Fiddlehead Farm Wins Another National Good Food Award!

— Written by Debbie Roos | November 3, 2021 (Updated: Nov. 3, 2021, 5:34 p.m.)

Three garlic bulbs on a wooden surface, two bulbs showing darkened root ends — Black garlic. Photo by Debbie Roos.

Chatham County's Fiddlehead Farm has won their THIRD national Good Food Award! Earlier this year they won for their Black Garlic Rooster Sauce. In previous years they have won for their Roasted Strawberry Preserves (2018) and Strawberry Honeysuckle Jelly (2020). The awards are given annually to winners in several categories: beer, cider, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, coffee, confections, drinks, elixirs, fish, grains, honey, oils, pantry, pickles, preserves, snacks, and spirits. Close to 200 winners are chosen from over 2,000 entries from all 50 states.

Visit this website to see all the 2021 Good Food Award winners...but click at your own risk - if you view this list while hungry you may end up ordering one of everything!

Congratulations to these other 2021 Good Food Award winners from North Carolina:

Coffee Caramel Bar, Chocolatay Confections
Cape Fear Spicy Pepper Relish, Cottage Lane Kitchen
Bourbon Truffle, Fera'wyn's Artisan Chocolates
Pierre Delecto: Pear & Sumac, Fullsteam
Russets & 'Twigs 2019, James Creek Cider House
Savory Apple, Mrs. Ruth's Jams
Tuxedo Sesame Flatbread Crackers, The Accidental Baker
Strawberry Habanero Pepper Jelly, Valley Brook Farms
Green Garlic Kimchi, The Spicy Hermit

Fiddlehead Farm's Emily and David Boynton have produced many different hot sauces over the years and last year David had the idea to substitute black garlic for some of the regular garlic in their rooster sauce recipe to take it up a notch. It was a success! They make the black garlic and also grow the habanero peppers used in the sauce. Black garlic is produced by aging fresh garlic through an extended warming period (140-190° F) in high humidity for 1-2 weeks. The finished garlic is tender and dark brown in color with a rich, tangy, slightly sweet flavor that lends umami to dishes. Black garlic cloves can be chopped, smashed, or pureed and added to sauces, soups, stews, pastas, and sauteed vegetables.

Emily makes a wide variety of preserves, hot sauces, and finishing salts in her kitchen in Pittsboro. All of Fiddlehead Farm’s products are made in small batches which means the focus is on high quality seasonal ingredients. Emily sources her ingredients from local organic and sustainable farms with the exception of fruits like citrus and cranberries that are not grown in North Carolina. You can view a list of the farms that Emily sources from on her website.

Fiddlehead Farm sells direct to customers at the Carrboro Farmers’ Market; you can also purchase their products at Weaver Street Market stores, Chatham Marketplace, the Pittsboro Farmers' Market, Fair Game Beverage Co., Sugar Island Bakery, Locopops, the Durham Food Co-op, and on-line through the Fiddlehead Farm website.

See photos and learn all about Fiddlehead Farm's 2018 Good Food Award for their roasted strawberry preserves.

Stainless electric food dehydrator with white lid and handle, lit digital control panel — This black garlic fermenter produces the black garlic when held at high humidity between 140-190° F for 1-2 weeks or more. Technically it is not fermented but undergoes a Maillard reaction, a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned food its distinctive flavor. Photo by Debbie Roos.

Whole garlic bulbs arranged in a metal wire rack inside a cooking pot — Bulbs of garlic loaded into the black garlic fermenter. Photo by Debbie Roos.

Dried garlic bulbs on wooden surface, one split open revealing a black clove — Finished black garlic. Photo by Debbie Roos.

Child and adult picking green peppers from garden plants, child holding a white basket — Emily and David's son Willie and his friend Rokia Sissoko harvest habanero peppers to be used for the black garlic rooster sauce. Photo by Debbie Roos.

Hanging habanero peppers ripening on leafy plants, green and orange-red fruit — Habanero peppers at Fiddlehead Farm. Photo by Debbie Roos.

Bottle of Fiddlehead Farm Black Garlic Rooster Sauce beside three garlic bulbs on wooden surface — Award-winning Black Garlic Rooster Sauce! Photo by Debbie Roos.

Jars and bottle with red-white-blue ribbons and medals reading "GOOD FOOD awards 2018 2020 2021" — Fiddlehead Farm won previous Good Food Awards for their Roasted Strawberry Preserves and their Strawberry & Honeysuckle Jelly. Photo by Debbie Roos.

Two people standing by wooden fence with three brown donkeys in pasture — Emily and David Boynton with their donkeys at Fiddlehead Farm. Photo by Debbie Roos.