If anyone has stepped into a mid-scale restaurant somewhere in the South over the past several years you have probably come across the name Anson Mills. For those of you who have not - time to get out more... or time to pay more attention to the menu. Though I have had Anson Mills products sparingly over the years at restaurants, this is the first time I've mail ordered anything from them.
To give a little background, Anson Mills is a producer of heirloom organic grains, legumes, and flours located in Columbia, South Carolina. They have products like oats, beans, rice, farro, cornmeal, etc. Yes, I'm going to make fancy grits. What makes Anson Mills special is first, the flavor that is achieved first by using only heirloom varieties of vegetables and plants and second, they grind everything to order and ship the very same day in frozen, insulated containers. Because they are just over the border there in S.C. regular ground shipping is basically the same as overnight. Shipping costs aren't too bad, I ordered 6 bags of various items and the total (with shipping) was just under $50.
Below is our first order of Anson Mills products and I'm positive it won't be the last. Please check out their website; they have a great deal of information, history, and recipes designed specifically for their products.
4 comments:
Do you like these better than the local Logan Turnpike Mills grits?
Hey Jason -
Disclaimer: I've only cooked the Antebellum coarse grits from Anson Mills so far, and I've only had the fine grain cornmeal from Logan Turnpike. I guess there shouldn't be a whole lot of difference in flavor just between grind/grain size...
The Anson Mills grits were quite good and I was surprised with how strongly they smelled of fresh corn when they were cooking. The large grain size and resulting mouthfeel of the Anson Mills grits was nice and I was really quite pleased with them. With that said, I can't run to Harry's Whole Foods or DeKalb Farmer's Market and get Anson Mills like I can with Logan Turnpike.
So as of now, flavor goes to Anson Mills, convenience goes to Logan Turnpike.
And Jason, when are you gonna start up your Cured Meats blog again?
http://curedmeats.blogspot.com/
Drew, in the next week or 2 there should be a new post on my blog about cotechino, the new years Italian sausage.
Also need to make some pancetta as i'm out...but i've made a couple posts on that already, so i don't know if it's worth re-posting about it.
It's really hard. My weekends are taken up by time with my new daughter, so my wife can have some time off:)
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