Artisan Food Store Focuses On Flavor

By Nancy K. Crevier

Less than 15 minutes from the center of Newtown, Tom and Sally Camm have opened a food store in Southbury unlike any other in the area. The 1,700-square-foot Artisan Food Store at 760A Main Street South anchors a newer plaza just across from the Southbury Green and is dedicated to supporting local and regional small-batch food manufacturers, and to the education of consumers. 

The Camms bring their years of experience to the business: Sally as an advanced level sommelier and with restaurant industry management expertise, and Tom as a former marketing executive. And they love good food.

While the storefront is brand new, having opened the week of August 10, their Zagat-praised artisan food business, artisanmade-ne.com, has been in existence as an online store for five years. They also provide cheese to select family-owned and specialty food markets, and to a few restaurants that are willing to commit to the care of the high-end cheeses.

“These cheeses are living, breathing organisms,” said Ms Camm, “so they need someone to look after them. It’s not at all like buying the Cryovac packaged products that can be tossed in a walk-in cooler and ignored.”

Sally, a native of Australia, and Tom, raised in Massachusetts, have lived in the Midwest, Seattle, and in Europe, and it was there that they honed their food knowledge. “When we lived and worked in Europe we were attracted to the farmers’ markets there,” said Mr Camm. “It was so good, so fresh, and so flavorful. We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful to do this as a business one day?’” he said.

It was the combination of the right town and the right space that attracted the Camms to Southbury, where they have lived for the past five years. “Southbury is a great area, and Newtown is a growing area, too,” said the Camms. “It’s an area where people seem to want to support local products.”

In developing the idea for their online store and Artisan Food Store, the Camms have focused on what they see as the primary desire among food shoppers today: flavor.

“People are looking locally these days for food,” said Ms Camm. “They are concerned that proper care is taken from farm to store. The consumer is more proactive now. But above all, people are looking for flavor,” she said.

“Flavor is the key,” Mr Camm agreed. “We’re always looking for very high quality foods.”

The storefront offers the Camms the opportunity to interact personally with their customers, to see the excitement on a customer’s face when he or she tries a new cheese or bread or chocolate, and to receive immediate feedback that they can then pass on to the numerous northeastern purveyors with whom they deal. That is something they did not have with only an online store.

Promoting the small food manufacturers of the Northeast remains their main objective, but the store also offers fare from other regions of the United States and Canada — so long as it meets their stringent demands of being small-batch, and unique to the region from which it comes. The Camms taste and evaluate every product that they sell. “When we find foods that are really exceptional, we try to get them in the store,” said Ms Camm.

The Artisan Food Store is spacious, but warmed by walls painted a buttery yellow and lots of natural light. Oriental-style throw rugs add an elegant but homey feel and prevent the store from feeling cavernous. Two strategically placed tall display shelves minimally stocked with one-of-a-kind pottery pieces and rustic, rectangular ceramic cheese plates (coated with a nontoxic glaze) greet customers as they make their way to the focal point of the room — two eight-foot cases filled with cheese.

The Artisan Food Store carries more than 110 varieties of artisanal and farmstead cheeses from the northeastern United States and from Quebec. The cheeses are Mr Camm’s forte, and he is hands-on in learning about the dozens of cheese varieties. “We actually get to know the cheesemakers, and I visit each farm and actually assist in the cheese making so that I know exactly what goes into the making of the product,” said Mr Camm.

The farms that supply Artisan Food Store make no more than 100,000 pounds of cheese a year, and most of the farmers make somewhere between 10,000 and 50,000 pounds a year, which are very, very small amounts when compared to the millions of pounds put out by mainstream cheese makers. He is impressed, time and again, by the tremendous amount of work that goes into cheese making. And the more farms he visits, the more he realizes how far American cheese makers have come in crafting high quality products.

 

New Interest In Traditional Cheese Making

“What we’re finding over the last five to ten years is that there has been this sort of ‘bursting forth’ of the traditional cheese making here in the United States. Many cheese makers have traveled to Europe to learn the art of cheese making there,” said Mr Camm. “Now you see cheeses being made stateside that are modeled after the European styles, but with a distinct, American finish,” he said. Every cheese varies depending on the milk used, what the milk producer has grazed on, and an evolution affected by the season of the year, he explained, but the specificity of a cheese depends mostly on the art and craft of the cheese maker and the aging process.

Many of the products carried in the store are considered to be artisanal, and while most of the cheeses carried fall into that category, Mr Camm prefers to call them “farmsteaded” cheeses. He differentiates between the term “artisanal” and “farmstead.” A farmstead or farmhouse cheese is made from the milk of a small, closed herd of cow, sheep, or goats that graze on their own farmland. The cheese is made only from that milk. “In my view,” said Mr Camm, “that’s the highest quality cheese. All of the varieties we carry here are farmstead cheeses, meaning they come from farms like Cato Corner in Colchester or the Regina Laudis Abbey in Bethlehem, for example.”

An artisan cheese, on the other hand, is crafted by a highly skilled cheese maker, but not necessarily made from on-site milk. The milk generally comes from a local source, and any artisan cheeses carried by Artisan Food Store must prove to the Camms what source of milk is used in the cheese making process.

The vast array of cheeses, all of which the Camms encourage customers to taste, are not the only delight waiting for shoppers at the store.

Popcorn connoisseurs will have a hard time choosing from the 12 heirloom variety popping corns from Fireworks in Wisconsin. Red, yellow, white, blue, and black kernels immediately indicate that these are no ordinary snack foods. “You can taste the differences,” said Ms Camm. “I love the Sunset Fire and the Black Hills popcorn. The Black Hills popcorn has a sort of robust and rich flavor,” she said, using a term that harkens back to her wine tasting expertise. It is not a term generally associated with popcorn.

Salad dressings, dips, and spreads by Appalachian Naturals in the Berkshires; organic rubs, sauces, and salsas by Banana Bill’s; fruit spreads and jams from Fieldstone Farms and Fitch Farm Kitchen in Maine; Vermont raw honey, and honey produced by a beekeeper in North Branford; California organic olive oils and vinegars; sourdough breads made with all natural ingredients from Berkshire Breads; Vermont Artisan Coffee and Tea; handmade pretzels; locally produced beverages; and sea salt harvested in Maine, naturally flavored with hickory smoke, lemon, apple, or garlic, all have a place in the store.

The sweet tooth is not ignored at Artisan Food Store. Customers cannot help but gravitate from the cheese display cases to the nearby case filled with freshly baked cookies from Lisa’s Cookie Shop in Warwick, N.Y, like Kitchen Sink cookies, oatmeal raspberry bars, and chunky chocolate chip cookies. adjacent to the baked goods case are two tall, narrow cases that epitomize the skills of chocolate artisans. From Rhode Island, Garrsion chocolates are hand-cut morsels of deep chocolate ecstasy. Nutmeg Chocolates from Maine, Terrytown, N.Y. Chocolates, and LA Burdick of New Hampshire are other chocolatiers featured at the store. Chocolate Buddhas, tantalizing blood orange chocolate hearts, gold-leaf dusted cinnamon caramel hearts, caramel pecan squares and Rocky Rhode Islands, glistening dark chocolate or vanilla truffles, and dark chocolate squares of ganache form a tempting display that is hard to walk away from.

Ham from heirloom pigs raised in Kentucky, traditionally made salami with no unnecessary additives, and organic turkey will soon be available for purchase, as will all-beef hot dogs manufactured at Fall River Mile Farm in Connecticut. Once the meat case is set up, Artisan Food Store will be stocking a case with sandwiches showcasing the meats, cheeses, breads, and produce of the area.

Emphasis On Education

Customers who spend any amount of time talking to either Sally or Tom Camm will come away with a wealth of knowledge about local foods, and the couple is eager to share their excitement about such products. “We have an emphasis on education, so that the consumer comes to appreciate the little changes in food and appreciate where it comes from,” said Ms Camm. They encourage customers to sample the wares, saying, “Tasting is our motto.”

“Where we come in is educating first ourselves, and then taking that to a wider marketplace. We want to connect people to these farms so that people get behind them and really support them,” she said.

Shoppers will not become bored with the same old, same old selections. As the seasons change, so too do many of the products. Some cheeses, for instance, are produced only for short periods. Cherry pecan bread and a whole wheat honey loaf will most likely be found year around, but bread and chocolate variety may not always be available. And because their suppliers make small batches from local ingredients, there may be a gap when a favorite jam or salsa is  out — until next year. But the wide variety of items carried in the store and online means that customers will more than likely find a satisfactory substitute while they yearn for that special out-of-season treat.

Gift baskets and boxes, perfect for gift-giving or that special thank-you or new home celebration, can be purchased online, made up from items selected by the customer in the store, or left to the expertise of Tom and Sally Camm.

The Camms carry their belief in education one step further, providing wine and cheese tastings, bread, cheese, and winemaking workshops, and provide catered events and four-course dinners. While Connecticut law prohibits the sale of wine in food stores, Ms Camm is happy to provide suggestions for wines from northeastern vineyards to complement food purchases.

“I see us as a ‘discovery’ place, whether entertaining or looking for gifts that speak of the region,” said Ms Camm.

For more information about special events, or to place an order, visit artisanmade-ne.com, call the store at 262-9390, or stop in. Artisan Food Store is located across from the Southbury Green at 760A Main Street South. Store hours are Monday through Saturday, from 9:30 am to 7 pm, and Sunday, from 10 am to 5 pm. Browsers are welcome to indulge their passion for great flavors and local foods.