Flavor Profile: Very high acidity, savory

Tasting Notes: Heavily vegetal and savory, notes of cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, leeks, onions

Kitchen Pairings: Salad greens (romaine, Boston lettuce, etc), Summer veggies (tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, bell peppers), Alliums (leeks, onions, garlic, etc), any fish, poultry.

Bar Pairings: Makes a good addition to Bloody Mary’s, Martini’s, Gibsons, and more savory cocktails.

About Our Gardner Vinegar:

This vinegar is as much about curbing food waste as it is about making a complex, savory vinegar. We take tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers that are set aside as “seconds,” meaning they are in good condition in terms of their quality but are misshapen or have been exposed to the elements for too long and have taken some cosmetic damage. We press the produce for their juice before fermenting them into wine and ultimately a vinegar. Because the seconds we get are purchased directly from farms, the money goes straight to them for a product that otherwise would have been composted or discarded entirely.

The resulting vinegar is super savory; it is reminiscent of gazpacho in terms of its flavor profile. It is excellent for salads, tomato/cucumber salads in particular, but does well with anything vegetal and all forms of summer veggies. I tend to pair it with gazpacho or salmorejo as it enhances the freshness of the pureed tomatoes and cucumbers that go into them.