combined with a fine tannic structure and a long finish.

2007 CABERNET FRANC Great depth of flavor and a medium body characterize this delicious estate bottled vinifera

REDTAIL This soft blend of Noiret, DeChaunac, and Merlot is smooth and fruity

Other wines could be added to the list. We have some other interesting local and NY State wines that could possibly find their way to the tasting.


Cheeses

Old Chatam Sheepherding
Ewe’s Blue

Artisinal American Blue Cheese made on our farm in the Roquefort style with 100% sheep’s milk. It’s creamy texture and subtle blue overtone scintillates the palate. Wine & Spirits magazine’s judging team selected Ewe’s Blue “Best” among American cheeses in its wine pairings.

Harpersfield Cheese is aged naturally and crafted by using milk from our cow dairy located in the northern Catskills of Delaware County. Our herd has been bred over the past thirty years to provide a proper balance of natural nutrients to make our unique cheese.

Each step in the cheese making process is carefully crafted by the cheese maker. The cheese is aged in an underground area where the temperature and humidity are controlled until the full flavor is developed. During the aging period, each wheel is washed and examined with care.

Adirondack Cheese Company

Our award winning New York State Cheddar wheels are always a winner. Aged more than 1-year, our waxed cheddar wheels are tangy and are wrapped in a flavor-sealing coat of old-fashioned black wax. Made with all natural ingredients, Adirondack NYS Cheddar Wheels provide the "Good Old-Fashioned" quality taste you would expect.

Spout Creek

Ouray


An earthy buttery cheese with a sweet floral flavor, Ouray has a firm creamy paste with a crisp edible natural rind.

Barat


This Assertively nutty cheese with a pronounced caramel flavor is dense and dry. A lingering sweetness compliments its granular texture and earthy rind.

Batch 35


A crisp coppery rind sheaths a straw colored interior of this smear-ripened cheese. Smooth, with an open texture and a scattering of eyes, this cheese is meaty, pungent, and earthy.

Sprout Creek Farm is a 200 acre working farm in Dutchess County, New York that provides an integrated context for educational and spiritual development programs for young people and adults.

Great Hills Blue

Unlike many blue cheese varites, the milk is not homogenized. This results in a fully flavored and smooth tasting cheese

Coach Farm

Faithful to the traditional methods of the French farmstead cheesemaker, we at the Coach Farm are turning out authentic, artisanal goat cheeses that were once found only in the remote villages of France.

Our farm is located in a small Hudson Valley village, just two hours outside of New York City. We have, at present count over 900 French Alpine dairy goats, born and raised on our farm. The small, white-tiled creamery where we make our cheeses connects directly to the milking parlor.

Since they were first introduced almost twenty years ago, Coach Farm cheeses have won many competitions and awards and have gained wide recognition and a large, loyal following.

Nettle Meadow

Kunik is a unique and voluptuous triple cream cheese only made in Thurman, New York in the Warrensburg area at our small family farm. It is a white mold-ripened wheel made from goat's milk and jersey cow cream. The blend makes Kunik far richer and more flavorful than a brie-type cheese yet more subtle and sumptuous than similarly ripened goat cheeses.

Here is what critics are saying:

"Kunik is dreamy mild-ripened cheese made from a mix of goat's milk and fresh Jersey cream. It ranges from earthy, grassy and slightly firm to supple and unctuous and pungent, depending on its level of maturity. Kunik is delicious at any age and deserves a much coveted place in your belly." Anne Saxelby's Selections, Saxelby Cheesemonger, Essex Market, NYC, 2006.

"Kunik, a soft, bloomy Jersey cow and goat's milk cheese from Warrensburg New York was killing me softly with its smooth, creamy, flavorful but not at all stinky song. Jersey cows are known for their high milk-fat output and it comes through brilliantly in the Kunik." Grocery Guy, Chuck Klosterman's blog. June 12, 2006.

"...this tart tangy triple creme made of pasteurized goat milk, but enriched with fatty jersey cow cream. The blend makes for a sumptuous, thick buttery taste that retains the kick of fresh chevre." Murray's Cheese, NYC, 2006.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Frankly……..We Are Puzzled





We have been planning a great local Hudson Valley Cheese & Wine event at Aroma Thyme Bistro. And we have no reservations yet. Many of you have said it was an awesome idea. So that is why we are puzzled.

If you like great cheese then you won’t want to miss this event

The Hudson Valley is home to some great artisanal & homestead cheesemakers. We have rounded these producers up and offer many of these cheeses at Aroma Thyme. Most of these cheeses have national and international awards & recognition. Yes, cheese from our valley is being honored internationally. This event is a great chance to learn more about cheese that is produced in our backyard. Learn first hand from the owner & cheesemaker, Matthew from Twin Maple Farms. He will be your cheese guide for the event. Learn what makes our cheeses so different and famous.

Do you enjoy wine?

The Hudson Valley is the oldest wine region in the United States. And wow are there some great producers in our back yard. We are the Napa Valley of the East Coast. And we are pairing these wines at our Hudson Valley event. Yancey from Whitecliff Vineyards will be your wine guide for the event. We have been amazed at the high quality wines in our valley and can guarantee you will be as well.

Are you concerned about our economy?

Did you know that buying local makes a huge impact for everyone. And the Hudson Valley has an incredible reputation for agriculture. Our Hudson Valley Wine & Cheese event will showcase the best of the best. When you go to a restaurant or market you can increase demand for our local bounty by asking for local. With so many wines & cheeses this event will familiarize you with the names. You will ask yourself is there any reason to ship cheese from Italy and use valuable resources. We are not saying that Italian cheese should not be eaten, but it is best enjoyed while touring the Tuscan countryside.

World famous restaurants in NYC and beyond are taking advantage of Hudson Valley agriculture. You name them, the big chefs all agree!

With 400 years of history our valley is world famous.

Take advantage of this great offer

Call 845 647 3000 to RSVP (that’s French for let us know your coming so we have enough wine)

Sunday November 1st at 5pm

$25 per person

Includes Wine, Cheese and Seasonal Local Bites (which means you will get your money’s worth)

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Stop Organic Body Care Fraud


PRESS RELEASE: Buycott Certified Organic Products and Boycott the Cheaters

ACTION ALERT: Stop Organic Body Care Fraud

This November, the USDA National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) will consider a recommendation for "Solving the Problem of Mislabeled Organic Personal Care Products." The recommendation urges the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) to make sure that any use of the word "organic" on a personal care product is backed up by third-party certification to USDA organic standards.

Currently, as the recommendation describes, "at a given retailer, one may find personal care products such as shampoos and lotions labeled as 'organic' with no clear standards or regulatory underpinning for the organic claim - and unless the product is specifically labeled as 'USDA Organic,' the word 'organic' may be used with impunity. Manufacturers of personal care products that contain organic ingredients are hindered by a thicket of competing private standards and confusion regarding the applicability of the NOP to their products. Transactions lack the regulatory clarity that applies under the NOP to food products that contain organic ingredients."

The Organic Consumers Association sees this recommendation as a preliminary victory for its Coming Clean campaign to rid store shelves of products that are falsely advertised as "organic." The USDA has long resisted policing the market for organic personal care products. Even President Obama's USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, an advocate for organic agriculture, has expressed reluctance. In response to an OCA letter-writing campaign urging her to go after personal care products that are falsely advertised as organic she wrote, "The USDA regulates organic personal care products only if they are made up of agricultural ingredients. We have no standards for personal care products and have no plans to develop standards at this time."

Her statement is at once confusing and disappointing. Organic personal care products that are made up of agricultural ingredients are the ones that are most likely to be genuine USDA-certified products. It's the personal care products that are made from synthetic, petroleum-based ingredients that are falsely advertised as "organic" that we need her to regulate.

Furthermore, OCA doesn't want the USDA to create standards for organic personal care products. We just want them to enforce the current agricultural standards in personal care, like they do when conventional foods are mislabeled as organic.

If the USDA delays enforcement of organic standards in personal care, the OCA will be forced to back up its grassroots lobbying with market pressure in the form of a boycott of "cheater brands" and a "buycott" or promotion of brands that are genuinely organic. Before OCA launches a boycott of brands that are falsely marketing themselves as organic, it will give producers an opportunity to come clean. Beginning September 24, 2009, at the Natural Products Expo East in Boston, OCA will meet with personal care products companies engaged in organic fraud to urge them to sign a contract making a pledge to consumers that they will either meet organic standards or stop making false organic claims.

The Organic Consumers Association expects a long fight for USDA enforcement of organic standards in personal care. The first step is getting the NOSB to adopt the recommendation for "Solving the Problem of Mislabeled Organic Personal Care Products." The deadline for sending public comments to the NOSB in advance of their November 3-5 meeting is October 19, 2009. Please take action today.

Campaigning for Organic Integrity in Bodycare Products
The Organic Consumers Association's "Coming Clean Campaign" has been working to clean up the 'natural' and 'organic' personal care industry since 2004. Unlike organic foods, many personal care products are falsely labeled as "organic".

OCA's Coming Clean Campaign is focused on cleaning up the organic personal care industry by ridding of fraudulent labeling that is misleading consumers. The OCA believes that organic bodycare standards should mirror organic food standard.

This means that:

  • Comming Clean LogoCertified organic agricultural feedstocks are utilized in the manufacture of the key basic cleansing and conditioning ingredients, versus petroleum or conventional feedstocks.
  • Manufacture of such ingredients is ecological.
  • The toxicity of each ingredient is minimal
  • Non-agricultural water is not counted in any shape or form as contributing to organic content.

Over 600 organic businesses have signed on to support this campaign (see a list of supporting businesses here or sign your business on to be a supporter here).

If you are a personal care producer or retailer and would like to support OCA's Coming Clean Campaign, click here.

The word "organic" is not properly regulated on personal care products (example: toothpaste, shampoo, lotion, etc.) as it is on food products, unless the product is certified by the USDA National Organic Program.

Checking a Shampoo LabelDue to this lax regulation, many personal care products have the word "organic" in their brand name or otherwise on their product label, but unless they are USDA certified, the main cleansing ingredients and preservatives are usually made with synthetic and petrochemical compounds.

This is why the Organic Consumers Association recommends consumers look for the USDA organic seal on personal care products that claim to be organic. Although there are multiple "organic" standards all around the world, each with its own varying criteria, the USDA Organic Standards are the "gold standard" for personal care products.

If you are looking to purchase a product that is totally organic, look for the USDA organic seal. If it doesn't have the seal, read the ingredient label to find out how many ingredients are truly organic and how many are synthetic.

Identifying Toxic Contamination in Personal Care Products

Stop Bogus "Organic" Misbranding or Certification

To help remove some of this misleading organic labeling from the market, in late March 2008, the OCA and Dr. Bronner's filed Cease and Desist Letters to many of the bogus "organic" brands who utilize conventional and/or petrochemical material instead of organic material in making their main cleansing ingredients, some of whom even tested positive for the carcinogen 1,4-Dioxane in this study. Read the press release here and the Cease and Desist letter here.

USDA Organic SealMany companies misbrand "Organics" on their labels but consumers should look for products certified under the USDA (see recommended list here), because there are other weak so-called "organic" standards that a product can become "certified" under, which do not allow ethoxylation and 1,4-Dioxane, but allow hydrogenation and sulfation of conventional, not organic material, to make cleansing ingredients preserved with synthetic preservatives.

Two of these weak standards consumers should look out for are the Ecocert and OASIS standards; Ecocert actually allows certain petrochemicals in cleansing ingredients.

Learn more here.

Surveys clearly indicate that when a product labels itself as "Organic" or is sold by a company with the word "Organic" in its brand name, consumers are willing to pay extra, because they believe that product does not contain cleansing ingredients made with conventional and/or petrochemical material, that may be contaminated with carcinogenic compounds like 1,4-Dioxane.

See survey results here.

sourced from Consumer Organic Association, www.organicconsumers.org

Friday, October 16, 2009

Hudson Valley Wine & Cheese Event

We are having a great local wine & cheese event at Aroma Thyme, Sunday November 1st.
$25 per person 5pm
We were so inspired by the great local wine & cheese in Tuscany. But we also have incredible wine and cheese in our Hudson Valley. So we are doing this event to showcase those producers.
We will have a cheese and winemaker on hand for this event.
RSVP 845 647 3000

click on images to make larger

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Italian Tasting Menu $29.99


There is no better time to be in Tuscany in October. So we have decided to bring Tuscany to you. We're offering our incredible Italian three-course menu for $29.99 per person. We will also be offering bottles of Italian wine starting at $20. All the food is influenced from Tuscany and just beyond. These incredible specials run from Sunday, October 4 through Thursday, October 15, 2009.

Please no other promos, offers or rewards are valid for these specials.

Here is a sample of our Italian Tasting Menu. Items will change based upon availability.


Appetizers

White Bean, Lemon & Olive Oil Bruschetta

Chickpea and Black Olive Tapenade Rosemary

Walnut Herbed Goat Cheese, Roasted Yellow Beets


Entrees

Polenta cake, Sun-dried Tomatoes and Roasted Cauliflower

Calamari, Spaghetti with Roasted Tomatoes

Slow Braised Lamb Shanks, Tomatoes and Pasta


Dessert

Sweetcorn Crema with Berries

Lemon Goat Cheese Cake


Please no other promotions, awards, offers or discounts of any kind with our Italian Menu promotion.

Plan Your Holiday Party!!!



We are planning a party for you and your staff. It is that simple we do all the work, clean-up and entertaining for an incredible low price.

Have a party for your staff for as little as $15.00 per person!!!

It’s our Big Party for small business. At Aroma Thyme we appreciate small independent owned local business. And we have made it super easy for you to have your big holiday staff party at Aroma Thyme.

Here is how it works. We have four specially priced packages for your party. They start at $15.00 per person for a small bites party at our bar. Our full dinner package starts at $29.99 per person and includes a complete sit-down, not a buffet, dinner and live Jazz.

Call Jamie today, 845-647-3000, to reserve your date, as these will surely sell out in December. We can also arrange specially priced wine and drinks for your event.

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$29.99 per person, Any Thursday in December

Appetizer choices

Puree of Organic Sweet Potato & Yellow Curry Soup

Bistro Salad, Organic Mesclun 6. V

Pomegranate, Tarragon or Balsamic Vinaigrette

Entrees choices

Grilled Free Range Chicken Breast Cutlets

Smoked & Roasted Garlic

Spaghetti & Clam Sauce

Long Island Little Neck Clams, White Wine, Garlic & EVOO

Japanese Akaushi Meatloaf

Dessert

Bananas Foster

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$39.99 per person, Any Thursday in December

Appetizer choices

Grilled Asparagus, Pine Nuts & White Truffle Essence

Rare Sesame Crusted Albacore Tuna, Spicy Sriracha & Peanut Glaze

Hummus

Marinated Olives, Roasted Red Peppers, Roasted Garlic, Dolmas & Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Entrees choices

Pan Seared Mahi-Mahi

Cilantro Chutney

Sautéed Calamari, Roasted Tomatoes & Spaghetti

Grilled Hanger Steak

Ommegang Abbey Ale Marinated

Dessert

Blueberry Crisp, Ice Cream

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$49.99 per person, Any Thursday in December

Array of our Thin Crust Gourmet Pizza

Appetizer choices

Grilled Asparagus, Pine Nuts & White Truffle Essence

Rare Sesame Crusted Albacore Tuna, Spicy Sriracha & Peanut Glaze

Hummus

Marinated Olives, Roasted Red Peppers, Roasted Garlic, Dolmas & Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Entrees choices

Pan Seared Sea Scallops

Roasted Fennel & Herbs

Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon

House Made Teriyaki

Grilled NY Strip Steak

Pineland Farms, raised on small family farms from New York to Maine

Dessert Tasting Plates, includes all three

Blueberry Crisp

Chocolate Torte

Coconut Chocolate Brownie

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$15.00 per person, available Monday to Friday

Cocktail reception at our bar, ideal for up to 25 people. We give a full supply of food for two full hours. Take advantage of this Monday to Fridays at our bar.

If you are like us and don’t have the time to throw a party for your company until January then we have even a better deal for you. You can take five dollars off any package that is $29.99 or more. So you can save a few extra dollars in January.

We would never expect you to eat this shrimp, nor do we serve farmed Asian shrimp

One Awesome Blender