♪ ♪ >> From the editors of Relish.com, we bring you  Moveable Feast, with host Alex Thomopoulos.
>> ALEX: It's fall in the Northeast, and we are on Martha's Vineyard.
It does not get better than this.
♪ ♪ Now, when most people think of Martha's Vineyard, they think the beach, sailing, fishing.
What many people don't realize is that most of this island is rural and has a thriving agricultural community, and we're going to make the most of it today with two great local chefs.
Joining me today is chef, cookbook author, and teacher Jan Buhrman, who's a culinary staple here and has pretty much been voted best of everything on the island.
Also joining me is James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award winner and cookbook author Professor Jessica Harris, who's not only going to cook with us, but maybe give us a little history lesson, as well.
First up, we're off to Grey Barn Farms, where we'll source some stunning lamb and produce, and get to taste some of their award-winning grass-fed organic cheeses.
>> Mmm, lovely.
>> ALEX: It's so delicious.
Next, we're off to MV Mycological, a shiitake farm that combines ancient Japanese growing techniques with modern sustainable practices to create some of the best mushrooms in the world.
After we've gathered all of our ingredients, we're back here at Beach Plum Inn.
A 30-acre waterfront farm with stunning views of the sea, it's just the perfect place to host our feast today.
It's a celebration of the land here on Martha's Vineyard, and it's happening today, on  Moveable Feast with Relish.
>> Coming up next on  Moveable Feast with Relish.
>> Major funding provided by: >> Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please.
(gecko clears throat, feedback squeals) >> GEICO would like to take a moment to say thank you to our military service members at home and abroad for all their hard work and sacrifice.
We all sleep easier knowing you're out there keeping us safe.
And on a personal note... (jet engines roar, gecko's speech muffled) (crowd cheering) (exhales) Just needed to get that off my chest.
Thank you.
>> GEICO-- proudly supporting the military for over 75 years.
>> We can't just take from nature, so we collaborate.
Ocean Spray works with nature every day to farm in a sustainable way.
♪ ♪ >> Ocean Spray is a proud sponsor of  Moveable Feast.
>> At Pure Leaf, the most important ingredient in making tea is saying no.
We're committed to saying no to artificial flavors and sweeteners in our brewed iced teas.
♪ ♪ >> I am Errico Auricchio, the founder of BelGioioso Cheese.
I came in 1979 from Italy with my family and the memory of Italian cheese.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Jan and I want to welcome you to the Vineyard, because this is the Vineyard you wouldn't see.
There's so much more to the Vineyard beyond those boldface names and big houses.
We are people who love the land.
We're people who eat what we grow, we're people who fish, we're people who farm.
There's a lot of stuff going on here.
>> The history on Martha's Vineyard is definitely a farming community and fishing.
>> ALEX: What is your relationship to Martha's Vineyard?
>> Well, you know, I've been here since 1985, and in 1985, I actually started bringing my products to the farmers' market.
I was getting to know the farmers.
I have established a long-term relationship with them.
Because I have such an intimate relationship with so many of those farmers, I've really become a, more of a food advocate for farming and why it's so important.
>> Well, my father bought a house in Oak Bluffs, which is down-island, in 1956.
So I've been coming to the island since '56.
So of course, I've seen all of the changes on the island.
I've seen everything from, from Chappaquiddick to the Clintons to...
The whole rebirth of farm culture on the island is extraordinary, just to see how this has changed.
And you know, the French always say, "Plus ça, plus ça change, plus ça reste la même chose," the more things change, the more they stay the same?
>> ALEX: Yes.
>> If you look at old images of the island, you can see farming as it took place in the early 20th century.
You can see all of these extraordinary things that we are now seeing come back.
So it's just amazing, and it's so wonderful to be able to witness it, to be able to be a part of it, and certainly to be able to eat it.
And trust me when I tell you, there's no better place to taste it than at Grey Barn.
♪ ♪ >> This is Alex, this is Eric.
>> Hi, Alex, nice to meet you.
>> ALEX: So nice to meet you.
>> Jessica-- how are you?
>> ALEX: So we're here to source some ingredients for our feast tonight.
>> Fantastic.
>> ALEX: And I hear you have the most beautiful produce.
>> Thank you.
>> Look at... You have the Koginut!
>> Look at this voluptuous beauty.
This is... >> ALEX: What is it?
>> Bred for deliciousness.
>> They're a collaboration between a chef, a farmer, and a seed breeder to come up with this squash.
>> Vine-ripened squash.
>> ALEX: We have to use that for the feast tonight.
>> We absolutely do, and it is so naturally sweet.
You do not need any honey, molasses, maple syrup.
It speaks its own language.
Should we make a purée and turn it into maybe some risotto or a first-course soup?
>> I don't know, it looks like the possibilities are endless.
>> They are.
>> They sound so good.
>> Well, let's do that, for sure.
And some-- do you have any thyme?
>> We do.
>> Oh!
And you have rhubarb.
And do you grow this on the farm?
>> We do, we have a rhubarb patch on the other side.
>> (chuckling) >> So actually, we started out where, you know, we added the vegetables after the first few years on the farm.
We didn't originally start with that.
We just had the cows and the cheese, and then we were always raising the pigs.
But over the years we've been adding in bits and pieces, including the veggies.
>> So I think I have what I need.
I have my rhubarb and my squash and my thyme, and I think I'll just get out of here and go over to the mushroom farm.
Will you meet me there?
>> ALEX: I will.
>> Great, see you guys later.
>> See you, Jan. >> ALEX: Eric, I heard you said my favorite word on the planet, which is cheese.
>> Yes, we have a lot of cheese to choose from here.
>> ALEX: Jessica, would you mind helping me do a little cheese-tasting for tonight?
>> Oh, I think I could bear up under the strain, yes.
(laughter) ♪ ♪ >> ALEX: Oh, my goodness.
>> Oh, my.
Isn't this wonderful?
>> ALEX: Eric... >> This is what I know Grey Barn for, is just the magnificence of the cheese.
>> ALEX: This looks amazing.
>> It's just so extraordinary.
>> Thank you.
>> ALEX: So this all comes from the milk from your cows here on the farm?
>> That's right, 100% farmstead cheese.
>> ALEX: How many varieties of cheese do you have here on the farm?
>> On a regular basis, we make about five different cheeses.
Here today for you to taste, we have the Banneker, which is our cheddar, we have our Bluebird Reserve, which is our special blue, and then we have Prufrock, which is our first cheese that we started making here.
It's a little washed-rind cheese.
It's the one we're probably best-known for.
>> ALEX: Start with the cheddar.
>> Let's start with the cheddar, yeah.
This is something we just started making this year.
So this is sort of a simple, basic cheddar, just starting out.
>> ALEX: Mm.
>> It's so special, I mean, you can, just a crisp apple... >> ALEX: Oh!
>> ...and a bite of this.
>> So you already moved on to the blue.
>> ALEX: I'm very, I'm that impatient... >> This the Bluebird-- this is the Bluebird Reserve.
And this one's not for the faint of heart.
>> I've had this before, and it is... >> ALEX: It's crystally and pungent.
>> Mm, mm...
The creaminess of it!
>> Yeah, it's really nice.
>> ALEX: It's sensational.
>> You see, if that's an apple, this is a pear.
>> ALEX: And you guys have some pears here on the farm, as well.
>> We do, we do have some pears.
Just a few left.
>> ALEX: Can you spare us a few?
I think we... >> Maybe just a few.
>> The butteriness of this with a pear is just ambrosial.
>> The last one is the Prufrock.
It's the first cheese that we made.
We wanted to come up with a cheese that made sense here.
And it's similar to a lot of the cheeses they make in coastal areas in Europe.
>> Mm, lovely.
>> ALEX: It's so delicious.
I-- this Banneker cheese, I think I may want to do, like, a popover with it.
I love that cheddar-y... >> It's a, it's a great cheese to cook with that way.
>> ALEX: Jessica, what do you think?
>> I'm just going to eat it with a pear.
>> ALEX: You really don't need much more than that.
>> I'm a, I'm a purist, and the simplest is, like, if it's good, don't mess with it.
>> ALEX: All of these cheeses, you really get those grassy notes, but at the same time, they're very complex and very different.
>> We're a certified organic farm, and so we're grazing our animals.
We've got our cows, we've got our sheep.
We have our chickens following them around the field.
So it's a whole integrated system of everything we do.
And then we're taking all that manure, and it's the basis of our vegetable operation.
>> Now, did you say sheep?
>> I did say sheep.
>> Ah-hah!
>> We have beautiful Katahdins that we keep here.
>> Oh, wow.
Might you have lamb?
>> I think I probably do have a leg of lamb... >> Oh!
>> ...hiding in the back somewhere.
>> I'm a happy person.
We've got the mint, we've got the lavender, we've got the sea salt.
Just an idea of a nice rub with that for lamb and then... >> ALEX: Oh, that sounds beautiful.
>> Sounds delicious.
>> Garlic, garlic, garlic!
And then, that'll set us up perfectly for a dessert of pear.
>> ALEX: And I love your farming practice.
It's the perfect example of how nature works together.
If you do it properly, and you let nature... >> It's really true.
>> ALEX: ...work in symbiosis with each other, it really just-- you get a phenomenal product.
>> Well, thank you for saying so.
We try really hard.
>> ALEX: I can't wait to use the cheese... >> The cheese.
>> ALEX: The lamb.
>> The lamb!
>> ALEX: And the produce from this farm for our feast.
Awesome.
Thank you.
♪ ♪ So, Tucker at MV Mycological, you just grow shiitakes here?
>> Yeah, that's right, and it's not because we don't like other mushrooms.
We really reverse-engineered the process to figure out what would grow best here.
So it's very much place-based agriculture.
We have an abundance of oak trees.
The air is really never below 60% humidity... >> ALEX: I know.
Tell my hair that.
>> (laughing): Yeah, it's really good for mushrooms.
And it's good to grow mushrooms, essentially shiitakes specifically, in the exact environment where they evolved in East Asia, and all of the natural ingredients to make a perfect wild harvest shiitake are freely available to us on an island.
We don't even use soil.
We're just using a waste stream, which is oak logs which are not timber-quality.
>> ALEX: So it's a very sustainable production.
>> This year, we added a fully electric skid-steer loader.
>> ALEX: Wow.
>> So we actually use no fossil fuels whatsoever in the production of the mushrooms.
>> ALEX: How is the growing season here?
>> We use five to six different strains, which all have their own optimal fruiting points.
We mix them all together.
The statistical mix means the optimal performance will always be met by at least some percentage of the logs in the group.
So it doesn't matter... We can't control the weather, and we're not climate-controlling for sustainability reasons, because we really don't have to.
So instead, we know that at least one out of the five strains, regardless of weather or time of year, will be performing at peak.
>> ALEX: That's fascinating.
>> And so what that means for somebody who is putting his product on the plate is that you're getting a real consistent product.
>> Thank you.
>> And it's so meaty.
It really is, like, the center of the plate.
>> We can go check out, actually, logs that we inoculated, and I'll explain that process.
>> ALEX: Great.
♪ ♪ >> Yeah, come on in.
So this is, this is our little enchanted forest where the logs get to sit for a year and a half after we inoculate them.
This is all technique developed by the Japanese.
>> ALEX: Can you explain what inoculation is in general?
>> Of course, yeah, so, because we're growing shiitakes on logs and not in pasteurized sawdust bags, which is the industry standard for commodity-produced shiitakes, we need to find a way to put that fungus in the log.
Actually, how we do that is with the same bag of sawdust that most shiitakes are grown on.
So we're taking one of those bags and we're breaking it into 70 parts.
And each of these logs, which is inoculated with the mycelium from the bag, is going to produce much nicer mushrooms, because they have this raw, unprocessed food source instead of just the sawdust that they came in on.
What one of these inoculation sites looks like when it's successful, you can see, this is the sawdust substrate that we put in initially.
The fungus in that sawdust... >> ALEX: Oh.
>> ...is still very much alive.
That's all of the white you see.
And then if you peel back on the side, you can see that it's also grown into the log.
>> ALEX: Wow.
>> So you can see the white on the interior edge right there.
>> ALEX: Uh-huh.
>> A mushroom growing off of it is a great sign that they're fully colonized and ready to fruit.
>> ALEX: I definitely want to see where these logs go, what the process is.
You mind taking us over there?
>> No, not at all.
♪ ♪ >> ALEX: Can we taste some of these?
>> Absolutely, please, by all means.
>> So let's taste that.
>> ALEX: Wow.
>> Lot of earth.
>> ALEX: Wow, that is the best mushroom I've ever had in my life.
>> Thank you!
>> ALEX: So delicious.
It tastes almost smoky and sweet.
>> Yeah.
>> ALEX: I think that's from the wood.
>> The garlicky flavor at the end, that stays with you.
>> ALEX: As far as menu goes for our feast, what are you thinking?
Do you want to use these fresh mushrooms, do you want to use some dried?
>> But I'm thinking, like, a risotto.
I would just-- with butter and thyme, we don't need to do much.
A little bit of salt... >> You really don't.
>> ALEX: Yeah.
>> A little bit of butter.
>> ALEX: I think I'm going to do like a, shiitake consommé or a dashi to start our feast, and infuse that consommé with the dried shiitakes and maybe slice these really thin.
But we should probably get going to our feast.
We got a long day ahead of us.
>> Thank you so much, Tucker.
>> Thank you guys for coming and for the great questions.
Good luck cooking.
♪ ♪ >> ALEX: So, we have our leg of lamb from Grey Barn.
And what do you think you're going to do with it today?
>> I'm going to kind of play around with a kind of Frenchy thing, but I'm going to add a little Vineyard fillip to it.
♪ ♪ >> ALEX: Okay.
>> So I've got some Herbs de Provence.
This is going to be a dry rub, so we've got a little lavender in here.
>> ALEX: Mmm.
>> I've got some dried thyme, some dried rosemary, and in keeping with my "I never do anything without playing with it," I always play with my pepper mix.
I usually buy the mix of black peppers that has black, red, green, and sometimes pink peppercorns.
But I usually add cubebs.
And then this wonderful sea salt from the Vineyard, which is blueberry-flavored.
>> ALEX: Blueberry!
>> So it'll give us... >> ALEX: Oh, that's going to go so well... >> It'll give us a little bit more.
So this is not Provence.
This is Vineyard.
>> ALEX: You're really telling part of your life story with this spice rub, aren't you?
>> Uh, you know... >> ALEX: You've got a little bit of France, a little bit of Africa, a little bit of the Vineyard here.
>> (chuckling): You got it!
(grinding) I'm just shoving some holes in the lamb.
Your mix is going to go into these holes.
You know, people talk about layering flavors?
That's what we're doing, we're just layering flavor into this lamb.
>> ALEX: Oh, the more spice, the better.
>> It's just the more spice, the better.
And we're saving some for the other side, but we, we got this bad boy.
>> ALEX: So how are we going to cook this lamb?
>> We're going to put him in a high oven, at 475 or so.
>> ALEX: Uh-huh, okay.
>> And then we're going to let him go for about 15 minutes.
And then we're going to lower the oven and cook him till he's wonderful.
>> ALEX: Wonderful, okay, great.
And then what's going with this lamb?
>> Well, the lamb is going to be served with a mint sauce, and this is me cheating again.
We've got mint jelly that basically I have liquefied again, and what I'm going to do with it is, I'm going to play with it.
I usually use jalapeño.
>> ALEX: Okay.
>> Because I want it minced finely, finely, finely.
>> ALEX: Okay.
>> And we're going to put that in the liquefied mint jelly.
>> ALEX: Ooh, yum.
>> Along with some mint, which is going to mint it up a little bit more.
And then my favorite part, a few glugs of rum.
>> ALEX: While that's going, I think I'm going to start my shiitake consommé.
I found these beautiful dried mushrooms from MV Mycological.
>> Wow.
>> ALEX: And I want to start the meal off with something a little cozy, something a little light with, that has a lot of flavor.
Jan has an amazing recipe for cheese popovers.
And I'm going to use some of the cheese from Grey Barn inside that popover.
>> Oh, yum.
>> ALEX: Just a nice homage to Martha's Vineyard and our adventures today.
>> Absolutely, that's perfect.
>> ALEX: All right,  we've got to get you in the oven.
>> We've got to get big boy into the oven.
>> ALEX: All right.
♪ ♪ The dish I'm making for today's feast is a shiitake dashi, or consommé.
It's a warm, flavorful soup that will start this meal off beautifully.
(sizzling) And then I'm going to add in these dry shiitake mushrooms from MV Mycological.
These mushrooms you could eat like potato chips, but we're not doing that today.
♪ ♪ With any consommé or stock, you always add a bouquet garni, which is essentially a cheesecloth parcel filled with aromatics.
♪ ♪ And to go with that beautiful stock, I'm going to make Jan's famous popovers, and I'm going to incorporate this Banneker cheese that we got from Grey Barn today.
I am a terrible baker, I'm going to put that out there, and I think I need Jan for this.
(yelling): Jan!
(laughs): Okay, Jan, well, first of all, look at this weather.
>> Can you believe it?
Welcome to Martha's Vineyard.
>> ALEX: Thank you.
I wanted to attempt to make a popover, but I said, "You know what?
I'm just going to let Jan show me her ways."
So please, take it away.
>> I'm delighted.
So the key for me with popovers are two things: room temperature eggs, room temperature milk, room temperature water.
I do equal parts.
And we use high-gluten flour.
>> ALEX: Oh, okay.
>> And you could go ahead and sprinkle that in.
That's exactly 1.5 pounds.
>> ALEX: How much cheese can I add in?
>> Put half of that in there.
>> ALEX: Great.
And then the other half for me.
>> Yeah.
>> ALEX: Let's get these in the oven, and then you're going to make a risotto?
>> We are.
>> ALEX: I heard?
>> We're going to make a risotto.
>> ALEX: Yes!
♪ ♪ These squash look so sweet and tender.
>> We're going to take the flesh out that just came out of the oven.
I just put a little olive oil on it and a little salt, and we're going to just coarse country blend it.
They've actually done tests on these squash for the sweetness and for the smoothness.
And you notice it's not caulky.
>> ALEX: No.
>> It's not dry.
>> ALEX: Very tender and moist.
>> Mm-hmm, and it's also very sweet.
It's gorgeous.
>> ALEX: It's so beautiful.
>> So, just so simple, right?
Over here, I have the risotto cooking.
It's a little bit under al dente, so it's still got some bite to it.
And we're going to add the squash to it, and then we're going to add a little bit of cheese to it, and then we're going to sauté those mushrooms.
>> ALEX: Ooh.
♪ ♪ And what inspired you to make this dish tonight for our feast?
>> Well, I wanted to complement our lamb, and I was thinking about the risotto.
And I wanted to bring in the squash and the mushrooms.
At first, when we visited Eric, I got so excited about the squash.
But then we went to the mushroom farm and I said, "Oh, of course I have to include the mushrooms."
You have to bring the two of them together.
(sizzling) You know what I loved, what Tucker says.
He talked about the vitamin D in these mushrooms, which I hadn't thought about, because the mushrooms that are grown commercially don't have that opportunity, because they're not outside.
>> ALEX: Right.
>> So right there, why would you ever buy anything else, eat anything else?
>> ALEX: It's definitely a cause to come back here.
>> Well, you know, that's the thing about everywhere you go.
I'm sure you find those special things that just make it that special place.
>> ALEX: Right, and make you want to come back to it.
>> Exactly, and that's why we love traveling around, because there are terroirs of taste in everywhere we go, and I think that's what you're doing, is finding those... >> ALEX: The different flavors of the land all across the world, really.
>> That's right.
♪ ♪ (people chatting indistinctly) ♪ ♪ >> ALEX: Hello, everybody!
(guests greeting) >> ALEX: Hi, how is everybody doing?
(guests reply) >> ALEX: Wonderful, wonderful.
Well, tonight's feast is a celebration of the land on Martha's Vineyard.
Jessica and Jan took me all over, to MV Mycological, to Grey Barn Farms for the lamb and the produce and, of course, the exceptional cheese.
And so tonight, we prepared for you a feast.
To start is the shiitake consommé, featuring some of the shiitake mushrooms grown here on Martha's Vineyard at MV Mycological, and some popovers featuring the amazing cheese at Grey Barn Farms.
Jessica, what do you have for us?
>> I have the lamb!
I have the amazing lamb from Grey Barn Farms, and what I've done is kind of a Vineyard mix of herbs and spices.
And so it had a wet rub, a dry rub, a little bit of wine, and it's being served with glorious green string beans and some dark beans, as well.
>> ALEX: Wonderful.
And Jan. >> We have the Koginut squash with mushrooms and Grey Barn cheese.
And we have the pumpkin seeds and fresh thyme.
>> ALEX: Thank you both for showing me around today.
It's been such a treat, and thank you for having us here.
>> It's been our pleasure.
>> ALEX: And thank you for coming to our feast.
>> Thank you... (voices overlapping) >> ALEX: So we hope you enjoy.
>> Yes!
>> ALEX: And eat up!
(clapping) >> Jan, what is that?
(laughter) (indistinct chatter) ♪ ♪ (indistinct chatter) ♪ ♪ (laughter) >> ALEX: I hope you've enjoyed tonight's meal.
To finish up this piece, we have a beautiful cheese board featuring grass-fed, organic, award-winning cheese from Grey Barn Farms.
And if you want any of these recipes from tonight's episode, make sure to follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook.
And who knows?
Maybe next time we'll end up feasting in your backyard.
We'll see you next time on  Moveable Feast with Relish.
Cheers, everybody!
>> Cheers.
>> ALEX: Thank you for having us.
>> Thank you.
>> ALEX: Thank you, Jan, thank you, Jessica, and thank you, Martha's Vineyard.
(clapping) ♪ ♪ >> For more information about this episode, recipes, and behind-the-scenes fun, make sure you go to Relish.com, follow us @MoveableFeast_TV on Instagram, and like us on Facebook.
See you next time on a  Moveable Feast with Relish.
>> Major funding provided by: >> Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please.
(gecko clears throat, feedback squeals) >> GEICO would like to take a moment to say thank you to our military service members at home and abroad for all their hard work and sacrifice.
We all sleep easier knowing you're out there keeping us safe.
And on a personal note... (jet engines roar, gecko's speech muffled) (crowd cheering) (exhales) Just needed to get that off my chest.
Thank you.
>> GEICO-- proudly supporting the military for over 75 years.
>> We can't just take from nature, so we collaborate.
Ocean Spray works with nature every day to farm in a sustainable way.
♪ ♪ >> Ocean Spray is a proud sponsor of  Moveable Feast.
>> At Pure Leaf, the most important ingredient in making tea is saying no.
We're committed to saying no to artificial flavors and sweeteners in our brewed iced teas.
♪ ♪ >> I am Errico Auricchio, the founder of BelGioioso Cheese.
I came in 1979 from Italy with my family and the memory of Italian cheese.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪