About Catherine Down

Catherine ate her way around the world before settling down in Washington, D.C. She's worked on an organic farm in rural France, coordinated farm tours in Pennsylvania, stuffed her face as a cheesemonger in Massachusetts and studied food in just about every way possible as a Masters candidate in Food Culture and Communications at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy. Before returning stateside to launch Edible DC, she had a brief but delightful stint in Paris with the award-winning food blog Paris by Mouth. She's a Culinary Strategy Associate at EDENS, could happily eat nothing but cheese everyday and secretly dreams of keeping bees.

Author Archive | Catherine Down

Letter from the Editor

November 2, 2012 · Catherine Down

I have a confession to make: my interest in beekeeping borders on the unhealthy and obsessive. I once attended an international beekeeping conference in Italy.

In my defense, I was covering a story for Slow Food International on mono-varietal honey production (say that ten times fast). It wasn’t the mechanics of beekeeping itself that hooked me, or the deliciously sweet and sticky honeys I got to sample, but the fascinating eccentricities of the beekeepers themselves.

One man from Japan brought a rare honey filled with poisonous wasps that had drowned in the bottle. The adrenaline that coursed through their bodies

NOTABLE EDIBLES: FALL 2012

November 2, 2012 · Catherine Down

Photography by Aaron Springer

LORD BYRON’S BEE POLLEN

Bee pollen, it’s what’s for breakfast. Mix a tablespoon into a smoothie or dollop it onto your morning yogurt to supercharge your day. Bees fly plant to plant gathering the pollen on their back legs. Beekeepers place special traps at the entrance to hives which knock off and gather the pollen. The pollen is then dried before bottling. Considered nature’s perfect food because of its high protein content and nutritional value, fans claim it can increase sexual desire, boost immune system health and help fight off seasonal allergies. Those with pollen or

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BEHIND THE BOTTLE

November 2, 2012 · Catherine Down

Capital Kombucha’s Local Brews Are Helping DC to Acquire an ‘Acquired Taste’

Photos by Aaron Springer

When Dan Lieberman of Capital Kombucha tells people that he makes kombucha, “the initial reaction is always, like, ‘Oh, kombucha? That drink that tastes like s@#t?’”

The healthy but hard-to-swallow reputation of the cold tea drink is something that the founders of Capital Kombucha hope to overturn with their fresh, lightly fizzy flavors.

Kombucha, pronounced kom-BOO-cha, is a fermented tea drink full of good bacteria and antioxidants. The tonic starts with a brewed black or green tea that is lightly sweetened—in Capital’s case with

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GET BUZZED

November 2, 2012 · Catherine Down

Honey-Based Cocktails from a Beekeeping Bartender

Katie Nelson, lead bartender at the Columbia Room, is taking local sourcing to a whole other level: the roof.

There, amidst pipes and planter boxes, she tends a hive of bees. Approximately 60,000 strong, the critters produce enough honey to fill a gallon sized Tupperware container in early summer and fall.

The beekeeping bartender was introduced to the idea by Jeff Miller of DC Honeybees, who aims to combat Colony Collapse Disorder by populating the city with healthy bee colonies. The local nonprofit supplied the bar with the equipment and training necessary to get

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THE SPICE IS RIGHT

November 3, 2012 · Catherine Down

A Local Source for a World of Flavor

An immunologist by training, Deepa Patke has turned her Northern Virginia home into a scientist’s laboratory for spice blending. It is impossible to find spices on the shelves that are fresher than Patke’s blends, which are ground to order and blended by hand each and every week.

And it shows. The pungent scent of her spices waft through their plastic packaging and perfume a room. By selling primarily at farmers markets, Aromatic Spice Blends is making a strong statement that spices are just as perishable as local produce and should be purchased

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Chef Tony Chittum and his “muse”, wife Dominique

Iron Gate Inn

November 3, 2012 · Catherine Down

The Revival of the Oldest Restaurant in the City

By Catherine Down and Justin Kennedy

The famed Iron Gate.

Chef Tony Chittum and his “muse”, wife Dominique

Photos by Kristen Finn

“I was blown away,” Chef Tony Chittum says of the first time he stepped foot inside the Iron Gate Inn. It’d been vacant for roughly two years at that point, and you could stroll right past the ornate eponymous gate without ever knowing that the city’s oldest continuously operating restaurant had, for 82 years, existed on the other side.

To walk through the elegant iron gate, however—under the whitewashed

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Seth Goldman and Julie Farkas in their garden

At Home with Seth Goldman

November 3, 2012 · Catherine Down

Founder and Tea-E-O of Honest Tea

Seth Goldman and Julie Farkas in their garden

Photos by Bobby Bruderle

Seth Goldman is committed to honest, sustainable ingredients. They’re what he used to build the reputation of his organic, low-sugar beverage company, Honest Tea, and they’re what he used to build his home.

The eco-friendly ethos that he espouses at Honest Tea is woven in a natural and subtle way throughout the Bethesda home he shares with wife, Julie Farkas, and three sons. Green details are in the kitchen, on the roof, in the basement and even inside the walls: The insulation

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Honey-Roasted Baby Carrots with Greek Yogurt

November 2, 2012 · Catherine Down

Vin Cotto and Sesame Feta

Photo by Carole Topalian

Serves 4

1 pound baby carrots
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons local honey
Salt and pepper to taste
1 quart canola oil
6 ounces feta cheese, sliced
½ cup panko breadcrumbs
¼ black sesame seeds
2 tablespoons white sesame seeds
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 whole eggs, whisked
¼ cup Greek yogurt
2 teaspoons vin cotto (a southern Italian sweet condiment made of cooked grape must; you could substitute a sweet, thick aged balsamic if needed)

Preheat oven to 450°F. Toss carrots with the olive oil and local honey

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Bee’s Knees Cocktail

November 2, 2012 · Catherine Down

This classic cocktail is believed to have Prohibition-era roots as bootleggers would commonly mask the harsh taste of homebrewed hooch with strong flavors like bright citrus or sweet honey.

2 ounces gin (Nelson prefers Tanqueray 10 or Plymouth for this)
½ ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
½ ounce honey syrup

To make the honey syrup
Mix 2 parts honey to 1 part hot water in a bowl.

Shake ingredients well with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon peel or thin-sliced lemon wheel.

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Almost Home Cocktail

November 2, 2012 · Catherine Down

This evocatively named cocktail was dreamed up on Nelson’s cab ride home and is intended to be an easy cocktail to consume all by one’s lonesome. It contains some of her favorite comforting flavors and pairs beautifully with food. For just a hint of smoke, minus the heavy-hitting peat of a Scottish whiskey, Nelson uses a gentle, elegant Japanese whiskey.