What’s Happening at Q&A?
Thanksgiving Stuffing
Matt’s mom emailed us this tasty idea. Thanks Holly!
“I made stuffed acorn squash for dinner tonight and as I was sauteing the apples, onions, garlic and celery on the stove I thought it needed more flavor and moisture so I added in a half jar of Pear with Honey and Ginger. It was perfect. Then I added the bread crumbs and the whole thing had a great new flavor. So delicious! Just… Read more »
Taste-Testing Exotic Preserves
In our efforts to understand the art of preserve-making, we spend a fair amount of time eating tasty jams made by other people in other places. So, recently, when Clare’s cousin Greg got in touch with us from South America asking if we wanted him to bring us back some Peruvian preserves, we obviously said “Yes, please!” We got them in the mail and the first thing we noticed was that all of the… Read more »
Going to the Produce Auction
We’ve been wringing our hands over the cold, slow, strawberry-less season for about four weeks, and I (Matt) finally decided to take matters into my own hands. Last Tuesday, I drove up to the Growers’ Produce Auction in Cashton, Wisconsin, to bid on berries. That’s right, a real auction.
I’ve pretty much only seen auctions in movies and had no idea what I was doing, so I was hoping the organizers were willing to take… Read more »
Apples in Sparkling Wine
Fun! A recent write up in the amazingly-named Poor Taste magazine mentions our Apples in Sparkling Wine preserve, exclusively available from Pastoral Artisan in Chicago.
A little background: inspired by the vast array of artisanal cheeses from our home state, we began Quince and Apple so we could make the perfect cheese-pairing preserves. We always keep our recipes slightly savory and the texture a little loose. The end result… Read more »
C’mon, Vogue!
Q&A is officially fancy! We’ve partnered with Birchbox, an awesome company that sends out curated monthly samples of the best beauty products. It’s an awesome concept – in fact, I’m already a subscriber and can attest to the excellence.
This month, they’ve put together their inaugural Just Because Box – full of makeup, hair serum, sweets and even some beautiful paper cards and coasters. And we’re in it! One… Read more »
Pastoral Artisan Producer Festival
We spent last weekend at one of the coolest events we’ve ever attended. Pastoral, Chicago’s premier fromagerie and sandwich shop, gathered over thirty of the country’s best artisan producers to come sample their wares at the Chicago French Market. The event was free, and over 5500 foodies showed up to sample everything from honey to crackers to salumi to, of course, cheese.
We were tasting out the custom flavor we sell exclusively at Pastoral,
Flavor Development
Midwest Roots is our sales broker – they give us the person power to maintain close relationships with our stores. They love to travel around meeting foodies and sampling local delights at all the country’s best specialty shops. This allows Matt and I to hold down the fort in Madison, focusing on creating new recipes, making lots of small batches of our year-round flavors and sourcing seasonal produce.
A new MidwestRoots employee came up recently… Read more »
Pastoral Fest!
We’re excited, and honored, to be part of the first annual Pastoral Artisan Producer Festival happening this Saturday at the Chicago French Market. From 11-3, you can stop by, meet a wide selection of the country’s best artisan producers, and taste all their samples for free. It’s a pretty unique and incredible opportunity! Check out the promo video to find out who you’ll meet:
A network of small businesses
You probably know that when you support a small, artisan company like Quince and Apple, you’re actually supporting a whole network of small, local businesses that you never see. Well, we thought that we’d give you a chance to “meet” some of the awesome businesses and people that you are helping to support indirectly and without whom our delicious preserves wouldn’t be possible. Check them out and next time you take a bite of preserves, take… Read more »